Long Beach Opera

Double the impact of your gift! 

All donations toward this fundraiser will be generously matched up to $10,000 thanks to a charitable board member.

This past year, Long Beach Opera (LBO) redefined what an opera company can be. We launched a bold new brand identity, produced our most adventurous season yet, and expanded access to the arts through our growing Education initiative. From immersive performances to community-rooted programming, we continued pushing the art form forward right here in Long Beach. 

Your support makes it all possible. Donate to LBO and help us keep shaping opera’s future as innovative, inclusive, and fearlessly original.

Our work

LBO has a storied history of creating unique experiences that start conversations, with:

• Bold programming. Our 2025 season centered around the revolutionary works of queer identifying, award-winning composer, artist and humanitarian Pauline Oliveros.
• 100+ productions. Our repertoire is diverse and innovative, ranging from the early Baroque era to daring, contemporary works. We produce work throughout Long Beach and Southern California in a range of venues, recently having staged an opera at the historic Heritage Square Museum and the Queen Mary!
• Critically acclaimed world premieres. We’ve had the honor of commissioning and presenting world premieres that have garnered critical acclaim, including visionary composer Kate Soper’s The Romance of the Rose (2023), labeled an “Operatic Triumph” by the LA Times, and Pulitzer Prize winner Anthony Davis’ The Central Park Five (2022).

Our impact

Our productions to push artistic boundaries and blend disciplines, like:

• Long Beach Opera recently presented the American debut of a free educational opera, “Acquaprofonda” in collaboration with the Aquarium of the Pacific for the local Long Beach community, with 300+ attendees. In preparation for the opera, local students assisted with painting the centerpiece of the show, a large whale prop that was used in the aquarium.
• Our education program has served 3,000+ local students per year through our Opera@School programs under LBO’s Opera Encounter at 24 Title I (low income) schools and we’ve staged 62+ free in-school performances in the last 10 years, with our most recent staple being “Playground King.”
• Our main-stage shows include free receptions-for-all sponsored by the Port of Long Beach.
• We have hosted accessible and free events at the California State University Long Beach and Museum of Latin American Art that focused on giving insight to our most recent season centered around visionary composer Pauline Oliveros.

& so much more. 

Testimonials

"...an operatic triumph" -The Los Angeles Times

"The company has an extraordinary record of supporting contemporary work... [James] Darrah appears poised to extend that legacy." -The New Yorker

"[The performance had the] ability to stick in the mind and soul." -The New York Times

"To leave the theater dazed by a new opera — that operates on several topsy-turvy levels at once propelled by nonstop invention — is one thing. To be still processing where the humor ends and the meaning begins, even after time to reflect, is another much rarer and more valuable thing." -The Los Angeles Times