Based on the Atom Egoyan film, the new opera with libretto by Royce Vavrek will be presented at REDCAT (Feb 19-23)

(Los Angeles) January 27, 2025 — From February 19 through 23, LA Opera and Beth Morrison Projects will co-present the West Coast premiere of Armenian-American composer Mary Kouyoumdjian’s new opera Adoration at REDCAT as part of LA Opera's Off Grand initiative. Created in collaboration with librettist Royce Vavrek, the opera is based on Atom Egoyan's award-winning 2008 film of the same name.

About the Opera
Adoration had its world premiere on January 12, 2024, at the Prototype Festival in New York City, where it was hailed as "timely and impactful" (OperaWire) and as "blisteringly uncomfortable...relentlessly tense—90 minutes of in-drawn breath passes with barely a moment’s respite... Kouyoumdjian’s score keeps us rapt and suspicious the whole time" (Observer).

Adoration tells two simultaneous stories—a fictional story of terrorism and betrayal juxtaposed with a real story of family strife and rejection of something unfamiliar. The opera follows Simon, an orphaned high school student. As part of a dramatic writing exercise, Simon’s teacher encourages him to appropriate details from a historical terrorist attack into his story as an event perpetrated by his parents. When the story goes viral, Simon uses the hysteria within his community and on the internet to highlight the challenges of intolerance and racism in our society. The fictional and actual circumstances of the loss of Simon’s family are revealed in fragments, only fitting together with a shocking final revelation about his parents’ deaths.

“Our world continues to be fractured over unresolved multi-generational traumas that can cause horrifying divisions, globally and often in the closeness of our own families," said composer Kouyoumdjian. "However, individuals and communities, at their very best, also find beautiful ways through these divisions. This opera is about our concealed biases, but what I love most about Egoyan’s story is that these are explored through the lens of a very human family––these larger-than-life ideas feel closer-to-home as we watch the characters move through immense psychological changes with their evolving grief. This family, like any other, invites you to empathize with them, for better or worse.”

Adoration was commissioned, developed and produced by Beth Morrison Projects. This presentation marks LA Opera's 16th collaboration with Beth Morrison Projects.

The Creators
Bay Area native Mary Kouyoumdjian is a composer and documentarian with projects ranging from concert works to multimedia collaborations and film scores. As a first-generation Armenian-American, from a family directly affected by the Lebanese Civil War and Armenian Genocide, her compositional work often integrates recorded testimonies with resilient individuals and field recordings of place to invite empathy by humanizing complex experiences around social and political conflict. A finalist of the 2024 Pulitzer Prize in Music, she has received commissions from such organizations as the Kronos Quartet, New York Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Alarm Will Sound, Beth Morrison Projects, and Bang on a Can. A co-founder of the annual new music conference New Music Gathering, she is on faculty at the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University and The New School. She is proud to have her music published on Schott’s PSNY and is based in Brooklyn.

Royce Vavrek is a Canada-born, Brooklyn-based librettist and lyricist who has been called “an exemplary creator of operatic prose” (New York Times) and “one of the most celebrated and sought after librettists in the world” (CBC Radio). His opera Angel’s Bone, created with composer Du Yun, was awarded the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Music. His work in opera also includes Dog Days with composer David T. Little, Song from the Uproar with composer Missy Mazzoli and The Hubble Cantata with composer Paola Prestini, all of which have been presented by LA Opera Off Grand. He is currently collaborating with Missy Mazzoli on Lincoln in the Bardo, set to premiere at the Metropolitan Opera in the 2026/27 season.

Founded in 2006, Beth Morrison Projects (creative producer) quickly grew from an industry disruptor to a leader and tastemaker at the forefront of musical and theatrical innovation by commissioning, developing, producing and touring the groundbreaking new works of living composers and their collaborators. BMP's 2014 bi-coastal expansion to Los Angeles sprang from growing partnerships and relationships with institutions such as LA Opera, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Ford, Center Theatre Group, Broad Stage and RVCC. BMP has produced 185 performances on five continents since 2018, and its commitment to cutting edge musical expression has created “its own genre” (Opera News) of originality.

The Artists
The cast is led by tenor Omar Najmi as Simon, with soprano Miriam Khalil as his teacher, Sabine; tenor Roy Hage as his father, Sami; mezzo-soprano Naomi Louisa O'Connell as his mother, Rachel; baritone David Adam Moore as Rachel's brother Tom, Simon's guardian; and bass-baritone James Demler as Morris, Simon's maternal grandfather.

The production is helmed by stage director Laine Rettmer and music director Alan Pierson. The creative team also includes scenic designer Afsoon Pajoufar, sound engineer Daniel Neumann, lighting designer Scott Bolmon and costume designer Rachel Dainer-Best. The projection designer is Camilla Tassi and the cinematographer is April Goldberg.

Performance and Ticket Info
There will be four performances of Adoration at REDCAT (located at 631 West 2nd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012):

• Wednesday, February 19, 2025, at 8pm
• Thursday, February 20, 2025, at 8pm
• Saturday, February 22, 2025, at 8pm
• Sunday, February 23, 2025, at 2pm

Tickets are $84 and are on sale now. Tickets can be purchased online at LAOpera.org, by phone at 213.972.8001, or in person at the LA Opera box office at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion (135 N. Grand Avenue, Los Angeles CA 90012). For disability access, call 213.972.0777 or email LAOpera@LAOpera.org.

To watch the trailer for Adoration, or to learn more about the production, please visit LAOpera.org/Adoration.

Click here to download photos from the Adoration press gallery.

About LA Opera
Los Angeles is a city of enormous diversity and creativity, and LA Opera is dedicated to reflecting that vibrancy by redefining what opera can be. Through imaginative new productions, world premiere commissions, and inventive performances that preserve foundational works while making them feel fresh and compelling, LA Opera has become one of America’s most exciting and ambitious opera companies.

In addition to its mainstage performances at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the company explores unusual repertoire each season through the LA Opera Off Grand initiative, featuring performances in a variety of venues throughout Los Angeles. The LA Opera Connects initiative offers a robust variety of educational programming and community engagement offerings that reaches people throughout every corner of Los Angeles County. Learn more at LAOpera.org.

LA Opera Media Contact
Marlene Meraz
Director of Communications
mmeraz@laopera.org
213.972.7554

Off Grand productions are supported by a consortium of generous donors to LA Opera’s Contemporary Opera Initiative, chaired by Barry and Nancy Sanders 

LA Opera is a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving the greater Los Angeles community.