MUSIC NEWS : A Promising Opera Season

Like novelists and football teams, operatic composers have good and bad seasons. Sometimes the commissions arrive and are fulfilled, only to be followed by fallow periods. From this vantage point in hopeful autumn, the 1994-95 concert year looks promising, operatically.

Recently at San Francisco Opera, we had the much-heralded premiere of Conrad Susa’s “The Dangerous Liaisons.” Now, two more brand-new works for the lyric stage are set to be introduced.

In February and March, L.A. Music Center Opera will present, in nine performances at six venues, the premiere of Lee Holdridge’s “Journey to Cordoba.” The new opera, with libretto by Richard Sparks, will be staged by the award-winning film and stage director Jose Luis Valenzuela, with scenic designs by L.A. artist Gronk.

Holdridge, 50, for three decades a successful film and television composer, has written a number of concert works, including concertos, symphonic suites, chamber music and one previous opera. Sparks’ writing credits include film, stage and television, including contributions to “Saturday Night Live.”

“Journey to Cordoba” will be performed by four professional singers and a chorus of students from L.A. County High School for the Arts. The premiere is at the new Luckman Fine Arts Complex at Cal State L.A. Feb. 11, with performances at the University of Redlands Feb. 12, the Norris Theatre on Palos Verdes Peninsula Feb. 19, the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts Feb. 26, Wadsworth Theater March 4 and Santa Barbara’s Lobero Theatre March 5.

Meanwhile, the Richard and Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center at Cal State Long Beach continues its inaugural season with the premiere of Martin Herman’s opera based on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter.” Herman is an associate professor at CSLB. The librettist of “The Scarlet Letter,” to be introduced Oct. 27-30, is Tom Curley. Stage direction will be by Philip Littell, librettist of Susa’s recent “Dangerous Liaisons” in San Francisco. Brent McMunn will conduct.