Poem of the Week 2024/44

 For Halloween week, two by Robert Herrick. The first:

The Hag

1.    The hag is astride,

        This night for to ride;

The Devill and shee together:

        Through thick, and through thin;

        Now out, and then in,

Though ne'r so foule be the weather.

2.     A thorn or a burr

        She takes for a Spurre:

With a lash of a Bramble she rides now,

        Through Brakes and through Bryars:

        O're Ditches, and Mires;

She followes the Spirit that guides now.

3.     No Beast, for his food,

        Dares now range the wood;

But husht in his laire he lies lurking:

        While mischeifs, by these,

        On Land and on Seas,

At noone of Night are a working.

4.    The storme will arise,

        And trouble the skies;

This night, and more for the wonder,

        The ghost from the Tomb

        Affrighted shall come,

Cal'd out by the clap of the Thunder.

The second:

The Hagg.

    The staffe is now greas'd,

    And very well pleas'd,

She cockes out her Arse at the parting;

    To an old Ram Goat,

    That rattles i' th' throat,

Halfe choakt with the stink of her farting.

    In a dirtie Haire-lace

    She leads on a brace

Of black-bore-cats to attend her;

    Who scratch at the Moone,

    And threaten at noone

Of night from Heaven for to rend her.

    A hunting she goes;

    A crackt horne she blowes;

At which the hounds fall a bounding;

    While th' Moone in her sphere

    Peepes trembling for feare,

And night's afraid of the sounding.

– Robert Herrick

Two poems by the same poet, on the same theme, using many of the same images – the flying witch, the noon of night (that is, midnight), fear spread among wild animals, the Devil (the Ram Goat in the second poem is an image of a devil) – even the same title (with an additional g in the second), & yet I find the effect of the two very different.

Both hags are clearly "bad", of, if you prefer, outside of standard societal norms, but with Hag 1 there's something frankly appealing about the picture: she's powerful, insouciant, with a literally Devil-may-care attitude. She has the traditional witch/pagan link to the Natural world: she rides out at night, soaring through the sky, fearless of wind or rain; the references in Stanza 2 to her using a thorn as a spur & a prickly vine as a lash are reminiscent of poetic descriptions of the fairy-world (see, for example, A Midsummer Night's Dream or the Queen Mab speech in Romeo & Juliet). And even though the fairy-world is darker & more menacing than we of the modern age like to think, there is still something appealing about it, something striking & beautiful, as in any natural mystery. We could live side by side with this world & feel not unease or danger but the richness of unseen possibilities.

Hag 1 causes mischief (or mischeifs, as the seventeenth-century spelling has it) but implicit in the word is a sense of playfulness, something that is more an inconvenient prank than a serious threat. And the harm that is being done isn't shown affecting humans, at least directly; it's the forest predators (who are themselves possible dangers to people) who cower in their caves until the hag passes. She causes storms (like the Weird Sisters in Macbeth), but, again, the danger doesn't seem to threaten humans directly. Instead we get the extremely picturesque image of ghosts, themselves frightened by her powers, coming out when the thunderclaps are most violent. Hag 1 seems to have great power, which, at some level, is always appealing, or at least intriguing, to people. She soars above, heedless. She is linked to Nature, but can also manipulate it (mostly, it seems, for theatrical effect; her actions don't seem to have any purpose more specific than stirring things up). It's an image that charms.

Hag 2, on the other hand, is much grosser. The first stanza describes some sort of sexual encounter with a devil, & not a charming, sophisticated devil either (like Goethe's Mephistopheles), but an old goat (click here for one of Goya's images of witches consorting with Satan in the form of a giant goat). The staff that is greased might refer to the stick she uses as her air-borne steed, but it has an unmistakably phallic undercurrent; perhaps she & Satan are using some sort of dildo. Her parting shot is an offensive fart. It's a physical encounter, but a mostly unappealing one: greasy, smelly, gagging.

