The West Edge Festival will take place July 22 through August 13 at The Scottish Rite in Oakland. Series tickets are now on sale for the festival. Single tickets will go on sale June 1. Learn more about each opera that will appear in the summer festival below.
The Coronation of Poppea
The mistress of Emperor Nero plots to remove his wife from the Roman court so that she can become empress. Spoiler alert: she succeeds. One of our earliest operas, Poppea seduces the audience with gorgeous sultry music. It’s also hilarious!
Cruzar la Cara de la Luna
A dying man dreams of the life he left behind in Mexico many years ago. Learning about that former life for the first time, his American family makes a reunion happen in his last hours. At times joyous, funny, touching and tragic, Cruzar is unforgettable.
The Nightingale
Hans Christian Andersen’s uplifting fairytale is an early critical metaphor about art versus our modern fascination with technology. In ancient China, the emperor invites the greatest artist of the land—a nightingale—to perform for him and he is delighted. But the arrival of a mechanical nightingale captures his attention and he abandons the real nightingale, nearly costing him his life.
Erwartung
A woman, desperately seeking her lover in a dark forest, experiences disjointed but mounting emotions. We witness her stream of consciousness as random thoughts combine with murderous revelations to shred her sanity—all set to an ultra-expressionistic score that broke the path for 20th century modern music.
Dolores
Dolores Huerta is a legend in the fight for farm workers’ rights. In June of 1968, the movement lost a major ally and Dolores lost a friend when Senator Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated. The opera focuses on Dolores’ struggles, triumphs, and tragedies during some of the most iconic and charged weeks of American history.