Another Opening, Another Show: November 2022

Strange to think that it's been nearly a year since I resumed these monthly previews. I hope someone out there finds them useful. I go to many fewer performances than I used to, so it's difficult for me to tell how close things are to returning to what we might loosely call normal – sometimes halls look empty, sometimes full (though maybe that's also "normal"). As I pulled this list together, it seemed to me there were more holiday offerings than we used to have in November. Maybe they're more profitable, or maybe people just need the comfort. Stay strong & safe.

Theatrical

Theater Lunatico presents Attempts on Her Life, by Martin Crimp & directed by Michael Barr, at La Val's Subterranean Theater from 21 October to 13 November.

Berkeley's Aurora Theater is giving the world premiere of Dustin Chinn's Colonialism Is Terrible, But Pho Is Delicious, directed by Oanh Nguyen, from 4 November through 4 December.

Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical. with book by Dennis Kelly & music & lyrics by Tim Minchin, is at the Berkeley Playhouse from 4 November to 23 December.

Shotgun Players present the War & Peace-based musical Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812, by Dave Malloy & directed by Patrick Dooley & Erin Mei-Ling Stuart with music direction by Daniel Alley, at the Ashby Stage from 5 November through 30 December.

Ari Told Me I Lack Focus, a one-man show featuring comedian Jerrod Carmichael, will be at Berkeley Rep from 8 through 13 November.

BroadwaySF presents Ain't Too Proud – The Life & Times of the Temptations, written by Dominique Morisseau & directed by Des McAnuff, at the Golden Gate Theater from 9 November to 4 December.

42nd Street Moon presents concert performances of the classic musical Gypsy at the Alcazar Theater on 12 - 13 November.

San Francisco Playhouse presents a folk-pop musical adaptation of As You Like It, with music & lyrics by Shaina Taub, directed by Bill English, from 17 November to 14 January 2023.

Wuthering Heights, adapted & directed by Emma Rice, plays at Berkeley Rep from 18 November through 1 January 2023.

You can get a jump on the holiday season with BroadwaySF's presentation of Christmas with CS Lewis, at the Strand Theater on 18 - 20 November.

The holiday season also makes an early appearance at Custom Made Theater, with Shoshana in December, a new musical by Rose Oser, Weston Scott, & Matt Grandy. directed by Vanessa Flores, which runs from 18 November to 18 December.

On 19 November at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley, you can experience Blues is a Woman, created by Pamela Rose, who, along with her ensemble (saxophonist Kristen Strom, pianist Jennifer Jolly, guitarist Pat Wilder, bassist Ruth Davies, & drummer Daria Johnson) will use song & story to celebrate women in the Blues from Ma Rainey to Bonnie Raitt.

At the SF Jazz Center on 25 - 27 November, Kid Koala presents The Storyville Mosquito, using puppetry, music, & live-action filming to tell the tale of a mosquito who moves to the big city, hoping to become a jazz musician.

And you can really get your holiday on when ACT revives its popular production of A Christmas Carol, as adapted by Carey Perloff & Paul Walsh, & directed by Peter J Kuo, & that's at the Toni Rembe Theater (formerly the Geary) from 30 November through 24 December.

Talking

Lance & April Ledbetter, founders & current heads of Dust-to-Digital, dedicated to preserving non-commercial music traditions, will give a multi-media presentation at The Wattis Institute of the California College of the Arts on 11 November, exploring "the last 200 years of music and how its history is shaping our present and future sonic experience — with a particular emphasis on percussion".

Operatic

San Francisco Opera continues its Centennial Season with two offerings: a new production of the ever-beloved La Traviata, conducted by Music Director Eun Sun Kim & directed by Shawna Lucey, with the SF Opera debuts of Pretty Yende (Violetta), Jonathan Tetelman (Alfredo), & Simone Piazzola (the Di Provenza guy), & that'll be on 11, 13, 16, 22, 25, 27, & 30 November & 3 December; & a new production of Gluck's Orpheus & Eurydice, conducted by Peter Whelan & directed by Matthew Ozawa, with countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński (Orpheus), Meigui Zhang (Eurydice), & Nicole Heaston (Amor), & that's on 15, 18, 20, & 26 November & 1 December.

