Andreas Mitisek

Andreas Mitisek has plenty of reasons to be nervous: It's just a few minutes before he'll vault onstage to talk about "Medea," the bloody, extreme opera he's distilled and remade. And it's only an hour before the boyish 47-year-old will conduct the orchestra during a performance of the piece. Mitisek also designed the production's stark lighting ? emitted eerily from below ? that had been sharply criticized in a review a few days before. But instead of composing himself in a green room, trying to control his anxiety while memorizing his speech or conducting, Mitisek is relaxing on an audience seat, discussing his love of putting on shows.

This post has been updated. "The Death of Klinghoffer," the controversial 1991 opera by John Adams, is scheduled to make its much-belated Los Angeles-area debut in March 2014. But the producing company won't be L.A. Opera, which was one of several groups that commissioned the piece. Long Beach Opera said it will present the work as part of its season next year, in a staging directed by James Robinson. The dates and venue for the performances have not been announced.  In April 2014, the production will be part of the Los Angeles Philharmonic's recently announced "Minimalist Jukebox" festival.

Talk about a splashy entrance. Conductor Andreas Mitisek made his American debut with Long Beach Opera's 1998 wild and crazy staging of Henry Purcell's "The Indian Queen." He was dressed for the part--decked out in skintight leather in lieu of the traditional tux and tails. Conceived by performance artist Guillermo Gomez-Pena and director David Schweizer, that production was pronounced "a dazzling mess" by Times music critic Mark Swed.

Eight Summer Olympics ago, it was Los Angeles' turn. We did well with the Games (traffic and weather cooperated). We built no monuments, no starchitect stadiums or the like. But a progressive Olympic Arts Festival gave a lasting boost to our modern dance and international theater scene and stimulated the creation of Los Angeles Opera. Then there was director Robert Wilson's "the CIVIL warS: a tree is best measured when it is down," the centerpiece of the festival. It was meant to be the grandest of grand operas and proved the Olympics' great letdown.

This post has been updated. "The Death of Klinghoffer," the controversial 1991 opera by John Adams, is scheduled to make its much-belated Los Angeles-area debut in March 2014. But the producing company won't be L.A. Opera, which was one of several groups that commissioned the piece. Long Beach Opera said it will present the work as part of its season next year, in a staging directed by James Robinson. The dates and venue for the performances have not been announced.  In April 2014, the production will be part of the Los Angeles Philharmonic's recently announced "Minimalist Jukebox" festival.

Eight Summer Olympics ago, it was Los Angeles' turn. We did well with the Games (traffic and weather cooperated). We built no monuments, no starchitect stadiums or the like. But a progressive Olympic Arts Festival gave a lasting boost to our modern dance and international theater scene and stimulated the creation of Los Angeles Opera. Then there was director Robert Wilson's "the CIVIL warS: a tree is best measured when it is down," the centerpiece of the festival. It was meant to be the grandest of grand operas and proved the Olympics' great letdown.

Long Beach Opera's new production of Osvaldo Golijov's "Ainadamar" comes at an important time. The opera is a meditation on the Spanish poet Federico García Lorca's murder by the fascists during the Spanish Civil War, which is ever relevant, especially in the way the work echoes the current situation in the Middle East. But there is another reason why this opera matters right now, despite LBO's somewhat slapdash production at Terrace Theater Sunday night. Golijov has been going through a bad patch, and we need to be reminded why the music world would be unwise to lose faith in him. He has missed deadlines, including for a violin concerto that was to have been premiered by the Los Angeles Philharmonic a year ago. He has also come under attack for plagiarism by "gotcha" critics who miss the larger context of his work and what makes it so culturally rich and pertinent.

Perhaps more than any other composer, Dmitri Shostakovich is rooted in his time and place. He was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1906, and his life and career paralleled the history of the Soviet Union, which variously celebrated and pressured him until his death in 1975. His music reflects the turmoil of his personal story and the difficult times in which he lived, especially World War II — or as Russians call it, the Great Patriotic War. Even now, decades after his death, Shostakovich's scores remain primarily associated with either grim historicity (exemplified by his "Leningrad," "The Year 1905" and "Babi-Yar" symphonies)

Long Beach Opera is nothing if not nervy. Two years ago, it mounted an abbreviated version of Wagner's "Ring" cycle, with the composer's majestic orchestrations played by an ensemble of 25. Last year, its production of Grigori Frid's "The Diary of Anne Frank" was staged in two parking garages. That kind of moxie has brought LBO national and even international attention. Yet for all its acclaim and a loyal cadre of supporters, it continues to be relatively unfamiliar to L.A. audiences.

A towering pyramid, outlined in neon, opens its doors to allow the entrance of a low-rider car shaped like a red stilletto high heel. Opera singers dressed as Mexican cabaret entertainers hold forth from raised platforms. A film sequence projects on a screen between the pyramid and a wrestling arena. Warriors sport cholo Pendletons and bandannas and race to nowhere on stationary exercise bikes. A dance troupe of blue-skinned Carmen Mirandas is trapped in a bamboo cage.

