Preview of a new sci-fi opera

AMHERST — A free workshop performance of “The Onion,” a new opera based on a fictional machine that allows a person to re-experience a memory as a visceral reality, will be staged June 4 at 3 p.m. in Holden Theater at Amherst College.

The opera, featuring a number of noted vocalists, takes place on an island in the Pacific Northwest, where a neuroscientist has sequestered herself with her daughter, her co-inventor, and their invention, called Onion, which seems to gain its own personality with each use.

Composer/librettist Eric Sawyer and director/librettist Ron Bashford will host a conversation following a partly staged performance of the first half of the opera.

Sawyer, a professor of music at Amherst, and Bashford, a theater professor at the college, have previously worked together with Northampton librettist Harley Erdman on the opera “The Scarlet Professor” and the cabaret musical “My Evil Twin.”

The cast includes sopranos Dana Lynne Varga and Corrine Byrne, who both earned vocal performance degrees at UMass Amherst; both also recently made their debut as soloists at Carnegie Hall in New York.

 

Calling all Beatlemaniacs

AMHERST — The Pioneer Valley Folklore Society (PVFS), hosts of the monthly Song & Story Swap, will stage a special fundraising show June 10 built around the music of John, Paul, George and Ringo.

For “Acoustic Beatles Night,” which begins at 7 p.m. at First Church, 165 Main St., musicians can perform songs recorded by The Beatles or a former Beatle. Musicians from around the Valley will lead the songfest and singalong.

Instruments should be of the acoustic variety, such as guitars, ukuleles, hand drums, accordions and sitars. Electronic keyboards and direct lines are permitted as well. Microphones for instruments and vocals will be available, and a tuned piano is also on site.

Performers should sign up by emailing Paul Kaplan at paulkaplanmusic@gmail.com. Get your song choices in early, before your favorite gets taken.

The event is open to all ages. Admission is free, with a suggested minimum donation of $5 to $10, which PVFS will use to cover its rental of the hall for next season. Masks are required, except for performers when they’re on stage.

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