Want to get a taste of real professional opera, but can’t afford the $130 and up ticket? The Los Angeles Metropolitan Opera brings two performances of MADAME BUTTERFLY to All Souls Chapel at Good Samaritan Hospital in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday, June 29 and Sunday, June 30 at 3 pm. An excellent opportunity to introduce youth or your friends to opera – up close and intimate.
Launched in 2008, the Los Angeles Metropolitan Opera is the brainchild of sopranos Ella Lee and Linda Jackson. Lee with a 30-year career in European capitals and Jackson, home-grown and locally trained, recognized that there was a vast, under served audience missing out on the glories of grand opera, principally due to the prohibitive ticket prices facing today’s opera-goers, and the distances one must often travel to large urban performance centers. So they set out to create an alternative, finding professionals willing to perform mostly free of charge so that ticket prices could be as low as $25 and available to first-timers as well as seasoned opera buffs on a budget.
“We are huge fans of the grandeur of Los Angeles Opera productions,” says Linda Jackson, “but hope in our way we can help grow the audience for opera in Southern California by offering productions accessible to virtually everyone, at prices almost anyone can afford, and close to home. We believe that, like the best food, opera can and should be served fresh and locally.”
Puccini’s beloved opera, the story of a young Japanese woman’s doomed devotion to an American Naval officer, will feature sopranos Allison Foster and Linda Jackson alternating as Cio-Cio San, and Mark Sauter as Lieutenant B. F. Pinkerton. Others in the talented cast will be Marcela Pan, Eric Castro, Samantha Aiko Kim, Michael Bannett, Paul Alasagas, Carlos Gomez, Timothy Little, Nathan Baglyos, Sherry Hutson, and Kent Vitale. Music Director, Abraham Fabella. Set Design, Alex Britton.
For tickets or more information contact Joe Maurer at the Los Angeles Metropolitan Opera at 310-570-6448.
Top photo: credit to Ian McKenzie via photopin cc
