Opera Parallèle and SFJAZZ present Birds & Balls, a world premiere opera double bill of two short, comedic one-act operas, Vinkensport, or The Finch Opera and Balls, that are perfectly paired for an evening of immersive entertainment and wonderful music.
Birds & Balls includes Balls, a world premiere one- act opera by 2024 Oscar nominated and Emmy- and GRAMMY-winning composer Laura Karpman and renowned New York Times columnist Gail Collins dramatizing the famed 1973 “battle of the sexes” tennis game between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs. The celebrated match (which was viewed by ninety million people worldwide and which last year celebrated its 50- year anniversary) changed not only the perception and treatment of women in sports, but significantly advanced the women’s rights movement. To capture the thrill of the era, Stage & Creative Director, Brian Staufenbiel turns SF JAZZ into a virtual arena, with a live operatic tennis match, immersive film projections, fashion and media social artifacts, and character time -travel (where public figures such as Larry King and Howard Cosell are joined by American Suffragette Susan B. Anthony). According to Karpman and Collins, “[We] decided to tell the story in one act, using an onstage tennis match as the main narrative device. Live-cued samples of bouncing tennis balls are embedded in the score, and portions of the libretto were sourced from a transcript of the ’73 broadcast.”
The evening’s double bill also includes the West Coast premiere (and world premiere of a new orchestration) of Vinkensport, or The Finch Opera, a comedic one-act opera inspired by the titular Flemish sport, also known as Finch-Sitting, from 2024 Grammy Award nominated composer David T. Little and Pulitzer Prize-winning librettist Royce Vavrek. Vinkensport sees a motley assortment of contestants battle it out to see who has the most melodious bird. As they compete for the greatest number of "susk-e-wiets" over the course of an hour, the motivations and secrets of the finches’ trainers are revealed, as is their complex relationship to their birds, the sport, and themselves.
Under the baton of Opera Parallèle respected conductor Nicole Paiement, composers David T. Little and Laura Karpman unprecedented collaboration allowed for their respective operas to be seamlessly performed by a single orchestra. A talented cast of new voices and returning OP faces in repertory are featured, staged by the innovative, immersive-world building of Creative Director Brian Staufenbiel. Opera Parallèle brings these two one act operas together to bring joy and fun to the stage in their first return to SFJAZZ since the triumphant 2022 production of La Belle et la Bete.
Read more about the opera, the creatives, and cast at https://operaparallele.org/birdsandballs/
Performance is 1 hour and 30 minutes for both operas, with no intermission, sung in English with English supertitles.
Performance times:
Friday, April 5, 2024 7.30 PM
Saturday, April 6, 2 PM & 7.30 PM
Sunday, April 7, 2 PM
Performance venue: SFJAZZ Center’s Miner Auditorium, San Francisco - 201 Franklin St, San Francisco, CA 94102
Tickets
Tickets are $40 – $185 for April 5 & 7 performances; $50 – $205 for April 6 performance. Tickets available via the SFJAZZ box office.