Reviews

Music director Jayce Ogren continues his inaugural season with the Monterey Symphony in two concerts this month featuring works by Valerie Coleman, Peter Lieberson, and Brahms. They will be presented Saturday, March 18, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, March 19 at Carmel's Sunset Center.

Ogren says, "Peter Lieberson's Songs of Love and Sorrow is the centerpiece of our March program, Eternal. Written as a memorial to his wife—the great mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson—the music is lush and romantic and will feature the Metropolitan Opera star baritone Joshua Hopkins. The program begins with Valerie Coleman's moving yet joyful tribute to pandemic first responders Seven O'Clock Shout, and concludes with Brahms' autumnal masterpiece, the Symphony No. 4 in E minor."

Regarded as one of the finest singer-actors of his generation, Canadian baritone Joshua Hopkins has earned a JUNO Award and a Grammy nomination and been described by Opera Today as having "a glistening, malleable baritone of exceptional beauty, and the technique to exploit its full range of expressive possibilities from comic bluster to melting beauty."

Hopkins won the JUNO Award for his portrayal of Athanaël in Chandos Record's recording of Massenet's Thaïs in concert with Toronto Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Sir Andrew Davis.  In the U.S., he appears regularly at The Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, The Santa Fe Opera and Washington National Opera among others. His most personal work, "Songs for Murdered Sisters," is a song cycle by composer Jake Heggie and author Margaret Atwood, conceived by Hopkins in remembrance of his sister, Nathalie Warmerdam.  Among the highlights of his appearances at Carnegie Hall is the world premiere of Michael Tilson Thomas's Rilke Songs.

Saturday evening, the Symphony brings back its popular Women's Night Out pre-concert party at Sunset Center's downstairs Studio 105 space.   This year's shindig, called Bohemian Rhapsody, happens from 6-7:30 p.m. Music by Orchid Saloon and a roaming fashion show by Johnny Was will be featured along with signature cocktails from Pour Girl bartenders and more. Tickets for the event include both the pre-concert party and the Symphony concert that immediately follows.

For tickets and information see www.montereysymphony.org or call 831-646-8511.