We are happy to present Rossini’s masterpiece Semiramide, in the sublime space and superb acoustic of Bernard Maybeck’s celebrated First Church of Christ, Scientist, Berkeley’s only National Historic Landmark structure.
The story of Semiramide unfolds in the ancient kingdom of Babylon, where the eponymous Queen reigns after the long-concealed murder of her husband, King Nino, a crime she committed with the ambitious Assur.
Seeking to secure the future of her rule, Semiramide resolves to marry the noble young general Arsace. A series of destructive revelations follows: Arsace is in fact her lost son, and he is bound by duty to avenge his father’s death.
Join us for an evening of drama and passion expressed through the genius of Rossini’s virtuosic music, under the direction of Project founder William G. Ludtke. Semiramide is the last opera Rossini composed in Italian, before pulling up roots and moving to Paris; it has been called “the last opera of the great Baroque tradition: the most beautiful, the most imaginative, possibly the most complete; but also, irremediably, the last.”