Butterflies Are Free at Concert Theater

Embracing a theme of metamorphosis, 300 monarch butterflies will be released into the night sky tonight for the Ventura Chamber Music Festival’s Transfigured Night.

“Of course, music like Schumann’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in A Minor, Opus 54, and Beethoven’s Fantasy in C for Piano, Chorus and Orchestra, Opus 80, have the power to transform,” said Larry Matheney, co-chairman of the event.

The evening will mark the reopening of the Ventura Theater--as the New Ventura Theatre--after more than a $1 million in renovations.

The 300 butterflies will take wing following a 7 p.m. ribbon-cutting by city officials. The colorful creatures are indigenous to Ventura and are being donated by the Butterfly Celebration, a division of Insect Lore, which has been in business since 1969. The firm has released about 5 million butterflies around the world.

“These butterflies, which are the species Painted Lady, are the most populous in the world,” said John White, marketing director for Insect Lore. “We have authorization from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to raise the butterflies for educational purposes and to release them into indigenous areas for events such as this.”

Santiago Rodriguez, the 120-voice Master Chorale and the Ventura Chamber Orchestra conducted by Burns Taft will perform at the concert. Transfigured Night begins at 8 p.m. at the theater, 26 S. Chestnut St. Tickets are $29 and $34.