fun stuff I may or may not get to: October 2017

September is the traditional start of the "performance season" but this is the month that's looking jam-packed.

Theatrical
Crowded Fire Theater presents Christopher Chen's A Tale of Autumn, directed by Mina Morita, from 14 September to 7 October at the Potrero Stage.

The annual SF Olympians Festival returns to the Exit Stage Left, where from 4 to 21 October you can see plays (some short, some evening-length) based on ancient legends (this year the Festival has expanded beyond Greece to Egypt and Mesopotamia) around water and watery places.

Cal Performances presents Parisian troupe Théâtre de la Ville in State of Siege, an adaptation of Camus's novel La peste (The Plague), an examination of political panic seen as a contagious disease. (The performance is in French, with English surtitles.) That's in Zellerbach Hall on 21 and 22 (matinee) October.

Operatic
Composer Jake Heggie will give a Master Class at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music on 4 October. Voice students Paige Stinnett, Elizabeth Dickerson, Andrew Ross, Jessie Barnett, and student pianist Kevin Korth will perform some of Heggie's works and then, I assume, listen to his thoughts.

In preparation for the world premiere next month of the new John Adams / Peter Sellars opera, Girls of the Golden West, San Francisco Opera is presenting a day-long symposium on 28 October, during which you can explore the history, culture, and music of California during the Gold Rush as well as hear from the creators of the opera. There are a number of other ancillary events planned around this world premiere, including Opera Director Matthew Shilvock in conversation with opera director Peter Sellars at the Commonwealth Club on 30 October.

And if you're interested in new operas you might want to check out a workshop production of the first half of Abraham in Flames at the Wilsey Opera Center on 3 and 4 October. Based on her youth in Tehran, creator / librettist Niloufar Talebi has worked with composer Aleksandra Vrebalov and director Ray Rallo to tell a tale combining autobiography, Iranian poetry, and biblical stories. The workshop will feature Merola alums Nikki Einfeld and Brian Thorsett, along with the Young Women's Choral Projects of San Francisco and the Living Earth Show. Tickets are available here.

Orchestral
Joana Carneiro leads the Berkeley Symphony in its first program of the season on 5 October in Zellerbach Hall; you can hear them play the Beethoven 1, the world premiere of William Gardiner's Cello Concerto with soloist Tessa Seymour, Shostakovich's Jazz Suite, and Fearful Symmetries by John Adams. They repeat the program the next day at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

On 14 October, you can hear the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, led by Music Director Dawn Harms in the Brahms Festival Overture, Barber's Knoxville 1915 and "Ain't It a Pretty Night" from Carlisle Floyd's Susannah with soprano Julie Adams, Lou Harrison's Song of Queztecoatl, and Amy Beach's Gaelic Symphony.

Cal Performances presents its annual orchestra residency, and this time it's the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, with music director Riccardo Muti, leading three different programs from 13 to 15 October in Zellerbach Hall.

The Oakland Symphony opens its season under conductor and Music Director Michael Morgan with the Beethoven 5 and the Shostakovich 15 on 20 October at the Paramount Theater.

On 28 October, you can hear two different concerts from the Korean National Gugak Center's Creative Traditional Orchestra: the first, at 3:00 PM, features contemporary music and the second, at 8:00 PM, features traditional folk and court music. Both are in Zellerbach Hall and presented by Cal Performances. (Gugak means national music.)

The San Francisco Symphony has a special Oktoberfest concert on 3 October, led by Christian Reif, with soloists Julie Adams (soprano), Daniela Mack (mezzo-soprano), David Blalock (tenor), and Edward Nelson (baritone). The chorus and orchestra will be performing various drink- and Vienna-related numbers. I believe beer is involved. Maybe I'm losing my mind, but this actually looks really fun.

The San Francisco Symphony also has Krzysztof Urbański conducting Penderecki's Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima, the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with soloist Augustin Hadelich, and the Shostakovich 10 on 6 - 8 October; Urbański returns on 19 - 21 October to lead Mozart's Overture to The Magic Flute, Dvořák's Cello Concerto with soloist Sol Gabetta, and Lutosławski's Concerto for Orchestra. [12 October update: Sol Gabetta has had to withdraw from the performances for family reasons, so Joshua Roman will now be the soloist in the Dvořák.] On 13 - 15 October, Jakub Hrůša conducts Dvořák's Carnival Overture, Mozart's Piano Concerto 17 with soloist Piotr Anderszewski, Smetana's Vltava (The Moldau) from Má Vlast, and Janáček's Taras Bulba. And finally on 26 - 28 October Osmo Vänskä conducts Sibelius's Finlandia, the Sibelius Violin Concerto with soloist Baiba Skride, and the Shostakovich 1.

