A new performing-arts company, Resonance Works, is making its debut with two performances of Giuseppe Verdi's opera “Macbeth” in Oakland.
Conductor Maria Sensi Sellner founded the company to explore the relationship between music and space. She won the American Prize in Opera Conducting for both 2012 and 2013, and is interim director of choruses at Carnegie Mellon University.
“Macbeth,” last seen as an opera locally more than quarter century ago, is the earliest of three operas Verdi wrote that reflect his deep appreciation of William Shakespeare's plays. The others are “Otello” and “Falstaff.”
The cast for “Macbeth” includes baritone Galen Bower in the title role, soprano Amelia D'Arcy as Lady Macbeth and Joseph Gaines as Malcolm. The stage director is David Gram. Sellner will conduct a chamber orchestra.
The performances start at 8 p.m. Oct. 25 and 3 p.m. Oct. 27 at Charity Randall Theatre, 4301 Forbes Ave., Oakland. Admission is $35 and $50.
Details: www.artful.ly/store/events/1529
— Mark Kanny
Many voices, one city
Three regional choirs and the Pittsburgh Concert Chorale will perform at the “Pittsburgh Sings!” festival of choirs Oct. 27 at the Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland.
Besides the chorale, the event will feature the Central Assembly of God Choir from Washington County, the South Fayette Vocal Express Show Choir and the Woodland Hills High School Chamber Choir.
The program will feature each group in a 15-minute presentation and then all of them singing from Carl Orff's “Carmina Burana.”
Music begins at 4 p.m. Admission is $5 and free for those under 12. Details: 412-635-7654 or www.pccsing.org
— Bob Karlovits
Throughline brings TV to the stage
Throughline Theatre Company will close its fourth season this weekend with Aaron Sorkin's “The Farnsworth Invention.”
The play follows David Sarnoff, the world's first media mogul, and Philo Farnsworth, the obscure inventor of the television, during the first half of the 20th century. It uses Sorkin's signature wit and quick banter to depict the history of this invention that changed the world.
The show will be performed at 8 p.m. Oct. 24 and 25 and 2 and 8 p.m. Oct. 26 at the Grey Box Theatre in Lawrenceville.
Details: 412-370-1971 or www.throughlinetheater.org
— Tribune-Review
Chamber music stars over the centuries
Three centuries of emotionally intense music will be featured at the Orion String Quartet's Oct. 28 performance for the Pittsburgh Chamber Music Society. The concert will be the group's 11th appearance for the society.
The program will begin with a rarely heard masterpiece, Franz Joseph Haydn's Quartet in G minor, Op. 20, No. 3. Bela Bartok's String Quartet No. 6 is the last he wrote in Europe before emigrating to the United States. The concert will conclude with Franz Schubert's “Death and the Maiden” Quartet.
Although based in New York City, the group's violinists are Squirrel Hill natives.
The concert starts at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 28 at Carnegie Music Hall, Oakland. Admission is $35; $15 for students.
Details: 412-624-4129 or pittsburghchambermusic.org
— Mark Kanny
Danger! Twists and turns ahead
“Cuidado” means “caution” in Spanish, but the band that bears that name is not to be heard with trepidation.
The band of Pittsburgh-area musicians focuses on tango, and likes to call itself the “most dangerous” band of that genre. It will perform Oct. 30 in the “Listen Locally” concert series at the Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall in Carnegie.
Cuidado, founded in 2007, is made up of Annie Mollova on violin, Koichiro Suzuki on euphonium, Vladimir Mollov on accordion, Michael Borowski on guitar and Matt Booth on bass.
Dancers will perform with the band, and audience members are encouraged to join them.
The concert is at 7:30 p.m. Admission is $15. Details: 412-276-3456, ext. 7, or www.carnegiecarnegie.org
— Bob Karlovits
