Join LA Opera   Connects for this exclusive interview with Carla Lucero, the acclaimed composer and librettist of our commissioned community operas, The Three Women of Jerusalem (Las tres mujeres de Jerusalén) and the forthcoming The Tower of Babel.

It's such an honor to work with you to create brand-new opera experiences for our audiences. Can you tell us a little about what inspires you, and what it's like to be an opera composer in the 21^st century?  

What inspires me are stories that at their core have some message of social justice, particularly stories that center around strong women who break the mold, who fight to make a better world for other women who come after them. I'm always looking for stories that show that people can overcome odds that we would never think we could overcome. 

Those themes certainly show in   The Three Women of Jerusalem,  which we are remounting on March 14 and 15 at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. What is it like when you see this show come together after weeks of rehearsal, performed by hundreds of volunteer performers, some of whom have never set foot on a stage before, along with LA Opera professionals, all under the baton of James Conlon? 

I cry. It's so beautiful to see all of these forces come together. And we're talking hundreds of people: artists and people who are in the community who are either aspiring to be professional artists or who are just doing it for the joy of it. But everybody is enthusiastic, and I've never worked in a more supportive environment. It's a love fest. And Maestro Conlon... he's a master and a wizard, you know. His baton casts a spell over the orchestra and the singers. I feel so spoiled. If every situation could be like this, it would be amazing. 

The Three Women of Jerusalem   retells the Biblical Passion narrative, promoting themes of compassion and inclusivity that are central to both the story of Jesus's crucifixion and your compositional catalog. How did your core values guide this unique exploration and shape the writing process? 

Well, I was raised Catholic. All of the stories and then the deeper messages in the Catholic religion and the ritual... all of those are very rich parts of my memory. When you think of the Passion, I had decided early on not to show Jesus. I wanted the children's choir to represent Jesus's voice because I didn't want it to be about the spectacle. I wanted it to be about what's in people's hearts and what they witnessed. Do they watch? Do they intervene? Do they learn from it to be better people? So, it's really about compassion. The compassion in our hearts. 

It was really important for me to make The Three Women of Jerusalem. I thought, I've got to find somewhere along Jesus's journey where I relate to the whole story, and I totally zoomed in on these three women [who weep for Jesus on His way to the cross]. Their encounter with Jesus is very brief. But it's profound. They're weeping for Jesus. And Jesus says, "don't weep for me; weep for yourself." Look within yourself and change, become better, become more compassionate. 

We're also excited for the 2026 world premiere of our next collaboration. Can you tell us a little about   The Tower of Babel   and any changes you made in adapting the story for the stage? 

I decided to really focus on two things. The first is the core message that we are better as a diverse population, for a number of reasons. When people are expected to behave the same, to speak the same, then they become very judgmental of people who are stepping outside of the box, people who look different or somebody who's speaking a different language. There's this fear of the other, and it's so easy to control people when they are afraid. So here in this story of Babel, King Nimrod is telling the people of Babylon that they need to build this tower to escape an impending flood, but the other part of it for him is that he wants to challenge God. He always has this in his mind, that he's going to outsmart God. So, God curses them all to speak in different languages and the construction of the Tower just stops because everybody's confused; I have them suddenly singing in Mandarin, Hebrew and Spanish, besides English. 

The hero of the story is Semiramis, Nimrod's wife. She hears the cries of the people and works with a woman named Rosetta to find a new way to communicate. (I conflated some stories by a couple hundred years and added the adventure of the Rosetta Stone.) In my story, Rosetta is deaf, which I think is really important. In the deaf community and the blind community, you have to communicate in different ways. So, Rosetta is able to develop this new form of communication and help everyone understand each other.  

At the end, the Rosetta Stone is brought in, and the people understand that just because they are different doesn't mean there's no point of connection. We are humanity, no matter what we look like, how we dress, how we speak, or how we act. So, in my mind, God's "curse" is a blessing at the same time, because the world becomes richer, and the people become more compassionate.  

Our annual community opera is just one of the many ways that music lovers of all cultures and backgrounds come together through LA Opera   Connects  programming. This spring, we gather with thousands of Angelenos on Friday, March 14, and Saturday, March 15, to enjoy   The Three Women of Jerusalem, sung in Spanish with English subtitles. We also hope you join us to celebrate Latino art and culture at our annual Celebración de las Artes, featuring live music, curated food and drinks, and a local vendor market, taking place on the Music Center Plaza after the May 4 matinee of Osvaldo Golijov's   Ainadamar. 

To learn more about the Community Opera, click here.

To learn more about Carla Lucero's work, click here.