Hag 1's appearance is never mentioned, except for what's implicit in the word "hag". Hag 2's appearance is described a little more fully. She is wearing a haire-lace, which seems to be a wig of some sort with a lace base. So she probably is bald, or balding, & her wig is dirty (& if the wig is dirty, she herself is probably not clean either). We are made conscious of her ass & her farts. It's a crude picture. Her familiars are a little crowd of black cats, of nasty disposition, scratching at the Moon, as if they would scratch it out of heaven. The moon is often associated with Hecate, a goddess who became associated with witchcraft, as well as with night-time & changeability. Hag 2 shoves her butt at the Devil & her cats claw at the Moon: she certainly seems to bite the hand that feeds her, but mostly in a crude, fairly nasty way: nothing insouciant here! She also haunts & hunts through the forest, but it's a little unclear what she's hunting for – whatever it is, she's out to harm; even Night & the Moon fear her hunting. Even the sound of hunting (so often invoked by composers) is ugly here: her horn is cracked (another unavoidably phallic reference, to a damaged instrument), producing a sound that produces fear & trembling. We have the feeling in both poems of supernatural forces, but with Hag 1 they seem at play & with Hag 2 at work.

Happy Halloween!

These poems are from The Complete Poetry of Robert Herrick, edited by Tom T. Cain and Ruth Connolly, published by Oxford University Press.

Another Opening, Another Show: November 2024

It might help to dissipate the gloom & frustration of living in a country that apparently cannot make up its mind who would be better as President – an accomplished, compassionate, & seasoned leader or a bullying fascist clown who is clearly sliding into mental decrepitude – by going out & supporting the arts. If the Titanic is sinking, we might as well keep dancing. Stay strong, everyone.

Theatrical

Theater Lunatico presents presents The Moors. a "bloody punk-rock melodrama" loosely inspired by the Brontë sisters, written by Jen Silverman (whose Collective Rage: a Play in Five Betties was recently presented by Shotgun) & directed by Tara Blau Smollen & that's 19 October to 3 November at La Val's Subterranean in Berkelely.

BroadwaySF revives the musical Peter Pan at the Curran Theater from 29 October to 3 November.

The Oakland Theater Project presents Ghost Quartet by Dave Malloy (best known for Natasha, Pierre, & the Great Comet of 1812); this time-traveling ghost-story musical will be directed by William Thomas Hodgson & runs 1 through 24 November.

From 1 to 24 November, The Marsh Berkeley presents Stephanie Weisman’s 180 Days. To Die. To Live., directed by Robert Kelley, about a woman whose husband & friend, both diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, choose different approaches to the disease, while still ending up choosing assisted suicide, while from 16 November to 15 December, The Marsh San Francisco presents Lettere D’Amore (Letters of Love) by Dacia Maraini, directed & performed by Francesca Fanti, about a daughter who discovers love letters Gabriele D’Annunzio had written to her late mother.

If you want to see some works-in-progress, Playground hosts the 2024 Innovators Showcase from 4 through 24 November at the Potrero Stage (admission is free, but donations gratefully accepted); works include "Unplanned, an anthology of shorts about reproductive health, presented by Network Effects Theater Company (Nov 4 & 5 at 7pm),  Abby Normal, a world premiere musical presented by House Theater (Nov 9 at 7pm, Nov 10 at 2pm & 7pm), Four Seasons Political Landscaping, readings of plays focusing on politics, civil rights, and governance, presented by Oakland Public Theater (Nov 15 at 7pm, Nov 16 at 2pm), and Desert Wind, the story of a Yemenite Jewish couple, caught in the violence, of the Houthi uprising in Yemen, presented by The American Jewish Theatre (Nov 23 at 7pm, Nov 24 at 2pm & 7pm)."

BroadwaySF presents the national touring company of Kimberly Akimbo, the winner of last year's Tony for Best Musical, with book & lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire, music by Jeanine Tesori, choreography by Danny Mefford, & direction by Jessica Stone, & that's at the Curran from 6 November to 1 December.

UC Berkeley's Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies Department presents Everybody, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins's "contemporary and comedic riff" on Everyman, directed by Susannah Martin, from 7 to 10 November at Zellerbach Playhouse.

Berkeley Rep gives us the west coast premiere of Jaja’s African Hair Braiding by Jocelyn Bioh, directed by Whitney White, about a Harlem hair salon staffed by West African hair-braiders, & that runs 8 November through 15 December.

Berkeley Playhouse presents Seussical, the musical (book by Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty, lyrics by the former & music by the latter), directed by William Thomas Hodgson, from 8 November through 22 December.

