Arts & Events

AROUND AND ABOUT THE PERFORMING ARTS: 'Angel Heart,' Unusual Family Entertainment Featuring Frederica Von Stade, Malcolm McDowell & Others

By Ken Bullock
Friday October 04, 2013 - 04:38:00 PM

Cal Performances is hosting one of two premiere performances--the other at Carnegie Hall--of 'Angel Heart,' a multimedia "dream of lullabies," conceived by composer Luna Pearl Woolf and soprano Lisa Delan, with a story by German children's fantasy author Cornelia Funke, and the participation of other composers, including Jake Heggie and Gordon Getty, soprano Frederica Von Stade and her Children's Choir of St. Martin Porres School (of Oakland), and Uccello all-cello ensemble, with actor Malcolm McDowell narrating, Sunday at 5, in the intimate, acoustically excellent auditorium of Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley campus. 

Woolf and Delan thought up a performed children's storybook, "where songs take the place of the illustrations," recruited Funke, the other composers (for both original music and to arrange familiar traditional and pop songs), Uccello's ensemble of cellists, von Stade and film actor McDowell, with scenic art by LA studio Mirada. Book, CD, iPad app will all go on sale September 23, with narration by Jeremy Irons, as well as solos by the late Bay Area soprano Zheng Cao. More info at: angelhesrtmusicstorybook.com 

$18 for children, $36 for adults. 642-9988; cal performances.org