It is satirical, quick-witted and fast
paced— so hold on to your seats, dear audience.
LBO’s current production is a commentary on modern broadcast media,
and no one is left unscathed. Dutch composer Jacob TV incorporates quick, live music with audio of remixed news bites that are projected on
screen to weave a story of hyper-commercialize and sensitized news clips
for his “anchors” to “report” and sing over.
The anchors, rhythm vocalist Loir Cotler and soprano singer Maeve Höglund,
deliver their performances from behind a news desk. Both women’s
singing was incredible and as powerful as the opera’s message itself.
The sheer skill of the two singers and the live orchestra were not to be
upstaged by the circus of “news delivery,” from T-shirt cannons (yes, really)
to gibberish rap breakdowns.
Pause for commercial break.
Jacob TV even incorporated a few commercials into the performance—
mimicking a real newscast— and giving the audience a moment to scratch
their collective heads about the literal commercialized nature of news consumption.
From poking fun at current politicians to point out the journalist’s
worst nightmare of society ingesting its “news” from daytime talk show
hosts, The News takes a fun jab at— you guessed it— the news.
Jacob TV says in the opera’s program that though the media has a societal
duty, it has been compromised to make a profit.
[aesop_image imgwidth=”500px” img=”http://www.signaltribunenewspaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Screen-Shot-2016-06-24-at-10.21.05-AM.png” align=”left” lightbox=”on” caption=”Rhythm vocalist Loire Cotler” captionposition=”left”] “A lot of what we see on TV has been manipulated in some kind of
way,” he says. “A non-stop mixture of reality and imagination.”
And that’s what translates on stage.
The audience finds itself watching a clearly-fiction-but-maybe-not-sofiction
portrayal of how we as a society capture and consume local
and world events around us, trying to figure out the lines of hyperbolization
and harsh accuracy.
As Jacob TV quotes of Mark Twain in the program: “Truth is
stranger than fiction, because fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities;
truth isn’t.”
Long Beach Opera’s The News has two performances left, on Saturday, June 25
at 4pm and Sunday, June 26 at 2:30pm at the Santa Monica College Performing
Arts Center Eli and Edyth Broad Stage at 1310 11th St. in Santa Monica.
It is sung in English with no supertitles.
The total run time is 75 minutes with no intermission. For more information
and tickets, visit longbeachopera.org or call (562) 432-5934.
