"I was looking at the ceiling and then I saw the sky" was a statement made by a survivor of the 1994 Northridge earthquake. It is also the title of a song-play by contemporary composer John Luther Adams and poet June Jordan, set in the aftermath of the devastating quake that hit Los Angeles. The Long Beach Opera will present Ceiling/Sky at the Ford Amphitheatre in Hollywood on August 23 at 8:00 p.m.
LBO artistic director Andreas Mitisek will direct this concert performance, which marks the Southern California premiere of this earthquake romance.
Ceiling/Sky is an opera-musical theater hybrid that mixes pop, jazz, gospel, blues and funk, all underpinned by Adams' minimalist musical voice. Rich with the sounds and rhythms of American urban life, this "song play" uses the Northridge quake as a starting point to explore issues of race, gender and immigration among young Angelenos.
Adams himself compares the spirit of the work, performed by musical theater singers and accompanied by three keyboards and a rock band formation, to Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera.
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