The LA Opera Digital Shorts the series continues this month with Between the roomsa haunting film featuring newly commissioned music by composer Anna Clyne, premiering online at LAOpera.org at 11 a.m. PT on Friday, May 13, 2022.

Clyne explores themes of isolation through his setting of the poetry of Emily Dickinsonwritten for soprano soloist and string quintet.

The film, directed and choreographed by Kim Brandstrupfeatures two internationally acclaimed dancers: Alina Cojocaru, who has performed as a principal dancer with the Hamburg Ballet, the Royal Ballet of London and the English National Ballet, and Matthew Ballprincipal dancer of the Royal Ballet of London.

Soprano Joélle Harvey is the vocal soloist, joined by musicians from the Brooklyn-based orchestra The Knights, conducted by Eric Jacobsen.

“Themes of loneliness and creativity resonate with the current experience of enforced isolation as a result of the pandemic,” said composer Anna Clyne, noting that Emily Dickinson never left his house during the last two decades of his life. “Between the Rooms evokes the audible realm that envelops this solitary figure and explores her journey from solitude to an imaginary world by weaving melodic fragments with hymnic statements that are evoked by the instrumentation of the string quintet with soprano voices.”

“When the shooting date finally popped up in early May 2021, when masks and distance were dropped, the sheer exhilaration of dancers being able to move freely and touch each other again was palpable,” said Kim Brandstrup. “It was Alina and Matthew’s first time dancing together and the chemistry was instantaneous – the liberating feeling of physical closeness and touch was unmistakable and very moving. Emily DickinsonThe solitary life of was a clear and personal choice and the film celebrates the powerful ability of his poetry to evoke the physical world outside the room – a celebration of our ability to evoke, through poetry, music, movement, an imaginary otherness even when we are alone in our rooms.”

For more information and to view the film as soon as it is released, go to LAOpera.org/BetweenTheRooms.

Click on here to download still images from Between the Rooms.

Presented by LA Opera’s Now digital platform, the Digital Shorts series brings cutting-edge opera to audiences around the world. Between the Rooms is the 11th film in a particularly diverse series, launched in December 2020. The three films released during the 2021/22 season tackle themes relevant to our times: the mass incarceration of black men (The First Bluebird of the Morning, released September 2021), social justice (We Hold These Truths, March 2022) and isolation (Between the Rooms). Films in the series went on to win awards at international film festivals and were televised on TCM.

All the films in the series can be viewed on LAOpera.org/DigitalShorts.

Los Angeles is a city of enormous diversity and creativity, and LA Opera is dedicated to reflecting that vibrancy by redefining what opera can be. Through imaginative new productions, world premiere commissions and inventive performances that preserve foundational works while making them fresh and compelling, LA Opera has become one of America’s most exciting and ambitious opera companies.

In addition to his stage performances at Dorothee Chandler Pavilion, the company explores unusual repertoire each season through the LA Opera Off Grand initiative, with performances in a variety of venues across Los Angeles. The LA Opera Connects initiative offers a wide variety of educational programs and community engagement offerings that reach people in every corner of Los Angeles County. The company also offers a wealth of online content through its LA Opera At Home digital offerings, which launched in March 2020. To learn more, visit LAOpera.org.