LOS ANGELES — A large platform rotates slowly in Little Tokyo. On one half is a macabre scene set in a ritzy 1920s Manhattan restaurant, on the other, a luxurious white bathhouse with lavish floral walls. This is not part of a new exhibition — though it is indeed a work of art — but rather, it’s the stage for LA-based opera company The Industry’s latest work: The Comet/Poppea, presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art’s Geffen Contemporary location.
Six years in the making, the show blends two stories. “The Comet” is a lesser known sci-fi short story by renowned scholar, activist, and author W.E.B. DuBois that homes in on the pervasive injustices of racial tension and social hierarchies; in the story, a comet kills everyone in New York City except a Black man and White woman who believe they’re now responsible for repopulating humanity. Written in 1924, it is enacted here simultaneously with “L’incoronazione di Poppea” (The Coronation of Poppea), a 1643 Italian opera by Claudio Monteverdi that explores the seductive manipulation of power as illegitimate actions are taken to turn Roman emperor Nero’s mistress, Poppea, into his empress.
Eight performers and 10 instrumentalists intertwine these stories under the direction of The Industry co-founder Yuval Sharon, with music composed by George Lewis and music direction by Marc Lowenstein, and the libretto adaptation of “The Comet” written by Douglas Kearney. The trials of a post-apocalyptic New York and hedonistic Rome become one another’s mirrors and choirs, quite literally circling and echoing each other on the turning stage (scenic design by Mimi Lien). At times, Italian and English collide as both operas sound at once (lyrics are projected to the side and above the stage). Most often, the tales pepper back and forth, with Lewis’s composition smartly melding them together. Sometimes the story is visible to audiences, other times, as the stage rotates out of view, you’re left to imagine what’s taking place. Dissonance is peppered with splashes of duetted harmony. Maybe that’s the point, but, truth be told, it’s a lot to take in. The richness of conceptual, visual, and sonic material can sometimes make the performance feel bogged down by its own aspirations. (The distracting noise from the mechanics of the stage is a good example — hopefully this will be fixed for later performances.)
However, the novel experience of the presentation overshadows its shortcomings. It’s a burst of imagination and creativity in an art form often governed by rigid and elitist conventions. Translating DuBois’s words into opera is a radical feat in itself. The nature of the staging calls for the performers to act as much as sing — something not typically required of operas. The Industry has a record of nurturing things in places they’re not “supposed” to be. Like a Black man cared for and trusted by a White woman in 1920s New York or a shouldn’t-be empress wearing a crown, a pop-up opera performed by a majority of people of color presented in a contemporary art museum seems highly unlikely. Yet here it is.
Perhaps the divided circular stage crafted for this work should be appreciated as a yin-yang: a symbol of harmony in which seeming opposites are in balance — tradition and progress, old and new, then and now, black and white, virtue and greed, esoteric art and accessibility. Sharon and his collaborators consistently provoke both institutions and audiences to challenge the possibilities of opera. This work is no exception, a comet of its own illuminating cultural realities as it lands in a modern metropolis.
The Comet/Poppea, presented by The Industry, performs at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA (152 North Central Avenue, Little Tokyo, Los Angeles) through June 23.
