It’s a mission stated by LA Opera to acknowledge and reflect the enormous diversity and creativity in Los Angeles by mirroring that vibrancy and redefining what opera can be.
LA Opera is demonstrating that mission by launching its 40th anniversary season with the company premiere of “West Side Story.”
“We have wanted to present ‘West Side Story’ for well over a decade, and all of the elements – including a cast featuring both opera stars and incredible musical theater performers – have finally come into place,” said Christopher Koelsch, president and CEO of the company.
With a diverse cast and modern take, this production is not set in its original period of 1957, but in the year 2018, to refresh a generational classic that is considered to be one of the greatest masterpieces of musical theater.
Two young opera stars take on the leading roles of the star-crossed lovers. Nicaraguan American soprano Gabriella Reyes – whose many Metropolitan Opera roles include both Mimì and Musetta in “La Bohème” and Margarita Xirgu in “Ainadamar” – will make her LA Opera debut as Maria. Korean tenor Duke Kim, who recently made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Tamino in “The Magic Flute,” returns to LA as Tony after his company debut last season as Romeo in “Romeo and Juliet.”
Amanda Castro, who is Puerto Rican, will be featured as Anita, a role she has performed at the Glimmerglass Festival, Lyric Opera of Chicago and elsewhere. This will be her eighth time appearing in this role.
The San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol spoke to Reyes and Castro about their roles as Maria and Anita. They said when they met, they immediately felt they knew each other. They feel a connection of shared experience as Latinas and artists.
“I am so grateful to step into this iconic role,” said Reyes. “Maria is a role that, since I was a little girl, daughter of immigrants, running around in my living room, I would always sing along with, whether it was Rita Moreno singing ‘America’ or Natalie Wood singing ‘I Feel Pretty.’ For me, that’s what I, as a kid, latched on to, which led me to become a musician. Representation is so important,” Reyes reflected.
The well-known classic story, set in New York City’s West Side, is split between the Jets and the Sharks – these warring gangs never imagined that two of their own could fall in love. Tenor Kim is Tony, a former Jet who finds himself falling for Maria. But she is promised to another, and her brother Bernardo is more than willing to rally his Sharks to keep it that way.
“I think what’s important about this production right now is that it is currently dealing with all of the issues with which we are trying to fight as a country,” said Castro. “Right now, we’re talking about gun violence, we’re talking about immigration, police brutality, political violence, school shootings, young people who have access to firearms, children dying because of firearms,” she said.
“You want to talk about racism. You want to talk about colorism, like this show came out 60-plus years ago, you know? But these are all still things that we’re reconciling within this country, ”continued Castro. “Even though, yes, there are some ways in which the show is written that are dated, but there’s something to be learned from this show for whoever comes and decides to take a seat and be a witness to this story that we’re telling at the LA Opera.”
“So what’s really sweet about this production is that [because] it is set in 2018, it’s a modern-day ‘West Side Story,’” said Reyes, who notes with a laugh that there is a poster of Bad Bunny hanging in Maria’s room. “It works. It works well in modern day because we still face these same issues. Not only falling in love, the positives, but we face all the bad as well, the violence, the gun violence, the gangs, that still happen today. I feel it can relate to a new audience, a younger audience as well.
“I think it’s by telling this specifically here and now in Los Angeles, with everything that’s been going on, you know, if we can give hope to the Latino community and say, ‘Hey, we see you. Your story is important and we value you, and there’s dignity and worse, to every single one of you.’ I hope that this piece can bring that to the community here.”
There will be 10 performances of West Side Story from Sept. 20 through Oct. 12 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, located at 135 North Grand Ave., Los Angeles.
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 Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90012). For disability access, call (213) 972-0777 or email LAOpera@LAOpera.org.
More information about the production is available at: LAOpera.org/WestSideStory.