It's (almost) November: insert jokes here about Thanksgiving and turkeys. . . .
The Aurora Theater has a fun-looking new adaptation of Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale, starting 11 November through 18 December.
The Cutting Ball's Hidden Classics series kicks off its Strindberg-centered year with Play Strindberg, Durrenmatt's adaptation of The Dance of Death. Pelleas and Melisande (Maeterlinck's original play) also continues through 27 November, and you should go see it.
The San Francisco Symphony presents Michael Tilson Thomas conducting Brahms's German Requiem with soloists Kyle Ketelsen and Jane Archibald on 17-20 November, along with Schütz's "Ich bin ein rechter Weinstock" from Geistliche Chormusik and Schoenberg's Five Pieces for Orchestra (1909 Version); the Schütz and Schoenberg replace the previously announced world premiere from Sofia Gubaidulina.
The San Francisco Opera presents Handel's Xerxes with Susan Graham and David Daniels and Bizet's Carmen with Thiago Arancam and Paulo Szot (check the schedule for your Carmen, since Kate Aldrich is no longer singing all performances).
Cal Performances offers (among other things) Davitt Moroney on harpsichord playing Bach's complete French suites, 13 November; the Gate Theater of Dublin alternating Beckett's Endgame and Watt, 17-20 November; New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast in conversation, 19 November; and Eric Owens in a recital of yet-to-be-announced music, 20 November.
Magnificat presents Jephthe and other works by Carissimi, 11-13 November.
San Francisco Performances presents Marc-Andre Hamelin on 2 November playing the Berg Sonata, Op. 1, the Liszt Sonata in B minor, and several of his own works; and Alexander Melnikov on 12 November (starting at 1:30) playing the complete Shostakovich 24 Preludes and Fugues.
The San Francisco Conservatory of Music presents Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel and Menotti's The Telephone on 12-13 November (free but reservations required; call the Box Office at 415/503-6275). The next BluePrint new-music concert is on 19 November and features works by Philippe Hersant. And on 30 October (yes, wrong month, but I found out about this too late for last month's list) there is an evening concert of music by Nicholas Pavkovic, including his chamber opera Sredni Vashtar, based on the short story by Saki.
Sadly for me, I will not be going to New York to experience Satyagraha at the Met.
4 comments:
Satyagraha actually works better on a recording than live so don't be too sad. And I'm thrilled that the Sofia G. premiere has been postponed YET AGAIN, because that means I don't have to sit through that hideously boring German Requiem just to hear her piece.
And yes, we all need to go to Sredni Vishtar on Sunday at the Conservatory if we want our cultural credentials taken seriously.
This production of Satyagraha is supposed to be inventive and quite spectacular. There's a livecast but I rarely go to those so I'm hoping for a DVD release. I didn't realize you'd seen Satyagraha live -- such secrets you have!
You may all commence not taking my cultural credentials seriously, since I might have a conflict Sunday and therefore may not be at the Sunday night performance.
There was a touring version of "Satyagraha" that came to the San Francisco Opera one summer in the early 1980s, and the best part of the production was hearing the original Gandhi, Douglas Perry, who's on the CBS recording. There's something about his voice and his performance that takes the music to a whole other plane. The rest of the production was quasi-ritualistic, boring and silly.
And of course I would never think of questioning your Cultural Credentials, whether you make it to Sredni Vishtar or not (I will be there In Person, as they say). You're the Greenwich Mean Time of Cultural Credentials, for christ's sake.
I had no idea there had been a touring version or that you'd seen it! I probably would have boasted of hearing it, since I love that opera. (I was in Boston at the time.) I'm particularly envious that you got to hear the original Gandhi live since as you said his voice (particularly in his final aria) really brings the whole thing to a higher level. Though I think you're right in saying it's an opera that is probably less dependent on live performance than many others, since it is quasi-ritualistic and not so dependent on interaction among the characters (though if you're looking for interactions among the characters the staging of many standard operas is sorely lacking).
I am kind of -- well, what's the word? there's that defeated sadness when one has to acknowledge reality -- about probably missing Sredni Vashtar, especially since my afternoon concert in Berkeley will most likely end in enough time to allow me to get to SF, but I have to work the next day (uh, the next five days) and there are already several late nights coming up, so . . . defeated sadness.
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