Costume Designer

A new presentation of the classic fairytale La Belle et la Bête blurs the boundaries of film and opera, fusing Jean Cocteau’s 1946 film with a powerful and arresting score by Philip Glass, thus honoring two of the great artistic minds of modern times. Opera Parallèle is the first company to present performances of all three operas Glass wrote in homage to Cocteau, having performed Orphée in 2011, Les Enfants Terribles in 2017, and La Belle et la Bête in 2022

La Belle et la Bête

Cal Performances

Audiences will embark on a cosmic mission, as a starship crew seeks refuge on the hostile Planet 85K: Aurora. Once there, the colonists encounter intelligent life imperceptible to their all-too-human awareness. As the planet defends itself from their invasive presence, the humans evolve to become a part of the Holobiont, a queerly multi-species organism that covers this world. STAR CHOIR offers a meditation on the challenges and pleasures of mutual coexistence, reimagining humanity as a porous category that must transform to survive.

Star Choir

Mount Wilson Observatory

An hour long opera for voices and piano that only uses four pitches, and is full of variety, expression and hilarious to boot - too good to be true, right?  Not at all!  Tom Johnson’s The Four Note Opera  has been an underground favorite since its premiere in 1972.  Supremely well-crafted for the vocalists and written in the minimalist style,  Johnson’s tale is a joyous and bouyant look at idosyncracies (!) of beloved genre of opera, as well as  the charming foibles of those who perform it.  

Costume Designer

Natalie Barshow

Events

Past events

13 - 14 Mar, 2026

La Belle et la Bête · Opera Parallèle

Sep 30 - Oct 1, 2023

Star Choir · The Industry

About

Natalie Barshow hasn't added a bio