OP E R A
OPERA’S NEW OVERTURES ITALIAN AUDIENCES watched the first performances of Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux on the heels of a cholera outbreak in 1837. L.A. Opera audiences watched the final performances of Roberto Devereux on the cusp of the coronavirus outbreak of 2020. Donizetti’s opera eventually found its way, and L.A. Opera is doing the same, cultivating the relationship between artists and audiences with renewed musical
12 PERFORMANCES FALL 2020
and social purpose. Days after the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion stage went dark, the company launched its LAO at Home streaming channel with family programming, videos of past productions and live-at-home Living Room Recitals. “Our L.A. Opera at Home program has been incredibly successful beyond our wildest imaginations,” says Christopher Koelsch,
L.A. Opera president and CEO. “The Living Room Recitals ... get the highest viewership.” The online programming draws people worldwide; average viewership is more than 10,000. Social activism is built into L.A. Opera programming—and it carries over to LAO at Home. When Koelsch invited mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges to perform a Living Room Recital, she suggested instead
a discussion about racial disparities in opera. Five other African-American opera singers participated in “Lift Every Voice,” and 60,000 have watched. Koelsch has set his sights on more ambitious alternative programming. “What I really want to experiment with is [whether] in a postCOVID world we can
