TELL-TALE HEART and VAN GOGH Set for Long Beach Opera Double Bill, 5/11-19

Long Beach Opera's new double bill explores creative minds on the border between genius and madness. Former rocker Stewart Copeland delves into the twisted psyche of Edgar Allan Poe's manic murderer in the US premiere of Tell-Tale Heart and Bang on a Can composer, Michael Gordon, observes the anguished spirit of a brilliant artist in the West Coast stage premiere of Van Gogh. Featuring music at the edge of rock, jazz and classical modernism, this double bill of delusion and illusion, paranoia and inspiration begins May 11 and continues on May 18 and 19, 2013 at theEXPO Art Center, 4321 Atlantic Avenue, Long Beach, CA.

TELL-TALE HEART:

Drummer and founder of The Police, Stewart Copeland has sold more than 60 million records worldwide; received five Grammys for his film scores; was a 2003 inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; andincludes being a symphony, ballet and opera composer among his many accomplishments.

Commenting on the author of the original classic short story, "The Tell-Tale Heart," Copeland states, "If Mark Twain could be called the Beatles of American literature, then Edgar Allan Poe would be the Rolling Stones. The stories seem to come from a very dark place. He's a giant of American letters, but inhabits the murky, dark corners of fear and torment..." Continues Copeland, "The language of the original text drips with lust for the deed - it soars, it gloats, and it marches with the rhythm of false conviction. It's perfect for opera."

In Poe's work, a beating heart reveals the meticulous murderer, but whose heart is beating? Copeland says, "The loquacious murderer expounds his manic inner logic as the throbbing guilt consumes him. It's the throbbing part I particularly like."

Reviewing the opera's 2011 world premiere at the Royal Opera House in London, Richard Morrison wrote inThe Times of London, "Copeland's score is perfectly effective...This murderer's Jekyll-like split personality is cleverly conveyed by musical means." And, Edward Seekerson commented for The Independent, "[Copeland] took to the stage with an innate sense of what music theatre needs to do."

About Stewart Copeland: Copeland moved beyond the rock arena in the mid-1980s when he returned to his classical roots with creative pursuits in concert and film music. His numerous film scores include Oliver Stone's Wall Street, the seminal score for the Golden Globe-nominated soundtrack for Francis Ford Coppola's Rumble Fish, the score for Bruno Barreto's Oscar-nominated Four Days in September, and his Emmy nomination for the Showtime pilot and series Dead Like Me. His work in television includes contributions to The Equalizer, Babylon V and Desperate Housewives. In 2009, Copeland composed an original evening-length score for the theatrical arena show Ben Hur Live, which premiered at London's O2 Arena and ran in Rome and Cologne in 2011.

Copeland's most recent concert works have been performed by the Dallas Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, London's Royal Academy of Music and the Seattle Symphony. Other operas include The Cask of Amonitillado (based on the Poe short story), Horse Opera and Holy Blood and Crescent Moon performed by the Cleveland Opera company.

VAN GOGH:

Based on Vincent Van Gogh's letters to his brother Theo, this moving opera explores the inner workings of the artist's brilliant, but disturbed mind. "What attracted me so much to Van Gogh's writing was the pain, rawness and brutal honesty," says American composer and Bang on a Can co-founder, Michael Gordon. "I found it hard to believe that anyone could tell another person, even his brother, the raw emotions that Van Gogh experienced - so painful, so lonely, so humiliating." The opera is divided into six chronological parts of Van Gogh's life.

Gordon began the work in the late 1980s and early presentations were called Van Gogh Video Opera. In 1991, Van Gogh premiered in New York to critical acclaim and was later performed in Vienna, Austria. In 2003, Gordon re-orchestrated the piece and Crash Ensemble, an interdisciplinary Irish music group, premiered the new version in Dublin the same year. The What's Next Ensemble performed a concert version in Los Angeles on April 13, 2012.