ZSpace & Word for Word present The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami, directed by Lisa Hori-Garcia & Keiko Shimosato Carreiro, & that's 13 November through 8 December at Z Below.

Golden Thread Productions gives ALAA: A Family Trilogy by Adam Ashraf Elsayigh, directed by Evren Odcikin, exploring the life & works of the imprisoned Egyptian blogger/activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah, a workshop presentation at Z Space on 16 - 17 November.

Beginning 16 November, Shotgun Players at the Ashby Stage present Thirty-Six, a play about contemporary dating, by Leah Nanako-Winkler, directed by Michelle Talgarow.

San Francisco Playhouse revives Waitress, the Broadway musical based on the movie by Adrienne Shelly about a waitress with dreams of opening her own pie shop, with music & lyrics by Sara Bareilles & book by Jessie Nelson; the show will be directed by Susi Damilano with music direction by Dave Dobrusky & it runs 21 November to 18 January 2025.

Theater Rhinoceros presents the Kander & Ebb classic, Cabaret, from 21 November to 15 December.

In a meta twist on their traditional presentation of A Christmas Carol, ACT presents A Whynot Christmas Carol by Craig Lucas, directed by Pam MacKinnon, about a small-town theater troupe struggling to stage A Christmas Carol, & that's at the Toni Rembe Theater from 26 November through 24 December.

Operatic

The San Francisco Opera has two final performances of Tristan this month, on 1 & 5 November, & this production is not to be missed; then Francesca Zambello's production of Bizet's Carmen, conducted by Benjamin Manis & starring Eve-Maud Hubeaux as Carmen, Jonathan Tetelman as Don José (except 26 November, when Thomas Kinch will take the part), Christian Van Horn as Escamillo, & Louise Alder as Micaëla, will play on 13, 16, 19, 22, 24, 26, & 29 November & 1 December. On 21 November there is something the Opera calls the Carmen Encounter, in which only the first act of the opera is performed & then there's a party – not my kind of thing, but this is the third time they're doing something like this, so someone must like it.

Opera Parallèle presents Everest: Opera in the Planetarium on 8, 9, 10, 13, & 17 November; using a graphic-novel-type visual style, a film will play over a recording of Everest (music by Joby Talbot, libretto by Gene Scheer) at the Planetarium at the California Academy of Sciences.

The Future Is Now, the annual concert by San Francisco Opera's Adler Fellows, will take place at Herbst Theater on 15 November.

Opera San José presents Puccini's La Bohème, conducted by Joseph Marcheso & directed by Michelle Ainna Cuizon, featuring WooYoung Yoon as Rodolfo, Kearstin Piper Brown as Mimi (on 16 & 24 November & 1 December), Mikayla Sager as Mimi (on 17, 22, & 30 November), Kidon Choi as Marcello, & Melissa Sondhi as Musetta, &, as you can tell from the Mimi dates, the engagement goes from 16 November to 1 December.

Ars Minerva gives us its latest revival of a forgotten opera, La Flora by Antonio Sartorio & Marc'Antonio Ziani, conducted by Matthew Dirst & directed by company head Céline Ricci, from 15 to 17 November at the ODC Theater.

The San Francisco Conservatory of Music presents Mozart's Così fan tutte, directed by Heather Mathews & conducted by Curt Pajer, on 21 & 22 November.

Choral

21V, a choral group of soprano & alto voices of all genders led by Martín Benvenuto, joins with the Cantabile Youth Singers of Silicon Valley on 3 November at the First Unitarian Universalist Society in San Francisco to perform Reclaiming Radical 2.0, a program featuring new works by Chris Castro & Stacy Garrop that honor the legacies of César Chavez, Dolores Huerta, & Ruth Bader Ginsburg, along with works by Trevor Weston, Alexandra Olsavsky, & others; admission is free but donations are welcome.

The San Francisco Choral Society, led by Robert Geary, presents A Rose Is All My Song: Music of Mary, featuring pieces by John Rutter, Verdi, Heinrich Isaac, Franz Biebl, & Pekka Kostiainen, with soprano soloist Rabihah Dunn & organist Christopher Keady, & that's 9 - 10 November at Trinity + Saint Peter's Episcopal in San Francisco.