The San Francisco Conservatory of Music presents a double-bill of Chabrier's Une Education Manquée & Bizet's Le Docteur Miracle, directed by Heather Mathews & conducted by Curt Pajer, on 17 - 18 November.

Choral

Ensemble Basiani, presented by Cal Performances, travels from the Caucasus region to First Congregational Church in Berkeley on 3 November to perform traditional Georgian works.

At Old First Concerts on 4 November, you can hear Conspiracy of Venus, led by director Joyce Todd McBride, premiering new pandemic-time compositions, including arrangements of music by PJ Harvey & Iris DeMent along with pieces by Björk, the to me inexplicably popular Joni Mitchell, Roger Miller, Leonard Cohen, David Bowie, Chris Cornell, & director McBride.

At Zellerbach Hall on 5 November, Cal Performances presents the Soweto Gospel Choir with a program titled HOPE—It’s Been a Long Time Coming.

Paul Flight leads Chora Nova in Mozart's Coronation Mass, Michael Haydn's Timete Dominum, & the usual Haydn's Salve Regina in G Minor & his Te Deum for the Empress Marie Therese on 12 November at First Congregational in Berkeley.

The San Francisco Choral Society's Associate Director, Bryan Baker, will lead the Fauré Requiem, Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, selections from Kevin Allen's Missa Rex Genitor, & Eric Whitacre's Five Hebrew Love Songs at Trinity + Saint Peter's Episcopal Church (at Gough & Bush in San Francisco) on 12 - 13 November.

Guest conductor Valérie Sainte-Agathe will lead Volti in two world premiers at the ODC Theater on 19 - 20 November: Ink by Pamela Z & a new work by Caroline Shaw.

The Vienna Boys Choir does its Christmas in Vienna thing for Cal Performances on 26 November.

Vocalists

On 6 November, Lieder Alive! presents soprano Alina Ilchuk with pianist Peter Grünberg in Songs for Lviv: Ukrainian & Polish settings of  Goethe and Heine by Lysenko, Silvestrov, & Mikuli.

On 6 November at Hertz Hall, Cal Performances presents soprano Ying Fang with pianist Ken Noda, performing works by Bach, Schubert, Richard Strauss, Reynaldo Hahn, Debussy, Chausson, & Argento, along with a selection of traditional Chinese songs; following the recital there will be a Q&A with Fang & Noda, led by Cal Performances Executive and Artistic Director Jeremy Geffen.

From 3 to 6 November at the SF Jazz Center, Ms Lisa Fischer with Ranky Tanky will perform songs from South Carolina's Gullah culture.

Lila Downs will celebrate the Día de los Muertos on 6 November at the Paramount in Oakland (presented by the SF Jazz Center) with folklorico dancing, a Mariachi band, projections, & of course singing.

 Orchestral

At the Paramount on 4 November, Holly Hyun Choe leads the Oakland Symphony in Mary Lou Williams's Zodiac Suite, Korngold's Much Ado About Nothing Suite, & Bernstein's Chichester Psalms.

Here's what the San Francisco Symphony is presenting this month: on 3, 4, & 6 November, Juraj Valčuha conducts the SF Symphony premiere of Hannah Kendall's The Spark Catchers, along with the Prokofiev Piano Concerto #2 (with soloist Behzod Abduraimov) & the Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances; on 5 November Carlos Miguel Prieto, joined by Casa Círculo Cultural, Canción de Obsidiana, & Pacho Flores as solo trumpet, will lead the band in a special concert for the Día de los Muertos, featuring music by Revueltas, Gabriela Ortiz, Arturo Márquez, Evencio Castellanos Yumar, Arturo Márquez, & José Pablo Moncayo García; & then former Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas returns for two sets: on 11 - 13 November, he leads the orchestra in Stravinsky's Symphonies of Wind Instruments, Danny Elfman's Cello Concerto (the American premiere of a SFS commission, with soloist Gautier Capuçon, & Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings, followed 17 - 19 November by the Brahms Serenade #1 in D major & the Piano Concerto #1 (with soloist Emanuel Ax).

On 6 November the San Francisco Symphony presents the Israel Philharmonic, led by Lahav Shani in Paul Ben-Haim's Symphony #1 & the Mahler 1.

