'Mother King'

Poet Venessa Fuentes and composer Dameun Strange team up for an original opera that takes Martin Luther King's mother, activist Alberta Williams King, as its subject. "Mother King" is the first production of the newly formed company Opera Works 52, and tells the story of King, a prominent member of Ebenezer Baptist Church, where her husband and son were both pastors. King was active with the NAACP, and lived through the tragedy of her son being assassinated before she was murdered six years later in the sanctuary of her church. Produced in partnership with Public Functionary, "Mother King" features Liz Gre in the title role, along with five other vocalists and a 12-member instrumental ensemble. Strange is involved with a number of different music projects, including Moors Blackmon, KBDS, Strange New Music Experiment and Strange Perspective, and has composed an operetta as part of winning the prestigious Cedar Commission, while Fuentes recently had an essay published in "A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota" from Minnesota Historical Society Press. (7 p.m. July 20-22 and 27-29, Public Functionary, 1400 12th Av. NE., Mpls., $12, publicfunctionary.org.)

SHEILA REGAN