On 10 November at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Chanticleer will join with the Conservatory Chorus, led by Eric Choate, to perform William Byrd's Non Nobis Domine, Orlando Gibbons' The Silver Swan, Thomas Weelkes' When David Heard, Ralph Vaughan Williams' Rest, Bach's Jesus bleibet meine Freude, Cantata BWV 147, Fauré's Cantique de Jean Racine, Opus 11, & Barber's Sure on this Shining Night.

Sweet Honey in the Rock celebrates a half-century of music-making with appearances at the SF Jazz Center on 14 - 17 November.

The men's chorus Clerestory presents Bridges: Music Connecting Places & Times, a program ranging from Josquin, Byrd, Purcell, Sigismondo d’India, & Tiburtio Massaino to Rachmaninoff, Pärt, Stucky, Jung Jae-Il, & Abbie Betinis, & you can cross the bridges on 16 November at Noe Valley Ministry in San Francisco & 17 November at Saint Mark's Episcopal in Berkeley.

The International Orange Chorale presents Voices Unbound, a program featuring (first) "aleatoric works immersing audiences in the exploration of different musical themes", (second) "a capella pieces inspired by improvisatory singing"; (third) pieces highlighting IOCSF soloists, & (fourth) "new improvisation developed by IOCSF members, featuring melodies sourced from choir members", & you can hear that 16 November at First Presbyterian in Berkeley & 17 November at Saint Matthew's Lutheran in San Francisco.

Chora Nova, under new artistic director John Kendall Bailey, will perform Mozart's Requiem & his Solemn Vespers on 16 November at First Church in Berkeley.

On 17 November at the Taube Atrium Theater, San Francisco Opera Chorus Director John Keene leads the Opera's chorus, accompanied by Associate Chorus Master Fabrizio Corona at the piano (repertory has not yet been announced).

Volti presents Electronics & New Music, a program featuring a premiere from Anne Hege as well as pieces by Angélica Negrón & Kaija Saariaho, & that's 16 November at Saint Paul's Episcopal in Walnut Creek, 17 November at the Church of Christ, Scientist in Berkeley, & 18 November at the Noe Valley Ministry in San Francisco.

Vocalists

Baritone Zachary Gordin, General & Artistic Director of Festival Opera, will join with pianist Daniel Lockert (& some special surprise guest artists) to present Muses and Musings of an Impresario, in which Gordin will discuss his lifetime in music, with performances of pieces by Schumann, Mahler, Reynaldo Hahn, & Jake Heggie, & others; that's 17 November at the Piedmont Center for the Arts.

Lieder Alive! presents Each Moment Radiant: a Liederabend with soprano Heidi Moss Erickson & pianist John Parr; they will perform works by Ravel, Fauré & Richard Strauss, along with excerpts from Kurt Erickson’s Each Moment Radiant, celebrating his tenth year as the group's Composer-in-Residence, & you can hear that 17 November at Old First in San Francisco & 24 November at the Maybeck First Church of Christ Scientist in Berkeley.

On 19 November in Herbst Theater, San Francisco Performances presents countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo with pianist Bryan Wagorn, performing pieces by Handel, Joel Thompson, Gregory Spears, Liszt, Berlioz, Verdi, Duparc, Philip Glass, & songs associated with Barbra Streisand. (Roth Costanza will be offering a Masterclass at the SF Conservatory of Music on 20 November.)

Marina Crouse sings Ernestine Anderson’s Never Make Your Move Too Soon at the SF Jazz Center on 21 November.

The Stella Heath Sextet performs music From Billie Holiday to Edith Piaf at the SF Jazz Center on 23 - 24 November.

Orchestral

David Milnes leads the UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra in Schumann's Cello Concerto in A minor (with soloist Sarah Kave) & the Shostakovich 8 on 1 and 2 November in Hertz Hall.

The San Francisco Symphony will celebrate Día de los Muertos on 2 November with a Latin American-centered concert, led by Carlos Miguel Prieto & featuring Pacho Flores on trumpet, Héctor Molina on cuatro, & the Casa Círculo Cultural as well as the Symphony; the program includes Carlos Chávez's Symphony #2, Sinfonía india; Paquito D’Rivera's Concerto Venezolano; Juan Pablo Contreras's Mariachitlán; Gabriela Ortiz's Antrópolis, & José Pablo Moncayo's Huapango; the lobby will feature art installations & altars by local artists.

