New Opera: If You Hate It, You Haven't Seen a Good One

That question is Mark Streshinsky’s cue. At Arts & Culture on Wednesday, March 5, at 7 p.m., he will explain what gives West Edge Opera, well, its edge. It has become fertile ground for new operas — recently composed works that focus on contemporary themes or issues and give new life to operas that are rarely performed. Mark has been General and Artistic Director of the Berkeley-based company since 2010.

Tickets for this program are $5 for club members and students and $10 for non-members. Please register early so we can be sure to accommodate everyone comfortably.

Mark will briefly summarize the 44-year history of West Edge, highlighting its productions of new operas. He will preview its upcoming season and the three operas that will be performed this summer, including David & Jonathan, the biblical love story of David, who killed Goliath and became the second king of Israel, and Jonathan, son of the first king. Mark also will review the state of opera more generally, the evolution of new opera, and what some companies are doing to tell new stories to today's audiences.

Mark is widely recognized as a talented and creative leader. Over the years, he has shaped the identity of West Edge with productions that range from classics, like Eugene Onegin, Legend of the Ring, Xerxes, Ariadne auf Naxos; to contemporary works, such as Breaking the Waves; to rarely performed works, like Eliogabalo.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mark helped to found Aperture, a virtual platform for developing new operas. It combined elements of a reality show and an artist-in-residence program. The crowd-funded initiative attracted more than eighty projects worldwide and led to the commission of two new operas, Dolores, which will premiere this summer, and Claude and Marcel, which will be part of the West Edge 2027 summer festival.

Mark also is a dynamic presence in the larger opera community, working with leading companies, including San Francisco Opera, Los Angeles Opera, New York City Opera, and Dallas Opera. He has directed productions at Florida Grand Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Seattle Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Cincinnati Opera, and Boston Baroque. He brought Massenet’s Manon to life at the Reina Sofía Opera House in Valencia, Spain.

In addition, Mark is dedicated to nurturing the next generation of artists. He has been a guest lecturer at The San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Yale Graduate School of Opera, and the Peabody Institute in Baltimore. He also ventures into experimental projects, such as Machine, an opera he wrote, directed, and produced for Oakland’s Crucible, an industrial art center that also serves as a venue for the performing arts. That production featured clanging hammers, bursts of fire, and rivers of molten steel and glass.

Make your reservations early so you can learn more about West Edge Opera, which the classical music critic for the Chronicle calls “one of the region’s most exciting cultural touchstones.”

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