As part of its 2025–26 season “Opera Is Everywhere,” Long Beach Opera will host an evening of reflection and celebration with its Spring Gala, titled “Celebrating The Central Park Five Opera,” which will get underway on Saturday, April 11.
Centered on the opera’s forthcoming first-ever recording, the event marks a significant new chapter for one of the company’s most acclaimed and socially resonant pieces of theatre.
Originally premiered by LBO in 2019, “The Central Park Five,” composed by Anthony Davis with a libretto by Richard Wesley, quickly garnered national attention, earning the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Music.
Based on the wrongful convictions and eventual exoneration of five Black and Latino teenagers in the 1989 Central Park Five case, the opera transforms a painful chapter of American history into a work of operatic depth and empathic urgency.
The gala will feature live performances from artists connected to both the original production and the opera’s 2022 remount, which serves as the foundation for the upcoming recording.
Among them are Nathan Granner, Lindsay Patterson Abdou, and Todd Strange, joined by pianist Aron Kallay. Davis and Wesley will also offer remarks on the opera’s continued evolution and impact as it moves into this next phase.
Beyond the performance, the evening doubles as a gathering of LBO’s creative community and those who cherish it, with appetizers, drinks, and opportunities to engage with the artists.
Attendees will also get a first look at the company’s upcoming season and early details about the recording’s summer release.
Finally, a silent auction featuring curated experiences, artwork, and partner offerings will open online on Friday, April 3 and close during the event.
With more than four decades of boundary-pushing productions, Long Beach Opera continues to champion contemporary storytelling and challenge — but also warmly welcome — audiences in our city and beyond.
For information and tickets about the Spring Gala, visit longbeachopera.org/springgala.
CSULB
The enduring partnership between Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Lorenzo Da Ponte remains one of opera’s greatest creative alliances, resulting in three masterworks written in just four years.
Next week, the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at CSULB will begin an ambitious, multi-year retrospective exploring that collaboration through a fresh and theatrical lens with “Cherubino’s Rise and Fall, Part I.”
Rather than presenting the trio of operas — “Le nozze di Figaro,” “Don Giovanni,” and “Così fan tutte” — as standalone works, the conservatory’s opera program will weave them into a two-part pastiche, linking their characters and themes in unexpected ways.
In honor of her late husband’s love of music, Regena Cole pledged $16.4 million in 2008 from the Bob Cole Trust to the CSULB music department. The gift, which was the single largest donation in CSULB history, established the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music seen here in Long Beach on Tuesday, June 18, 2024. Cole, alleges she was coerced into making a $25 million donation to music education at Cal State Long Beach by a former 49er Foundation official and others has settled her lawsuit against the university. (Photo by Brittany M. Solo, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
Show Caption
1 of 1
In honor of her late husband’s love of music, Regena Cole pledged $16.4 million in 2008 from the Bob Cole Trust to the CSULB music department. The gift, which was the single largest donation in CSULB history, established the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music seen here in Long Beach on Tuesday, June 18, 2024. Cole, alleges she was coerced into making a $25 million donation to music education at Cal State Long Beach by a former 49er Foundation official and others has settled her lawsuit against the university. (Photo by Brittany M. Solo, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
At the center is Cherubino, the lovelorn page from “Marriage of Figaro,” whose youthful impulsiveness has captured theatrical imaginations for nearly two and a half centuries.
Part I, kicking off April 10 through April 12, will launch the journey with a fully staged production performed with live orchestra.
As both a musical showcase and a piece of inventive storytelling, the production hopes to highlight the depth of student talent while embracing the theatrical elasticity of Mozart and Da Ponte’s works.
The project will conclude next season, promising a long-view exploration that mirrors the scope of the original collaboration itself.
Performances will take place Friday, April 10 and Saturday, April 11 at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, April 12 at 2 p.m.
Tickets are priced at $28.75, $18.75, and free for select attendees, making this an accessible entry point into some of opera’s most beloved repertoire.
If you can’t make it in person, Bob Cole Conservatory of Music concerts are now being broadcast on 22 West Radio, a student-run multimedia radio station and video production company at CSULB.
When there’s no specific concert to broadcast, music from the conservatory can be heard on rotation.
Tune in to listen at 22westmedia.com, and check out the Bob Cole Conservatory website for more information about attending the opera at shorturl.at/hK7dG.
‘Charlotte’s Web’
Few stories have captured the imaginations of both children and adults quite like “Charlotte’s Web,” E. B. White’s tale of friendship, sacrifice, and care.
The Long Beach Shakespeare Company will bring this classic to life in a radio-style stage adaptation next week, transforming the familiar barnyard story into an intimate, imagination-driven theatrical experience.
We all know the story: it’s about the unlikely bond between Wilbur, a runt pig facing an uncertain fate, and Charlotte, the wise spider who spins words into her web to save him.
“Charlotte’s Web” as a live radio performance hopes to underscore the timelessness of this tale, while highlighting its emotional core.
Framed within the company’s “Season of Legends,” this radio version of E.B. White’s most famous work offers a refreshing, and refreshingly small, perspective on what it means to be legendary.
No crowns or conquests here: just ‘some pig,’ a spider, and self-sacrificial love.
Performances of “Charlotte’s Web” run April 10 through April 19 at The Helen Borgers Theatre. For tickets, go to shorturl.at/b6iAC.