Opera inspired by a freeway

Los Angeles Opera said Tuesday that it would present two workshop performances of a new commission called “The 110 Project,” an opera that tells the stories of the communities along L.A.’s 110 Freeway, which runs from the Pasadena area, past downtown and south to San Pedro.

Commissioned by the company’s Education and Community Programs department, the new work features music by Laura Karpman and a libretto by author MG Lord and Shannon Halwes. According to L.A. Opera, “The 110 Project” tells the story of four central characters as it travels through 70 years of L.A. history starting with the birth of the space program in Pasadena’s Arroyo Seco in 1939 to downtown Los Angeles at midcentury and concluding at the port of San Pedro in the present day.

The music is said to be inspired by freeway sounds as well as cultural and historic source material. In addition, the singers will make up “a freeway chorus that scats and honks its commentary,” said L.A. Opera.

-- David Ng