Urs Leonhardt Steiner leads the Golden Gate Symphony in the Mahler 1 & Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue (with soloist Cinzia Regensburger) on 6 November at Herbst Theater.

On 12 November at Heron Arts in San Francisco, One Found Sound will perform the world premiere of Estevan Olmos's Mi Cultura Lejana along with Shostakovich's Chamber Symphony in C minor, Opus 110a (arranged by Rudolf Barshai), Gabriela Lena Frank's Elegía Andina, & Michael Gilbertson's Graffiti: Concerto for Chamber Orchestra.

On 20 November Daniel Stewart leads the SF Symphony Youth Orchestra in José González Granero's Matsuri Overture, Ravel's Mother Goose Suite, & Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade.

Chamber Music

On 1 November at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, you can hear Michael Kropf's Sweet Baby Movie Child (the Hoefer Composition winner), Janacek's Mládí, & Dohnanyi's Sextet.

The San Francisco Early Music Society presents the New Esterházy Quartet in Beyond the Canon’s Range – Music by the Marginalized, featuring works by Maddalena Laura Lombardini; Joseph Bologne, the Chevalier de Saint-Georges; José Maurício Nunes Garcia; Fanny Mendelssohn; & Florence Price with commentary from musicologist & cellist Elisabeth Le Guin, & you can hear the results 4 November at First Presbyterian in Palo Alto, 5 November at First Church in Berkeley, & 6 November at Saint Mark's Lutheran in San Francisco.

On 8 November as part of BAM/PFA's Full series, programmed by Sean Carson, you can hear Full: Debussy Times Three, in which Clair de Lune will be presented three different ways: as the traditional piano piece, performed by Avery Yang, as a solo harp piece, performed by Destiny Muhammad, & as a "reimagined mood-funk meditation" by PC Muñoz, with guitarist Karl Evangelista, bassist Shawn Miller, & flutist Ray Furuta.

Instrumentalists

On 8 November in Herbst Theater, San Francisco Performances presents pianist Danny Driver, playing works by Fauré, Franck, Lili Boulanger, Ravel, & Schumann.

Péter Tóth will perform piano works by Clara Schumann & Amy Beach at Old First Concerts on 13 November.

On 13 November in Davies Hall, the San Francisco Symphony presents pianist Daniil Trifonov in a solo recital of works by Tchaikovsky, Schumann, Mozart, Ravel, & Scriabin.

On 20 November at Hertz Hall, Cal Performances presents cellist Zlatomir Fung with pianist Janice Carissa, performing works by Charles Ives, Dvořák, Beethoven, Judith Weir, & George Walker.

On 20 November at Old First Concerts, cellist Jennifer Kloetzel & pianist Allegra Chapman will play music by Ernst Bloch, Beethoven, & Chopin, as well as newer pieces by Fazil Say & a world premiere from Richard Aldag.

Early / Baroque Music

On 6 November at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the Baroque Ensemble will perform vocal works by Francesca Caccini and Isabella Leonarda.

Cal Performances presents Jordi Savall & Hespèrion XXI on 10 November at First Congregational in Berkeley, in a program to be announced.

The Cantata Collective continues its free concerts traversing the Bach cantatas with O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort BWV 60 & Ich hab in Gottes Herz und Sinn BWV 92 (Michele Kennedy, soprano; Kimberly Leeds, alto; Kyle Stegall, tenor, & Paul Max Tipton, bass) on 13 November at Saint Mary Magdalen's in Berkeley.

Former Music Director Nicholas McGegan returns to Philharmonia Baroque to lead The Surprises of Love, with music by Rameau (a suite from Les Surprises de l’Amour, giving the program its title), Campra, & Francoeur; & you can be surprised on 16 November at First United Methodist in Palo Alto, 18 November at Herbst Theater in San Francisco, & 19 - 20 November at First Church in Berkeley.

Modern / Contemporary Music

You can celebrate Steve Reich on 3 November at Zellerbach Hall, when Cal Performances presents the Colin Currie Group, joined by Synergy Vocals, in an all-Reich program, featuring Tehillim, Music for 18 Musicians, & the west coast premiere of a Cal Performances co-commission, Traveler's Prayer; following the concert, Currie & Micaela Haslam of Synergy Vocals will participate in a Q&A with Cal Performances Executive and Artistic Director Jeremy Geffen.

