Inspired by LA Opera’s upcoming world premiere of Eurydice — a new opera created by composer Matthew Aucoin and librettist Sarah Ruhl — artists, scholars and community members across Los Angeles will come together in 2020 to share their stories and their art through Eurydice Found, a festival dedicated to new perspectives on the enduring Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.
This multidimensional, countywide celebration will take place from January through March of 2020. The festival will unite more than 50 partners and include well over 50 events.
“Eurydice Found showcases our intense pride in the incredibly vibrant and diverse artistic community of Los Angeles,” said Christopher Koelsch, the company’s Sebastian Paul and Marybelle Musco President and CEO. “This festival will explore why the powerful themes of ancient Greek myth still resonate with us in contemporary society. Since the new opera unfolds from the heroine’s point of view, the festival will celebrate female artists and embrace works that investigate the female viewpoint of this well-known myth.”
Eurydice Found is presented through LA Opera Connects, which creates inclusive opportunities for all Angelenos to come together to be transformed by opera.
About the Festival
In the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, Orpheus travels to the Underworld in an attempt to bring his deceased bride back to the world of the living. Most versions of the story focus on Orpheus’s side of the story, leaving Eurydice a fairly vague and indistinct figure. Confronting that historical bias head on, Eurydice Found will upend the ancient myth through a wide range of performances, conversations and happenings, with an emphasis on works created by female artists.
Eurydice Found events — ranging from musical and theatrical performances, dance pieces, film screenings, seminars, fashion exhibits and sound installations — take place in museums, theaters and other venues all across Los Angeles, from the Getty Villa in Malibu to a bridge crossing the Los Angeles River.
Highlights of festival events include:
- Don’t Look Back, an “Orphic soundwalk” through the streets of Los Angeles, created by innovative director Marike Splint (January 15 through March 30)
- A screening of Eurydice, a performance piece by Kandis Williams, at the Hammer Museum, featuring a post-performance conversation with the artist (January 28)
- Missy Mazzoli’s opera Proving Up at Pasadena Opera (January 17 through 25)
- A new dance piece, Underway, from Heidi Duckler Dance performed under the 7th Street Bridge (March 14 and 15)
- The U.S. premiere of Stefano Landi’s 1609 opera The Death of Orpheus, performed by LA Opera’s Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artists (January 17 through 19)
- Charpentier’s 1686 opera The Descent of Orpheus to the Underworld performed by the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music (February 29 and March 1)
- The Body Female, a multi-discipline theatrical exploration of how women navigate societal impediments that challenge the female condition (January 16)
- Screenings of Jean Cocteau’s “Orphic Trilogy” at the Norton Simon Museum (February 14, 21, 28)
- “Returning Soldiers Speak,” readings by U.S. military veterans of their poetic myths, followed by a discussion, at Amelia Earhart Library (January 11)
- Inspired by Eurydice, an exhibition of historical garments from the FIDM Museum Collection on display at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion (February 1 through 23)
- A staged reading of Sarah Ruhl’s play Eurydice, the inspiration for Matthew Aucoin’s opera, followed by an interactive conversation with Ruhl and Aucoin, at the Getty Villa (February 22)
Eurydice Found is the fourth countywide festival inspired by work on LA Opera’s stage. It follows in the footsteps of Ring Festival LA (2010), which commemorated the company’s first Ring cycle; Britten 100/LA (2013), celebrating the centenary of composer Benjamin Britten’s birth; and Figaro Unbound (2015), an exploration of the influential “Figaro Trilogy” by Beaumarchais and the operas it inspired.
For more information about Eurydice Found, as well as a listing of festival events, visit LAOpera.org/festival.
About LA Opera
Los Angeles is a city of enormous diversity and creativity, and LA Opera is dedicated to reflecting that vibrancy by redefining what opera can be. Through imaginative new productions, world premiere commissions, and inventive productions that preserve foundational works while making them feel fresh and compelling, LA Opera has become one of America’s most exciting and ambitious opera companies.
In addition to its mainstage performances at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the company explores unusual repertoire each season through the Off Grand initiative, performed in a variety of venues throughout Los Angeles.
LA Opera’s robust variety of educational programming and community engagement offerings are as integral to the company’s artistic identity as mainstage productions and Off Grand performances. LAOpera Connects currently offers 29 different programs experienced by more than 135,000 people each season. These broad-based engagement programs reflect the vibrancy and diversity of Los Angeles, reaching people throughout every corner of Los Angeles County.
Learn more about the company at LAOpera.org.
THANK YOU TO OUR GENEROUS DONORS AND PARTNERS
LA Opera’s world premiere of Eurydice is made possible with generous support from the Bernard and Lenore Greenberg Opera Fund.
Additional support from donors to the Eurydice Consortium.
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