On 21 and 22 October you can hear Christian Reif conducting the San Francisco Conservatory of Music orchestra in Vagaries by Peter Engelbert (the Highsmith Competition Winner), the Shostakovich Piano Concerto 2 with soloist Puripat Paesaroch, and Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances. (The Highsmith Composition Award is given annually to a student or recent graduate of the Conservatory.)

On 27 October you can hear One Found Sound performing Bach, Dvořák, and Stravinsky at Monument SF, which is at 140 9th Street in San Francisco.

On 31 October, Zubin Mehta conducts the Israel Philharmonic at Davies Hall in Amit Poznansky's Footnote (a suite from the movie), the Mozart 36, the Linz, and the Schubert Symphony in C Major, The Great.

Vocalists
San Francisco Performances presents the delightful mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard and pianist John Arida in an all-Bernstein program at Herbst Theater on 1 October.

On 15 October, Lieder Alive! presents bass Kirk Eichelberger and pianist Marek Ruszczynski in Hugo Wolf's Mörike Lieder and Goethe Lieder and Mahler's aus des Knaben Wunderhorn.

San Francisco Performances has the always adventurous soprano Dawn Upshaw, pianist Gilbert Kalish, and the Sō  Percussion Ensemble performing Bryce Dessner's Music for Wood and Strings, George Crumb's Winds of Destiny and the Bay Area premiere of Narrow Sea by Caroline Shaw at Herbst Theater on 26 October.

Students from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music will perform music of vaudeville and early Broadway, including songs by Kern, Berlin, Gershwin, Rodgers & Hart, and others, on 29 October; the performance is free.

Choral
The San Francisco Girls Chorus, led by Valéri Saint-Agathe, presents a mostly Philip Glass program on 25 October in Herbst Theater, with some interesting repertory: accompanied by Michael Riesman and Andrew Sterman from the Philip Glass Ensemble, the chorus will perform selections from Einstein on the Beach, The Photographer, Koyaanisqatsi, and Hydrogen Jukebox. Since the concert is in celebration of the composer's 80th birthday, the Chorus (presumably Music Director Saint-Agathe) had the witty idea of launching the program with other composers born in '37s: Dietrich Buxtehude (1637), Johann Michael Haydn (1737), and Mily Balakirev (1837).

The Second Annual San Francisco Festival of Russian Choral Music will take place this month, featuring the Slavyanka Russian Chorus led by its Artistic Director Irina Shachneva, along with other Slavic choral groups, Highlighting works from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as well as works from ancient Russian folk and liturgical traditions, the first concert will be on 15 October at St Mark's Episcopal in Berkeley, the second on 20 October at Star of the Sea Church in San Francisco, and the third on 22 October at the Mission Dolores Basilica in San Francisco.

Ragnar Bohlin's Cappella SF kicks off its season with Music Through Ten Centuries, from St Hildegard von Bingen down to the present day; you can hear them 28 October at St Andrew's Episcopal in Saratoga or 29 October at the Mission Dolores Basilica in San Francisco.

Chamber Music
San Francisco Performances presents the JACK Quartet, joined by cellist Joshua Roman, in works by Gesualdo (arranged by Ari Streisfeld), John Zorn, Amy Williams, Jefferson Friedman, and Roman himself, at Herbst Theater on 13 October.

Cal Performances presents cellist Anssi Karttunen and pianist Nicolas Hodges in works by Beethoven and Brahms, as well as the US premieres of Fling by Ashkan Behzadi and Slackline by Pascal Dusapin and the world premiere of Aquaria by Sean Shepherd (the Dusapin and Shepherd pieces are Cal Performances co-commissions). That's 29 October in Hertz Hall.

Members of the San Francisco Symphony perform two different chamber music programs up at the Florence Gould Theater at the Legion of Honor: on 22 October, violinist Alexander Barantschik, pianist Anton Nel, and cellist Peter Wyrick will play piano trios by Brahms and Shostakovich; and on 29 October a chamber ensemble will play works by Roussel, George Crumb, and Dvořák.