Urs Leonhardt Steiner leads the Golden Gate Symphony in the world premiere of Elijah’s Call: An Oratorio for an Abolitionist by Allison Lovejoy (with libretto by Gary Kamiya), commemorating her ancestor Elijah Parrish Lovejoy, an abolitionist "who sacrificed his life in the fight against slavery", with Walter Riley as narrator & vocal soloists Michael Desnoyers (tenor), Melinda Martinez-Becker (mezzo-soprano), & Bradley Kynard (bass); the program also includes the Symphony #4 by Florence Price & "a selection of spirituals led by the Men’s Choir of Oakland’s Acts Full Gospel Church of God in Christ, directed by Chris Poston", & that's 3 November at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco.

On 2 - 3 November at Walnut Creek's Lesher Center, Donato Cabrera leads the California Symphony in Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, Philharmonia Fantastique: The Making of the Orchestra by Mason Bates, & the Brahms 4.

On 7 - 9 November, Nicholas Collon leads the San Francisco Symphony in the Three-piece Suite from Powder Her Face by Thomas Adès, the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto #1 (with soloist Conrad Tao), & Elgar's Enigma Variations (there is also an open rehearsal on the morning of 7 November).

On 8 November at the Paramount, Kedrick Armstrong leads the Oakland Symphony in Shawn Okpebholo's Zoom! as well as his Two Black Churches (an Oakland Symphony co-commission), along with, for some reason, Orff's Carmina Burana (with soprano Meechot Marrero, tenor Ashley Faatoalia, & baritone Will Liverman).

On 10 November in Zellerbach Hall, Joseph Young leads the Berkeley Symphony in the Redes Suite by Revueltas, Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (with soprano soloist Lisa Delan), For a Younger Self by Kris Bowers (with violin soloist Charles Yang), & Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West Side Story.

Concertmaster & violinist Daniel Hope leads the New Century Chamber Orchestra in Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Allegro Moderato from Four Novelletten for String Orchestra, David Bruce's Lully Loops for Violin and String Orchestra, & Max Richter's Vivaldi: Recomposed – The Four Seasons, & you can hear it all 14 November at First Congregational in Berkeley, 15 November at the Empress Theater in Vallejo, 16 November at Herbst Theater in San Francisco, & 17 November at Saint Stephen's Episcopal in Belvedere.

On 15 November in Hertz Hall, Thomas Green & Noam Elisha leads the UC Berkeley Philharmonia Orchestra in Strum by Jesse Montgomery as well as the Beethoven 2 & the Brahms 1.

On 15 - 17 November, Kazuki Yamada leads the San Francisco Symphony in Entwine by Dai Fujikura, the Ravel Piano Concerto in G major (with soloist Hélène Grimaud), & the Fauré Requiem, with soprano Liv Redpath & baritone Michael Sumuel as well as the SF Symphony Chorus led by Jenny Wong.

On 16 November at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, guest conductor Kalena Bovell leads the SFCM Orchestra in Hear Her Sing by Alex Malinas, selections from Romeo & Juliet by Prokoviev, & both the Fountains of Rome & the Pines of Rome by Respighi.

The Cantata Collective presents Nicholas McGegan in an evening of Haydn & Mozart; the evening in question is 17 November, at First Congregational in Berkeley; the Haydn is the Scena di Berenice & the aria Deh Scoccorri Un’infelice from La Fideltà Premiata, featuring soprano Dominique Labelle, & the Mozart is the Concertone K 190 for 2 violins, oboe, cello & orchestra & the Symphony #40.

On 21 - 23 November, Bernard Labadie leads the San Francisco Symphony in an all Mozart program, featuring the Overture to La clemenza di Tito, Giunse alfin il momento…Al desio di chi t’adora (this & all other vocal pieces feature soprano Lucy Crowe), Ruhe sanft mein holdes Leben from Zaide, the Masonic Funeral Music, Schon lacht der holde Frühling, Venga la morte…Non temer, amato bene, & the Sympony #39.

On 23 November at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Sixto Montesinos Jr leads the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony in Quinn Mason's Toast of the Town Overture, Charles Tomlinson Griffes' Poem, & the Tchaikovsky 5.

The San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, led by Radu Paponiu, will perform Bernstein's Overture to Candide, Takashi Yoshimatsu's Cyber Bird Concerto (with saxophone soloist Harry Jo), & the Tchaikovsky 4 at Davies Hall on 24 November.

