The Long Beach Opera begins its Spring and Summer 2022 season with the world premiere adaptation of giustino by George Frideric Handel with new music and arrangements by Shelley Washington. The opera will be presented in the Sculpture Garden and Galleries of the Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA) in Long Beach.

This new production of Handel’s rarely performed opera Giustino, which is conceived and produced by LBO Artistic Director James Darrah and conducted by LBO Music Director Christopher Rountree, will perform May 21, 22 and 28 at 7:30 p.m. In this new version, Handel’s glorious music and startlingly relevant drama re-emerge as a wild, cinematic, site-specific contemporary production with extensive orchestrations, sound design and installation art. A tale of fate, fate, long-lost family relationships, and an in-depth exploration of the “conquerors” and their captors, the LBOs giustino will elevate the ambiguities of gender and sexuality already present in Baroque opera and examine how stereotypes can be broken in even the most traditional stories. Darrah’s groundbreaking film-theater stylistic hybrid harnesses this work’s inherent surrealism and recontextualizes the parlor qualities of Handel’s 18th-century setting in a transient temporal space in an imaginary California desert motel, with figures entering colliding amid the energy of the sinister Mojave. extent.The action of the scenes will move among the audience and in different parts of the museum and will be filmed live on video to create a film in an opera being performed at all times. Additional spaces will continue to be activated during intermission and multiple museum settings will overlap in the video during the performance to create layered narratives. cinema – and to merge that with live performances to allow them to come to life in a more exuberant and less precious way. I have long been infatuated with Handel’s operas, but have so often wished I could do even After with them in the live production – and I feel very ready to explore this merger with this incredible cast.” and I firmly believe that he represents the future of opera’s new cinematic potential (partially fueled by the pandemic) . giustino is the perfect piece to embrace this new kind of lyrical experience: one that emphatically uses the art of film and installation as a tool to embed in Handel’s bold creation, as well as a canvas for theatrical talent. by Shelley Washington and Christopher Rountree. as we work to create a festive, sensory and media-rich live opera experience.CAST AND CREW: The production stars Anna Schubert, Orson Van Gay (both seen in last season’s Philip Glass opera The Terrible Children), Luke Elmer and Dante Mireles (making their professional stage debuts) and Marlaina Owens, Sharon Chohi Kim, Amanda Lynn Bottoms and Douglas Williams (all making their LBO debuts). The production team is led by production design by Adam Rigg, with lighting design by duo Pablo Santiago and Michael Rathbun and live cinematography by James Darrah and Raviv Ullman. Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra serves as the orchestra.

Informations about GUSTINO and subscriptions at longbeachopera.org