Opera on location is not a new theatre concept in the theatre, but it is one that is gaining significant traction amongst the recent bought of theatre closures and scandals. Hopscotch Opera is another experimental production, it’s a “mobile opera” that is running in L.A. until November 22nd.
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Conceived and directed by The Industry’s Artistic Director Yuval Sharon, “LA’s avant-garde opera darling” (Hollywood Reporter), Hopscotch is The Industry’s most ambitious project to date, brought to life by more than 150 artists—singers, instrumentalists, dancers, actors, animation artists, architects, and designers. (Not to mention 24 drivers!).
“It is the creation of a company called the Industry, which has drawn notice for presenting experimental opera in unconventional spaces. “Hopscotch” is its most ambitious production, and one of the more complicated operatic enterprises to have been attempted since Richard Wagner staged “The Ring of the Nibelung,” over four days, in 1876. Audience members ride about in a fleet of limousines, witnessing scenes that take place both inside the vehicles and at designated sites. Three simultaneous routes crisscross eastern and downtown L.A. Six principal composers, six librettists, and a production team of nearly a hundred have collaborated on the project, which has a budget of about a million dollars. It is a combination of road trip, architecture tour, contemporary-music festival, and waking dream.”
The full article, by Alex Ross, written for the New Yorker can be accessed here.
