(Credit: Victor Xie)

California-based Voices of Silicon Valley is set to present “Together at Last” this November.

The online showcase will feature the ensemble performing Berio’s famed masterpiece “Cries of London” as well as “song of our time.” The Berio work will be presented in a semi-staged production recorded in 3D / 360 surround. Sergey Khalikulov directs.

“‘Cries of London’ [is] a work of uncommon beauty and genius yet extremely rarely performed, due to its difficulty. There is no evidence of any performance of this work in California, so ours may be very first, and the semi-staged approach may be the very first ever. Yet the operatic nature of the work clearly calls for it. We planned to perform it for a while but our plans had to be put on hold due to COVID-19 pandemic,” composer and sound designer Cyril Deaconof told OperaWire. “Yet this program gave us an opportunity to also perform some of the most beloved and known vocal music – soundtrack from ‘Gladiator,’ ‘Hard Times Come Again No More’ in the Swingle singers’ version, and others. These works are inspirational in their nature, and the audiences can expect a very moving experience of encouragement, so much needed by all at this time.

“Cries of London” was premiered in 1974 in a version of four movements for six voices. A 1976 version expanded the work to seven movements and eight voices.