May 2012
Atwater Crossing, Los Angeles, USA
Music by Anne LeBaron
Text by Douglas Kearney
Direction by Yuval Sharon
Produced by The Industry
Crescent City was the first production of The Industry and was instantly hailed as “changing the face of music-theater in this town overnight” (Out West Arts).
The opera tells the story of a mythical town loosely based on New Orleans. In the aftermath of Hurricane Belle, Crescent City is a lawless ghost town: marauding Revelers call the Junk Heap home, while drag queens, drug addicts, and a lone policeman try to survive. A disturbance in the air resurrects the voodoo queen Marie Laveau, who emerges from her tomb to discover that another hurricane threatens to destroy what little is left of Crescent City. Marie Laveau summons the voodoo gods and begs them to save the city. They agree to do so only if one good soul can be found remaining in the town. The opera becomes a travelogue, as the voodoo gods come down to the town to search for the city’s salvation. Anne LeBaron’s electronically-infused music weaves together zydeco, gospel, voodoo drumming, and ancient Korean traditions to create an unforgettably phantasmagoric score. The production was an immersive yet elusive multimedia spectacle, where every vantage point offered a unique perspective.