Arts & Events

Cellist Tanya Tomkins, fortepianist Eric Zivian with their ten faculty and performing artist colleagues and five apprentices have brought in greater scale to the new Valley of the Moon Music Festival—going into its final weekend—part of what they've been working at creating for years with their Benvenue House Concerts in Berkeley—a more complete environment for performance and enjoyment of chamber works from the Classical and Romantic repertoire—played on period instruments and copies. -more-

West Edge Opera last week staged Alban Berg’s Lulu in Oakland’s abandoned Wood Street train station; and this week they’ve staged Claudio Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria (Ulysses’ Return to His Homeland) at American Steel Studios on Oakland’s Mandela Parkway. While American Steel turned out to be less magical a site for opera than the abandoned and decaying train station, nonetheless the acoustics at American Steel were excellent. Further, West Edge General Director Mark Streshinsky, who doubled as stage director for Ulysses, utilized the space at American Steel quite imaginatively, placing the 9-piece orchestra amidst a raised and stepped U-shaped platform on which the singers performed, while the audience was seated around three sides of the U-shaped platform. On the wall behind the stage area were hung at one time or another various large photos – of the sea, a pasture with sheep, a painting depicting Ulysses drawing his bow, another painting depicting Queen Penelope, etc. -more-