Save the Date for LBO's GALA 1979
LONG BEACH OPERA: GALA 1979
November 12th, 2023 at 6:30 PM
L'Opera Restaurant, Long Beach
A party you won’t want to miss: both a throwback to the year LBO was founded and a look ahead to the promising and innovative future of L.A.’s longest running opera company.
GALA 1979 will be a celebratory dinner party featuring a performance by powerhouse vocalist Measha Brueggergosman -Lee and will be directed and hosted by James Darrah. The evening’s multi-course meal will be created by one of Long Beach’s most popular restaurants, L’Opera, and is followed by a 1970’s dance party. There will be no tables for sale, only individual tickets, and all major fundraising will happen prior to the event in the form of underwriting for artists and production support. Patrons can party like it’s 1979 and revel in the cultural moment of LBO’s founding, while simultaneously supporting a new era for the intrepid company. In other words: no auctions, no paddle pledges, - just reveling and enjoying cultural iconoclasts. It’s a unique party that’s very LBO….and we want you with us!
1979 was an exciting year in music. Disco divas Gloria Gaynor and Donna Summer ruled the radio while opera divas Monserat Caballe and Joan Sutherland were on the world’s most prominent opera stages. The legendary star Leontyne Price also released her record “Prima Donna.” It was also an important year for cinema, with major advances in technology and special effects pushing the form forward, and the rise of independent cinema including works from directors Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorcese.
And amidst all of those cultural highlights, Michael Milenski thought it was time for Los Angeles County to have its own producing opera company and founded Long Beach Opera. While the company initially started as a way to produce standard repertory, Milenski quickly made the company a hub for artistic innovation–featuring avant-garde productions and engaging directors who were new to opera.
During its nearly 45 year history, LBO has remained this hub of artistic innovation and embraced the unique spirit of delivering the unexpected. LBO’s second artistic leader Andreas Mitisek was among the first to place operas in unusual locations in LA County, making work in swimming pools and parking garages, while also commissioning new works.
With LBO’s third Artistic Director James Darrah, LBO is now focusing on the future of opera by featuring emerging new composers, fusing opera with other art forms such as dance, cuisine and film, and inviting some of opera’s biggest stars to make unexpected projects. LBO is embracing a changed landscape and becoming a playground for established artists from multiple genres. It’s partnering with a major dance company (Martha Graham Dance Company), inviting some of the world’s most acclaimed opera singers to make unique projects, hosting an annual opera + film festival, delivering critically acclaimed world premieres (The Romance of the Rose) and creating real pathways for young singers, directors and designers to establish their careers. LBO is embracing its place as an ongoing and industry-leading experiment: a company boldly dedicated to expanding and re-defining artistic practices, taking risks, and growing and adapting to embrace the evolving values and possibilities of opera in our world.
Above, Measha Brueggergosman-Lee in a publicity photo
Gala 1979 will not only be a fun look back, but also a look forward towards upcoming LBO projects. Along with hits from the 70's from multiple genres, included in the performance will be selections from Luciano Berio’s wild theater piece composed in the 70's entitled “Recital I (for Cathy)”, performed by Measha Brueggergosman-Lee. This wacky and fanciful piece is the inspirational basis for LBO’s latest film project written and directed by Darrah entitled “Open Air,” which will feature original compositions by LBO’s music director Christopher Rountree, and will be filmed this season. GALA 1979 supports the innovative future of Long Beach Opera for 2024 and beyond.
We are capping this one-night only event at 130 tickets, and tickets will go on sale after Labor Day along with LBO 2024 SEASON subscriptions. Subscribers will be able to purchase discount tickets, and those interested in underwriting a production or artist from the 2024 season will receive special benefits and perks, along with a reserved spot at GALA 1979 and the exclusive after-party.
Individual tickets will be available for $300 per person, with a discount for full season subscribers of $265 per ticket.
Season underwriting opportunities with special perks are available at the $1000, $5000, $10,000 and $20,000 levels.
Mark your calendars for GALA 1979, which will take place in downtown Long Beach at L’Opera restaurant on November 12th 2023 starting at 6:30 PM.
For information about sponsorships, underwriting or to be notified when tickets go on sale, simply reply to this email. And stay tuned for the imminent announcement of our 2024 season, coming very soon!
Explore Further:
Motivated and hungry for new experiences, Measha Brueggergosman- Lee’s career effortlessly embraces the broadest array of performance platforms and musical styles and genres.
Measha began her career predominantly committed to the art of the song recital and has presented innovative programs at Carnegie Hall, Washington’s Kennedy Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, both the Konzerthaus and Musikverein in Vienna, Madrid’s Teatro Real, as well as at the Schwarzenberg, Edinburgh, Verbier and Bergen Festivals with celebrated collaborative pianists Justus Zeyen, Roger Vignoles, Julius Drake, and Simon Lepper.
On the opera stage, her recent highlights include the roles of Giulietta and Antonia in Les contes d’Hoffmann, Elettra in Idomeneo, Jenny in Weill’s Mahagonny, Emilia Marty in Janáček’s Věc Makropulos, Hannah in Miroslav Srnka’s Make No Noise, and Sister Rose in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking. On the concert platform last season she returned to Carnegie Hall with the New World Symphony, performed Elettra in Idomeneo at Opera Atelier, Toronto, and gave a recital at the Barbican Center, London. She has also recently worked with the Orchestre de Paris, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony and New World Symphony Orchestras and conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Michael Tilson Thomas, Franz Welser-Möst, Sir Andrew Davis, Gustavo Dudamel and Daniel Harding.
Her first recording for Deutsche Grammophon, Surprise, includes works by Schoenberg, Satie and Bolcom and is one of the most highly regarded debut albums of recent years. Her subsequent disc Night and Dreams, which features songs by Mozart, Brahms, Strauss, Schubert, Debussy, Duparc and Fauré won several awards and her recording of the Wesendonck Lieder with Franz Welser-Möst and the Cleveland Orchestra earned her a Grammy nomination.
Off the stage, Measha is just as active: she recently released her memoir Something Is Always On Fire published by Harper Collins, she appears regularly on primetime TV (most recently advocating on behalf of contemporary Canadian literature); and leading Canadian children across the country in song, in celebration of the nationwide campaign for music education.
Measha Brueggergosman champions the education and involvement of new audiences and holds several honorary doctorates and ambassadorial titles with international charities.
