Crossing (Musical) Borders

The San Francisco Goethe Institute, at 530 Bush Street, is screening German music films Aug. 29 through Sept. 26, beginning at 7:30 each evening. Admission is free, although a $5 donation is requested. The theme of the series is "Crossing Borders," in both the physical and symbolic senses. The schedule:

• Aug. 29, Fatih Akin's Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul, reviewed briefly here.



• Sept. 5, Andrew Horn's The Nomi Song, about the "most profoundly bizarre" pop/rock/opera countertenor Klaus Nomi, one of the first famous gay artists to die of AIDS.



• Sept. 12, Stefan Schwietert's The Alphorn Story, about the instrument (the film culminates in a sound collage for 16 alphorns).



• Sept. 19, Gitta Gsell's Irène Schweizer, about the Swiss pianist who has blended classical, jazz, and improvisational music.



• Sept. 26, Thomas Riedelsheimer's memorable Touch the Sound, about percussionist Evelyn Glennie, who has performed several times for San Francisco Performances, the Symphony, and, just a few weeks ago, at the Cabrillo Festival.

Ex-Planet Pluto: The Local Angle

A quirky question, true, but let us consider: How will last week's dethroning of Pluto from its place among the planets impact performances of Gustav Holst's The Planets?

The answer comes in several parts. On the whole, there is no impact because Holst — outliving the 1930 discovery of Pluto by four years — had no interest in "updating" his 1916 suite, by far his best-known work. In fact, being more interested in astrology than astronomy, Holst omitted Earth as well, leaving this lineup:

Mars, the Bringer of War
Venus, the Bringer of Peace
Mercury, the Winged Messenger
Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity
Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age
Uranus, the Magician
Neptune, the Mystic

And yet a Pluto movement does exist, thanks to Berkeley Symphony Music Director Kent Nagano. While still in charge of the Hallé orchestra, he commissioned Colin Matthews to write an eighth movement, "Pluto, the Renewer," dedicated to Imogen Holst, the composer's daughter. Nagano conducted the premiere of the extended suite in Manchester in 2000. It is yet unknown if Nagano will comply with the decision of the International Astronomical Union in the future.

Three Tenors Not Enough? Try 10

The exalted trio of Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo, and José Carreras has pretty much petered out by now (only Domingo still performs regularly), so there have been variations on the theme, such as "The Three Sopranos," "Three Mo’ Tenors," and the like. The numerically ultimate (for the time being) group comes from Australia, called "The 10 Tenors." Soon you can "triple" your pleasure and hear them in person: The 10 will perform in the Orpheum Theater this fall, presented by the Shorenstein Hays Nederlander organization.

From its current tour of Germany, the group goes on to London's Royal Albert Hall, then — unexpectedly, after such august venues — to Logan, Utah, arriving in San Francisco for a three-concert appearance Oct. 6-8. Their usual program-opener is the tenor-killer "Di quella pira," from Verdi's Il Trovatore, each of the 10 hitting the high C at the end ... according to the plan. The rest: everything, including folk, opera, pop, Bee Gees, Botany Bay, and Queen. If you think that's too popsy for a tenor, just remember Pavarotti's 1982 Yes, Giorgio. After all these years, it's still etched in memory, one way or — more likely — another.

Arts Council in Limbo?

The Bay Area Business Arts Council appears to be temporarily out of commission — or, least, on an extended hiatus. We tried all phone extensions, e-mail addresses, everything but a homing pigeon (still working on that), but there is no there there, apparently.

Starting the search with the executive director listed on the Council Web site, Naomi Sheridan, we eventually found out that she left for Chicago four months ago. Next came unconfirmed reports of several members of the board of trustees quitting. Apparently, Program Director Rachel Medanic and the rest of the staff also departed. According to a note on the Web site, Board Chair Catherina Paolino is still on the job, but — just like everything else in this item — there was no way to confirm that.

According to the last available IRS 990 report for nonprofit organizations, in fiscal year 2004, the Business Arts Council provided about $150,000 in grants, at a cost of about $200,000 in salaries and expenses. This is not a unique or even highly unusual cost-benefit ratio for such support organizations, but it's nothing to write home about either. The Council has been perhaps best known for its annual awards. In January, top individual honors went to Michael Tilson Thomas (Cyril Magnin Lifetime Achievement), S.F. Opera Director of Finance Michael Simpson (Business Volunteer of the Year), David Perry and Associates (For-Profit Arts Related Business), and Maurice Kanbar (Outstanding Individual Contribution).

