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REDCAT Premieres WET, A New Multi-Media Chamber Opera by Anne LeBaron and Terese Svoboda

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November 7, Los Angeles--Set against the backdrop of a great American river during a torrential flood, this provocative new opera by Anne LeBaron and Terese Svoboda sketches out a global scenario in which multinational corporations have cornered the world's water supply. Brimming with heartbreak as much as comedy, WET -- at REDCAT, the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater, from Thursday-Saturday; December 1-3 -- features 10 vocalists who portray a cast of characters that includes, among others, pregnant teenage twins, a pair of lumberjacks and Death. With music by contemporary American composer LeBaron, and a libretto by writer Svoboda, WET addresses topical environmental and political concerns, combining allegory and myth to relate interlocking stories unfolding in a town economically beholden to a water bottling plant.

Begun 12 years ago, Svoboda's early drafts of WET focused on water as a hidden, mysterious resource. But when the U.S. Army dumped 20,000 tons of military waste on top of the aquifer next to her family farm in Nebraska in 2002, she began to take a closer look at how the world's water is connected. As a result, more politically oriented versions of WET emerged that were further influenced by the recent water disaster in New Orleans. Celebrated by the New York Times Book Review for its "genuine grace and beauty," Svoboda's work is renowned for its artful molding of documentary material into the mythical. Her video art, numerous novels and books of poetry have earned her an O. Henry, a Pushcart Prize, a Bobst Prize and an ITVS grant.

WET, LeBaron's fourth opera, opens with hard-driving percussive music and moves into passages that range from deconstructed country and electronica to emotionally resonant lyricism. The ensemble includes shakuhachi (bamboo flute), electronically processed tuba and didjeridu, and pedal steel guitar--an international and folk-derived complement to a more Western core ensemble of woodwinds, brass, strings, piano and percussion--and uses ambient and driving electronic music, video, and aural and visual icons of Americana. Widely recognized for her work in instrumental, electronic, and performance realms, LeBaron's compositions have been described in the Washington Post as possessing "uncommon imagination and technical skill." She is a recipient of a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, a Fromm Foundation Commission, and the Alpert Award in the Arts, among others.

WET is directed by Nataki Garrett, recipient of the prestigious NEA/TCG Program for Directors 2005-2007, who works alongside Marc Lowenstein, Music Director, to bring together the talented cast: lyric tenor Jonathan Mack, baritone Paul Berkolds, bass Gene Brundage, and sopranos Arlene Thomas and Ani Maldjian. The orchestra includes musicians Chas Smith (pedal steel guitar), Kiku Day (shakuhachi), Harris Eisenstadt (percussion) and Enthauptung, a newly formed band based on the Pierrot instrumentation, devoted to exploring and performing contemporary material. The Design team includes set designer Efren Delgadillo, lighting designer Laura Mroczkowski, sound designer Leon Rothenberg and Austin Switser, videographer designing the live video mix of the video created by Steve Bull and Terese Svoboda. For additional information, visit www.wettheopera.com.

REDCAT, CalArts' downtown center for innovative visual, performing and media arts, is located at the corner of W. 2nd St. and S. Hope St., inside the Walt Disney Concert Hall complex. WET performs Thursday-Saturday, December 1-3, at 8:30 p.m. Tickets range from $32-20. Student discounts are available. Seating is general admission. Tickets may be purchased at the REDCAT box office--located at the corner of 2nd and Hope Streets, by calling 213.237.2800, or by clicking here.

The Herb Alpert Foundation granted initial funding for the upcoming REDCAT production to 1996 CalArts/Alpert Award in the Arts recipient Anne LeBaron, as an invitation to present her current work at REDCAT. Additional support is provided by the Argosy Foundation Contemporary Music Fund, the Lucius and Eva Eastman Fund, the Durfee Foundation, Anonymous Donation for Interdisciplinary Projects, and private donors, with in-kind services provided by CalArts and REDCAT. Prior to the upcoming December production, the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Conference and Study Center supported a team residency to advance its development. A 2005 City of Los Angeles Individual Artist Fellowship awarded to Anne LeBaron, from the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, and a Subito Grant from the American Composers Forum / LA, funded a workshop performance of WET presented at the Barnsdall Gallery Theater in Hollywood.

REDCAT benefits from an endowment created through the generosity of The Walt Disney Company; The Sharon D. Lund Foundation; Robert B. Egelston; Lee and Lawrence J. Ramer; and Dorothy R. Sherwood.

REDCAT's 2005-06 season programming is generously supported by The Herb Alpert Foundation; American Composers Forum of Los Angeles; The Annenberg Foundation; Anonymous; Argosy Foundation Contemporary Music Fund; California Community Foundation; The Capital Group Companies Charitable Foundation (Corporate matching gift); CEMAT (Centri Musicali Attrezzati, Rome); City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department; CONACULTA; Margit Sperling Cotsen and Lloyd Cotsen; Cultural Services of the French Embassy; Delphi Capital Management, Inc.; e-flux; Étant Donnés, The French-American Fund for the Visual Arts, a program of the French American Cultural Exchange; The French-American Fund for Contemporary Music, a program of FACE; French Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Harriett and Richard Gold; Lenore S. and Bernard A. Greenberg; Elyse and Stanley Grinstein; Henson International Festival of Puppet Theater; IIC (Instituto Italiano di Cultura, Los Angeles); The Japan Foundation Performing Arts JAPAN; La Colección Jumex; kurimanzutto; L.A. Louver Gallery, Inc.; The Sharon D. Lund Foundation; Steve Martin; National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts; National Endowment for the Arts; E. Nakamichi Foundation; Phaedrus Foundation; Vicki Reynolds Pepper and Murray Pepper; The Puffin Foundation, Inc.; V. Joy Simmons; The Skirball Foundation; SONORA, in collaboration with Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Italy; The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; and White Cube Gallery, London.

As CalArts' downtown center for innovative visual, media and performing arts, REDCAT, the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater, introduces diverse audiences, students and artists to the most influential developments in the arts from around the world, and gives artists in the Los Angeles region the creative support they need to achieve national and international stature. REDCAT is a center for experimentation, discovery and charged civic discourse.

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