Early / Baroque Music
The California Bach Society, led by Paul Flight, will perform J S Bach's Missa Brevis and Cantata 21 on 20 October at St Mark's Lutheran in San Francisco, 21 October at All Saints' Episcopal in Palo Alto, and 22 October at First Congregational in Berkeley.

The San Francisco Early Music Society presents the Aulos Ensemble in a program exploring Handel & His World, which will include selections from some of the German, Italian, and English composers that influenced Handel (such as Telemann and Purcell) as well as Handel himself; that's 20 October at First Presbyterian in Palo Alto, 21 October at St John's Presbyterian in Berkeley, and 22 October at St Mark's Lutheran in San Francisco.

Modern / Contemporary Music
Philharmonia Baroque doesn't usually appear in this category, but they are opening their season with the American premiere of a co-commission written for their period instruments: The Judas Passion, a subject with obvious links to the baroque Passion tradition. The music is by Sally Beamish and the libretto by David Harsent; Nicholas McGegan conducts, with soloists Mary Bevan (soprano), Brenden Gunnell (tenor), and Roderick Williams (baritone). The program also includes Telemann's Tafelmusik, Suite No 1 in E minor. You can hear the performances 4 October at Bing Concert Hall in Palo Alto, 6 October at Herbst Theater in San Francisco, or 7 and 8 October at First Congregational in Berkeley.

San Francisco Performances presents the Kronos Quartet, Youth Speaks, and the Living Earth Show in Echoes, a program combining spoken-word performances and new music in an examination of how San Francisco has been changing. That's 7 October in Herbst Theater.

The Left Coast Chamber Ensemble begins its season with A Garland for Weinberg, a concert celebrating Mieczyslaw Weinberg with a performance of his Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, along with Krzysztof Penderecki's Leaves of an Unwritten Diary and the world premiere of two tributes to Weinberg by Julie Herndon and Stephen Blumberg; that's 8 October at the Berkeley Hillside Club and 9 October at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

The San Francisco Contemporary Music Players launch their season on 21 October at the Taube Atrium Theater with a program featuring the west coast premiere of Postlude à l'Épais by Philippe Leroux, the world premiere of Procession Time by Nicole Mitchell, and Schnee by Hans Abrahamsen. At 4:00 there is an open dress rehearsal of the Mitchell piece, followed from 4:30 to 5:20 by a talk with Mitchell facilitated by SFCMP Artistic Director Steven Schick, and both those events are free and open to the public. If you have a ticket, you may hear a pre-concert discussion with Schick and the performers, followed by the concert itself at the sensible start time of 7:30 with a 9:00 post-concert party.

As always, the Center for New Music is chockablock with interesting stuff; some things that jump out at me are an evening of art songs by Clara Schumann, Libby Larsen, Emma Logan, Julie Barwick, and Rita Zhang, performed by soprano Winnie Nieh and pianist Paul Dab on 6 October; the Siroko Duo (flutists Victoria Hauk and Jessie Nucho) with three world premieres by Nick Benavides, Emily Shisko, and Michael Kropf, on 13 October; Aki Tsuyuko and Ippei Matsui with piano, electronics, and projected live drawing, on 15 October; and the Bottesini Project on 21 October – but check out the whole schedule as well.

Keyboards & Strings
The San Francisco Symphony presents pianist George Li in recital on 8 October in Davies Hall, playing Haydn, Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, and Liszt.

The San Francisco Symphony presents organist Nathan Laube in recital on 22 October in Davies Hall, playing works by Jongen, Mendelssohn, JS Bach, Roger-Ducasse, and Duruflé.

Pianists Stephen Bailey, Michael Boyd, Daniel Glover, Machiko Kobialka, Jeffrey LaDeur, Gwendolyn Mok, Robert Schwartz, Sandra Wright Shen, and William Wellborn gather on 22 October under the auspices of Old First Concerts to celebrate the birthday of Franz Liszt.

The San Francisco Symphony presents pianist Daniil Trifonov in a program including works by Mompou, Schumann, Grieg, Barber, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and Chopin in Davies Hall on 30 October.

Talking
Cal Performances presents long-time friends Simpsons creator Matt Groening and artist of the comic strip Lynda Barry in conversation, with each other and then with the audience, at Zellerbach Hall on 7 October.

Cal Performances presents expert story-teller Garrison Keillor on 23 October in Zellerbach Hall.

Dance
Cal Performances presents ODC/Dance in boulders and bones in Zellerbach Hall on 11 October.

