Casting Announced for L.A. Opera’s The Fly

Daniel Okulitch, Ruxandra Donose, Gary Lehman, Beth Clayton, and Jay Hunter Morris will star in The Fly, a new opera based on David Cronenberg’s popular film adaptation of George Langelaan’s short story about a brilliant scientist who accidentally mutates into a hybrid of man and insect, to play the Los Angeles Opera, September 7-27.

The opera, which recently played Paris’ Theatre du Chatelet, is directed by Cronenberg, and has a libretto by Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang and a score by Oscar-winning composer Howard Shore. Placido Domingo and Israel Gursky will conduct the opera. Sets are by Oscar winner Dante Ferretti. costumes are by Denise Cronenberg,and lighting is by A.J. Weissbard.

Hwang’s many plays include M. Butterfly, Golden Child, and Yellow Face, and he wrote the books for the Broadway musicals Tarzan, Aida, and the revisal of Flower Drum Song. He has previously written the librettos for such operas as The Voyage, The Silver River, and Ainadamar.

Shore wrote the music for 11of Cronenberg’s films, including The Fly, as well as The Aviator, The Departed, The Lord of the Rings, and Silence of the Lambs.