Listening Ahead
Our Critics’ Choices of Upcoming Events in the Bay Area
for May 20 – June 2, 2008
Opera
Tale of Redemption
Wagner wrote his remarkable The Flying Dutchman in seven weeks of concentrated labor, in 1841, and always considered it his real artistic awakening. Accustomed as we are to later Wagner, the opera may not seem so revolutionary, but its sea-drenched orchestral music and the emotionally searching main numbers reveal the composer’s vivid dramatic imagination at every step. West Bay Opera provides a chance to see this energetic, youthful work close-up, in a production by David Ostwald, conducted by José Luis Moscovich. Watch out for the two excellent leading ladies, Paula Goodman Wilder and Gail Sullivan, who will sing Senta. Her ballad in the opera’s second scene is the dramatic crux of the whole opera.
May 23, 24, 30, 31, 8 p.m.; May 25, June 1, 2 p.m., Lucie Stern Theatre, Palo Alto, $20-$50, (650) 424-9999, www.wbopera.org. (M.Z.)
Watch on the Rhine
Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen cycle is usually such a big deal that opera houses presenting a new production of it precede and surround the four operas with a plethora of activities: lectures, workshops, symposia, and so on. And yet, shifting attention from the Hamburg production to San Francisco’s own new “American Ring“ reveals slim pickings in preparation for Das Rheingold: There’s a free preview lecture on May 28, and a panel discussion on June 2 (see details below).
Once the Rheingold run takes place, June 3-28, Wagner expert Evan Baker will present an introductory lecture an hour before curtain at each performance in the War Memorial Opera House. Other than that, to prepare, you may want to read stories about director Francesca Zambello’s thoughts on creating the production, reviews of Rheingold at the co-producing Washington Opera, and of course about the opera itself.
Gordon Hawking (Alberich) in the Washington Rheingold
Photo by Karin Cooper
Preview lecture, May 28, noon, San Francisco Main Library Koret Auditorium, 100 Larkin Street; Rheingold dress rehearsal, May 31, 5 p.m., War Memorial Opera House, by invitation only; Insight panel discussion, June 2, 6 p.m., Herbst Theatre, free to donors, $5 for the general public. Rheingold performances: June 3, 6, 14, 8 p.m.; June 19, 7:30 p.m.; June 22, 2 p.m.; June 28, 8 p.m.; (video projection screens will be used on the balcony at the last three performances); $25-$200, (415) 864-3330, www.sfopera.com. (J.G.)
Alberich and the Nibelung
The Turn of the Screw Returns
The San Francisco Lyric Opera is stretching its muscles this month. The company that is associated with the warhorses of Italian repertory, from Mozart to Puccini, has turned to (gasp!) — Benjamin Britten’s The Turn of the Screw. But this opera is a perfect size for them, as it was for Oakland Opera Theater and Sacramento Opera earlier this season. Chamber opera is an underutilized corner of the repertory, but it can offer great rewards in small theaters.
May 30, June 6, 7, 7:30 p.m.; June 1, 2 p.m., Cowell Theater, Fort Mason, San Francisco, $18-$32 (children under 12, free), (800) 919- 8088, www.sflyricopera.org. (M.Z.)
Recital
Lynn Harrell’s Suite Tooth
Lynn Harrell, the great cellist, has recorded the complete Bach Cello Suites, of course. (See this week’s feature.) But that’s no reason not to hear him do the set in live performance. If you’re a Bach aficionado, you know that the suites feature some of Bach’s most inventive music. So why not submerge yourself in them over two evenings?
May 22, 7:30 p.m.; May 23, 8 p.m., Grace Cathedral, $25-$40, (415) 788-7353, www.gracecathedral.org. (M.Z.)
Lynn Harrell
Contemporary
Intricate Inventions
As part of the San Francisco International Arts Festival, Earplay’s upcoming concert features works by composers born outside of the U.S. Peter Maxwell Davies’ rarely performed Ave Maris Stella is paired with works by three modern composers. The U.S. premiere of a work by Hèctor Parra (the 2007 Earplay Donald Aird Memorial Composition Competition winner) shares the program with Christopher Burns’ xerox book, Salvatore Sciarrino’s Lo spazio inverso, and Beat Fürrer’s Presto con fuoco. Mary Chun conducts the usual suspects — Tod Brody, Peter Josheff, Terrie Baune, Ellen Ruth Rose, Thalia Moore, and Karen Rosenak — who are joined this time by other notable Bay Area artists: Dan Reiter, Brenda Tom Vahur, Ann Yi, Eric Zivian, Chris Froh, and Dan Kennedy.
