“Ingeniously original music”  – The Wall Street Journal

“A composer biography like no other”  – The Boston Globe 

Tod Machover’s recent full-scale and widely acclaimed opera Schoenberg in Hollywood will receive its West Coast premiere at Los Angeles’ Nimoy Theater on May 18–20, + 22.  Performances are at 4pm on May 18 and at 7:30pm on May 19, 20, and 22.

Commissioned by Boston Lyric Opera in 2018 and presented in LA by the Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience and The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, Machover’s opera brings to life the story of Arnold Schoenberg—one of the twentieth century’s most uncompromising composers—who fled Nazi Europe and resettled in Los Angeles in 1934. The opera reflects composer Tod Machover’s signature inventiveness, blending opera and film, electronic and acoustic music, and memorable tunes with surprising textures. 

Machover begins the opera with the real-life 1935 meeting between Arnold Schoenberg and Irving Thalberg, MGM’s legendary head of production. Thalberg’s desire was to have Schoenberg compose a film score; Schoenberg in turn demanded a steep fee and complete creative control, and the project went nowhere. The opera’s story is an intimate portrait that reimagines how the composer might have scored the soundtrack of his life through the lens of different film genres: silents, noir mysteries, Disney cartoons, musicals, and Westerns. Schoenberg’s artistic journey winds through personal loss, artistic triumph, clashes with critics, and the global tragedy of the rise of fascism—all captured through live performances intermingling with a film of his own making.

“Schoenberg in Hollywood’s big themes—repression and rejection, exile, finding one’s identity, fighting for freedom, and embracing the urgency of the arts in troubled times  repression and rejection, freedom and repression, finding one’s identity, embracing the urgency of the arts in troubled times—are even more relevant now than when I wrote the opera,” says Machover. “I hope most of all that the story and the music really speak  to people, that audiences will be inspired by Schoenberg’s life,  and that they will go away humming some of our tunes.”

The production will be presented at the recently renovated UCLA Nimoy Theater, a historically significant venue that served as a film and live performance venue during Schoenberg’s time in LA. Renovations at the Nimoy include murals that extend into the audience, depicting the Hollywood of Schoenberg’s time. The chamber opera’s music will be performed on-and-around the stage and conducted by Neal Stulberg, the director of orchestral studies at UCLA, with electronics provided by the MIT Media Lab.

“Tod Machover has always pushed artistic boundaries and enchanted audiences,” said Eileen Strempel, inaugural dean of The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. “We are deeply honored to co-present the West Coast premiere of this unique and fascinating opera about the life of an acclaimed international composer who was also one of the leaders in establishing the department of music at UCLA.”

The opera’s arrival in Los Angeles coincides with the worldwide Schoenberg at 150th, celebrating the birth anniversary of Arnold Schoenberg. The Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience and The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music are sponsoring a number of additional events leading up to the opera, including:

• May 4: From Vienna to LA. UCLA Philharmonia, conducted by Neal Stulberg, performs a program including Schoenberg’s landmark Five Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 16 at Royce Hall.
• May 7: Driven into Paradise: Schoenberg in Los Angeles. Online panel with Sabine Feisst, Kenneth Marcus, Tod Machover. Moderated by Robert Fink, special academic senior associate dean and inaugural chair of the music industry program.
• May 8: Exiled in Los Angeles: Thomas Mann and Arnold Schoenberg at 150. Conversation with Doris Berger, Hans Vaget, and Alex Ross at the UCLA Faculty Center.
• May 15: Joy H. Calico, professor and chair of musicology at UCLA, will speak on Schoenberg in Hollywood and Representations of Jewishness in Opera at the UCLA Faculty Center.
• May 18: Schoenberg in Hollywood: The Making of a Modern Opera. Discussion with composer Tod Machover, conductor Neal Stulberg, director Karole Armitage, and Arnold Schoenberg’s son Larry Schoenberg.

All events can be found on UCLA’s Schoenberg in Hollywood website.