Pacific Opera Project Launches Inaugural Artist Recital Series With Cabaret Confidential And American Cabaret

Pacific Opera Project is launching its inaugural Artist Recital Series this weekend, featuring the talents of POP artists at POP HQ in Highland Park. The series kicks off with Cabaret Confidential: Two Untold Tales of Classical Cabaret on Saturday, October 14, 2023 at 2:00 p.m. featuring soprano Julia Maria Johnson and pianist John-Micah Braswell in a matinee program of cabaret-style songs by classical composers including Samuel Barber, Sheila Silver, and William Bolcom, woven together to narrate two musical stories: one of tragically heavy-hearted passion, and the other of impossibly light-hearted homicide.

The series continues with American Cabaret: A Continent of Color on Sunday, October 15 at 2:00 p.m. with baritone Ryan Reithmeier and pianist David Clemenson in a recital of 20th century songs from the American continent that explore a diverse array of culture and language through a carefully-chosen selection of incredible and rarely heard pieces.

Also in October, the Artists Recital Series gets spooky with Halloween Tales Of Gore & Folklore on Friday, October 20, 2023 at 7:00 p.m. Mezzo-soprano Danielle Marcelle Bond and pianist Milena Gligic use audience suggestions to create new ghost stories sprinkled into their recital of spooky musical selections including Schubert's Erlkönig, Jake Heggie's Songs to the Moon, and Joseph Horovitz's Lady MacBeth scene (among others).

With two concerts in December, the Artist Recital Series continues with Words Of American Women: Woolf, Dickinson, And Millay In American Song on Saturday, December 2, 2023 at 2:00 p.m. Mezzo-soprano Erin Alford and pianist Clara Cheng Stosch explore American songs of the 20th century set to the passionate poetry of Emily Dickinson, Edna St. Vincent Millay, as well as deeply personal diary entries of Virginia Woolf. Alongside masterful works of Argento, Bernstein, and Copland, are songs of African-American composer Margaret Bonds; most known for uplifting black voices in spiritual arrangements and collaborations with Langston Hughes, she also gave back to her community by teaching music to disadvantaged youth right here in Los Angeles.

On Friday, December 15, 2023 at 8:00 p.m. mezzo-soprano Maria Dominique Lopez (Musetta from POP's iconic production of La Boheme AKA "The Hipsters") performs in A Hipster Holiday with a program of holiday classics complete with boozy refreshments and sweet holiday goodies.

POP's Artist Recital Series concludes with Alma Mexicana on Friday, January 19, 2023 at 7:00 p.m. as baritone Omar Alejandro leads a celebration of both Mexican classical and folk music. Performed in Spanish with English supertitles, the program features Mexican art song with piano accompaniment, Mexican folk music and Mariachi Folklore.

Program Information:

Cabaret Confidential: Two Untold Tales of Classical Cabaret
Pacific Opera Project
Saturday, October 14, 2023 at 2:00 p.m.
POP HQ | 125 S Ave 57 | Los Angeles, CA 90031
Tickets: $25*
Link: https://www.pacificoperaproject.com/recitals

Program:
Cabaret-style song selections by Samuel Barber, Sheila Silver, and William Bolcom, and more!

*Charcuterie and wine will be served

Artists:
Julia Maria Johnson, soprano
John-Micah Braswell, piano

American Cabaret: A Continent of Color
Pacific Opera Project
Sunday, October 15, 2023 at 2:00 p.m.
POP HQ | 125 S Ave 57 | Los Angeles, CA 90031
Tickets: $20*
Link: https://www.pacificoperaproject.com/recitals

Program:
20th century songs from the American continent.

*Light refreshments will be served

Artists:
Ryan Reithmeier, baritone
David Clemenson, piano

Halloween Tales Of Gore & Folklore
Pacific Opera Project
Friday, October 20, 2023 at 7:00 p.m.
POP HQ | 125 S Ave 57 | Los Angeles, CA 90031
Tickets: $35 in advance, $40 at the door*
Link: https://www.pacificoperaproject.com/recitals

Program:
Spooky musical selections including Schubert's Erlkönig, Jake Heggie's Songs to the Moon, and Joseph Horovitz's Lady MacBeth scene (among others).

*Refreshments will be served

Artists:
Danielle Marcelle Bond, mezzo-soprano
Milena Gligic, piano

Words of American Women: Woolf, Dickinson, And Millay in American Song
Pacific Opera Project
Saturday, December 2, 2023 at 2:00 p.m.
POP HQ | 125 S Ave 57 | Los Angeles, CA 90031
Tickets: $25*
Link: https://www.pacificoperaproject.com/recitals

Program:
American songs of the 20th century.

