We had the good fortune of connecting with Justin Gray and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Justin, what do you attribute your success to?

When Alexandra Keegan (the Artistic Director) and I took over Pacific Lyric Association in 2018 from the founders, Carlos and Terry Oliva, our goal was to continue the signature format of PLA’s productions, which features slightly condensed versions of the operas, with spoken narrative in English before and during the play. These narrative vignettes, performed by professional actors, are designed to keep the audience engaged in the musical drama without being distracted by supertitles. This format has proved successful in attracting younger or first-time audiences to this complex (universal) art form. Our performances often sell out and we often overhear audience members, even youth, comment on how much they were able to understand at their first opera.

By interviewing our audience members with children and teenagers after the shows, we are absolutely convinced that our format is the future of the opera theatre. Every single family noticed that their children stayed engaged from the very beginning to the last note, they understood the story, they liked and disliked the characters, they loved the music, and they want to come back to see another opera.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
We are right in the middle of opera season, so we are very busy! We rehearse with the cast 3 nights a week, plus we have just begun orchestra rehearsals on Sunday. We open Carmen on Friday, October 14th at the California Center for the Arts Escondido and do 3 performances. Then we move the production to the Joan Kroc Theater in San Diego the following weekend – Oct 21-23. We have a great team of directors, singers, orchestra musicians, graphic artists, marketing and publicity experts, etc. Producing an opera is definitely a collaborative process.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.

San Diego is such a diverse city that I would tailor an itinerary based on my friend’s idea of fun.

If it were totally up to me, I would show off the variety that San Diego has to offer. I might try a road trip to the back country one day – Julian, drop down to the desert (if it’s not 195 degrees like it’s been recently).

On another day we’d head west to San Diego Bay, maybe go sailing, and then end the day in one of my favorite restaurants on Shelter Island.

A concert at Rady Shell is on the must-do list, as is a visit to a micro brewery.

If they are REALLY adventurous, we’d head south of the border for great Mexican food and maybe camping at a beach south of Rosarito.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?

Yes!

Our Artistic Director, Alexandra Keegan, came up with the idea of getting young people to the opera theater by developing our Opera Education Program as a way to make sure we are doing our very best to introduce tomorrow’s audience to the genre of opera.

Most youth today are totally unaware of this art form, other than vague references to “opera singing” with overdone vibratos and bad acting. As a result, we are faced with a growing generation of youth and adults who have never seen an opera production and have no interest in attending one.

Dr. Keegan also designed a Teacher’s Guide to Opera that we distribute to local educators so they can prepare their students to see our productions.

Website: www.pacificlyricassociation.org

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PacificLyricAssociation

Image Credits
Ken Jacques (ballet image only)

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