Pacific Opera Project Presents the Los Angeles Premiere of Héctor Armienta's 'Zorro,' May 16 & 17

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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PACIFIC OPERA PROJECT PRESENTS
THE LOS ANGELES PREMIERE OF
HÉCTOR ARMIENTA’S ZORRO

“Soaring melodies, heartbreakingly tender moments, and—essential in any adaptations of Zorro—occasional comic relief…”
- Parterre Box

May 16 & 17, 2026
San Gabriel Mission Playhouse; San Gabriel, CA

Los Angeles, CA — Pacific Opera Project (POP) finishes their 15th anniversary season with the Los Angeles premiere of Héctor Armienta’s Zorro on Saturday, May 16, 2026 at 7:30PM and Sunday, May 17, 2026 at 3PM at the historic San Gabriel Mission Playhouse in San Gabriel, CA. Directed by POP Artistic Director Josh Shaw and conducted by Caleb Yanez Glickman, Zorro will be sung in English and Spanish with projected dual-language supertitles.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Armienta is one of the few Chicano composers working in American opera today. His music explores the Mexican and Mexican-American cultural experience, and has received performances from Pacific Symphony, the Oakland Symphony, Central City Opera in Philadelphia, Tulsa Opera, and Teatro Latea in New York. Armienta is also the founder and director of Opera Cultura, whose mission is to explore music theater and opera through a cross-cultural lens. Based on the adventures of Johnston McCully's legendary pulp hero, Armienta infuses Zorro with the music and sounds of early-19th century Alta California, including flamenco, corrido, and mariachi. Zorro premiered at Fort Worth Opera in January 2022, and has since been performed at Opera Santa Barbara in May 2024, where it was a called “a win-win operation…[a] modern opera with potential to appeal to admitted opera-philes while also luring in new opera fans,” (Santa Barbara Independent) as well as Opera Southwest in Alburquerque, NM; Opera San Jose, and most recently, Arizona Opera.

“The Los Angeles premiere, of a Los Angeles story, by a Los Angeles composer — it's about time Zorro comes home,” says POP Artistic Director Josh Shaw. “And there is not a better setting for this opera than the gorgeous San Gabriel Mission Playhouse. As someone who grew up playing Zorro in the backyard, I'm so excited for this event, because that's what this is going to be — more than just a night at the opera, we are creating a whole experience with sword fights, whip cracks, dancing, and some fantastic music and singing.”

In 1811 Spain, Diego, a student of the secretive Order of Zazueta, completes his training in swordsmanship and marksmanship. However, his master sends him back to Alta California, where his true destiny awaits. Upon arriving in the Pueblo de Los Ángeles, Diego reunites with his former love Carlotta, and childhood friend Ana Maria, who is committed to helping the oppressed. Carlotta introduces Diego to General Moncada, the brutal new alcalde, who has been given authority to enforce the oppressive El Sistema de Castas. Yet Diego learns that his late father sympathized with the poor and left him a sword to wield in the name of justice. Diego takes up the mantle of Zorro, and aims to take down General Moncada and free the people of the Pueblo de Los Ángeles.

?Cast members for Zorro include tenor David Silvano (Indianapolis Opera, Mobile Opera) as Diego de La Vega, soprano Oriana Falla (Pasadena Playhouse, Opera Santa Barbara) as Ana Maria Soza, mezzo-soprano Mariam Mouawad (San Diego Opera, Fort Worth Opera) as Carlotta, baritone Luis Orozco (Metropolitan Opera, Opéra National de Lyon) as Octavio Rivera y Moncada, baritone Armando Contreras (Arizona Opera, Opera Columbus) as Sgt. Jose Maria Gomez, soprano Camila Lima (Lyric Opera of Orange County) as Luisa, mezzo-soprano Jessica Gonzalez-Rodriguez (Opera San Jose, Opera Santa Barbara) as Toypurina, and baritone Sergio Manzo (Fort Worth Opera, Opera North) as Zazueta.

General admission seating for Zorro ranges from $18-$254, which includes the Playhouse’s $3.70 ticketing fee. Tickets can be purchased at missionplayhouse.org.

