Bridge to Everywhere in Forbes: Gilgamesh: The Opera

Forbes covered Gilgamesh: The Opera, the new production we helped mount with the Assyrian Arts Institute and Lyric Opera of Orange County at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts.

We’re thrilled that Forbes featured Gilgamesh: The Opera, the new opera Bridge to Everywhere helped bring to the stage this spring. In his article, arts and culture journalist R. Daniel Foster explores how the world’s oldest surviving epic, a story 4,000 years in the making, came to a California opera stage, partly sung in Akkadian, the language it was first written in.

The production was commissioned by the Assyrian Arts Institute and presented in partnership with Lyric Opera of Orange County and Bridge to Everywhere on March 28 and 29, 2026, at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts. Grammy nominee Derrick Skye composed the score to a libretto by Diana Farrell, the production’s artistic director, with Maria Fatima Corona del Toro conducting. Assyriologist Zack Cherry translated parts of the libretto into Akkadian, and Dr. Eve Sada served as dramaturge and ethnomusicologist.

The production combined opera with Assyrian dance choreographed by Stephen Martin Allan, traditional chants of the Tyareh tribe, and traditional instruments woven into the orchestra, including the zurna, dawla, oud, nai, qanun, and tambour. Foster’s piece also explores the epic’s history, from its discovery at Nineveh in the 1840s to the scholarly debates that still surround Gilgamesh and Enkidu.

[One or two sentences on Bridge’s role, e.g., “Bridge to Everywhere musicians formed the core of the orchestra,” plus what the project meant to the ensemble.]

Our thanks to the Assyrian Arts Institute, executive producer Nora Betyousef Lacey, Lyric Opera of Orange County, and the entire cast and creative team.

[Read the full article in Forbes] → https://www.forbes.com/sites/rdaniel-foster/2026/03/28/gilgamesh-the-worlds-oldest-epic-gets-a-bold-new-opera/

Photo: Christina Gandolfo, courtesy of the Assyrian Arts Institute

Tags: Press, Gilgamesh, Opera, Derrick Skye, Assyrian Arts Institute, Lyric Opera of Orange County
Category: In the News