Nightlife Report News · Downtown Los Angeles · November 2, 2026
Los Angeles was once the only major city in the Western world without an opera company of its own. Forty years later, its opera company spent Halloween weekend in a 1927 movie palace on Broadway, singing live over a 1961 Italian monster movie while a crowd in noir velvet and handmade armor competed for the night’s best costume. This is the story of how it got there.
The Spark: 1984
The fire was lit by the Olympics. In June 1984, a month before the Games, the Olympic Arts Festival brought more than 400 performances to Los Angeles, including London’s Royal Opera with Turandot, Peter Grimes and The Magic Flute. The response was so strong that community leaders decided Los Angeles should have a major opera company of its own.
They hired Peter Hemmings, one of the most respected opera administrators in the world. He arrived in October 1984 and started building. In 1985 he brought The Beggar’s Opera to downtown’s Embassy Theater, then three Deutsche Oper Berlin productions to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.
Opening Night: October 7, 1986
The Los Angeles Music Center Opera opened its first season with Verdi’s Otello, starring Plácido Domingo, Sherrill Milnes and Gabriela Beňačková, before a black-tie crowd that arrived by limousine on a red carpet. Madama Butterfly and Salome followed on the next two nights. Salome became a sensation and toured the world.
Building the House
- 1996: the LA Opera Orchestra is formed. Its core of 61 musicians also records for Hollywood film and television.
- 2003: Kent Nagano becomes the company’s first Music Director.
- 2006: James Conlon takes the baton and holds it for 20 years.
- 2012: Christopher Koelsch, who started in 1997 as an assistant in the artistic department, is named President and CEO.
- 2026: Domingo Hindoyan opens his first season as Music Director with a new Carmen, running October 17 to November 7.
Hercules Returns: October 30 and 31, 2026
LA Opera first staged Hercules vs Vampires in 2015. This Halloween it came back, at the United Theater on Broadway, for two nights only: October 30 and 31.
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The idea is simple and strange. Mario Bava’s 1961 cult film Hercules in the Haunted World plays on the big screen, with former Mr. Universe Reg Park as Hercules and Christopher Lee as Lycos. The original dialogue is gone. Composer Patrick Morganelli’s score and adapted libretto replace it, sung live by singers and an orchestra in sync with the picture. LA Opera calls it “high art meets high camp, with equal parts beef and cheese.” We agree.
On the podium: Blair Salter (@blairpiano), LA Opera’s Head of Music.
On the stage: Joel Balzun (@jdeebizzle) as Hercules, Alexis Seminario (@alexis_r_soprano) as Dianara, Gabriel Manro (@g_manro) as Lycos, Roy Hage (@roythetenor) as Theseus, Gretchen Krupp (@g_krupp) as Persephone, with Gabrielle Turgeon, James Hayden, Orson Van Gay II and Robert Norman.
Halloween night added an afterparty and a costume contest judged by artisans from LA Opera’s own costume department.
What We Saw
Nightlife Report covered Halloween night from the lobby, the costume contest and the arrivals. The building carried the night: Spanish Gothic vaults, restored murals and a dome you stop to look at before the lights drop. The crowd was mostly couples, dressed in noir, elegant without ego. It is one of the best date nights in Los Angeles: respectful, classy, and nobody is trying to steal your date.
The show itself plays like watching an old movie with the soundtrack set on fire. The 1961 effects are part of the joke, and the audience laughed with it, never at it.
Why It Matters
An opera company that started because of an Olympic festival now stages opera in a movie palace on Halloween. That is not a gimmick. That is how a 40-year-old art form finds its next audience: by meeting people where the night already is.
Our full review is here: https://blog.nightlifereport.app/hercules-vs-the-vampires-review-la-opera-just-beat-the-movie-palace-final-boss/
Follow the night with us. Instagram: @lillithmagic · Join the inner circle on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aperlas · Talk nightlife with us on Discord: https://discord.gg/P3bECmuYwA
Sources: LA Opera (laopera.org: Our Story; Hercules vs Vampires production page; 2026/27 season announcements); The New York Times, October 9, 1986.
Anthony Perlas · nightlifereport.app
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