May 29, 7 p.m., Herbst Theatre, San Francisco, $10-$20, (415) 392-4400, www.earplay.org. (C.G.)
Odes to Pablo Neruda
Bring together a poet, a muse, and a composer and it sounds like the perfect occasion for a party. Well, that’s sort of the idea for Adorno’s May concert at the De Young Museum and the wrap-up party that follows. The ensemble will premiere songs set to the work of poet Pablo Neruda by composer Gabriela Lena Frank, and the group is joined once again by Naumburg Award-winning soprano Lucy Shelton, the inspiration for many a modern composer, and the champion of more than 100 premieres. Mario Davidovsky’s Synchronisms No. 9, Pablo Ortiz’ Hipermilonga, and George Crumb’s Madrigals Book I are also on the program. A seminar at the Berkeley Jazzschool on May 27th titled “Finding Music in Neruda” will explore Frank’s new work, and you can listen to samples of Shelton and Adorno performing other works by Frank here. Oh, and that party isn’t just about food and wine: Make your reservation now for the celebration on June 3 at San Francisco home where the group will perform works by John Cage, Arthur Jarvinen, Gavin Bryars, and more. (Tickets for the party are $125.)
May 30, 8 p.m., De Young Museum, San Francisco, (415) 392-4400, www.earplay.org. (C.G.)
Symphony
Aimez-vous Brahms?
Surely that was a rhetorical question in Françoise Sagan’s book title. To quote another, slightly modified, classic: “Nobody doesn’t like Brahms.” And yet, the San Francisco Symphony, after many Beethoven festivals (a pretty good composer, that), has just reached the point of honoring the Great Man of Hamburg with a festival of his own, albeit a short one. There are three programs scheduled. The third remains: Program III: Geistliches Lied, Four Songs for Women’s Chorus, Two Horns, and Harp, and Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem) with soprano Laura Claycomb and baritone Matthias Goerne.
Program III: May 21-24, 8 p.m., Davies Symphony Hall, $25-$125, (415) 864-6000, www.sfsymphony.org. (J.G.)
Black & White Ball (Education Support With an Official Cocktail)
Democracy in fund-raising action: The San Francisco Symphony’s Black & White Ball used a community campaign to vote for a “Build Your Own Ball” campaign. The result of 5,000 ballots: the San Francisco Indie rock band Elephone was picked for opening musical act, S.F. Academy of Art graduate Sara Shepherd was selected to create Ball Chair Patricia Sprincin’s gown for the evening: “a black and white strapless dress featuring a fitted bodice and elegant full skirt,” and — drum roll, please — the vote favored Grey Goose Vodka Orchard Martini as the official cocktail of the Ball. (From the Complete Reporter: It’s the classic Grey Goose Vodka martini augmented with apple cider, maple syrup and cinnamon sugar. Sweet.)
At 8 p.m. Grammy-winner singer-songwriter Seal performs at Davies Hall, and at 9 p.m., the usual multiple-venue, manifold activity begins in the Civic Center, with the bacchanalia planned to run through 1 a.m. Proceeds from the Ball benefit the Symphony’s Adventures in Music education program, now in its 20th year of bringing music to every student in grades 1-5 in all of San Francisco’s public elementary schools.
May 31, 8 p.m., San Francisco Civic Center, $200 and up for party pass, $325 for Seal concert and party, $375-$600 for “Symphonix Bash Beyond the Ball,” $375-$600 for Supper Club tickets, $1,000-$2,500 for Patrons’ Dinner tickets, (415) 864-6000, www.sfsymphony.org. (J.G.)
Chamber Music
Laurel Ensemble
The crackerjack, glamorous, all-female Laurel Ensemble is offering two May concerts featuring Maurice Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro for harp, flute, clarinet, and string quartet; the East Bay premiere of a work James Cohn wrote for the Ensemble, and Brahms’ Quintet for clarinet and string quartet. Violinist Jennifer Ho and harpist Wendy Tamis join the ladies.