Cal Performances presents Dorrance Dance, Michelle Dorrance's nouveau tap troupe, in Zellerbach Hall on 27 October.

Cinematic
A Chantal Akerman retrospective is running at the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive from 24 September to 29 October.

This looks like a fun way to spend Halloween: the 1931 Bela Lugosi Dracula will be presented with the score by Philip Glass, performed by the Kronos Quartet as well as Glass himself on keyboards. Although SF Jazz is putting on the show, it is in Oakland at the beautiful Paramount Theater.

Haiku 2017/273

grey morning quiet
at least for a little while
I get up, still tired

Haiku 2017/272

look out that window
those amethyst skies don't care
what you are feeling

Friday photo 2017/39

street lamp & flower baskets in late afternoon, Copley Square, Boston, June 2017

Haiku 2017/271

those leaves turning red
move me to a different place
before I walk on

Haiku 2017/270

mangy yellow dog
wandering the empty tracks
sniffing at the weeds

Haiku 2017/269

the sun is too hot
waste bins are overflowing
pungent smell of fish

Haiku 2017/268

withering slowly
leaves hanging on for dear life
the nights grow colder

Museum Monday #2

at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Haiku 2017/267

sky shining waters
which is blue: water or sky?
ripples through the clouds

New Century Chamber Orchestra: season opener

Last Thursday I went to First Congregational Church in Berkeley to hear the New Century Chamber Orchestra. The concert was not only this excellent group's season opener, it was the first under new Artistic Partner Daniel Hope after Artistic Director Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg's departure and the first concert (at least that I've been to) at First Congregational since the terrible fire there about a year ago. There was new music, too, so the concert's official title – New Horizons – seemed more appropriate than these things usually are.

The red brick church itself, in its stripped-down New England Protestant style, looks as good as ever, though a little more bare than it used to be inside (if there is an altar it was moved, and their usual banners were not hanging). Outside things are a little rougher than I expected; some of the yard in front of the church is fenced off, and there is a burnt-out parish building still braced and blockaded. I don't know if something is not yet settled in the back of the church, because the players entered and exited by walking down the center aisle. So the rebuilding is still in progress, but it's nice to have this familiar and beloved venue available again.

The new pieces on the program were framed by old favorites; the concert opened with Mendelssohn's Octet and closed with Tchaikovsky's Serenade, both performed with NCCO's familiar sound, lush and deep. I hadn't heard either piece for quite a while and it's nice to have that "oh, yeah, this is that piece" feeling as the music returns to memory. Hope spoke before each piece; his remarks were brief and pertinent, though I continue to feel that if your work-night concert is not even starting until 8:00, then you should eschew the chatting.

Before the second piece we heard a brief introduction from Alan Fletcher, which was fine since he was the composer and this was its world premiere. A co-commission among NCCO, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, and the Savannah Festival, this violin concerto (titled Violin Concerto) featured Daniel Hope as the soloist and is dedicated to him. Fletcher mentioned some of the influences on him while writing it – mostly visual, like moonlight on the ocean off the Maine coast, but also aural, from the natural world, as in the sound of waves and lapping water. (I was a bit amused that in his remarks he mentioned inspirational waters around the Bay Area, along with other connections to this area, while in the program book his notes mostly linked these elements to Zurich and its lake: why not, water is everywhere, and necessary everywhere. There is also a chorale by Reformation leader Zwingli worked into and varied in the music; Zwingli is ineluctably Zurich, but Fletcher did point out how appropriate it was that we were in a Protestant church (though one inclusive beyond the Reformer's dreams or fears).) The piece opens with a cleaner, more stylized "tuning" segment of the sort that gets done informally before each concert, and then it moves off into a more romantic sound world, though instead of working up a few big tunes that get repeated the music frequently swerves off into another view until finally it swirls up and vanishes. There is a lot of landscape-inspired music now, much of it evoking wide-open spaces and airier more evanescent qualities; this piece sounded heftier – more mountainous, if you will. It's a very attractive piece, which I enjoyed quite a lot.

