Los Angeles has a new front curtain for its grandest stage, and it is a work of art in itself. LA Opera has commissioned Enrique Martínez Celaya, the Cuban-born Los Angeles artist, to create “The Things We Know,” a monumental curtain artwork that will welcome audiences at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion throughout the 2026/27 season.
The approximately 70-foot-wide work greets theatergoers as they take their seats. Moments before each performance begins, the curtain slowly rises, and the image transforms: a scene of two children absorbed in small worlds gives way to stars, flowers, and fractured light before fading into darkness — and from that darkness, the opera begins.
“A curtain is different from a painting on a wall because it has a life in time,” the artist says. “A curtain waits. Then it moves.”
Mark your calendar for the best chance to see it up close: on Saturday, October 24, LA Opera’s free Open House invites everyone to experience the curtain outside a scheduled performance, with a conversation with the artist, a demonstration of the artwork in motion, a recital by artists of the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program, and family-friendly activities on the Music Center campus.
Martínez Celaya, a former scientist turned multidisciplinary artist and USC professor, has created major projects for the State Hermitage Museum, the Berliner Philharmonie, and the Phillips Collection. Now his artistry belongs to Los Angeles audiences all season long.
Photo: Saam Gabbay / LA Opera
