Music by Anne LeBaron
Libretto by Douglas Kearney 

Produced by The Industry
Atwater Crossing
Los Angeles, California
Premiere May 2012

Director: Yuval Sharon
Conductor: Marc Lowenstein
Producer: Laura Kay Swanson
Curator: Brianna Gorton
Visual Artists: Mason Cooley, Brianna Gorton, Katie Grinnan, Alice Könitz, Jeff Kopp and Olga Koumoundouros
Set Designer: Sibyl Wickersheimer
Lighting Designer: Elizabeth Harper
Projection Designer: Jason H. Thompson
Sound Designer: Martin Gimenez

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. She 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 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.

Photography by Dana Ross and Joshua White provided courtesy of The Industry.