May 20, 8 p.m., Berkeley City Club; May 21, 8 p.m., 142 Throckmorton Theatre; $15-$20, (415) 632-1292, www.laurelensemble.org. (C.G.)
Jennifer Ho and Wendy Tamis
Silver Crowden
The Crowden Music Center celebrates its 25th Anniversary by bringing together distinguished artists with close connections to Crowden, to perform works by Bach, Bloch, Brahms, and Schubert. Young students will premiere In Memory of Anne, commissioned by Crowden graduate Matthew Cmiel (’03). More than 100 professional musicians — including such notables as David Abel, George Cleve, Diedre Cooper, Bonnie Hampton, Paul Hersh, Emil Miland, Donald Runnicles, Benjamin Simon, and Julie Steinberg — will take the stage, as well as the Crowden School Orchestra. Crowden faculty, alumni, and friends will join in for the now-traditional grand finale, Leroy Anderson’s Fiddle-Faddle. A “Meet the Artists” reception follows, at the Bancroft Hotel.
May 24, 7 p.m., UC Berkeley’s Hertz Hall, Berkeley, $10-$25, (510) 559-6910, www.crowden.org. (C.G.)
Focile and Clarke
Cal Performances favorite Nuccia Focile will be stopping in Berkeley with her husband, tenor Paul Charles Clarke. The pair will be entertaining admirers in intimate Hertz Hall with a program of operatic and musical theater duets. The Berkeley Symphony Orchestra is conducted by Cal Performances’ chief, Robert Cole.
May 31, 8 p.m., Hertz Hall, Berkeley, $48, (510) 642-9988, www.calperfs.berkeley.edu. (M.Z.)
Choral
Chanticleer
What better way to celebrate its debut 30 years ago in the Mission Dolores than with nine concerts of Mission-era music (from the era of the Spanish settlement) in missions up and down the Camino Real between San Francisco and San Luis Obispo? Knowing this all-male chorus, these performances will be well worth their price in gas getting there.
Through May 29, times and locations vary, $22-$44, (415) 392-4400, www.chanticleer.org. (C.G.)
Songs of Hope and Wonder
Musae, the 12-voice women’s vocal ensemble, closes its fourth season with three concerts that explore Anglo- and African-American folk traditions, featuring shape-note and Shaker hymns, African-American spirituals, and songs from Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. This is the first foray for the “ladies of song” into the history and practices of sacred harp and shape-note singing — the uniquely American genres featuring four-part, a cappella hymns, odes, and anthems. Among the works on the program are Wondrous Love, Sweet By and By, and Joan Szymko’s arrangement of Amazing Grace. The journey into American history continues with spirituals such as Nobody Knows the Trouble I See and Wade in the Water. Celtic melodies, Stephen Hatfield’s arrangement of the Scottish Ballad Geordie (or How the Lady Ann Saved Her Man), and Ryan James Brandau’s setting of An Irish Blessing round out the lineup.
May 21, 8 p.m., Old St. Hilary’s Landmark, Tiburon; $15-$25, (415) 637-1334, www.musae.org. (C.G.)
Musae
Chora Nova
Paul Flight directs Chora Nova in Brahms’ A German Requiem, in the composer’s own arrangement for two pianos. The soloists are soprano Rita Lilly and baritone Jeffrey Fields, and the pianists are Nalini Ghuman and Lino Rivera.
May 24, 8 p.m., First Congregational Church of Berkeley, $10-$18, (415) 392-4400, www.choranova.org. (C.G.)
Women’s Antique Vocal Ensemble
England may not yet have been all-conquering-Britannia in the 16th and 17th centuries, but the music of the period sure rules. The WAVE women, together with the indispensible (and ubiquitous) Katherine Heater on harpsichord and a consort of instrumentalists, do homage to the great tradition through Purcell. What a fantastic way to open the Berkeley Festival and Exhibition.
June 3, 8 p.m., St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Berkeley, $5-$15, (510) 233- 1749, www.wavewomen.org. (M.Z.)
Janos Gereben (janosg@gmail.com) is a regular contributor to San Francisco Classical Voice.
Catherine Getches is managing editor of San Francisco Classical Voice. Her writing has appeared in publications such as The Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Salon.
Michael Zwiebach holds a Ph.D. in music history from UC Berkeley.
©2008 By Janos Gereben, Catherine Getches, Michael Zwiebach, all rights reserved.