James Darrah Black, music professor and director of Opera UCLA, drew major critical attention in Paris for his French directorial debut in France, staging composer/conductor Matthias Pintscher’s new opera Nuit sans aube at the Opéra-Comique after the piece’s world premiere at the Berlin State Opera as Das Kalte Herz.
Le Monde—France’s most widely read newspaper—praised Darrah Black for his deft and inventive staging, noting that it did not merely support the music, it propelled it. Other European critics echoed this point—the visual world was a driving engine that gave the opera life and force.
The Paris production followed the world premiere of Pintscher’s opera in Berlin, where it was staged under the name. The French premiere was not merely a second staging of the Berlin production. It included a newly translated French libretto, a largely reconfigured cast, and major evolutions in staging, lighting, and costume. It was a cinematic re-staging that made the Paris production palpably different from the Berlin premiere.
Darrah Black’s next project willb e a staging of Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride at Schoenberg Hall with Opera UCLA. Said Darrah Black: “I’m excited to bring this same energy to Opera UCLA. We will always be bold, we will always be exciting.”
Opera UCLA’s Iphigénie en Tauride will be staged on Thursday, May 14 and Saturday, May 16 at 8:00 p.m. at Schoenberg Hall.