Music by Meredith Monk

Los Angeles Philharmonic
Walt Disney Concert Hall
Los Angeles, California  
June 11-14, 2019

LA Phil New Music Group
Conductor: Paolo Bortolameolli
Music Coach: Katie Geissinger
Music Advisor: Wayne Hankin

Director: Yuval Sharon
Artistic Advisor: Meredith Monk
Designer: Es Devlin
Projection Designer: Luke Halls
Choreographer: Danielle Agami
Costume Designer: Emma Kingsbury
Lighting Designer: John Torres
Sound Designer: Mark Grey

Inspired by the life of explorer Alexandra David-Néel, Meredith Monk’s three-act “quest opera” uses Monk’s inimitable and hypnotic style to explore the loss and rediscovery of our inherent wonder. More than 20 years after ATLAS first made its impact, Yuval Sharon conceived and directed this landmark new production at Monk’s request, the first outside director of any of the composer’s works.

Rather than depicting a literal globe-trotting quest, Sharon’s ATLAS takes Alexandra on a metaphorical journey through her artistic imagination. This is portrayed through a hand-drawn aesthetic, representing Alexandra’s self-exploration through her own art. Coming full circle with the source material, Sharon’s Alexandra lightly parallels the life of Gautama Buddha; stifled and sheltered by a well-meaning family and comfortable suburban life, Alexandra is drawn into a quest through inner-space, revealing elusive, lasting, and transformative truths about herself and the world.

The production is visually anchored by a stage sculpture designed by Es Devlin in the form of a large sphere. Serving as a projection screen, the sphere displays the hand-drawn internal world of Alexandra’s imagination, while the piece’s choreography—in which performers manually rotate and interact with it—legitimizes the connection between reality and imagination formed by Alexandra’s art.

Photography by Craig Matthew Imaging.