CRESCENT CITY

“Exuberant and wonderfully performed:
Crescent City reshapes LA opera.”
Los Angeles Times (read Mark Swed’s full review here)

Crescent City was the first production of The Industry and was instantly hailed as “reshaping LA opera” (Los Angeles Opera) and “changing the face of music-theater in this town overnight”
(Out West Arts).

The opera tells the story of a mythical town loosely based on New Orleans. In the aftermath of Hurricane Belle, Crescent City is a lawless ghost town: marauding Revelers call the Junk Heap home, while drag queens, drug addicts, and a lone policeman try to  survive. A disturbance in the air resurrects the voodoo queen Marie Laveau, who emerges from her tomb to discover that another hurricane threatens to destroy what little is left of Crescent City. Marie Laveau summons the voodoo gods and begs them to save the city. They agree to do so only if one good soul can be found remaining in the town. The opera becomes a travelogue, as the voodoo gods come down to the town to search for the city’s salvation.

Anne LeBaron’s electronically-infused music
weaves together zydeco, gospel, voodoo drumming,
and ancient Korean traditions to create
an unforgettably phantasmagoric score.
The Los Angeles Times praised the opera’s
“fantastical layers and robust vocal writing,
a perspective that is always changing and always captivating.”
Douglas Kearney’s “poetically rich libretto” creates characters
through a strong Southern vernacular and powerful imagery.
“Fascinatingly staged by the über-creative Yuval Sharon” (Stage and Cinema),
the production is an immersive yet elusive multimedia spectacle,
where every vantage point offers a unique perspective.
Marc Lowenstein conducts an orchestra of 18
and leads a phenomenal cast of eight singers.

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