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Veterans come in on a high note

September 26, 2013

Performance tickets and holiday recitals are just part of the program as LA Opera reaches out to vets.

When “Carmen” struts her stuff on the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion stage at this Sunday’s matinee, there’ll be all the passion, lyricism and high drama you’d expect from Bizet’s operatic masterwork.

And, sitting in some of the best seats in the house, there’ll be a group of audience members you wouldn’t necessarily expect to find soaking up all that tempestuous romanticism: U.S. military veterans, growing into opera buffs thanks to an LA Opera program now entering its second year.

The veterans’ program is part of LA Opera’s Community Circle outreach, which makes thousands of tickets available each season to non-profit and community groups. Some pay a sharply discounted rate of $9 apiece for the tickets, which ordinarily go for about $105, while others, like veterans, get in free.

As a result, veterans from residences for retired military personnel in West L.A. and Long Beach have been getting a taste of the art form that some had known only from the movies—if at all.

“Last year, they saw four operas—Madame Butterfly, Tosca, The Flying Dutchman and Cinderella—and many of the vets were first-time opera-goers,” said Stacy Brightman, LA Opera’s director of education and community programs.

Millie Taylor, 89, who served as a Navy nurse during World War II and now lives at the Veterans Home of California in West Los Angeles, is relishing the prospect of seeing “Carmen,” conducted by Placido Domingo, no less.

“I love the music and the dancing and all the fiery action,” she said. “The costumes are just out of this world. I’m really looking forward to it.”

Taylor, who had never been to the opera before last year, reveled in the personal attention and great seats her group received—“just like paying customers.”

While some of the 16 West L.A. Veterans Home residents heading to the opera Sunday will be neophytes, Sadie Sonnenreich is not among them. The 99-year-old Army veteran says she’s been enjoying opera for half her life.

“It’s the music itself. I love the opera songs,” she said.

The opera’s outreach to vets isn’t limited to the performance tickets; speakers also present pre-opera talks at the residences to explain plot nuances and introduce some of the vocal talents they’ll be hearing. Opera artists also have performed holiday recitals for the veterans.

“People ask, why veterans? Well, who better than veterans?” LA Opera’s Brightman said. “We try to have each group come no more than once a year, but the veterans are the one we break our rule for. Their service to us all is so astonishing. It’s an honor to do anything we can for them.”