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Boom! Wham! As the percussion of Orquesta La Pasión,led by Mikael Ringquist and Gonzalo Grau, pounds away, Argentinean-born composer Osvaldo Golijov wastes no time proclaiming that his St. Mark Passion will take a giant step away from the language of J.S. Bach’s monumental achievement.

Which variety of love do you prefer to listen to — hapless, or timeless? The first half of the final concert of this year’s Festival del Sole in Napa Valley, on July 25, will immerse itself in both, and will require deep breaths.

How do you get to be a successful opera singer? According to Sylvia Anderson, founder of the Bay Area Summer Opera Theater Institute (BASOTI), it takes a combination of talent, vocal and acting techniques, time and experience, confidence, honesty, and — most of all — the passion to want it “with all of your heart.” 

Back when Milton and Peggy Salkind teamed up as a piano duo in the early 1950s, there were just a handful of piano duo acts — Rosina and Josef Lhevinne, Gaby and Robert Casadesus, and a few others. The Salkinds helped to blaze the trail that others, most famously the Labeque sisters, have since trod. San Franciscans have a chance to enjoy a rare duo on the weekend of July 8-10.

Declared sister cities in 1980, San Francisco and Shanghai have been celebrating that relationship all year, starting in February with a spectacular gala and exhibition at the Asian Art Museum in the former city’s Civic Center. In musical mode, there’ll be an East Meets West Chamber Concert at the Museum on July 10, featuring the American premiere of Joan Huang’s Shanghai Trilogy, performed by the Bridge Chamber Virtuosi.

For a society of iPod shufflin’, Web surfin’, channel flippin’, Facebook friendin’ individuals, the annual Garden of Memory is an excellent idea. Every summer solstice since 1995, Sarah Cahill and New Music Bay Area present “a columbarium walk-through event at the Chapel of the Chimes in Oakland.”

There are recitals, there are great recitals, and then there’s Yuja Wang. In an extraordinary scene Sunday in Herbst Theatre, after hearing her play the audience appeared both exhausted and elated. My hands hurt not merely from applauding, but also from an apparent case of couvade syndrome (men’s sympathy pain at childbirth) on listening to two hours of devilishly difficult Scriabin and Prokofiev played with ease and astonishing clarity.

Why is this Madama Butterfly different from all other Butterflys? It’s a question we often ask ourselves when pondering whether to spend another three hours at the opera seeing our second or fifth or 50th performance of Puccini’s final revision to his 1904 masterpiece. Brian Staufenbiel, director of Festival Opera’s forthcoming Madama Butterfly, has some answers.