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Making a Return The Broad Stage announces triumphant season filled with new works PHOTO CREDIT: KENNETH FRIEDMAN
Mark Morris Dance Group & Music Ensemble will perform “Mozart Dances” from June 9 to 12. By Bridgette M. Redman icking off this month, The Broad Stage in Santa Monica will present many new and different attractions between now and June 2022. It’s a celebration that includes several new and commissioned works. It is also the first full season announced under the direction of Rob Bailis, who came on board as executive director before the pandemic hit. Bailis claims inspiration from an essay, “The Pandemic Is a Portal,” by Arundhati Roy, that posits that pandemics throughout human history have opened us up to deep human reflection that demands we make changes to our ways of being, which allows for profound moments of evolution. “That is what I have been most interested in trying to accomplish with our programming at The Broad Stage,” Bailis said. “To
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reach very boldly and directly for the generation and the audience that is going to receive The Broad Stage in the future. We also want to speak very clearly and directly to those who have been with us all the time, and to really honor that great tradition of excellence that has been a part of The Broad Stage from the beginning.” Because of his desire and intent to engage and invite new audiences, they are bringing in a great deal of premieres this season, whether world premieres, Los Angeles premieres or Broad Stage premieres. “A good deal of our programming is focused on that work that has never been in LA or on The Broad Stage,” Bailis said. “A lot of that sense of new energy and new voices are new in our conversations, but it all works with what is still there, with the
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things that people love and treasure about The Broad Stage.” He wants the works to be as diverse and engaging as the community of LA itself.
Showcasing New Works The season’s world premiere and three LA premieres include: “… (Iphigenia)” (Feb. 18-19) premiere opera created by jazz legend Wayne Shorter and jazz great esperanza spalding, with set design by architect Frank Gehry. “Yemandja: A Story of Africa” (April 14-16) new music theatre work by and starring vocal legend Angélique Kidjo inspired by her ancestors, directed by Cheryl Lynn Bruce with production design by artist Kerry James Marshall. “Heartbeat Opera: Fidelio” (Feb. 26-27) contemporary adaptation with a chorus of over
100 incarcerated singers; also Artists Talk about restorative justice with Heartbeat Opera creators and local artists. “The Conference of the Birds” (June 18-19) shared world premiere oratorio from composer Fahed Siadat, librettist Sholeh Wolpé, and director-choreographer André Megerdichian, based on the Sufi mystic poet Attar’s seminal text about the journey of the soul as it seeks union with the divine. In English with text from the original Persian. Iphigenia was a princess of Mycenae, the daughter of King Agamemnon and Queen Clytemnestra. Her father sacrificed her at the start of the Trojan War, setting off a circle of violence and revenge. The Broad Stage commissioned this version and the artists have been in LA working on the opera
for the past several months. “All the artists are world class, but the freshness of their collaboration and the way they are working together is new,” Bailis said. “They’re reimagining Iphigenia’s story, particularly looking at it through a female point of view and a female voice; it allows that story to take on a different tone and approach.” Ballis said Shorter has been dreaming of telling this story since his early days as a composer and musician. His desire was to tell the story in a specific, epic manner, one that only became a reality when he began working with spalding, who was willing to come on as a librettist and collaborator. “That really completes the entire cycle artistically for Wayne,” Bailis said. “Their relationship was really impressive. Many times, she traveled to be with Wayne during the composition of that work and to really stay together in person in the process during the pandemic. It was a real challenge and something they offered such fortitude and commitment to.” The second commission is “Yemandja: A Story of Africa.” “Angélique Kidjo is one of the greatest known artists and singers of her generation,” Bailis said. “She is an extraordinarily beloved performer and creator and this has an intergenerational creative team — she’s working with her daughter, Naïma, who is the playwright for this work. They are collaborating with Kerry James Marshall for the set and she is really one of the finest visual artists of the past 50 years if not of all time.” “Yemandja” is set in 19th-century Dahomey, a West African kingdom that once occupied the territory that is now Benin. Yemandja, the deity of water and fertility, has given Omolola a secret gift: the power of song to change the course of history. However, the gift only works if she keeps her heart pure. A Brazilian slave trader begins killing and enslaving all those around Omolola and her desire for revenge threatens to surpass her will to keep a pure heart. The work is a piece of magical realism that illustrates through song what happens when people are robbed of their culture. Kidjo performs the songs in the piece and is backed by a live band, a chorus of dancer-singers and actors. “I love very much the nature of
