The “honeyed lyric tenor” (The New York Times) and master Mozartean Ben Bliss has dazzled fans at the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, and grand halls in Vienna and Paris with his expressive, agile voice. Recent seasons have found him at the Met in Jeanine Tesori’s Grounded and singing Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Bliss visits Berkeley with pianist Christopher Allen—“a thrilling collaborator, finding orchestral colors in his virtuosic playing” (Opera Today)—for a rare and intimate recital.
Bliss makes his Cal Performances recital debut with a delightfully adventurous all-American program featuring songs by composers ranging from Charles Ives, Kurt Weil, Samuel Barber, and Philip Glass to Harold Arlen, Jule Styne, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, and Paul Simon.
“You’ll seldom hear a finer performance”—The New York Times
| SONDHEIM | “I’m Calm,” from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum |
| DE PAUL/MERCER | The What-Cha-Ma-Call-It |
| SONDHEIM | “Everybody Says Don’t,” from Anyone Can Whistle |
| IVES | The Things Our Fathers Loved (and the greatest of these was Liberty) |
| LIEBERMANN/LONGFELLOW | “The Arrow and the Song,” from Six Songs on Poems by Henry W. Longfellow, Op. 57 |
| GRUEN/CUMMINGS | “Spring is like a perhaps hand” and “lady will you come with me into,” from Three by E. E. Cummings |
| SIMON | Bridge over Troubled Water |
| WARD/BATES arr. Ray CHARLES |
America the Beautiful |
| FAIN/ YELLEN | “Are You Having Any Fun?” from George White’s Scandals of 1939 |
| KENT/HOFFMAN/CURTIS | I’m Gonna Live Till I Die |
| WEILL/HUGHES | “Lonely House,” from Street Scene |
| RODGERS/HART | “Where or When,” from Babes in Arms |
| BARBER/PROKOSCH | Nocturne, Op. 13, No. 4 |
| McHUGH/LOESSER | “Say It (Over and Over Again),” from Buck Benny Rides Again |
| STYNE/COMDEN and GREEN | “Just in Time,” from Bells Are Ringing |
| SONDHEIM | “Being Alive,” from Company |
| BERNSTEIN/COMDEN and GREEN | “Some Other Time,” from On the Town |
| COWARD | “Let’s Say Good-bye,” from Words and Music |
| ARLEN/MERCER | “One for My Baby (and One More for the Road),” from The Sky’s the Limit |
| Philip GLASS/GINSBERG | Wichita Vortex Sutra |
Program notes will be available approximately one week before the performance.
3pm
There is a $20 service charge on all subscription orders, and a $15 per order service charge on ticket purchases made by phone or online that are not part of a subscription package. There is no fee for tickets purchased in person at the Zellerbach Hall Ticket Office unless they are part of a subscription.
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2026–27 Season Guides
Some of you want your mind blown. Some want your heart broken. Some want to see a legend before they stop touring. Whatever brings you through those doors, we’ve built a guide for it. Explore the six patron guides below to find the performances that were made for you!
3pm
There is a $20 service charge on all subscription orders, and a $15 per order service charge on ticket purchases made by phone or online that are not part of a subscription package. There is no fee for tickets purchased in person at the Zellerbach Hall Ticket Office unless they are part of a subscription.