Chamber Music

If you're near Old Saint Mary's in San Francisco on a Tuesday near lunchtime, here's what's happening at Noontime Concerts: on 5 November, Basma Edrees (violin)Amelia Romano (Lever Harp), & Kendra Grittani (cello) play Modern Minds, a program featuring works by living female composers originally written for solo harp & arranged for string trio for this program; the composers include Romano & Edrees as well as Tamsin Dearnley, Lucy Hendry, Nadia Birkenstock, Ailie Robertson, & Sumula Jackson); on 12 November, Jennifer Choi (violin) Angela Lee (cello), & Marc Teicholz (guitar) will perform Bach's Sonata in C Major, BWV 1033, Dušan Bogdanović's Five Balkan Miniatures, & Paganini's Terzetto in D Major, Opus 66 for Violin, Cello, and Guitar; on 19 November, Chloe Tula (harp) & Elizabeth Prior (viola) will perform Bach to Bax (Back-to-Back), a program featuring Bach's Sonata for Viola and Harpsichord, Marcel Granjany's Rhapsodie for Harp, & Arnold Bax's Fantasy Sonata for Viola and Harp.

The Saturday morning lecture series at Herbst Theater, presented by San Francisco Performances,  featuring musicologist Robert Greenberg & the Alexander String Quartet (Zakarias Grafilo & Yuna Lee, violins; David Samuel, viola; Sandy Wilson, cello), continues its exploration of The String Quartets of Papa Joe & Wolfgang on 2 November, with Mozart's String Quartet #2 in D Major, the String Quartet #8 in F Major, & the String Quartet #12 in B-Flat Major.

Cal Performances presents the Dover Quartet (Joel Link & Bryan Lee, violins; Julianne Lee, viola, & Camden Shaw, cello), performing Jessie Montgomery's Strum, the west coast premiere of a Cal Performances co-commission; Abokkoli Taloowa (Woodland Songs) by Jerod Impichchaachaaha Tate, 

Rattle Songs by Pura Fe as arranged by Tate, & Dvořák’s Quartet in F major, Opus 96, the American, & that's on 3 November at Hertz Hall.

San Francisco Performances presents the Jerusalem Quartet (Alexander Pavlovsky & Sergei Bresler, violins; Ori Kam, viola; Kyril Zlotnikov, cello) on 7 November at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music's Hume Concert Hall (rather than the usual HerbstTheater), where they will perform Haydn's Quartet in B-flat Major, Opus 50, #1, the Prussian, Shostakovich's Quartet #12 in D-Flat Major, Opus 133, & Dvořák’s String Quartet in G-Major, Opus 106.

Taste of Talent celebrates El Día de los Muertos with cuisine & music from Mexico, with soprano Marlen Nahhas, pianist Ronny Michael Greenberg, & violinist Elizabeth Castro Greenberg on 6 November at the SF Clocktower Lofts.

The Berkeley Hillside Club's Chamber Music Sundaes series continues on 10 November with Sarn Oliver & Mariko Smiley (violin), Amy Hiraga (viola), & Peter Wyrick (cello), & mezzo-soprano Shauna Fallihee performing Sarn Oliver's The "CAT" (Contemporary Artful Tonalities) String Quartet & Beethoven's String Quartet in A minor, Opus 132.

On 10 November (afternoon) at Davies Hall, a chamber group of San Francisco Symphony musicians will perform Bach's Goldberg Variations (arranged for string trio), Till Euelenspiegel einmal anders! by Richard Strauss & Franz Hasenöhrl, Ravel's Introduction and Allegro, & Mozart's Variations on “Ah vous dirai-je, Maman".

On 10 November (evening) at Davies Hall, violinist Itzhak Perlman, along with pianists Jean-Yves Thibaudet & Emanuel Ax, & the Juilliard String Quartet, will perform Jean-Marie Leclair's Sonata for Two Violins in E minor, Opus 3 #5, Mozart's Piano Quartet #2 in E-flat major, & Chausson's Concert for Violin, Piano, and String Quartet.

The Sharp Quartet (Robin Sharp & Natasha Makhijani, violins; Ben Simon, viola; & Eric Gaenslen (cello) play (unspecified) string quartets by Mozart & Beethoven for Classical at the Freight (that's Freight & Salvage in Berkeley) on 11 November.