The other new or newish piece on the program came after the intermission, Orawa by Wojciech Kilar. The title refers to a region in Poland, named for the river that runs through it. So as with the Fletcher piece, we had music inspired by landscapes, particularly those involving water, but in this case there was also a concentration on the peasant dances of the region. There is a repeating figure that gets louder, somewhat in the style of Ravel's Bolero, and it ends with the orchestra players all crying out Hey! It was a fun piece. Then came the melodious enchantments of the Tchaikovsky Serenade, followed after applause by a brief encore, a setting of America the Beautiful, and here's where for once I wanted to hear something from the stage, because I was curious who did this arrangement, which managed to shed a poignant grace on the exhausted sentiments of the overly familiar song.

Next up for New Century is a concert series on 8 - 12 November, with violinist Benjamin Beilman leading another combination of music both old (Bach, Biber, Beethoven) and new (Andrew Norman; and should Stravinsky go here or, at this point, under old music?). Check here for more details.

Haiku 2017/266

a red brick building
never more itself than when
lit by this sunset

Haiku 2017/265

if only my thoughts
were as clear as this clear sky,
vanishingly clear

Friday photo 2017/38

entrance to Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox, June 2017

Haiku 2017/264

a city's secret,
sheltered from its crowds and cars:
a quiet plaza

Haiku 2017/263

leaves rattle past us

birds like black specks wheel above

the sun sets early

Haiku 2017/262

cat perched on a fence
glaring with his mean green eyes
I stroll by, smiling

Haiku 2017/261

regard the sunset:
it will never look this way
any other time

Museum Monday #1

2 views of All Art Has Been Contemporary by Maurizio Nannucci at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston

Haiku 2017/260

grey haze of twilight . . .
has night fallen already . . .
a passing shadow

Haiku 2017/259

as the fog rolls in
even the seagull's harsh squawk
softens to romance

Haiku 2017/258

oleander cloud
pink haze floating in the sun
above the traffic

Friday photo 2017/37

the Hancock Tower & Trinity Church, Boston, June 2017

Haiku 2017/257

walking into shade
I look up to see the trees:
leaves starting to fall

Haiku 2017/256

a beat-up old book
the brittle golden pages
the old paper smell

Haiku 2017/255

an empty cake box
abandoned in the gutter:
the party's over

Haiku 2017/254

when the thunder cracks
even the stately cats stop
then bolt like lightning

Ars Minerva: La Circe

This Friday and Saturday I was at the ODC Theater in the Mission to see La Circe, Ars Minerva's revival of an opera unheard since 1665, when Pietro Andrea Ziani (and perhaps a few other hands) composed it for the birthday celebrations of the Holy Roman Emperor. This is only the third production by Ars Minerva, an enterprising and invaluable company dedicated to reviving forgotten works of the Venetian baroque, but each production has been outstanding and delightful and a useful reminder of the operatic riches that remain yet uncovered beyond the constant revivals of Traviata and Bohème. Local opera lovers are deeply in debt to mezzo-soprano Céline Ricci, the founder, Artistic Director, and guiding force of the group.

She took on the title role of the ancient Greek enchantress Circe with her usual conviction and force. Although Circe is best remembered for her ultimate failure to enchant Ulysses, who persuaded her not to turn his sailors into domestic animals and who eventually left her to return to Ithaca and the faithful Penelope, that wanderer does not appear in this work. Instead, the whole thing takes place right after his abrupt departure, which hangs over the geometrically complicated love affairs and grounds Circe's anger in her recent betrayal by him. The opera opens with two sly and cheerful nymphs singing about the joys of youth, an ebullience rapidly pushed aside when the mournful and shrouded Circe enters, shadowed by an also shrouded dancer, wondering where her lover has gone.

The production (by Ricci) was described in the program as semi-staged, but it seemed fully realized to me. Clever use is made of the intimate theater space, with some characters entering from the back of the audience, others going off to the sides to eavesdrop, either by the exit or by the band on the far edge of the stage. We were close enough to the action for Scylla to hand out lovely chaplets of tiny orange roses to some in the first and second rows, as well as to the musicians. (I was skipped on Friday, but last night she gave me a garland, though sadly it was not large enough for my massive cranium, as otherwise I would have worn it all the way on BART back to my house.) As with Ars Minerva's previous productions, the setting is mostly provided by projections, including lovely and evocative watercolorish paintings by Patricia Nardi as well as stylish black-and-white photographs and collaged old engravings. One filmed view of the island trees showed them opening up so we could see the heroes captivated and transformed by Circe; one composite shot of sottish grinning half-pigs-half-humans was particularly comic and unsettling. There were a couple of dance sequences, performed here by a single aerial acrobat/dancer, Katherine Hutchinson, who also choreographed her striking routines. Her elegant entanglements in a hanging black drapery perfectly symbolized the often self-inflicted love complications of the story.

