By Adam Nagourney Re porting from Tijuana, Mexico, and San Diego “Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote,” performed on both sides of the border, offers an allegory about migrants, immigration agents and President Trump" The new children’s opera “Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote” is told with singers dressed up as hopping bunnies, coyotes, snakes and butterflies. In the course of 90minutes, it chronicles a journey through deserts, a river, an underground tunnel and a wall: a border wall, l

By George Varga, San Diego Union-Tribune The bilingual chamber-opera for children and adults by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Anthony Davis and librettist Allan Havis is a tour de force. Tijuana and the world’s largest international border crossing are only 12 miles away from Chula Vista’s Southwestern College Performing Arts Center, which on Saturday and Sunday hosted the world premiere performances of Pulitzer Prize-winner Anthony Davis’ often remarkable new Spanish-Engl

by George Varga / San Diego Union-Tribune Presented by Bodhi Tree Concerts and based on a children's book by Mexican-American author Duncan Tonatiuh, the bilingual 'Pancho Rabbit and The Coyote' will have its world premiere in San Diego and Tijuana. Pulitzer Prize-winning opera composer and UC San Diego professor Anthony Davis didn’t have to look beyond his backyard — figuratively and (almost) literally — for inspiration for his latest musical opus, “Pancho Rabbit and The Coy

Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Anthony Davis and nationally acclaimed playwright and librettist Allan Havis, both professors at the University of California San Diego, will debut their new bilingual chamber opera, “Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote,” in January 2026. An allegorical work, the opera explores the hopes and perils of migrants at the U.S.–Mexico border. Commissioned by Bodhi Tree Concerts, the binational world-premiere will begin at the Southwestern College Performing

By George Varga | george.varga@sduniontribune.com | The San Diego Union-Tribune UPDATED: February 6, 2025 at 8:29 AM PST Irving Flores...

By Pam Kragen April 21, 20246 AM PT When San Diego Opera canceled its planned San Diego premiere of the contemporary opera “The Falling and the Rising” last year, Bodhi Tree Concerts came to its rescue. Founded in 2012 by Diana and Walter DuMelle, Bodhi Tree presents an annual season of concerts and contemporary operas that benefit local charitable organizations. “As a native San Diegan, the daughter of a veteran and having grown up in Point Loma just blocks away from the mil

By Ken Herman | April 7, 2024 On Saturday at the La Jolla Community Center, Bodhi Tree Concerts presented Closer Than Ever, a...

The 13th annual series is taking the local organization’s production values to a new level. BY ASHLEY MACKIN-SOLOMON While La Jolla-based...

By Kenneth Herman, San Diego Story - September 25, 2023 Is there an American singer who does not love the vocal music of Ricky Ian...

BY BETH WOOD CONTRIBUTOR San Diego Union-Tribune SEPT. 17, 2023 5 AM PT It took a few seemingly unrelated steps to lead acclaimed New York composer Ricky Ian Gordon to San Diego for the premiere of his chamber opera, “Autumn Valentine.” Because of COVID-related postponements, Gordon found himself in a gratifying but frustrating position in January 2022. He was simultaneously guiding two separate world premieres of his operas — both in Manhattan. The productions were Lincoln