About
WORLD PREMIERE
Live broadcast by KCET - watch broadcast below.
Libretto by Heather Raffo, Story Consultant Christian Ellis
Operas take on the grandest themes: love, violence, betrayal and battles. That's why Andreas Mitisek, the director of Long Beach, became interested in staging a new opera set during the most recent Iraq war and its aftermath. This small, innovative company is known for site-specific work, so Mitisek decided to mount the world premiere of Fallujah at a National Guard Armory. A Humvee dominates the stage. The ushers wear military uniforms.
"Instead of sitting in a cushy theater and just being safe and going out for drinks, you are sitting on the floor of a drill hall where these people train to go to war," Mitisek explained shortly before a recent rehearsal in Long Beach. "So here, we're telling a story about their experience once they leave that hall." –– NPR
Fallujah was originally commissioned by City Opera Vancouver in 2010 – 2012, with the generous support of The Annenberg Foundation and explore.org, and at the initiative of Charles Annenberg Weingarten.
Reviews
...a powerful return to the battlefield. The decision to place the action of “Fallujah” on a raised stage inside an Army National Guard Armory makes a powerful statement. The action is bathed in projections that include photographs taken by Marines in Fallujah and nightmarish artwork created specifically for the production by a pair of PTSD-suffering Iraq war vets — Jon Harguindeguy and Michael Hebert. The brilliantly executed set design and projections are the creation of Andreas Mitisek, lighting designer Dan Weingarten and video artist Hana S. Kim.
Long Beach Opera's 'Fallujah' tackles the Iraq war with authentic anguish. In almost every way "Fallujah" is Long Beach Opera at its unique best, bringing awareness through heightened emotion in ways only opera can. Its theatrical immediacy can leave you numb, and suffering well served is no small thing. You exit the armory shaken and righteously angry.
Credits
LaMarcus Miller Philip
Suzan Hanson Colleen
Todd Stange Taylor
Arnold Livingston Geis Corpsman
Gregorio González Lalo
Jason Switzer Rocks
Zeffin Quinn Hollis Kassim
Jonathan Lacayo Wissam
Ani Maldjian Shatha
Kristof Van Grysperre Conductor
Hana S. Kim Video Designer
Dan Weingarten Light Designer
Jon Harguindeguy Art Designer/Consultant
Mike Herbert Art Designer/Consultant
National Guard Armory, Long Beach
LaMarcus Miller Philip
Suzan Hanson Colleen
Todd Stange Taylor
Arnold Livingston Geis Corpsman
Gregorio González Lalo
Jason Switzer Rocks
Zeffin Quinn Hollis Kassim
Jonathan Lacayo Wissam
Ani Maldjian Shatha
Kristof Van Grysperre Conductor
Hana S. Kim Video Designer
Dan Weingarten Light Designer
Jon Harguindeguy Art Designer/Consultant
Mike Herbert Art Designer/Consultant
Photos
New York City Opera 2016
Long Beach Opera 2016
Photographers: Keith Ian Polakoff / Joseph Kover / Genaro Molina