For this month's 12 November Chamber Music Tuesday at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, tenor Nicholas Phan will join with faculty & student musicians to give the world premiere of Diār, a string quartet by SFCM Hoefer Prize Winner Shahab Paranj, as well as pieces by Rebecca Clarke & Fauré that combine singing with chamber ensembles.

Instrumental

On 10 November at Hertz Hall, Cal Performances presents pianist Behzod Abduraimov playing Franck's Prélude, Fugue, and Variations, Opus 18 (as arranged by Bauer), Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, Florence Price's Fantasie nègre #1 in E minor, & Ten Pieces from Romeo and Juliet, Opus 75, by Prokofiev.

On 10 November at Old First Concerts, pianist Lynn Schugren performs The Voice of the Piano, a program featuring music by American women: Amy Beach's 5 Improvisations, Opus 148; Louise Talma's Sonata; Frances Brouwer's Flight & her Fear of the Deep; Miriam Gideon's Sonata; Joan Tower's Ivory and Ebony; & the world premiere of Alexis Alrich's The Caryatids.

San Francisco Performances presents pianist Natasha Paremski at Herbst Theater on 13 November, performing Quinn Mason's Falling Slowly, Chopin's Berceuse in D-Flat Major, Opus 57 & his Sonata #2 in B-Flat Minor, Opus 35, selections from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet & Stravinsky's Three Movements from Petrushka.

Cal Performances presents pianist Igor Levit on 19 November at Zellerbach Hall, when he will play Bach's Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D minor, the Brahms Ballades, Opus 10, & the Beethoven 7 as arranged by Liszt.

Ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro gets a jump on the celebrations with Holidays in Hawaii at the SF Jazz Center on 21 - 24 November.

On 23 November in Zellerbach Hall, Cal Performances presents violinist Maxim Vengerov with pianist Polina Osetinskaya, performing Three Romances for Violin and Piano, Opus 22 by Clara Schumann, the Scherzo from the F-A-E Sonata by Brahms, the Violin Sonata #3 in A minor by Robert Schumann, & Prokofiev's Five Melodies, Opus 35 & his Violin Sonata #2 in D major, Opus 94a.

Early / Baroque Music

Tactus SF, led by Sven Edward Olbash, marks the Day of the Dead with a program of Spanish music contemplating death & the afterlife, featuring the traditional Roman Catholic Office for the Dead, as well as music by Cristóbal de Morales, Tomás Luis de Victoria, Fernando Franco, & Juan Vásquez, & you can hear it all on 2 November at Saint Matthew's Lutheran in San Francisco (near Mission Dolores) & 3 November at Saint Paul's Episcopal in Oakland.

Philharmonia Baroque, led at these performances by mandolinist Avi Avital & joined by soprano Estelí Gomez, celebrates Vivaldi & Venice with performances of his Concerto in G minor for Strings and Basso Continuo, the aria Lo seguitai felice from L’Olimpiade, traditional Venetian songs, &, of course, The Four Seasons, & you can hear it all 7 November at Herbst Theater in San Francisco, 8 November at Bing Concert Hall at Stanford, & 9 November at First Congregational in Berkeley. (Avital will conduct a Master Class at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music on 15 November.)

The San Francisco Early Music Society presents Christophe Rousset & Les Talens Lyriques, joined by mezzo-soprano Ambroisine Bré, for The Sound of Music in Versailles, highlighting music by Lambert, de Montéclair, Couperin, & Lully, on 12 November at First Church in Berkeley.

Cal Performances presents violinist Leonidas Kavakos performing Bach's Complete Sonatas & Partitas for Solo Violin in Zellerbach Hall; on 15 November, he will play Partita #3 in E major, Sonata #2 in A minor, & Sonata #3 in C major, & on 16 November the Sonata #1 in G minor, the Partita #1 in B minor, & the Partita #2 in D minor.

Modern / Contemporary Music

Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, joined by soprano Nikki Einfeld, performs Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, Tomàs Peire-Serrate's Five Haiku (the LCCE 2022 Composition Contest Winner), & Maria Schneider's Carlos Drummond de Andrade Stories on 2 November at Noe Valley Ministry in San Francisco & 3 November at the Berkeley Hillside Club.

