Critic’s Pick: A peek at new operas in The Industry’s ‘(First Take)’
The Industry, Yuval Sharon’s new experimental L.A. opera company, which made its dazzling debut last year with Anne LeBaron’s “Crescent City†amid mazelike art installations in arty Atwater, is back Saturday, this time at the arty Hammer Museum with “(First Take),†a program of extended excerpts from six new operas being workshopped. Arrive early; the afternoon is free to the public and full of varied intrigue.
Most alluring should be a preview of a new take on “Pierrot Lunaire†by the already prolific and much-watched 27-year-old Egyptian American Mohammed Fairouz with a libretto by the outlier cultural critic Wayne Koestenbaum. At the other end of the spectrum will be “The Numbian Word for Flowers†by the 80-year-old-and-as-wondrously-out-there-as-she’s-always-been grand dame of outlier American experimental music and sublime accordianist Pauline Oliveros.
PHOTOS: LA Opera through the years
In between are “brother, brother†by Brooklyn percussionist Aaron Siegal (notable for a mesmerizing near hour of eight-glockenspiel glitter); “The House is Open,†an electro-acoustic opera by L.A. baritone Alexander Vassos; “longitude†by an Icelandic-Canadian committee (composer David Brynjar Franzon, filmmaker Davyde Wachell, sound installation artists Halldór Úlffarsson and poet Angela Rawlings) and “Winter’s Child†by pop/film/classical composer Ellen Reid.
The backup ensemble is wild Up, which ups the hip quotient another notch.
ALSO:
Industry’s remarkable ‘Crescent City’ reshapes L.A. opera
What’s a Hyperopera? Avant-Garde Director Yuval Sharon Shows Us
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