Skip to Content

The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

Star Choir: An Opera by Malik Gaines and Alexandro Segade

Sept 30 – Oct 1, 2023
244 South San Pedro Street , Los Angeles, CA 90012, United States

True to its founding vision, the interdisciplinary contemporary opera company The Industry, now entering its second decade, regales Los Angeles with another intricately unclassifiable niche confection. As usual, next to no one will get to see it (runs are short, capacity minimal). As usual, a mafia of highly invested critics (you know who you are) will tout it as the Second Coming. As always, it’s best to see for oneself. Here’s the pitch: “Audiences will embark on a cosmic mission, as a starship crew seeks refuge on the hostile Planet 85K: Aurora. Once there, the colonists encounter intelligent life imperceptible to their all-too-human awareness. As the planet defends itself from their invasive presence, the humans evolve to become a part of the Holobiont, a queerly multi-species organism that covers this world.” If you’ve never visited the century-old Mount Wilson Observatory, located at an elevation of 5,700 feet above Pasadena, here’s your chance! But if you’d like to peer at space, other arrangements will be required. The performances are in the daytime. Americans with disabilities, be advised that the facility predates the Americans With Disabilities Act and is seriously non-ADA-compliant. —Matthew Gurewitsch