


This astonishingly original presentation of the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast blurs the distinctions between film and live opera, merging Jean Cocteau’s classic 1946 romantic fantasy with Philip Glass’ mesmerizing 1994 score. Glass composed the music as a new soundtrack to the film, transforming the original spoken French dialogue into sung libretto.
Now Opera Parallèle has responded to the dreamlike, subconscious elements of the story with its own new film and stage direction, further blurring the barriers between the characters onscreen and the singers on stage. The work asks, What is true beauty? What is good and evil? Can we go beyond appearances and discover the beauty that lies inside the soul?
“A multi-veined phantasmagoria of sights and sounds, drama and pathos and humor” (San Francisco Chronicle).
March 13th, 2026
March 14th, 2026
Opera Parallèle - La Belle et la Bête is at Berkeley's Cal Performances' Zellerbach Hall, which is located at 101 Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley, 94720.
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