As Stewart says: Opera is the most fun a composer can have with his clothes on.

For the last two years composer Stewart Copeland has been working on a new opera based on the book The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares. It was commissioned jointly by the Long Beach Opera and the Chicago Opera Theater.

This week we had two day-long workshops with members of the Long Beach Opera. These were not show rehearsals, but rather workshops so that we could hear the composition and orchestrations live and make adjustments as needed. Led by Andreas Mitisek and Kristof Van Grysper, the ensemble was extremely talented, and also very supportive while we listened and altered the orchestrations in real time. I’ve been Stewart’s orchestrator and music copyist since 2010, and it’s always a pleasure to work with him.

The opera will be premiered by the Chicago Opera Theater in two months, February 2017.