LBO’s 2025–26 season OPERA IS EVERYWHERE is a celebration of our artists and collaborators redefining what opera can be. Spanning live performance, film, recording, and new works in development, this year is all about highlighting LBO’s unique role as a creative hub for experimentation and collaboration. Across every space and medium, these projects underscore our belief that opera is a living art -- made everywhere artists are creating.
EVERYWHERE
OPERA IS
2025-2026
november 20 & 21 @ 7:30 PM
november 23, 2025 @ 2 PM
FREUD PLAYHOUSE, LOS ANGELES
BENJAMIN BRITTEN’S
THE TURN OF THE SCREW
Opera UCLA and The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music with The UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, unveil a new production of Benjamin Britten’s The Turn of the Screw. Long Beach Opera joins for this bold, imaginative staging of Henry James’ psychological masterpiece—directed by James Darrah and conducted by Rakefet Hak. LBO is also overseeing the recording and mastering of two versions of the opera—one standard, one mixed to evoke the sound of Britten’s 1954 premiere—with distribution planned for early 2026.
JANUARY 31 @ 7:30 PM
FEBRUARY 1 @ 4 Pm
Altar Society, Long Beach
Crash Out Queens:
A Tiffany Townsend Recital
Soprano Tiffany Townsend officially kicks off our season with a bold recital developed in close collaboration with LBO. Conceived as both a recital and a dramatic exploration, the program traces a journey through opera’s most iconic moments of reckoning–examining the inner lives of women pushed to their psychological and emotional limits. Through scenes that bring to life some of the operatic repertoire’s most powerful female figures, Townsend brings these arias into the present with an empathetic, reimagined lens. Featuring scenic, dance, and instrumental collaborators, this performance invites audiences to experience the full scope of her evolving artistry and creative imagination.
TICKETS LIVE NEXT WEEK
LBO celebrates the release of the first commercial recording of Anthony Davis’s Pulitzer Prize–winning opera The Central Park Five, a landmark work the company commissioned and premiered in 2019 and remounted in 2022.
Widely acclaimed following its premiere, the opera has since been produced around the country and recognized for its musical and cultural impact. This new album documents the original LBO commission and highlights the company’s ongoing commitment to developing bold new American operas.
The release will be paired with a spring celebration featuring live performance and reflection with artists from the original creative team. Full event details will be announced soon—stay tuned.
CENTRAL PARK FIVE:
ALBUM RELEASE
SPRING 2026
ONGOING DEVELOPMENT
INSIDE LBO STUDIO
Behind every performance, LBO Studio is where new ideas take shape. Operating year-round as the company’s creative hub, the Studio brings together composers, performers, designers, and writers to experiment, collaborate, and develop original works for future seasons.
This season offers a glimpse into that ongoing creative engine. Multiple new operas, interdisciplinary performances, and film-based projects are currently in development – each at a different stage of research, writing, and workshop. Some have been formally commissioned, others are in early concept and design phases. Together, they represent the next generation of LBO’s bold, artist-driven storytelling.
As these projects evolve, LBO Studio will share updates throughout the year – offering audiences a look into the process of building new opera from the ground up and continuing the company’s legacy of commissioning and premiering transformative work.
