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Big finish in progress

We're starting the thick of graduation and finale season: the next few weeks will hold arts orgs' biggest events to wrap up seasons, as well as all kinds of activities that bridge the transition between spring and summer... and for many, new lives.

This means plenty of choral music, especially programs with a mix of traditional music and other genres. But other concerts and opera are fully present as well, including a fascinating contemporary program in San Diego from Project Blank and a location hat trick for the opening of LA Opera's Otello.

The list below is a good start, but be sure to check the listings for your immediate area: you never know what's right down the street...

Have a great week!

Vocal-related events

May 12

Camerata Pacifica, considered one of the nation’s leading chamber ensembles and celebrated for its adventurous programming, caps its 2022-23 season with the highly anticipated U.S. debut of acclaimed Venezuelan male soprano Samuel Mariño in a program of Bach and Pergolesi. Hailed as “a rarity in opera” (New York Times), Mariño describes himself as a true natural male soprano whose voice at puberty only “partially broke.” Mariño’s natural musicality and unique vocal talent have set the stage for a career which allows him to perform a wide range of operatic roles in the baroque and classical repertoire.

On May 12 & 13, the SB Master Chorale will present an uplifting and transformative choral concert featuring John Rutter's glorious Requiem plus works by Dan Forrest, Elaine Hagenberg, and more. The concert will be led by our artistic director and conductor, David Lozano Torres. 

May 13

Community Chorale performs music from Baroque to the Beatles, taking singers and audiences alike on a magical, musical tour through the skies.

Featured composers include G.F. Handel, Samuel Barber, Morten Lauridsen, and Z. Randall Stroope. A centerpiece of the program is James Eakin III’s, “Stargazing,” a shimmering, three-movement work featuring verses by Plato, the Algonquin people, and a famous nursery rhyme. The program concludes with jazz and pop hits.

He's a beloved leader, a distinguished military commander and a devoted husband. But when an envious subordinate introduces the notion—just the slightest whispered hint—that Othello's wife Desdemona might possibly be unfaithful, it's enough to send him into a downward spiral of fury and murder.

Hailed as the pinnacle of the Italian operatic repertoire, Verdi’s transformation of the original Shakespeare play is a powerful drama of uncontrolled human emotion at its most extreme. Verdi's musical portrait of Otello’s descent into a tortured heart of darkness is explicit in every chilling detail as he destroys all in life that he holds dear.

VOXVOXVOX is the final installment in our monthly series of experimental concerts at Bread & Salt! Local singers Michelle Gallardo-Arias, Mariana Flores Bucio, Jonathan Nussman and Miguel Zazueta will present an evening of contemporary solo works that explore the expressive possibilities of the unaccompanied human voice.

Relatives of Buoso Donati, very wealthy and newly deceased, gather for the reading of his will. When they discover their inheritance wasn’t exactly as they hoped, the family enlists the help of the morally flexible Gianni Schicchi to help them alter the outcome. Written by Giacomo Puccini and composed in 1917-18, the Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano offers one of Puccini’s best-known and most famous arias, “O mio babbino caro,” based on an incident mentioned in Dante’s Divine Comedy.

May 14

May 16

May 17

May 18

Seen Chevalier yet?

The buzzy film about 18th-century composer Joseph Bologne is gaining traction, giving us all the perfect excuse to revisit LA Opera's COVID-era film, The Anonymous Lover, written by the chevalier himself. This video is available for a limited time on Vimeo, so grab a snack and check it out now!

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