Previews

If any Renaissance composer can be said to have the “wow” factor, it would be Carlo Gesualdo. His brilliant Tenebrae Responsories for Good Friday and Holy Saturday, performed by AVE on June 10, offers an outstanding introduction to the upcoming Berkeley Festival and Exhibition.

A panorama of the creative smorgasboard from the 16th century will be on display in Chanticleer’s final season concert, “For Thy Soul’s Salvation: Music for England’s Monarchs,” presented June 2-5 in Berkeley, Sacramento, San José, and San Francisco.

It’s a story of unknowing maternal incest in mid-19th-century Maine, but composer Tobias Picker thinks it will be right at home in Petaluma’s Cinnabar Performing Arts Theater, and he’ll be there next week during dress rehearsals to help parent the West Coast premiere of his creation.

The upcoming San Francisco Opera production of Puccini’s La fanciulla del West, aka Girl of the Golden West, aka “Puccini's American opera,” returning here after an absence of 31 years, is the epitome of ”Italian-American.”

Ever-curious and adventurous, violinist Rachel Barton Pine reunites with Michael Morgan, her former mentor, and the Sacramento Philharmonic to showcase a suite by African-American classical composer William Grant Still and a concerto by Sergei Prokofiev.

The Irene Dalis Vocal Competition may not ring bells of recognition in your head, but young singers are way ahead of you. That’s because the four-year-old competition, which kicks into gear May 22 at the California Theatre in San José, puts a lot of cash in singers’ pockets.

Chora Nova performs one of Rossini’s greatest works, the Petite Messe solennelle — neither little, solemn, nor even really a Mass — on May 29, under the direction of Paul Flight, providing an opportunity to hear this Mass in something close to its original version.

Many of the pieces Earplay performs have Bay Area roots, part of conductor Mary Chun’s stated emphasis on giving voice to local composers. For its May 24 concert, “Ports and Portals,” held at Herbst Theatre in partnership with the S.F. International Arts Festival, the ensemble adds two more world premieres and two West Coast premieres to the tally.