Shakespeare, Verdi, and Pacific Opera Project, Sittin’ in a Cemetery…

The cast and crew of POP prepare for performances of ‘Falstaff’. The view from Glendale’s Forest Lawn Memorial Park is said to be stunning. – Photo Courtesy POP

POP’s Exuberant ‘Falstaff’ Coming to Glendale’s Forest Lawn
Four Days Only – Sept. 12, 13, 19, and 20 at 7 PM

This September, Pacific Opera Project continues its successful run of presenting engaging productions in unique venues across Los Angeles with Giuseppe Verdi’s Falstaff, presented outdoors at the top of Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale. With seating at tables including food and wine, a top-notch cast and orchestra all under a starry sky, POP will present this thoroughly good-natured masterpiece in a celebratory atmosphere, proving once again that opera was — and continues to be — an art for the masses.

Supported by two of Southern California’s greatest assets — the glorious weather and the dramatic terrain — POP will transport its audiences above their daily drudgery to the peak of operatic and comic achievement. Following in the footsteps of summer picnics at Hollywood Bowl performances, or Hollywood Forever cemetery movie showings, Falstaff will bring audiences into the wine-soaked world of Shakespeare’s Fat Knight, with the added advantage of an intimate venue. The Museum Esplanade at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale will serve as Sir John’s Garter Inn, the Ford family residence, and in the final scene a real, majestic oak tree will play the part of Herne’s Oak at midnight. The opera is presented in the original Italian with projected English supertitles, and features Jonathan Dove’s reduced orchestration of Verdi’s score, by arrangement with Birmingham Opera Company in England. Tables for two or four are available, in addition to general seating for the approximately 2.5 hour performance.

POP’s mission is to provide energetic, high-quality, accessible performances of a broad variety of operatic repertoire at various venues throughout Southern California. Co-founders Josh Shaw (stage direction and production design) and Stephen Karr (music director and conductor) team up for the company’s seventeenth production since its inception in the summer of 2011. Veteran costumer Maggie Green will design her twelfth POP production.

Music Director Stephen Karr will present a lecture an hour before each performance.

Setting the stage… – Photo Courtesy POP

You do not want to miss POP’s Falstaff at Forest Lawn.  The view alone is worth the admission price!  Add a phenomenal cast and orchestra, the largest set in POP history, zany costumes – and of course food and wine – and you’ve got the perfect event to bid goodbye to summer.  Tables are sold out for opening night, but there are several available for Sunday.  A few General Admission seats are available both nights.

Forest Lawn Glendale is located at 1712 S. Glendale Blvd. Glendale, CA  91205.  Once you are in the gates, follow the signs to the Museum.
There is plenty of parking.  The venue is a short walk from the parking lot, on paved level ground.
Please bring a light jacket and seat cushion if you think you might get chilly and want a softer seat.
Please do not bring outside food or wine to keep us in compliance with our liquor license.
The show will start promptly at 7 p.m. and will end around 9:40 p.m. Patrons must exit the park by 10 p.m., so if you would like to greet the artists afterward, please establish an alternate location where you can have a more leisurely conversation.

Don’t wait! Get your tickets here.

Setting the stage for ‘Falstaff’ at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale. – Photo Courtesy POP

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