CALENDAR EDITORS PLEASE NOTE:
PACIFIC OPERA PROJECTS PRESENTS ZORRO
Who: Pacific Opera Project
When: Saturday, May 16, 2026 at 7:30PM; Sunday May 17, 2026 at 3PM
Where: San Gabriel Mission Playhouse; 320 S Mission Dr, San Gabriel, CA 91776
Cast: David Silvano as Diego de La Vega, Oriana Falla as Ana Maria Soza, Luis Orozco as Octavio Rivera y Moncada, Mariam Mouawad as Carlotta, Armando Contreras as Sgt. Jose Maria Gomez, Camila Lima as Luisa, Jessica Gonzalez-Rodriguez as Toypurina, and Sergio Manzo as Zazueta
Creative Team: Josh Shaw, director; Caleb Yanez Glickman, conductor

About Pacific Opera Project
Named amongst the Best of Classical Music in 2024 by the LA Times, Los Angeles’s Pacific Opera Project (POP) reimagines opera as an affordable adventure, by making unforgettable, entertaining performances accessible for all. A mobile opera company, POP has presented over 69 productions in more than 20 venues, reaching over 65,000 audience members. LA Magazine writes, “If you think you hate opera, you’ve probably never seen a Pacific Opera Project show.” POP’s regularly sold-out performances take place in a variety of venues that celebrate LA’s Northeast and Downtown communities, including outdoor museums and cemeteries, small clubs, amphitheaters, and warehouses. LA Weekly named POP the “Best Opera Company in Los Angeles” in 2018, writing, “making opera cool, affordable, accessible and enticing to young audiences is easier said than done. It’s also something every opera company in the country is trying desperately to do… [POP] is not trying desperately to be hip. It just is.”

Known for unforgettable reimaginings of familiar operas, POP’s innovative productions have included the fan-favorite and critically acclaimed productions Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio set as an episode of Star Trek; a “fan-tastic” (LA Daily News) Harajuku-themed Mikado; #Superflute, a Magic Flute inspired by 1990s video games, called “one of the freshest takes on Mozart’s 1791 classic I have come across” (Operawire); and many more. POP’s signature take on Puccini’s La bohème, “AKA The Hipsters,” set in modern-day Los Angeles, has become a holiday tradition, returning year after year to sold-out audiences and called “riotous” (LA Weekly) and “an undeniably fun night at the theater that should not be missed” (Stage Raw).

During the pandemic, POP presented a revolutionary drive-in production of COVID fan tutte and the U.S. staged premieres of two Gluck operas, about which Opera Magazine wrote, “Despite this plague year of postponements, POP has refused to bow to the pandemic or its restrictions… There is surely no opera company in this Covid-ravaged country with a better average for 2020.” In April 2021, the LA Times noted that POP produced “the first major musical or theatrical event in Los Angeles County in nearly 14 months.” To this day, POP offers free live-streamed and archived performances that are available online to audiences around the world, garnering over 337,000 lifetime views.

In 2024, POP remounted its groundbreaking bilingual Japanese/English Madama Butterfly ???? performed in Little Tokyo’s JACCC Aratani Theatre. The LA Times hailed the production as “revisionist and enlightening,” continuing, “The singers… are believable and stunning. The tragedy has a kind of inevitability that feels more Mishima than the maudlin Italian original… Pacific Opera Project has a triumph on its hands.”

In addition to reimagining familiar favorites, POP is known for presenting undiscovered and forgotten gems, updated for modern audiences. POP presented the 2018 West Coast premiere of Giacomo Rossini’s rarely performed 1816 opera, La gazzetta “The Newspaper.” Opera Today raved about the premiere, writing “Director Josh Shaw has invested the proceedings with enough good comic ideas for at least three productions. Mr. Shaw has fashioned a take-no-prisoners approach to the staging, which was rife with clever touches… Pacific Opera Project has evidently hit on a winning formula for a night out, serving up food, drink, and an operatic discovery in equal measure.”

In 2024, POP presented the modern US premiere of Antonio Cagnoni’s bel canto meta-comedy, Don Bucefalo. Updated to the 1960s, the site-specific production was set and presented in Highland Park’s Garibaldina Society, recently featured in the LA Times for its family-style pasta dinners and Italian retro charm. To date, POP has presented four U.S. premieres, two world premieres, and three LA premieres.

POP’s Education & Community Engagement Department was established in 2021 to support ABIDE (Accessibility, Belonging, Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity), by offering free engagement events and serving students in in-school and summer education programs. POP’s in-school programs are provided at no cost to Title I schools.

Learn more at www.pacificoperaproject.com.

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