{"id":33108,"date":"2023-02-15T14:49:40","date_gmt":"2023-02-15T22:49:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/?p=30000029768"},"modified":"2023-02-15T14:51:00","modified_gmt":"2023-02-15T22:51:00","slug":"long-beach-opera-reimagines-a-medieval-poem-in-world-premiere-of-romance-of-the-rose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/long-beach-opera-reimagines-a-medieval-poem-in-world-premiere-of-romance-of-the-rose","title":{"rendered":"Long Beach Opera reimagines Medieval poem in world premiere of ‘Romance of the Rose’"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been three years since the Long Beach Opera has secured a hit quite like the Pulitzer Prize-winning \u201cThe Central Park Five\u201d<\/a> by Anthony Davis, but this weekend LBO will be opening its 2023 season with a new and highly anticipated opera that could reach a similar level of acclaim.<\/p>\n

Coming from a composer known for creating clever, thought-provoking musical works from the unlikeliest of sources, the world premiere of \u201cRomance of the Rose\u201d will debut at the Warner Grand Theatre in San Pedro Feb. 18, followed by showings on Feb. 19 and 25. The opera is an adaptation of the eponymous allegorical French love poem from the 13th century about love and reason and identity.<\/p>\n

It tells the tale of a man who dreams he enters a high-walled garden, and in the same fountain Greek figure Narcissus drowned himself, the man sees a reflection of a beautiful rosebud and is engulfed with a desire to possess it. Nearly encyclopedic in scope, the Medieval poem aims to disclose the whole art of romantic love encompassed in some 22,000 lines of Old French couplets. It\u2019s dense and convoluted and has long remained in the purview of literature scholars and critics\u2014until composer Kate Soper came across the poem in 2011.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s such a messy, complicated, infuriating, fascinating, boring book,\u201d Soper said. \u201cIt\u2019s just\u2014there are so many strange things happening and so many vivid, but totally unreliable characters\u2026.and so that sort of seemed like such an operatic idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the first time Soper has endeavored to create musical art from unusual source material. Her 2016 opera \u201cIpsa Dixit\u201d is a witty, philosophical masterwork adapting texts into song from Aristotle, Plato, Sophocles and many other thinkers, which earned her spot as a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2017. Her 2012 album, \u201cVoices from the Killing Jar,\u201d staged with Long Beach Opera in 2021, dynamically explored the ways women are portrayed in literature, with female characters from works by Shakespeare, Flaubert and F. Scott Fitzgerald, among others.<\/p>\n

Notably within these works, critics<\/a> have lauded Soper\u2019s use of humor, described her work as both “brilliant and funny\u2014a combination that is always in short supply,” wrote Alex Ross in a review for “Ispa Dixit” for the New Yorker. “Romance of the Rose” is likely to carry that same charm.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do tend to find things funny that maybe most people don\u2019t, and then try to bring out the humor in a way that\u2019s more accessible,\u201d Soper said. \u201cI do think that there are funny moments in this opera, at least I hope so.”<\/p>\n

\"\"
Kate Soper sits in the theater during a Long Beach Opera rehearsal of “Romance of the Rose” at the Warner Grand Theatre in San Pedro Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Soper said she began working on \u201cRomance of the Rose\u201d in earnest in 2017 in what would become her most complex work yet, with seven singers, a chamber ensemble and electronic instruments.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never done anything like this before,\u201d she said. \u201cMy other operas and larger theatrical pieces\u2014either I\u2019m the only singer or there are a couple others\u2026I haven\u2019t done something like this where there are really specific characters in all these multi-dimensional musical ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the \u201cRomance of the Rose,\u201d the dreamer, performed by Lucas Steele, encounters a variety of allegorical characters that help or hinder him on his quest to attain the rose, a symbol of love. In a vibrant contrast to the text, Soper has written many of the allegorical characters in distinct musical styles and, as she frequently employs within her works, with electronic effects.<\/p>\n

Lady Reason, performed by Anna Schubert, is written in the style of 18th-century tonal music and with the use of a vocoder. She chides the na\u00efve dreamer with metallic-sounding logic.<\/p>\n

The shrieking and wailing soprano of Shame, sung by Laurel Irene, is a swirling disruptor backed by distorted tones of electric guitar. And the coiling lines of the God of Love, performed by Phillip Bullock, are characterized with an intentionally tacky reverb and sensuous tones of clarinet and saxophone.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Laurel Irene, performing as the character Shame, is in control of Tivoli Treloar, who plays as The Lover, as the two perform their parts during a Long Beach Opera rehearsal of “Romance of the Rose” at the Warner Grand Theatre in San Pedro Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAnd then what happens in the course of the opera, is they start to change, and they start to transform into each other\u201d Soper explains, \u201cwhich is something I was interested in exploring conceptually.\u201d<\/p>\n

In \u201cRomance of the Rose,\u201d audiences can also expect a conceptually striking set that upholds Long Beach Opera\u2019s reputation for creative innovation and abstraction within the art form. LBO has reimagined the high-walled garden scene within the poem\u2019s text to \u201cfeel like an \u201880s living room,\u201d LBO\u2019s Artistic Director James Darrah said, fit with stark white tiles from stage floor to ceiling, a sunken seating area and a bar.<\/p>\n

\u201cI joke that it looks like a lost (Stanley) Kubrick film,\u201d Darrah said.<\/p>\n

Potted plants dotted throughout the set are designed to emulate the garden effect, with more plants to appear during the show as they might in a dream, Darrah continued. Completing the set will be a special installation built into the audience that will be activated by performers throughout the show. Envisioned by scenic designer Prarie T. Trivuth, the installation continues the white-tile motif with a square pool featuring a 7-foot rose sculpture.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A rendering of the pool and 7-foot rose installation built into the crowd for the set of “Romance of the Rose” at the Warner Grand Theatre. Rendering by Prarie T. Trvuth courtesy Long Beach Opera.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Placing the rose in the audience was both a creative means of symbolizing the challenge of attaining the coveted rose and a way to emphasize Soper\u2019s intentional breaking of the fourth wall within the opera, Darrah said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really wanted the audience to be immersed,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019ve worked on a premiere that has felt as unique as this one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tickets for Romance of the Rose, with performances on Feb. 18, 29 and 25, are on sale now and range from $55-$165. Click here<\/a> for more information and to purchase tickets.<\/em><\/p>\n

https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/lbos-new-artistic-director-james-darrah-is-just-the-man-for-this-pandemic-era-of-opera<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LBO will be opening its 2023 season Feb. 18-19 with a new and highly anticipated opera by a composer known for creating clever, thought-provoking musical works from the unlikeliest of sources.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":262,"featured_media":72274,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[15,2770,1430],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[8767],"class_list":["post-33108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hi-lo","tag-long-beach-opera","tag-performance-art","tag-performing-arts","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33108"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=33108"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=33108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}