Image courtesy of Long Beach Opera. 

Long Beach Opera (LBO) has announced its 2017 season, a premiere-filled schedule of transformative and controversial works, to be performed authentically and unabashedly as only LBO knows how.

Featured is the U.S. premiere of Philip Glass’ The Perfect American, a controversial look at Walt Disney’s final months before his death, adapted from Peter Stephan Jungk’s novel that depicts the animation pioneer as obsessive and all too aware of his mortality.

Preceding The Perfect American is a new version of Henry Purcell’s The Fairy Queen by Culture Clash, working together with Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra, to tell a gender-bending story of romance based on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

“LBO’s 38th season will offer four operas new to Southern California,” stated General Director Andreas Mitisek. “We’ll bring stories that play against the tide of conventions and that are also quintessentially American. And, we’ll work alongside a broad range of collaborators to tell these stories. As always, to paraphrase Robert Frost, we take the road less traveled, and that makes all the difference.”

In May, LBO will stage the Southern California premiere of Laura Kaminsky’s As One, where a transgendered protagonist seeks identity, acceptance and compassion, according to the release.

Robert Xavier Rodriguez’ Frida follows in June with its Southern California premier, to be performed in non-traditional venues such as the Museum of Latin American Art and at Grand Performances in downtown Los Angeles.

For more information about LBO’s 2017 Season, click here.