San Francisco Classical Voice

Program 2, May 27-June 3 (in the same locations, but also including a concert in de Young Museum's Koret Auditorium), offers the music of Ruth Crawford Seeger, Julia Wolfe, Linda Catlin Smith, Sally Beamish, and Teresa Carreño, all about motherhood (and nary a piece about apple pie). The first two are Americans, Smith is Canadian, Beamish works in the U.K., and Carreño was a 19th century Venezuelan composer.

Speaking of rampant internationalism, Del Sol's many collaborations include performances of Hyo-shin Na's work in the Music on the Hill Concert Series (Oct. 22, St. Kevin's Church, S.F.); of Kui Dong and Duo Huang, with Melody of China, in the Festival of New American Music (Nov. 11, CSU, Sacramento); Concerts4Kids (Nov. 12, Mountain View); Other Minds Festival XII (Dec. 8-10) — including works by Per Nørgård, Maja Ratkje, Peter Sculthorpe, and Ronald Bruce — and many others.

On the road, the Bay Area's foursome of new music go to Canada next week, for a concert at Soirée Lane in Sooke, British Columbia, with Jack Body, Per Nørgård, Arturo Salinas, R. Murray Schafer, Ron Bruce Smith, and Astor Piazzolla. They will also perform concerts in Monterrey and elsewhere in Mexico with the music of Arturo Salinas; then they have a residency at Northeastern University, performing George Antheil, Marc Blitzstein, Ruth Crawford Seeger, and Ronald Bruce Smith. Del Sol is taking the music of Curtis Cacioppo, Richard Hermann, and Hyo-shin Na to a composers' symposium in Albuquerque; then in the same city's chamber-music festival, they'll play works by George Antheil, José Evangelista, Gabriela Lena Frank, and Lou Harrison. How do they do it?! Not with (or even for) money, that's for sure.

Death in Venice at the Zeum

First, there was Thomas Mann's 1912 novel, then Benjamin Britten's 1973 opera, now the American Conservatory Theater is presenting the West Coast premiere of a theatrical adaptation by Giles Havergal and Robert David MacDonald. Havergal performs the work — to a rich and varied musical accompaniment — at the Zeum Theater, Sept. 7-24.

Opera Populism Spreads to the Big Apple

What with the free simulcasts from San Francisco Opera and General Director David Gockley's omnipresent selling of the company, it's interesting to note that the august Metropolitan Opera is joining the ranks of opera-for-just-plain-folks. For the first time in 126 years, the Met is offering a free dress rehearsal: On Sept. 22, the doors will be open to all for the rehearsal of film director Anthony Minghella's new staging of Puccini's Madama Butterfly. The production, conducted by James Levine, opens the Met's season on September 25, with soprano Cristina Gallardo-Domâs in the title role, Marcello Giordani as Pinkerton, Dwayne Croft as Sharpless, and Maria Zifchak as Suzuki.

Other free events on Sept. 22 will include a panel discussion with cast and production team members, an onstage tour, a chance to meet some of the creators of the new production, and a look at production sketches and set models (as well as a peek at the new Arnold and Marie Schwartz Gallery, in the lobby). The announcement says the free events aim to "present opera as a more approachable art form ... part of new general manager Peter Gelb's plan to reinvigorate the Met and make it a vital and more accessible cultural destination."

Speaking of populism, KDFC-FM may be overdoing it. The station is advertising its broadcast tonight of a San Francisco Symphony concert by touting Beethoven's "toe-tapping Symphony No. 7." Yeehaw!

Life on the Orchestral Gypsy Circuit

Following up on last week's "Whose Orchestra Is It Anyway?" column item, principal trumpet Bill Harvey writes: "Instead of describing the Western Opera Theater musicians as a pickup orchestra, I'd put it in the same category as the Bay Area's regional orchestras (California, Oakland, Marin, Santa Rosa, etc.). Before I joined Opera San Jose in 1997, WOT was the number-one contributor to my annual income — more than either the California or Modesto symphonies, whom I was also playing with at the time. After 1997, Opera San Jose was the best gig, with WOT in second place. Since WOT was the biggest job for many of us, the loss of work was quite significant, especially among players who, like myself, earn most of their income from performing."

Miami's MTT-Gehry Concert Hall

Michael Tilson Thomas' New World Symphony is getting a spectacular 700-seat performance space and music laboratory in Miami, right next to the orchestra's current home, Lincoln Theater, a rather humble venue in a converted neighborhood movie theater.

The architect: Frank Gehry (of Disney Concert Hall, among other newsmaking buildings). The Miami Herald reports that the new facility is "of both technological and acoustical sophistication, providing space not just for rehearsals and performances but also for recording and Webcasting. Gehry and New World founder and artistic director Michael Tilson Thomas — two restless perfectionists — have honed and refined this closely guarded design over the past several years, seeking to create a performance facility that truly breaks into the future."