Bass-baritone David Wadden makes his debut with Pacific Northwest Opera on Nov. 3-12 in The Marriage of Figaro, part of PNO’s all-Mozart season. With Jonathan Khuner conducting this production by Mitchell Kahn, the cast includes Katie van Kooten as the Countess, Hallie Schmidt as Susanna, and Jeremy Harr as Figaro. https://pnopera.org/
In its Nov. 4 season opener, the San Diego Symphony, conducted by music director Rafael Payare, will present the world premiere of A Casual Walk to Distinction, by Spanish composer Juan Colomer. The orchestra, along with soloist Steven Banks will also play Billy Child’s Saxophone Concerto in the work’s West Coast premiere. Soprano Liv Redpath […]
As part of the California Festival, 13 members of the San Francisco Symphony will present a chamber concert on Nov. 5. Except for Brahms’ String Quartet No. 2, all the works will be from the past decade: Reena Esmail’s Saans, Samuel Adams’ Sundial, and a work called Self Portrait by SFS violinist Sarn Oliver, who […]
Jeffrey Kahane, conductor laureate of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, will conduct the world premiere of Nina C. Young’s violin concerto, Traces, on Nov. 11 and 12, with Jennifer Koh as soloist. The program opens with C.P.E. Bach’s Symphony in D, H. 663, and closes with Mendelssohn’s Scottish Symphony No. 3. https://www.laco.org/events/pathways/
As part of the San Francisco Symphony’s California Festival, conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen will lead the orchestra in his own work, Kínēma, featuring clarinet soloist Carey Bell. This Nov. 11-12 program will also present the world premiere of a commission by the orchestra, Jens Ibsen’s Drowned in Light. Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements completes the program. […]
Dalia Stasevska leads the Seattle Symphony on Nov. 16-18 in a program called Nordic Passion, featuring music from Scotland and Finland. To represent the 21st century, complementing Sibelius’ venerable Symphony No. 5, electric bassist Lauri Porra will play his own concerto, Entropia. The concert opens with Nautilus by Scottish composer Anna Meridith, in a 2021 […]
On Nov. 17-26, Pacific Opera Project will offer two one-act operas dealing with the law. The first is Derrick Wang’s Scalia/Ginsburg about the unlikely friendship between those two Supreme Court Justices. That will be followed by Gilbert and Sullivan’s Trial by Jury, with a new libretto by POP’s artistic director, Josh Shaw. https://www.pacificoperaproject.com/scalia-ginsburg-trial-by-jury
The LA Opera takes an operatic look at two of the most fascinating figures of the visual arts when they present Gabriela Lena Frank’s El Último Sueño de Frida & Diego (The Last Dream of Frida and Diego) Nov. 18-Dec. 9. Daniela Mack and Alfredo Daza play the two title roles, while Lina González-Granados conducts. […]
With a libretto by Leonard Foglia (who also directs) and music by Javier Martinez, the mariachi opera El Milagro del Recuerdo (The Miracle of Remembering) is a prequel to 2013’s Cruzar la Cara de la Luna. The San Diego Opera production, running Dec. 1-3, will feature mezzo-sopranos Claudia Chapa and Sishel Claverie and baritone Héctor Vásquez, who […]
The Philharmonia Baroque Chamber Players celebrates the 400th anniversary of Salamone Rossi’s Songs of Solomon on Dec. 4. Hosted by Jewish-music scholar Francesco Spagnolo, the program will feature Richard Egarr on harpsichord and the Philharmonia Chorale Octet. https://philharmonia.org/2023-24-season/jews-music-songs-of-solomon/
Enchanted Woods: Shakespeare & Song, Feb. 2-11 at Portland Opera, is an evening of story and song inspired by 20th-century adaptations of Shakespeare’s enduring works. It will feature poetry and music by a variety of composers and literary figures, collected in homage to the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio. https://www.portlandopera.org/
Eun Sun Kim, music director of the San Francisco Opera, makes her debut with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal Feb. 15-17. She will conduct Ravel’s orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition as well as two works featuring pianist Louis Lortie: Mozart’s Rondo, K. 382, and Fauré’s Ballade, Op. 19. https://www.osm.ca/en/concerts/mozart-and-faure-with-louis-lortie-and-eun-sun-kim/
On Feb. 16-17, music director Rafael Payare will lead the San Diego Symphony in two works by Ravel—Le tombeau de Couperin and La valse—and one by Debussy—Images—as well Gabriela Ortiz’s Altar de bronce. The Ortiz, a co-commission by the SDS, will feature guest trumpeter Pacho Flores. This will be the work’s West-Coast premiere. https://jacobsmusiccenter.org/archives/events/ravel-debussy-and-ortiz/
The West Coast will have its first chance to see Robert O’Hara’s new staging of Anthony Davis’ The Life and Times of Malcolm X when Seattle Opera presents the work Feb. 24-March 9. The cast includes Kenneth Kellogg, Joshua Stewart, Leah Hawkins, and Ronnita Miller. Kazem Abdullah conducts. https://www.seattleopera.org/
As part of its Recovered Voices series Feb. 24-March 17, the LA Opera and conductor James Conlon will perform two little-known one-acts. William Grant Still’s Highway 1, USA stars Norman Garrett and Nicole Heaston as an ordinary American couple making misguided choices to get ahead. Alexander Zemlinsky’s The Dwarf is based on a heartbreaking tale […]
American composer Mason Bates completed his Violin Concerto in 2012, but it has never been performed on the West Coast. The San Diego Symphony and violinist Gil Shaham will correct that omission on Feb. 24-25 in a program that also includes The Ring Without Words, an orchestral arrangement by Lorin Maazel of highlights from Wagner’s […]
