Concord opera company Solo Opera is preparing its largest, most ambitious opera to date, “The Three Feathers,” with music by award-winning composer Lori Laitman and a libretto by former poet laureate Dana Gioia.
This family-friendly, 85-minute show will be sung in English and run Sept. 8-10 in the 785-seat Hofmann Theater at Walnut Creek’s Lesher Center for the Arts. A fairly new opera, written in 2013 and premiering in 2014 at Virginia Tech’s Center for the Arts, “The Three Feathers” has been produced from the East Coast to Singapore.
With Solo Opera’s production, the full opera is finally premiering on the West Coast. Based on a fairytale by the Brothers Grimm, the opera follows Princess Dora not as a damsel in distress but as a heroine. A magic feather leads the shy, self-doubting princess to an enchanted underworld ruled by a giant Frog King.
She summons her courage and compassion to face a series of mysterious and comic adventures in the underworld that change her life. Completing her quest, she saves her father’s kingdom from the plots of her selfish sisters and earns her right to the crown.
“We chose this opera, not only for its beautiful music and charming libretto, but for the important messages it shares about the power of women, believing in yourself and finding real treasure in life,” said Sylvia Amorino, Solo Opera’s executive director.
A 20-piece orchestra will be led by maestro Alexander Katsman, and librettist Dana Gioia, a former California poet laureate, will give a lecture. For tickets or more details, visit soloopera.org/upcoming-performances online or call at 925-943-7469.
— Solo Opera
The Rossmoor Opera Club will host a preview of Festival Opera’s 2023 main stage production of “Carmen” at 7 p.m. July 24 in the Diablo Room of the Hillside Club at 3400 Golden Rain Road in Walnut Creek.
General Director Zachary Gordin will be joined cast members Lily Bogas (Mercedes) and Taylor Thompson (Remendado) for a discussion about Festival Opera’s fresh take on the opera along with some musical highlights from Bizet’s score.
Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. No reservations are necessary, and the event is open to all. The cost is $20 for Opera Club members and $25 for others, payable by cash or check at the door. Light refreshments will be served.
— Rossmoor Opera Club
Open auditions will be held Aug. 7-8 for the The Drama Factory’s Oct. 13-21 Halloween show, “The House on Galloway Street,” an original ghost story by John Ballesteros.
Auditions will be at 7 p.m. in Antioch’s Nick Rodriguez Community Center Theater at 213 F St. both nights. Actors 20 and older are sought along with a crew of varying ages. For more details, visit www.dramafactory.org online or call 925-695-4123.
The Drama Factory has several shows planned for this fall and next spring, with auditions starting in August. Up first are auditions from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Aug. 7-8 for the original play “Ghost Story” to be performed Oct. 13-15 and Oct. 20-21.
Rehearsals will be Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. For more details, visit www.dramafactory.org online.
— The Drama Factory
The Antioch Recreation Department is hosting a series of summer concerts at Prewett Park and downtown’s Waldie Plaza. The series started July 13 and will continue from 6 to 8 p.m. July 22 with Helios performing at Waldie Plaza.
From 6 to 8 p.m. July 27, Mercy and The Heartbeats will perform at Prewett Park, while Groove Ride will play from 6 to 8 p.m. Aug. 5 at Waldie Plaza. For more information, visit antiochca.gov/summer-concert-series.
— Antioch Recreation Department
In the exhibit “Arrivals and Departures: Recent Work by Connie Ryan,” the Valley Art Gallery is featuring Ryan’s art through Aug. 5. Ryan, born in Ireland, lives and works in the Bay Area. Her paintings are rooted in remembered landscapes that she carries with her and explore ideas about land, memory and belonging.
While often starting with a more traditional landscape, she lets the paintings move into abstraction in response to memories and feelings. At times very few traces of the physical landscape remain as the paintings evolve and become a rhythm of color, shape and line.
Her recent work has focused on aerial views of arriving and departing to and from Ireland, recalling the excitement of arriving and the loss at leaving. Using paint, ink, collage and maps, she creates works that enhance our awareness of the beauty of the natural world and explore what it means to belong in a place.
