Whether you’re dealing with lion- or lamb-like weather, March offers some good operatic and musical picks on both coasts (and a little bit the Midwest).

In Chicago, Haymarket Opera Company continues its season with Luigi Rossi’s Oratorio per la Settimana Santa, the third of their annual Lenten oratorios. Rossi’s work, written ~1640, is one of the earliest known Passions. Craig Trompeter takes on double duty as bass violinist and music director, leading a chamber orchestra and singers Carrie Henneman Shaw as The Virgin Mary, Mark Haddad as Pilate, and Demons Kaitlin Foley, Drew Mintner, William Dwyer, and Mischa Bouvier.

Performances happen March 8 at 5:45pm at The Chicago Temple (77 W Washington St.), and March 10 at 5pm at Church of the Atonement (5749 N Kenmore Ave.). Tickets start at $10 - click here for details, or read the program book here.

March 16, 8pm at Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall, the National Chorale presents the New York premiere of Angela Rice’s Easter oratorio, Thy Will Be Done. Artistic Director Everett McCorvey leads soloists Gregory Turay, Anthony Clark Evans, Catherine Martin, Kevin Thompson, Kenneth Overton, and Rebecca Farley.

The National Chorale has performed for 50 seasons at David Geffen Hall, along with concert tours, concerts for young people, and in vocal music educations programs in NYC public schools. Tickets for Thy Will Be Done start at $30, and are available at nationalchorale.com or (212) 333-5333.

Also in New York is the city’s premiere of Johann Adolf Hasse’s Piramo e Tisbe, presented by The Little OPERA Theatre of NY, March 22-25 at Baruch Performing Arts Center. Hasse’s opera, set to a libretto by Marco Coltellini after Ovid’s Metamorphoses, tells the proto-Romeo-and-Juliet story of doomed lovers and the wall that separates them. Elliot Figg conducts, and LOTNY Artistic Director Philip Schneidman directs. Tickets are $35, and available here.

On the opposite coast, Long Beach Opera tells a “fantastical tale of the human heart” with The Invention of Morel, March 17-25 at the Beverly O’Neill Theater, Long Beach, CA. The opera by composer Stewart Copeland and librettist Jonathan Moore is based on the novel by Adolfo Bioy Casares, La invención de Morel. An escaped fugitive ends up on a strange island, falls in love, is abandoned, and begins to unravel before meeting the mad scientist Morel. Ticket options are plentiful, so click here for details.

Finally, Los Angeles’ newest not-for-profit opera company, Hawkmore Lyric Opera, presents its inaugural production, Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi. Performances happen at the intimate Hudson Backstage Theater in Hollywood, March 16-25, featuring two casts of up-and-coming singers. Carson Gilmore directs. Tickets start at $15, available here.

Happy listening, readers!