17 June 2013

fun stuff I may or may not get to: July 2013

This seems like a slow month, even for a July, but these all look worth the time and trouble. I could  use a slow month or two anyway; besides the perpetual backlog, I'm still digesting the fantastic Ojai North concerts that Cal Performances put on last weekend.

Shotgun Players present Sea of Reeds, a new monologue by Josh Kornbluth, 2 July to 4 August.

The San Francisco Silent Film Festival runs 18 - 21 July at the Castro Theater; I was  going to list highlights but I'd just end up listing everything, so check it all out here.

American Bach Soloists presents its annual summer festival of concerts and lectures, 12 - 21 July at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music; highlights include Handel's Esther and Bach's Mass in B minor; complete schedule here.

West Edge Opera presents Britten's The Turn of the Screw, 20, 26, and 28 July.

San Francisco Opera ends its season early in the month, but you can see future stars of opera in the Merola production of Britten's Rape of Lucretia on 11 and 13 (matinee) July, in the Everett Auditorium at 450 Church Street in San Francisco.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

One of the silent film descriptions includes, "Our vote for the best silent Soviet comedy ever." I'm just wondering how much competition there was.
V

Patrick J. Vaz said...

Actually, quite a bit. But those films have been difficult to see until very recently. Flicker Alley has been releasing some. There was a VHS series a few years ago but I think most of those were not transferred to DVD. The early Soviet films were wild, back before "socialist realism" was mandated. They were also trying to compete with Hollywood, so they'd make serials, science fiction, romances, etc. And of course many silent films from all over have been lost. But, indeed, most of what we have seen of Soviet silent cinema is more along the lines of Battleship Potemkin, which isn't really chock-full-o-laffs.

Axel Feldheim said...

Let me know if you make to the Silent Film Festival. I'm looking forward to it myself. I've already committed to Merola's Schwabacher concert, otherwise I would love to see the late Louise Brooks film on opening night. The festival has shown Soviet comedies before, & I'm always impressed their sophistication & acting.

Patrick J. Vaz said...

I was just looking rather wistfully this morning at the Silent Film Festival brochure. I'm always tempted by tragic clown stories (The Golden Clown, Friday night), but I don't know if I'm going to make it there. But I'll let you know if I do -- what's the best way to reach you? I don't have your e-mail address. (Mine is in my blog profile.)

I'll be skipping Safety Last, though -- I saw it years ago and by the end I was shaking and drenched with sweat -- not the movie to see if you have a thing about heights.

I'm missing the Merola concerts too, I guess. The invitation came when I was going through a procedure on my eye (it's back to normal now, which is not the same thing as it's all OK) and so I never did anything about it. So . . . kind of a performance-slow summer for me.