A meet-the-artist event will be from 2 to 5 p.m. Aug. 5. The gallery is at 1661 Botelho Drive. For more information, visit valleyartgallery.org/events/arrivals-and-departures online or call 925-935-4311.
— Valley Art Gallery
Imagine how the world looks to blind people who may hear a parade, a bird, the flow of water and picturing these in their minds. What happens when they take a photograph and share that image?
From now through Sept. 17, the Bedford Gallery at the Lesher Center for the Arts is exploring the nature of seeing and presenting works by some of the world’s most accomplished blind photographers in the exhibition “Sight Unseen: International Photography by Blind Artists.”
With photography as their medium, the 13 featured artists navigate with other senses to visualize and represent the space around them. Blind photographers are said to operate at the heart of the medium, sometimes called the zero point of photography, occupying image as idea and idea as image.
This new exhibition offers a compelling look at art that would seem impossible and leaves visitors wondering at the vision that created them. Some of the featured artists are legally blind, most are completely blind and all perceive an attenuated image of the physical world.
The Bedford Gallery is in the Lesher Center for the Arts at 1601 Civic Drive in Walnut Creek. For more details, call 925-295-1417 or visit bit.ly/bedford2023sightunseen online.
— Bedford Gallery
The Delta Gallery has geared up to host “Geared Up,” a summer show featuring work from the Art Guild of the Delta collective.
The gallery is at 2485 Sand Creek Road, Suite 128, in the Streets of Brentwood shopping center, and the show will run through Sept. 29. Visit deltagallery.com online for information.
The Delta Gallery Community Art Center will present its fourth annual judged multimedia show “UnCorked” from Aug. 4 through Sept. 9. This show will include themes of wine, vineyards, grapes and any aspect of wine, winemaking and wine drinking. All interested artists are invited to submit entries within the gallery’s guidelines.
All work must be original to the artist, and the Delta Gallery reserves the right to reject any work that does not meet its guidelines or that has unacceptable subject matter. Read the gallery’s physical and online addresses above.
— Delta Gallery
The city of Brentwood has put together a diverse lineup of entertainment for its Friday night Concerts in the Park series.
Since 2000, the series has connected families and friends and provided a free, fun-filled event that has become a Friday night summer tradition. Over the years, some 100,000 community members have danced, picnicked and played while experiencing a variety of performing arts entertainment in downtown City Park.
The series will continue Friday with: The Floorshakers (funk and soul); Apple Z (Top 40 dance) on July 28; Fleetwood Mask (a Fleetwood Mac cover band) on Aug. 4; Smooth Sounds of Santana (a Santana tribute band) on Aug. 11; and Thunder Cover (Top 40 dance) on Aug. 18.
— city of Brentwood
Black Diamond Ballet will host auditions for dancers ages 8 and older to perform over the holidays in their 11th annual “Nutcracker!” ballet Dec. 8-10 and 16-18, with a sensory-friendly performance on Dec. 17. Auditions will be on Sunday and Aug. 6 at the Pittsburg Performing Arts Academy.
On both dates, those ages 8 to 11 will audition from 10 to 11:30 a.m. and those 12 and older will audition from noon to 2 p.m. The cost to audition is $30, and professional dancers are each asked to email a resume, reel and headshots for consideration to info@blackdiamondballet.org. For more information, visit blackdiamondballet.org online.
— Black Diamond Ballet
Quirky, ingenious and hilarious — those are words to describe comedian Maria Bamford, who will perform at Aug. 5 at Livermore’s Bankhead Theater.
Stephen Colbert called Bamford his “favorite comedian on Earth,” and Judd Apatow said she is “the funniest woman in the world.” Bamford is the first female comic to have two half-hour “Comedy Central Presents” specials, in addition to her acclaimed Netflix series, “Lady Dynamite.”
The show starts at 8 p.m. in the theater at 2400 First St. in Livermore. To purchase tickets ($45 to $75), contact the box office at 925-373-6800 or visit livermorearts.org/events/maria-bamford online.
— Bankhead Theater
Submit area arts-and-entertainment On Tap items to Judith Prieve at jprieve@bayareanewsgroup.com.
