Arts & Events

AROUND & ABOUT OPERA AND MUSIC: Britten's 'Curlew River' at Cal Performances; Goat hall's 'Little Weill Women' Premiere; "Eclectic" Trio Mod at Berkeley Chamber Performances

Ken Bullock
Friday November 14, 2014 - 07:40:00 PM

--This weekend, Cal Performances is featuring two performances of an acclaimed production from the Barbizon in London of Benjamin Britten's opera 'Curlew River--a Parable for Church Performance,' based on the spare forms of medieval Japanese Noh theater and its tragic play 'Sumidagawa,' about a madwoman both acting out madness and consumed with grief at a ferry crossing, classical Japanese Gagaku rhythms and Medieval European Christian Mystery Plays. Noted Britten interpreter Ian Bostridge performs the Madwoman, the music and chorus supplied by the Britten Sinfonia and Britten Sinfonia Voices. Friday at 8, Saturday at 2, Zellerbach Hall, UC campus near Telegraph Avenue & Bancroft Way.$30-$90 (discounts available). calperformnces.org; 642-9988. 

--Goat Hall Productions is premiering a new operatic cabaret production this weekend, 'Little Weill Women'--the sisters from Louisa May Alcott's story abandoned penniless on a Chicago streetcorner, meeting some enterprising, hardluck women, with music & song from the Brecht/Weill canon. Directed by Goat Hall's intrepid founder, Harriet March Page, with Keisuke Nakagoshi, piano, and singers Kathleen Barnes, Shelbey Casalena, Kat Cornelius, Marney Margules, Erin McAdams, Paige Patrick, Talia Trozzo & Jessica Wan. Saturday at 8, Sunday at 2, Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, Connie Barbour Room, 1606 Bonita at Cedar. $20, $15 students/seniors, Cabaret tables $25/seat (Cabaret tables online sales only). http://www.goathall.org  

--Trio Mod--Maquette Kuper, flute; Omari Tau, baritone; Deborah Pittman, clarinet/Indian flute (& guest artist, pianist I-Hui Chen)--will perform Three Spirituals for baitone, flute & clarinet, arranged by Tau; Eight Bohemian Sketches for flute, clarinet & piano by Karel Husa; Zwei Gesänge, Op. 91, by Brahms, for baritone, clarinet & piano; the Bach/Gounod Ave Maria arranged for Native American flute, alto flute & baritone by Pittman; Peter in the Hood (from Prokofieff's Peter & the Wolf); Rhapsody in a Blue Mod, arranged from Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue (both arranged by Pittman for baritone, flute & clarinet) and a new composition composed and performed by Tau, With a Little Help From Our Friends. Chen will perform with the Trio on the Brahms and Husa pieces. The program includes pieces with spoken word and audience participation. A complimentary wine and cheese reception will follow, with opportunities to meet and speak with the artists. 8 p. m. Tuesday, November 18, at the Berkeley City Club Ballroom, 2315 Durant Avenue, near Dana. $25, free for high school students, post-high school students $12.50. 525-5211; www.berkeleychamberperform.org