A Home-Grown ‘La Boheme’

Skeptics who have rarely used the words “opera” and “Ventura” in any mutually interactive way are having their biases tested of late. No, opera of the grand sort hasn’t come to town, but applying will, gumption and resourcefulness, the plucky little company known as Opera Unplugged has settled into the Laurel Theatre to deliver opera to its hometown.

So far, it has offered presentations of arias and other opera components, as with this winter’s “Opera’s Greatest Hits.” Now comes a complete opera, with logistical adjustments and scaled-down production. Puccini’s timeless, renewably charming staple “La Boheme” hits the Laurel this weekend in a stripped-down version. The following weekend, on Aug. 3, the production moves east to the Scherr Forum of the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza.

For this production, the setting is contemporary San Francisco; the language is English; and the staging is multimedia, designed and directed by Dan Balestrero.

Much admired soprano Kerry Walsh is Mimi to Tim DeWitt’s Rodolfo, and the cast also includes Vicki Harrop, who has been a principal spark in getting Opera Unplugged off the ground. * “La Boheme,” Saturday, 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, 2:30 p.m.; Laurel Theater, 1006 E. Main St., Ventura. $35, general; $28, senior citizens (60 and older); $8, students; free for children 11 and younger. (805) 653-0818.

Rock Extremes: From the study-in-contrasts department, this week’s rock roster at the Ventura Theatre runs from the raucous to ethereal, from a punk patriarch to a Canadian band that seems to have stepped out of--or into--a dream.

Both Henry Rollins and the Cowboy Junkies rose to prominence and critical favor in the ‘80s and have followed meandering courses to the present.

The Cowboy Junkies, who created a signature, languid folk and country-inspired sound, have harnessed the power of the net, releasing “Waltz Across America,” available at https://www.cowboyjunkies.com. And Junkies vocalist Margo Timmons is as mysterious and engagingly remote as Rollins is an in-your-face force of nature.

Rollins has survived nicely over the years since the breakup of his band Black Flag, the founding band of the indie label SST. His solo career has been a blast of focused energy, full of hulking rock sounds, growling vocals and fierce lyrics, up through last year’s “Get Some Go Again.”* Henry Rollins, Friday, 8 p.m.; $18. Cowboy Junkies, Tuesday, 8 p.m.; $25 and $35. Ventura Theatre, 26 S. Chestnut St., Ventura. (805) 653-0118.

Wandering Eyes: “Camera Illuminata,” a friendly coalition of area photographers, presented one of the better group shows last year, at the Thousand Oaks Community Gallery. This year’s group show hangs in what is normally the charmingly funky but newly spiffed-up Art City 2 in Ventura.

Though mostly a straightforward bunch, experimentation does pop up. Jurgen Kuschnik’s manipulated ilfochrome prints--as if seen underwater--are street-level portraits with subjects’ heads, and therefore specific identities, handily edited out of the frame.

Simple things carefully visualized account for some of the deepest visual insights here. Nancy Josephs’ luscious color shots of windows and doorways in Provence bask in the inherent contrasts of color and texture, and George Ingram’s “Transition” is a sinuous “abstraction” drawn from the gentle curve of light between freeway overpasses.

Nudging up tightly--macrocosmically, even--to plant life, is the m.o. for Kathy Camillela Force, Michael Appuliese (usually more interested in the sweep of landscape) and Alice Cahill. They bring us within sniffing distance of vegetation, nearly obscuring our awareness of what we’re seeing.

The artist currently known as Schaf shows more of his infrared, dream-flavored Am-ericana imagery, from the Cowpoke Hotel in Nebraska to the Mission Bell Cafe in Ventura.

Certain images jump out for attention amid the mass, including Larry Janss’ “El Santuario,” a shot in an old cathedral, both lucid and mysterious, courtesy of its range of lighting and attention to detail. Sterling Chow’s “Ha Long Bay,” from a Vietnam series, gains strength from a similarly dramatic light palette, and Katherine J. Paley’s beautifully articulated study in light densities portrays a woman in a Greek village.”* “Camera Illuminata,” Art City 2, 31 Peking St., Ventura. Today-Sunday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; ends Sunday. (805) 648-1690.