The main action is the transformation of Scylla into a sea monster by the scheming Circe; as is often the case with water-women in myth and folklore, Scylla has a coy, flirtations, but cold personality, rejecting the love of Glaucus, whose desirability is the fulcrum of the plot. He, passionately in love with the indifferent Scylla, in turn has abandoned the faithful Aegle, who has disguised herself as a man, Floreno, in order to find him. . . . but there's really no point in spelling out the love complications. They are conventional yet also personal to the lamenting individuals affected. This way of feeling universal and even standard-issue troubles as new and particular to oneself is one of the surprisingly realistic aspects of baroque opera, a genre that often spends its time among the nymphs, gentle shepherds, and doughty heroes of bygone times. There are melancholy and thoughtful arias on the relations among grief, anger, longing, and love.

Ars Minerva is a young company without a lot of spare cash, but I never look at their productions and think they're cutting corners to cut costs, the way I sometimes do at better-funded houses. This observation is particularly true of the projections, but the costumes (by Matthew Nash for the men and Lindsi Bristow for the women)  also ranged from suitable to delightful, from the black robes of the sorceress to the ensemble of glittering white-and-gold pants and jacket (no shirt), with their wave- or fin-like scalloping, for the watery Glaucus. In a neat reminder of the island setting, shoes were not worn.

The cast was strong: beautiful voices in the service of memorable performances. As mentioned earlier, Ricci was an intense Circe. Kyle Stegall gave a silken lissomeness to Glauco (Glaucus), and Kindra Scharich gave gorgeous and touching voice to the faithful Andromaca (as well as the Second Nymph at the beginning). Jasmine Johnson was an ardent and striking powerhouse as Aegle/Floreno, whose pain at her abandonment by Glauco kept breaking through her masquerade; though she gets her man at the end, she seems still angry in her triumph and he seems less than happy in his acquiescence, which was one of the clever and insightful touches in the staging. (I would love to know if it was played this way originally, or if there was just a conventional "we're all happy and in love now" moment to seal off the story). Ryan Belongie was a graceful Pyrrhus, the faithful lover of Andromaca (in a minor flub on Saturday night he seemed to forget his place for a moment and had to go over to Derek Tam at the harpsichord for a prompt). Aurélie Veruni was pert perfection as the chaste Scylla (as well as the First Nymph), but also well able to express her grief at her unwonted metamorphosis. Jonathan Smucker was sharply amusing as the cynical comic sidekick Gligoro, and Igor Viera brought a commanding and authoritative presence to several smaller roles.

The music was consistently engaging, ranging from occasional sprightliness to rage and grief. Though it is believed Ziani composed the opera, there were some parts – a dance sequence, a passacaglia towards the end – that are attributed to other composers who are roughly his contemporaries. The collaborative nature of early modern theater is a hot topic right now, and it is interesting to see that it is as true of Venetian opera as it was of Elizabethan theater. The information about the different composers was explained to us beforehand by Paul Miller, who also wrote the program notes; I am not a big fan of chat from the stage and frankly would have preferred to have this information (which is interesting but not really relevant to our immediate understanding and enjoyment of the show) restricted to the program notes. Derek Tam led from the harpsichord, and the excellent ensemble was made up of Adam Cockerham on theorbo, Gretchen Claassen on cello, Laura Rubinstein-Salzedo and Nathalie Carducci on violin, and Addi Liu on viola.

The opera ends rather abruptly, not with a chorus or a big number but with Circe in solitude, quietly vowing to dedicate herself to the infernal powers. I was reminded of the way some movies end with what is clearly meant to be the set-up for a sequel. Though I suspect no one is going to discover a score of Circe 2: The Enchantening, I still can't wait to see what Ricci and company come up with for their next season.

Haiku 2017/253

no stars can be seen
they hide under cloud covers
such fluffy blankets

Haiku 2017/252

The train rolls in, late.
The sun does not seem to sink.
Pigeons sit, staring.

