On March 2 and 3, Andrew Norman’s 2017 opera A Trip to the Moon “will be presented in an all-new production conducted by Teddy Abrams,” writes Jim Farber in Saturday’s (2/24) San Francisco Classical Voice. “It’s being staged by Yuval Sharon. A large cast of actors and vocal soloists will be joined by … the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, the Hoover Street Elementary School Chorus, and members of YOLA, the Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles. The opera will also be presented … for 7,000 Los Angeles school kids.” The source of the opera, Norman’s first, is an “all-but-forgotten opera-comique by Jacques Offenbach, Le voyage dans la lune … based on the Jules Verne novel…. ‘I had all this swimming in my head,’ says Norman, ‘19th-century science fiction, Offenbach’s light opera with can-canning on the moon, and the film!’ … Norman came up with a clever vocal invention—the Earthlings would perform their roles speaking English, while the Moon People would sing in a totally made-up language.” Says Norman, “This production is going to stress the idea that opera can be at the technological forefront of entertainment, just the way Méliès’ film was in 1902.”
Posted February 26, 2018
Pictured: An iconic image from Georges Méliès’s 1902 silent film, “Le voyage dans la lune,” inspiration for Andrew Norman’s opera “A Trip to the Moon,” to be performed in Los Angeles on March 2 and 3
