Just about the time the Lakers hit training camp this fall, LA Opera will return from the outer space of Achim Freyer's Ring cycle and launch a blockbuster new season.
Starting on Sep. 23 with the world premiere of Daniel Catan's opera Il Postino, based on the popular 1994 Italian film, starring Placido as the poet Pablo Neruda. Six performances only. It's going to be an impossible ticket to get.
There are going to be revivals of Mozart's Marriage of Figaro and Lohengrin for those needing another Wagnerian dose. And there's LA Opera's first ever attempt at Rossini's comic opera Il Turco in Italia.
And one-night-only stands by superstar heart-throbs Rene Pape (bass), Dmitri Hvorostovsky (baritone) and Jonas Kaufmann (tenor).
There's even a concept multidiscplinary event to celebrate the season in May: the Mark Morris Dance Group performing a pastoral ode by Handel with 24 dancers bounding about the stage while a quartet of singers and the LA Opera Orchestra and Chorus play music by Handel to the poetry of Milton, with sets inspired by William Blake's watercolors. Sounds like the return of Isadora Duncan. Four performances only.
If you're looking for something new for your cultural portfolio, LA Opera can't be beat. Once it takes care of its little $14 million loan from the city and secures its leasehold, it has a lot of commercial upside.
If you're the outgoing, positive type, and have time and brains to spare, there is a host of work that needs to be done to help LA Opera get back on its feet, and lots of volunteering opportunities that may even come with free or reduced-price tickets.
Whatever you do, make sure you
1. Learn all about the operas they're going to perform next season
2. Tell all your friends
3. Share your love and learning with children
4. Show the performers that you care - it makes all the difference to how they perform
If all this optimism seems odd in the face of what seems like confusing everyday news, all I have to say is, "Just you wait and see."