Opera Series Set at Ford

Announced Thursday, a new outdoor series of opera performances will take place this summer at John Anson Ford Amphitheatre in Cahuenga Pass.

The L.A. Music Center Opera and Long Beach Opera will give a total of eight performances of recent productions, according to Supervisor Edmund D. Edelman, those performances made possible in part by financial support from Edelman’s office.

On Aug. 22, 26 and 29, Long Beach Opera’s mounting of Offenbach’s “Bluebeard,” presented recently in Center Theater at the Long Beach Convention Center, will be given. And on five consecutive nights, Oct. 9-13, the Ford will host the LAMCO production of Edward Barnes’ “A Place to Call Home,” which was performed by the company in 15 local high schools in March. Both operas will be presented in English.

Barnes’ opera, which deals with the plight of young immigrants to 1990s Los Angeles, was commissioned by LAMCO for the performances in March. It utilizes four professional singers--who again will be Wonjung Kimm, Stephanie Vlahos, Greg Fedderly and Richard Bernstein--assisted by up to 60 student artists from the County High School for the Arts. Barnes has extended the opera from its original 40-minutes to one hour in length.

In the Offenbach opera--a spoof on the Bluebeard story--in August will be Angelina Reaux, James Schwisow, Ken Remo and Michael Sokol, among others. The Long Beach Opera stage director, Christopher Alden, will restage the work for the Ford Amphitheatre.

“Bluebeard” information: (310) 596-5556. “A Place to Call Home” information: (213) 972-7219.