fun stuff I may or may not get to: July 2014

Operatic
The summer season of the San Francisco Opera reaches almost into mid-July; there are only two chances, right at the very beginning of the month, to catch Showboat (which I strongly recommend), but there are several performances of Madama Butterfly and Traviata. Check out the full calendar here.

The young artists of SF Opera's Merola program perform two operas this summer: there's the first local revival of André Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire, which had its world premiere here in 1998, and then Mozart's Don Giovanni. The Previn is 10 and 12 July and the Mozart 31 July and 2 August, and both are in the Everett Auditorium at 450 Church Street in San Francisco. They also present excerpts from various operas at the Schwabacher Summer Concert, which is 17 July (also in the Everett Auditorium) and 19 July (open air, in the park at the Yerba Buena Center). The Grand Finale will be in the Opera House on 16 August. More information may be found here.

West Edge Opera, now handily performing at the Ed Roberts Campus right at the Ashby BART station, presents three operas: first is the Philip Glass/Allen Ginsberg Hydrogen Jukebox (27 July, and 2 and 8 August), then the Bay Area premiere of Jake Heggie's operatic version of Graham Greene's novel The End of the Affair (3, 7, and 9 August), and then there's also La Bohème (26 July, and 1 and 10 August). Be warned that seating is not assigned, and apparently they want people to get up and walk around during the performances. I want people to stay out of my way during performances, and I hate open seating anyway, so I am dubious about this set-up but hoping to check out at least the Glass/Ginsberg piece (I wanted to hear the Heggie too, but I think I'd better see how I like the deal with the seating before I spend too much on tickets). More information here.

Baroque
The American Bach Soloists present their annual summer festival and academy from 11 to 20 July at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music; this year's theme is an exploration of musical influences on Johann Sebastian Bach and includes a range of music by Buxtehude, Kuhnau, Frederick the Great, and other baroque luminaries up to and including Handel and Bach himself. Likely highlights are performances of Bach's great Mass in B Minor (on 13 and 20 July), Handel's adaptation of Milton, L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato (18 July), and soprano Mary Wilson (who can be heard on ABS's latest CD release) singing Bach, Handel, and Vivaldi (19 July). Get the full schedule and other information here.

Theatrical
Shotgun Players present Shakespeare's great comedy Twelfth Night, which, as you can probably tell from the name of this blog, is close to my heart. You have the chance to check out what they do with it from 9 July to 10 August; details here.

New Music
At the Center for New Music, Lisa Moore plays piano and sings works by Philip Glass, Martin Bresnick, William Gardiner, Brett Dean, Randy Newman, and Frederic Rzewski. That's on the afternoon of 20 July; details here.