*Light refreshments will be served

Artists:
Erin Alford, mezzo-soprano
Clara Cheng Stosch, piano

A Hipster Holiday: With Maria Dominique Lopez
Pacific Opera Project
Friday, December 15, 2023 at 8:00 p.m.
POP HQ | 125 S Ave 57 | Los Angeles, CA 90031
Tickets: $35*
Link: https://www.pacificoperaproject.com/recitals

Program:
A hipster sing-a-long of favorite holiday classics.

*Boozy refreshments and sweet holiday goodies are included in the ticket price!

Artists:
Maria Dominique Lopez, mezzo-soprano

Alma Mexicana
Pacific Opera Project
Friday, January 19, 2023 at 7:00 p.m.
POP HQ | 125 S Ave 57 | Los Angeles, CA 90031
Tickets: $25
Link: https://www.pacificoperaproject.com/recitals

Program:
A celebration of both Mexican classical and folk music.

Artists:
Join Omar Alejandro, baritone

About Pacific Opera Project

Founded in 2011, Los Angeles's Pacific Opera Project (POP) is dedicated to providing quality opera that is accessible, affordable, and entertaining in order to build a broader audience for the art form. LA Magazine writes "If you think you hate opera, you've probably never seen a Pacific Opera Project show." POP's regularly sold out performances take place in a wide variety of venues, from outdoors, to small clubs, big amphitheaters, and warehouses. LA Weekly named POP the "Best Opera Company in Los Angeles" in 2018, writing "making opera cool, affordable, accessible and enticing to young audiences is easier said than done. It's also something every opera company in the country is trying desperately to do... [Pacific Opera Project] is not trying desperately to be hip. It just is." In 2020, POP was awarded The American Prize in Opera Performance.

POP has presented more than 40 innovative new productions to date, including revolutionary drive-in productions of COVID fan tutte and the US staged premieres of two Gluck operas in November 2020, about which Opera Magazine wrote "Despite this plague year of postponements, POP has refused to bow to the pandemic or its restrictions...There is surely no opera company in this Covid-ravaged country with a better average for 2020." Other critically acclaimed productions include Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio set as an episode of Star Trek; a "fan-tastic" (LA Daily News) Harajuku-themed Mikado; a Dick Tracy Don Giovanni; a Magic Flute inspired by 1990s video games, called "one of the freshest takes on Mozart's 1791 classic I have come across" (Operawire); and many more. POP's signature take on Puccini's La bohème, "AKA The Hipsters," set in modern day Los Angeles, has become a holiday tradition, returning year after year to sold-out audiences and called "riotous" (LA Weekly) and "an undeniably fun night at the theater that should not be missed" (Stage Raw). POP gave the world premiere of Brooke deRosa's The Monkey's Paw in 2017.

POP has been dedicated to reaching young audiences with performance and education since its inception, regularly performing for school-aged groups in family-friendly productions, including having a presence in 15 Title 1 schools. POP also partners with Bob Baker Marionette Theater, local YMCAs, and the Burbank Boys and Girls Club. During the COVID-19 pandemic, POP created interactive Education Packs appropriate for kindergarten to eighth grade students to accompany videos of POP's productions of The Magic Flute and Madama Butterfly.

In 2019, POP presented its most ambitious project to date: the first ever true-to-story bilingual Madama Butterfly performed in LA's Little Tokyo. A co-production with Houston's Opera in the Heights, the production featured a new libretto written by POP's Founding Artistic Director Josh Shaw and Opera in the Heights Artistic Director Eiki Isomura, presenting Puccini's story as if it actually happened and attempting to answer the question: "How would Butterfly and Pinkerton communicate?" All Japanese roles were sung in Japanese by Japanese-American artists and all American roles were sung in English. San Francisco Classical Voice described the production as "on a visual scale beyond anything it has taken on before - a sumptuously costumed, fully staged, bilingual co-production... Pacific Opera Project deserves a great deal of credit for making this concept into a reality... innovative, creative, and immensely successful."

POP presented the 2018 West Coast premiere of Giacomo Rossini's rarely performed 1816 opera, La gazzetta "The Newspaper." The first performances in the US were given in Boston at the New England Conservatory in 2013, and POP's production was only the second in North America. Opera Today raved about the premiere, writing "Director Josh Shaw has invested the proceedings with enough good comic ideas for at least three productions. Shaw has set the show in 1960's Paris, with eye-popping set elements and brilliant uses of color which add to the manic feel... Mr. Shaw has fashioned a take-no-prisoners approach to the staging, which was rife with clever touches... Pacific Opera Project has evidently hit on a winning formula for a night out, serving up food, drink and an operatic discovery in equal measure."

Learn more at www.pacificoperaproject.com.

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