On 4 November at the SF Jazz Center, clarinetist Beth Custer will perform works celebrating her newly published songbook All Hands on Deck.

At the San Francisco Conservatory of Music on 5 November, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players will explore different tuning systems with a program of music by Ben Johnston, Chris Brown, Unsuk Chin, & Sky Macklay, as well as new works from the Conservatory's Technology & Applied Composition Program.

Cal Performances presents Sō Percussion on 12 November in Zellerbach Hall, where they will perform Bay Area premieres of pieces by Angélica Negrón & Nathalie Joachim, as well as one by Dan Trueman; there will be a post-concert Q&A led by Cal Performances Executive and Artistic Director Jeremy Geffen.

On 19 November at Herbst Theater, San Francisco Performances presents pianists Adam Tendler & Jenny Lin in Philip Glass Mixtape: Celebrating the Composer’s 85th, a wide-ranging survey of his keyboard works, featuring Mad Rush, Distant Figure: Passacaglia for Solo Piano, Selections from Les Enfants Terrible for 2 pianos (in a world premiere arrangement by Tendler & Lin), Etudes 16 & 2, & Four Movements for Two Pianos.

Jazz & Roots

Myra Melford's Fire & Water Quintet will perform new projects & premieres on 5 - 6 November at the SF Jazz Center.

The John Brothers Piano Company will perform at the SF Jazz Center from 10 to 12 November.

On 12 November at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, Guy Mintus & his trio play on A Gershwin Playground – music inspired by the great American composer.

The 10th Anniversary San Francisco International Boogie Woogie Festival, featuring Daryl Davis, Wendy DeWitt, & Chase Garrett from the USA, Lluis Coloma from Spain, & Luca Sestak from Germany, will be held at the SF Jazz Center on 13 November.

Jake Blount & his banjo will appear at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley on 15 November.

Saxophonist Joe Lovano appears in several manifestations this month at the SF Jazz Center: on 17 November, he appears with Larry Goldings on Hammond B3 organ & Lewis Nash on drums; on 18 November he appears in a quartet, with Renee Rosnes on piano, Peter Washington on bass, & Lewis Nash on drums, in a performance honoring the late pianist Hank Jones; on 19 November he appears in a different quartet, this time with John Scofield on guitar, Matt Penman on bass, & Joey Baron on drums; & on 20 November he will appear as part of the Sound Prints quintet, which he co-leads with trumpeter Dave Douglas, & the two of them, joined by Lawrence Fields on piano, Matt Penman on bass, & Joey Baron on drums, will be playing tribute to Wayne Shorter.

On 27 November the Black Women's Roots Festival featuring The Dynamic Miss Faye Carol & Her All-Star Quartet featuring Rickey Woodard & Tony Coleman, Lady Tramaine Hawkins, Lady Bianca, Terrie Odabi, & Le Perez will take place at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley.

Paintings & Suchlike

Edward Gorey's Eerie Art will be at the Cartoon Art Museum from 22 October to 12 February 2023.

A retrospective of Bay Area artist Joan Brown's work opens at SFMOMA on 19 November & runs through 12 March 2023.

Cinematic

The Pacific Film Archive will run a series of The New Lebanese Cinema of the 1970s and 1980s from 10 to 17 November. Some other showings of note there this month: on 4 November there will be a free (with museum admission, presumably) showing of Alexander Dovzhenko's 1928 Soviet film Zvenigora / Bewitched Place / Zakoldovanoye mesto, created from Ukrainian folk tales, with live musical accompaniment by Erika Bontrager; & on 30 November you can see The Avant-Garde Films of Stefan and Franciszka Themerson, including a new restoration of a previously lost film, 1931's Europa, "their masterpiece: a kinetic condemnation of creeping fascism across Europe, based on Anatol Stern’s 1929 futurist poem of the same title."

On 22 November in Davies Hall, Tim Davies will lead the San Francisco Symphony in live accompaniment to the innovative Disney classic Fantasia.