#la opera

This is for Timmy Kardashian. He could never.

They were showing Spanish Dracula, with live orchestra accompaniment. They played a score that was written specifically for this performance. It was a great experience. It was hosted at The United Theatre, built in 1927, which showcases Spanish Gothic architecture. The photos I took don’t do it justice.

If you ever have the opportunity to go, please take that opportunity. It’s magnificent, and it feels like you’re walking through a castle. LA’s Broadway theatre district needs support, and there is a big effort through Broadway West to help revamp its success.

I got a seat in orchestra prime, and the music was phenomenal.

Usually LA Opera hosts events at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, so if you want to see something at The United Theatre you’ll have to get tickets through the theatre itself. As I understand it, they’ll be hosting a lot of stand-up comedy shows coming up — so if Dracula isn’t your thing, then they have a variety of events from which to choose.

Shakespeare’s influence on Succession has not gone unnoticed by fans. Easter eggs abound, from Logan Roy’s distaste of the Bard to Frank stalling for time by referencing Much Ado About Nothing. The characters themselves also embody Shakespearean archetypes, with Macbeth, Julius Caesar, and Titus Andronicus reflected in Logan’s brutal, power-hungry nature. Yet the most obvious Shakespearean influence by far is King Lear.  

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King Lear seems tailor-made for an operatic adaptation, and in fact, Giuseppe Verdi (a major Shakespeare fan who scored operatic versions of Macbeth, Othello and The Merry Wives of Windsor) worked with his librettists for years to adapt King Lear before finally abandoning the project without writing a single note. He later confessed that he was terrified and intimidated by the heartbreaking scene of Lear wandering the moors carrying the body of his beloved daughter.