Conductor Alan Pierson of Alarm Will Sound commented, "The Van Gogh opera is amongst my favorite Michael Gordon works: it's hard-hitting, edgy, but includes music of impassioned lyricism." Gordon dedicated Van Goghto fellow composer and Bang on a Can co-founder, David Lang, whose opera, The Difficulty of Crossing a Field, was performed by LBO in 2011.

About Michael Gordon: Michael Gordon's music merges subtle rhythmic invention with incredible power embodying, in the words of The New Yorker's Alex Ross, "the fury of punk rock, the nervous brilliance of free jazz and the intransigence of classical modernism."

Over the past 25 years, Gordon has produced a strikingly diverse body of work, ranging from large-scale pieces for high-energy ensembles to major orchestral commissions to works conceived specifically for the recording studio. Transcending categorization, this music represents the collision of mysterious introspection and brutal directness.

Gordon has been commissioned by Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the BBC Proms, the Brooklyn Academy Of Music, Settembre Musica, the Holland Music Festival, the Dresden Festival and the Sydney 2000 Olympic Arts Festival, among others. His music has been performed at the Kennedy Center, Theatre De La Ville, Barbican Centre, Oper Bonn, Kölner Philharmonie and the Southbank Centre. The recipient of multiple awards and grants, Gordon has been honored by the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Art and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Born in Miami Beach in 1956, Gordon holds a Bachelor of Arts from New York University and a Masters of Music from the Yale School of Music.

CASTS:

TELL-TALE HEART

Edgar: Robin Buck

Neighbor 1: Ashley Knight

Neighbor 2: Danielle Bond

Alan/Police Officer 1: John Matthew Myers

Shadow Edgar/Police Officer 2: Jason Switzer

Actor: Mark Bringelson

VAN GOGH

Soprano: Ashley Knight

Tenor : John Matthew Myers

Bass: Jason Switzer

PRODUCTION CREDITS FOR BOTH OPERAS:

Conductor: Benjamin Makino

Stage Director: Andreas Mitisek

Assistant Stage Director: Suzan Hanson

Video Designer: Adam Flemming

TELL-TALE HEART Composer/ Librettist: Stewart Copeland Libretto based on the 1843 short story by Edgar Allan Poe In English with English supertitles

VAN GOGH Composer/Librettist: Michael Gordon Libretto extracted from letters by Vincent Van Gogh written from 1872-1890. In English with English supertitles

DATES: Sat. May 11 at 8:00 pm (nearly sold out) Sat . May 18 at 2:00 pm (nearly sold out) Sat . May 18 at 8:00 pm Sun. May 19 at 7:00 pm Pre-opera talks one hour before each performance.

WHERE: ExpoArt Center, 4321 Atlantic Boulevard, Long Beach, Calif. www.longbeachopera.org/directions/expo-building

TICKETS: $29 - $160. Available from the LBO Box Office at 562-432-5934 or www.longbeachopera.org/tickets. Group discounts can be purchased through the LBO Box Office

LBO COINCIDENCE (special event): FACE ...TO FACE...TO FACE...: On Saturday afternoon May 4 at 2:00 pm, as a prelude to performances of their operas later in May, Copeland and Gordon will discuss the creation of their borderline works with Long Beach Opera (LBO) Artistic and General Director Andreas Mitisek in "Face...To Face...To Face." A collaboration with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the event will take place at the Bing Theater (LACMA), 5905 Wilshire Boulevard, LA, CA 90036. During the afternoon, audience members will learn what drew these modern American composers to their subjects and how art can illuminate conflicts buried deep within the human soul. As an added highlight, cast members will sing excerpts from each composer's opera.

Long Beach Opera (LBO) is internationally known for cutting-edge interpretations of unconventional repertoire. LBO creates immediate, inventive and often boldly avant-garde productions for an adventurous audience and stands apart from most other companies in the number of world, American, and West Coast premieres it has staged. Founded in 1979, LBO is one of the largest professional opera organizations in Southern California and the oldest in the Los Angeles/Orange County region. LBO's performance history includes more than 100 operas ranging from the earliest works of the 17th century to the new operas of the 21st.

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