July 23, 2026: Guest host Brandi Parisi welcomes Opera in the Park; and award-winning pianist Brian Hsu to the Irving Levin Performance Hall.
Opera in the Park presents an exclusive performance of their Oregon premiere of Cruzar la Cara de la Luna (To Cross the Face of The Moon), the world’s first mariachi opera. Then, Taiwanese-American pianist Brian Hsu shares music from his brand new album, featuring Franz Liszt’s Années de pèlerinage (French for Years of Pilgrimage).
Tune in Thursday at 3:00 PM PT at 89.9 FM in Portland, OR or from anywhere in the world on our website.
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Cruzar la Cara de la Luna tells a poignant and timely story of migration, cultural identity, and generational divides within the Mexican-American community. The story begins in present-day Texas where an elderly Laurentino Valesquez lies in his bed, on the brink of death. In conversation with his adult son, we learn that Laurentino left a wife and child in Mexico when he immigrated to the USA in search of opportunity. The borders of time and space blur as we meet three generations of the Valesquez family, and come to understand their journeys, physical and spiritual. With a bilingual libretto in Spanish and English, and an incandescent score that artfully fuses traditional opera with mariachi, the seventy-minute work invites audiences to examine their own ideas about home, belonging, and family, and to find the universal in the specific.
Portland SummerFest’s Opera in the Park presents annual free operatic performances at the beautiful outdoor Washington Park Amphitheater in southwest Portland. The performance at Washington Park has been presented since 2003 as part of Portland Parks and Recreation’s annual Washington Park Summer Festival.
Learn more at operaintheparkportland.org.
All Classical Radio is the Official Media Sponsor of Opera in the Park.
Since his concerto debut at the age of sixteen with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Taiwanese American pianist Brian Hsu has established himself as an artist of great energy and exceptional communicative ability. Critics have praised his performances in superlatives, noting his “breadth of expression and technical ability.”
An accomplished and versatile performer, Hsu has appeared throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and South Africa, with performances in major U.S. cities including Boston, New York, Chicago, New Orleans, and Dallas. He has been featured as concerto soloist with leading ensembles such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Taiwan National Symphony Orchestra, the Juilliard Orchestra, the Sendai Philharmonic, the University of Oregon Symphony, the Haddonfield Symphony, the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra, and the Hendersonville Symphony.
Keep reading at musicanddance.uoregon.edu.
