ABSTRACT
The state of intermediality that is, the presentation of the opera across urban space, live sound, and technologically enhanced sound, therefore becomes the conceit for the systemic territorialization of a residential neighborhood of Los Angeles. Furthermore, by virtue of opera's increasing participation in "experience culture", Hopscotch reinforces processes of gentrification already underway in marginalized neighbourhoods of Los Angeles, such as displacement by rental hikes. In fact, given the choice of performance locale of Downtown Los Angeles and parts of Boyle Heights just over the 101 and 10 Freeways, Hopscotch is a demonstrative case of the ways in which site-specific opera may bear semblance to the visible - and audible - features of gentrification. Ironically, operatic singing rendered by mobile audio technologies and wireless headphones bolsters the atavistic power of the art form by serving its audiences a slice of experience closer to Renaissance courtly song than to grand opera or contemporary chamber opera.
