Bay Area arts: 6 concerts and shows to see this weekend

There are a lot of cool concerts and shows to see this week in the Bay Area, as the fall classical and stage seasons heat up. Here’s a partial roundup. The classical season is off to a bold start this week with Verdi’s “Il Trovatore” and two performances of Bach’s beloved “Brandenburg” Concertos.

Over the past few seasons, San Francisco Opera music director Eun Sun Kim has traced a thrilling journey through the music of Giuseppe Verdi; this month, she brings her musical mastery to “Il Trovatore. ” Fueled by deep secrets, passion and revenge, it’s one of the composer’s most powerful dramatic works, and David McVicar’s production is inspired by the dark imagery of Spanish artist Francisco Goya. Directed by Roy Rallo and conducted by Kim, the cast features acclaimed soprano Angel Blue as Leonora, along with Arturo Chacón-Cruz as Manrico, Ekaterina Semenchuk as Azucena, and George Petean as the Count di Luna.

Through Oct. 1, War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco; $26-$414; sfopera. com.

If you’d like to start the season with Bach — always a good choice — consider this weekend’s Pacific Chamber Orchestra performances of the Brandenburg Concertos, which the ensemble under Lawrence Kohl will perform Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon. 7:30 p. m.

Saturday at Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Church; 3 p. m. Sunday at the Bankhead Theater in Livermore: $25-$65; pacificchamberorchestra.

org. For writer-performer Wayne Harris, connecting the past with the present isn’t a quirk in his work, it’s a foundational feature. It informs plays like his jazz-era drama “Jockamo” and helped bring his acclaimed solo show “The Letter: Martin Luther King at the Crossroads” to a Middle Eastern audience of Israeli and Palestinian patrons.

Harris frequently combines his experience as an educator with his skills as a performer to highlight chapters of Black history both well-known and not. This modus operandi and his father’s time as a train dining porter inspired the three-person show “Train Stories,” playing at The Marsh Berkeley. Set during the segregated U.

S. of the 1950s, the play tells the stories of three Black men with connections to the country’s railroad expansion. The trio — one is the mythical John Henry — makes invaluable contributions to the country’s train system even as the men themselves aren’t allowed to partake in its luxuries.

The three (played by Harris, Tony Cyprien and Kirk Waller) attempt to reconcile the importance of their work on behalf of a country where the threat of lynching is ever present. “The original version of ‘Train Stories’ was a solo performance where I portrayed all three roles — which was quite a challenge for me, Harris says. “It was an amazing experience, but I always wondered what it would be like as an ensemble piece and how to present a play that is predominantly told as monologues.

” 7:30 p. m. through Sept.

29; 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley; $25-$100; themarsh. org. Contralto Sara Couden joins forces with soprano Aléxa Anderson and accompanist Derek Tam on piano for a program of vocal music that takes inspiration from animals and nature.

So at 7 p. m. Saturday, Sept.

16, in St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Walnut Creek, we’ll be hearing pieces such as Telemann’s “Canary Cantata,” which was commissioned from the Baroque composer, we kid you not, from a wealthy patron in Hamburg who was in mourning for his cat-slain bird and bore the original full title “Cantata of Funeral Music for an Artistically Trained Canary Bird Whose Demise Brought the Greatest Sorrow to His Master. ” Also on the program are selections from Zachary Wadsworth’s “The Bad Child’s Book of Beasts” (set to verses from Hilaire Belloc’s 1896 children’s book), the “Flower Duet” from Delibes’ “Lakme” and some nature-themed music by Schubert.

1924 Trinity Ave. , Walnut Creek; suggested donation $10-$20, either to attend in person for the live-stream; . .