La Opera : The Pearl Fishers

A vocal and aerial ballet of forbidden love.

- Chris Elliott

The LA Opera Company has just concluded its 2017 season with a run of George Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers at The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. By way of experimentation, Malibu Arts Journal bade me mount my trusty steed and explore what it takes to enjoy an evening of opera for residents of so remote an outcropping as the West Valley.

Traffic is always the “X” factor in any evening out in Los Angeles. But from high atop Woodland Hills, it took my wife and me under an hour on Saturday night to get there, which given the presumed scintillating nature of you and your confederate’s conversation ought to offer its own delight. Once you’ve arrived in the maw of LA’s theater district, parking options are myriad, one of which is valet service right at the theater. You can easily save a few dollars on that part of the trip with just a little poking around the neighborhood.

The theater itself is charming. Its interior an elegant presentation of the austere stylistic of public spaces that was popular in the early 1960s, pure Camelot with clean lines and none of the baroque detail of many previously and even subsequently built LA theaters. It features wide, curving stairways, hanging chandeliers and a rich wood-paneled interior along with orchestra, loge and balcony seating. The structure was completed and dedicated in 1964 and beautifully reflects the sensibilities of the time. It has just shy of 3200 seats, all of which were taken the night we saw The Pearl Fishers.