Haiku 2017/251

dirty dark sidewalk
full of bits of broken glass
sparkling like the stars

Friday photo 2017/36

Trinity Church interior, Boston, June 2017

Haiku 2017/250

sun on the waters
flaming like a Viking ship
the day dies away

Haiku 2017/249

rehearsing my lines
I found the scene underway
with other actors

Haiku 2017/248

a forgotten name
floats up into memory
and then sinks back down

Haiku 2017/247

solitary ants
piling up stores for winters
they will never see

Haiku 2017/246

what moves in this heat?
the world, away from the sun;
the rivers of sweat

fun stuff I may or may not get to: September 2017

Operatic
We are lucky to have several small and adventurous opera companies in the Bay Area and one of the most exciting is Ars Minerva, now in its third season of reviving operas of the Venetian baroque. This year's offering, which will be heard for the first time since the birthday celebrations of the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I in 1665, is Pietro Andrea Ziani's La Circe, a tale of the ancient Greek enchantress Circe. If this is anything like their two previous productions (La Cleopatra and The Amazons in the Fortunate Isles) it is sure to be a delight. You can check it out 8 - 9 September at the ODC Theater in San Francisco.

San Francisco Opera opens its fall season with Puccini's Turandot in the familiar Hockney production; Martina Serafin sings the title role in the six September performances and Nina Stemme takes over for the six performances in November and December. The 8 September performance is Opening Night, so you may embrace or avoid that depending on your taste. Verdi's La Traviata returns for ten performances in September and October.

The big event at SF Opera this month, though, is undoubtedly Strauss's Elektra with Christine Goerke in the title role; there are only six performances, from 9 to 27 September, so catch it while you can.

Theatrical
The Curran Theater presents Taylor Mac in A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, in four six-hour parts; Part 1 (15 September) covers 1776 - 1836, Part 2 (17 September) covers 1836 - 1896, Part 3 (22 September) covers 1896 - 1956, and Part 4 (24 September) covers 1956 to the present.

Custom Made Theatre presents How I Learned to Drive by Paula Vogel from 7 September to 7 October.

You can see another play by Paula Vogel, The Mineola Twins, directed by Ariel Craft, when Cutting Ball Theater opens its season; the run starts 28 September and goes to 29 October.

ACT presents Hamlet, starring John Douglas Thompson and directed by Carey Perloff, from 20 September to 15 October at the Geary Theater.

Shotgun Players presents Sarah Kane's Blasted, directed by Jon Tracy, from 21 September to 22 October.

Orchestral
At the San Francisco Symphony, you can hear Michael Tilson Thomas conduct the Berlioz Symphonie fantastique, along with Jeremy Denk as the soloist in Bartók's Piano Concerto #2, and that's on 28 and 30 September and 1 October. The Symphony is also launching a season-long celebration of the centennial of Leonard Bernstein, and OK, I know he is a Major Figure and much beloved by many people who don't happen to be me, but with the exception of Candide I don't really respond to his music or his personality, so when I look at the all-Bernstein concert on 22 - 24 September, my interest in hearing the always wonderful mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard is, I'm afraid, outweighed by my complete lack of interest in yet another go-through of the Symphonic Dances from West Side Story; your mileage may vary and my indifference to Bernstein says more about me than about the artist, which is usually the case with these things.

New Century Chamber Orchestra kicks off its first season under new Artistic Partner Daniel Hope, the British violinist who replaced Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg in a similar role, with the world premiere of a Violin Concerto by Alan Fletcher, Orawa by Wojciech Kilar, the Tchaikovsky Serenade and the Mendelssohn Octet. You can hear the band in an open rehearsal on 20 September at the Kanbar Performing Arts Center and then 21 September at First Congregational Church in Berkeley, 22 (matinee on a Friday) and 23 September at Herbst Theater in San Francisco, and 24 September at the Osher Marin Jewish Community Center in San Rafael.

Choral
Chanticleer sings songs of war and peace from the English Reformation up to our own time, including works by Mason Bates, John Musto, and Jennifer Higdon (excerpts from her opera Cold Mountain). The program is 16 September in Santa Clara, 17 September in Sacramento, 22 and 24 September in San Francisco, and 23 September in Pleasanton.

Visual Arts
SFMoMA opens a Walker Evans exhibit on 30 September; it closes on 4 February 2018, and speaking of closing, you only have until 9 October to see the Edvard Munch exhibit, which is worth seeing more than once.

Haiku 2017/245

the smell of berries
bursting in the summer sun
I'm a boy again

Haiku 2017/244

birds softly cheeping
the sun melts into the stars
chorus of crickets

Friday photo 2017/35

on the shores of Lake Merritt, Oakland California, June 2017