Classical music fans in Southern California have known for several years that Andreas Mitisek works minor miracles on a shoestring at Long Beach Opera. With limited financial resources, he has maintained the small company's reputation as a risk-taker, embracing experimental and unconventional works that major opera houses tend to ignore. Mitisek is among the 25 people  named this month by Opera News as part of its  "Next Wave" cover story. The venerated monthly, published by New York's Metropolitan Opera Guild, chose 25 individuals the editors believe "are poised to break out and become major forces in the field in the coming decade.

Long Beach Opera's new production of Osvaldo Golijov's "Ainadamar" comes at an important time. The opera is a meditation on the Spanish poet Federico García Lorca's murder by the fascists during the Spanish Civil War, which is ever relevant, especially in the way the work echoes the current situation in the Middle East. But there is another reason why this opera matters right now, despite LBO's somewhat slapdash production at Terrace Theater Sunday night. Golijov has been going through a bad patch, and we need to be reminded why the music world would be unwise to lose faith in him. He has missed deadlines, including for a violin concerto that was to have been premiered by the Los Angeles Philharmonic a year ago. He has also come under attack for plagiarism by "gotcha" critics who miss the larger context of his work and what makes it so culturally rich and pertinent.

Perhaps more than any other composer, Dmitri Shostakovich is rooted in his time and place. He was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1906, and his life and career paralleled the history of the Soviet Union, which variously celebrated and pressured him until his death in 1975. His music reflects the turmoil of his personal story and the difficult times in which he lived, especially World War II — or as Russians call it, the Great Patriotic War. Even now, decades after his death, Shostakovich's scores remain primarily associated with either grim historicity (exemplified by his "Leningrad," "The Year 1905" and "Babi-Yar" symphonies)

Andreas Mitisek has plenty of reasons to be nervous: It's just a few minutes before he'll vault onstage to talk about "Medea," the bloody, extreme opera he's distilled and remade. And it's only an hour before the boyish 47-year-old will conduct the orchestra during a performance of the piece. Mitisek also designed the production's stark lighting ? emitted eerily from below ? that had been sharply criticized in a review a few days before. But instead of composing himself in a green room, trying to control his anxiety while memorizing his speech or conducting, Mitisek is relaxing on an audience seat, discussing his love of putting on shows.

Long Beach Opera is nothing if not nervy. Two years ago, it mounted an abbreviated version of Wagner's "Ring" cycle, with the composer's majestic orchestrations played by an ensemble of 25. Last year, its production of Grigori Frid's "The Diary of Anne Frank" was staged in two parking garages. That kind of moxie has brought LBO national and even international attention. Yet for all its acclaim and a loyal cadre of supporters, it continues to be relatively unfamiliar to L.A. audiences.

Talk about a splashy entrance. Conductor Andreas Mitisek made his American debut with Long Beach Opera's 1998 wild and crazy staging of Henry Purcell's "The Indian Queen." He was dressed for the part--decked out in skintight leather in lieu of the traditional tux and tails. Conceived by performance artist Guillermo Gomez-Pena and director David Schweizer, that production was pronounced "a dazzling mess" by Times music critic Mark Swed.

Classical music fans in Southern California have known for several years that Andreas Mitisek works minor miracles on a shoestring at Long Beach Opera. With limited financial resources, he has maintained the small company's reputation as a risk-taker, embracing experimental and unconventional works that major opera houses tend to ignore. Mitisek is among the 25 people  named this month by Opera News as part of its  "Next Wave" cover story. The venerated monthly, published by New York's Metropolitan Opera Guild, chose 25 individuals the editors believe "are poised to break out and become major forces in the field in the coming decade.

We may look these days at Mexico as a place of peril, what with drug trafficking, kidnapping and wanton murder. But we ignore Mexico as an arts center at our own peril. When it comes to classical music, we might not recognize our own music had we not once had inspiration and help from south of the border. Do we need now to be reminded that Mexico City has been an opera center a lot longer than Southern California has been - and that it still is one? We do. Fortunately, Long Beach Opera has done the reminding with its most gratifyingly ambitious undertaking in quite a while: what it is calling the U.S. premiere of what it is calling Gabriella Ortiz's "Camelia la Tejana: Only the Truth.

A towering pyramid, outlined in neon, opens its doors to allow the entrance of a low-rider car shaped like a red stilletto high heel. Opera singers dressed as Mexican cabaret entertainers hold forth from raised platforms. A film sequence projects on a screen between the pyramid and a wrestling arena. Warriors sport cholo Pendletons and bandannas and race to nowhere on stationary exercise bikes. A dance troupe of blue-skinned Carmen Mirandas is trapped in a bamboo cage.