Met Honors Hunt Lieberson

The Metropolitan Opera dedicates this season's performances of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice to the memory of Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. The mezzo-soprano, who died on July 3, was to sing the role of Orfeo, which may be sung by either a mezzo or a countertenor. It will be performed by countertenor David Daniels. He will be joined by Lisa Milne (Euridice) and Heidi Grant Murphy (Amor). Met Music Director James Levine will conduct and Mark Morris will stage the new production.

S.F. Girls Chorus Season

The San Francisco Girls Chorus' 2006-07 concert season features a return to the organization's exploration of Venetian Baroque music, new commissions of American folk songs, and a program dedicated to the marriage of poetry and music in the choral tradition.

The chorus is now in its new permanent home, the Kanbar Center for the Performing Arts, neighboring the Symphony and Opera and just a block away from the S.F. Conservatory's new home.

The Oct. 20 season-inaugural concert, "Magic Strings," takes place in the Calvary Presbyterian Church, San Francisco, and explores the harmony of treble voices and stringed instruments. The group will present Fauré's Ave verum and Eric Whitacre's Five Hebrew Songs, plus newly commissioned arrangements of American folk songs and works including the Chinese pipa.

The Chorus' second concert is "Voices of Hope and Peace," Dec. 8 in the Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Church, and on Dec. 12 in Davies Symphony Hall. This program includes works by Ralph Vaughan Williams, 18th century Venetian composer Baldassarre Galuppi, Johann Sebastian Bach, and Zoltán Kodály. The season concludes with "The Poet Sings" on June 3 in San Francisco's First Unitarian Universalist Church, featuring works from the Middle Ages to the 21st century, by Hildegard von Bingen, Shakespeare, Blake, and Dickinson, set to music by Britten, Vaughan Williams, and contemporary composers.

Opera San José: We're in the Money!

Irene Dalis' Opera San José opens its 23rd season next month with a rare and enviable record: It's still in the black, going like the Energizer Bunny for nearly a quarter century without a deficit. Last year, the company's second season in the California Theatre was particularly challenging, called by Dalis "a nail-biter."

In an account that was unusually open and candid (for an executive, not for this always outspoken lady), Dalis said, "As the final curtain drew closed, I warned our board of trustees that we might be facing the unthinkable red ink. We had expected the second season to be a bit more difficult than the extraordinarily successful inaugural season in 2003-2004. Was it ever! Our first two productions last season — the company premiere of The Crucible and then Verdi's A Masked Ball — simply didn't draw audiences the way we had hoped.

"We knew that subscription renewals couldn't sustain the pace of the previous season, but we were discouraged by just how weak they were. Although we were diligent in our fund-raising efforts, corporate contributions were relatively lackluster. Ticket sales picked up considerably, however, with our last two productions — the hugely popular La Bohème and Don Giovanni. And as usual, what really saved us were the strength of our individual donations and our absolute determination to save money whenever possible.

"It also didn't hurt that I turned 80 last season and was treated to a very successful birthday gala fund-raiser! I wish I could do that every year!"

The company opens the season on Sept. 9 with Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, conducted by George Cleve. In November, it's Rossini's The Barber of Seville, then Verdi's La traviata in February. The season concludes with Puccini's Madama Butterfly in April.

Soprano at the Fringe

Marcelle Dronkers — praised highly here and elsewhere for her Pocket Opera Lady Macbeth, Agrippina, and other leading roles — is undertaking a world premiere in an unprecedented context. She will be featured in wordless arias in the first run of cruel & unusual: a provocation of short plays on TORTURE, at the upcoming San Francisco Fringe Festival. The Fringe, a celebration of "uncensored theater," is famous for trying "everything," but this will be probably its first classical-music-oriented show.

Erin Blackwell, director of the four short plays that make up the show, says, "It's a difficult subject. We have planned soaring, wordless arias between the short plays, to help uplift and provide emotional texture for the audience. The plays are a direct response to the U.S. policy on torture, in recent headlines. But the plays are personal and focus on people, rather than on an abstract concept or political theme." The work will be performed at the EXIT Stage Left, 156 Eddy Street, Sept. 6-15.

Rutenberg Appointment

Vocal coach and accompanist Craig Rutenberg, a frequent visitor here for San Francisco Performances vocal recitals, has been named as new director of music administration at the Metropolitan Opera. He succeeds John Fisher, who left the Met in the spring to become general director of the Welsh National Opera. Rutenberg, who reports to Music Director James Levine, will oversee the Met’s assistant conductors, rehearsal pianists, and prompters.

This marks a return for Rutenberg, who worked at the Met as an assistant conductor in 1986, and in 1989 was made head of the music staff. He left the Met in 1992 and has since become a prominent accompanist to such singers as Frederica von Stade, Sumi Jo, Patricia Schuman, Olaf Bär, Ben Heppner, Christine Brewer, and Thomas Hampson.