Jonathan Khuner, artistic director

Mission and History

Berkeley Opera was founded in 1979 by baritone Richard Goodman, also an Engineering Professor at the University of California at Berkeley, who is now Artistic Director emeritus.

Berkeley Opera’s mission is to present opera as lively, compelling musical theater, fusing music and drama to delight, move, and challenge our audiences, while remaining accessible, affordable and engaging. To this end, its objectives include • providing quality performances that respect the unique spirit of each work while presenting it in a way that is fresh and meaningful to our audiences • appealing to a wide audience of all ages, ranging from seasoned opera lovers to those experiencing opera for the first time • promoting community involvement through education, outreach, and opportunities to participate in a variety of ways • and providing the opportunity for emerging talent to gain experience and exposure.

Performances take place in an intimate theater, Berkeley’s Julia Morgan Theatre, where the audience feels closely connected to the action on stage. Julia Morgan Theatre, at 2640 College Avenue in Berkeley, is a 350-seat craftsman-style gem, designed in 1908 as a church by famed architect Julia Morgan, and converted to a theater in the 1970s.

Berkeley Opera productions are in English or with English supertitles. Ticket prices are kept affordable, with discounts for students and seniors.

Artistic/Music Director Jonathan Khuner, has been associated with the Company since 1984 and became Music Director in 1994. He is a Berkeley native and a graduate of U.C. Berkeley. Mr. Khuner is also on the musical staff of the San Francisco Opera and the Metropolitan Opera, has assisted James Levine with Wagner’s “Ring” Cycle at the Wagner Festival at Bayreuth, Germany, and has served in a similar capacity at Chicago Lyric Opera, among others.

Now in its 29th season, Berkeley Opera has presented eighty-five operas by thirty-eight different composers. The company looks at opera in a fresh and innovative way, enhancing the experience for both performers and audience. Repertoire includes both the new and unusual as well as favorite and lesser-known works by well-known composers and has included world, American, and west coast premieres. The company has also commissioned several new translations and adaptations of classic works.

In the last few years the repertoire has included E.T.A. Hoffmann’s rarely-performed Undine, the world premiere of Serpentina, a new opera by John Thow based on Hoffmann’s novella, Der Goldene Topf, and Vivian Fine’s Women in the Garden.

Time-honored classics have been presented in new ways, sometimes reduced (the 2004 American premiere of Legend of The Ring, a special condensation by David Seaman of the Welsh National Opera of Wagner’s “Ring” cycle into one evening, and the 2005 condensed version by Jonathan Khuner and Yuval Sharon of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), sometimes re-conceived to make them fresh for contemporary audiences (the brilliant libretto translations and adaptations of David Scott Marley, including his witty adaptation of Rossini’s Italian Girl in Algiers, called in our version The Riot Grrrl on Mars, and Bat Out of Hell, his adaptation of Johann Strauss Jr.’s Die Fledermaus). Marley has also made new translations for us that expand and illuminate our understanding, including Berlioz’s Beatrice and Benedick, (restored in his version to the complete story of Much Ado About Nothing), and a critically-acclaimed new translation of Bizet’s Carmen. Our 2005 season included Il Trittico, Puccini’s three one-act operas (Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi) written to be performed together but rarely done that way.

Videographer Jeremy Knight has made a great contribution to the company by way of digital projections, often making traditional set design obsolete. (Joshua Kosman in the San Francisco Chronicle called his video projections in Legend of the Ring "pure delight" and in Meistersinger, "beautiful.")

In 2004, Berkeley Opera was awarded a major grant from the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation to commission a new opera, Chrysalis, from composer Clark Suprynowicz with a libretto created by noted playwright John O'Keefe. Chrysalis premiered in April of 2006 and was a great audience and critical success. Chrysalis was also supported by grants from the Creative Work Fund, and the Argosy Foundation Contemporary Music Fund.

Box Office services are provided by Willows Theater Co., a member of the Community Box Office Network, sponsored by Theatre Bay Area.