On 3 November at Old First Concerts, Orphic Percussion (Sean Clark, Michael Downing, Divesh Karamchandani, & Stuart Langsam) will perform Alexis Alrich's Muse of Fire, Gary Heaton-Smith's Rendezvous I, Marc Mellits' Gravity, Alejandro Vinao's Stress and Flow, Shaun Tilburg's Series of Accidents, David Skidmore's Donner, & Kenneth Froelich's Stuck in Loops (all  but the Mellits & the Skidmore were commissioned by Orphic Percussion).

The Bent Frequency Duo Project (saxophonist Jan Berry Baker & percussionist Stuart Gerber) will perform music written for them by Amy Williams, Emily Koh, George Lewis, Ken Ueno, & Pamela Madsen (the latter two works are premieres) at the Center for New Music on 8 November.

On 8 November at Old First Concerts, Ensemble for These Times (pianist Margaret Halbig with guests Laura Reynolds, English horn & oboe; Lylia Guion, violin; & Megan Chartier, cello) will perform In Motion, a program featuring the world premieres of Oboe Meets Piano by Mary Bianco; And I Made My Own Way, Deciphering That Fire by Ursula Kwong-Brown; & ubi lux floret by Darian Donovan Thomas as well as the Moto Perpetuo from Britten's Cello Sonata, Opus 65; Moto Perpetuo from Suite Mignonne, Opus 39 by York Bowen; Synopsis #10: I Know This Room So Well by Lisa Bielawa; Ominous Machine by Vivian Fung; Composure by Sage Shurman, & Majestic Bells by Zhou Tian; there will be a preconcert talk with composers Bianco, Vivan Fung, & Kwong-Brown, moderated by E4TT’s Brennan Stokes.

On 9 November at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Nicole Paiement leads the New Music Ensemble in selections from Elinor Armer's A Book of Songs, David Garner's Viñetas Flamencas, Darioush Mackani's It Disappears, Aleksandra Vrebalov's Cosmic Love III, & Milhaud's Symphonie de chambre numbers 1, 2, 3.

San Francisco Performances presents composers Caroline Shaw (performing on vocals & viola this evening) & Gabriel Kahane (vocals & piano) in Hexagons, a new piece they've created inspired by Borges's The Library of Babel; there will also be additional works, & you can hear them all on 14 November at Herbst Theater.

The San Francisco Contemporary Music Players present Myths & Muses on 24 November at the Brava Theater in San Francisco, featuring the world premiere of an SFCMP commission, Mother Eve by Emma Logan, featuring mezzo-soprano Kindra Schirach, along with local premieres of Laura Schwendinger's The Artist’s Muse, Mary Kouyoumdjian's Moerae (The Fates), & Augusta Read Thomas's Terpsichore’s Box of Dreams, for 13 Virtuosi; the concert is preceded by an "under the hood" conversation among SFCMP Artistic Director Eric Dudley & composers Logan, Schwendinger, & Read Thomas.

Jazz / Roots / Blues

Vijay Iyer brings his Trio (Iyer on piano, Linda May Han Oh on bass, & Tyshawn Sorey on drums) & music from their latest release, Compassion, to the SF Jazz Center on 2 - 3 November.

Aki Kumar, vocalist & harmonica player, "known as 'the only Bombay Blues Man' for his blending of traditional Indian music with Chicago blues", celebrates Diwali, along with guest musicians to be named later, at the SF Jazz Center on 3 November.

Saxophonist / vocalist Stephanie Chou brings her Stephanie Chou Quintet, which combines traditional Chinese music & classical influences with American jazz & pop, to the SF Jazz Center on 8 November.

On 10 November Freight & Salvage hosts the fourth annual Black Women's Roots Festival, celebrating "powerful, pioneering Black women in blues, jazz, folk, gospel, classical, and Afro-Cuban music" performers include The Dynamic Miss Faye Carol, Linda Tillery, Bobi Céspedes, Bishop Yvette Flunder, Miko Marks, Vicki Randle, the All Black Women String Quartet (Christina Walton & Yeri Caesar, violin; Nansamba Ssensalo, viola; Mia Pixley, cello), Avotcja, & Miss Faye's Babies (students of Faye Carol).

The San Francisco International Boogie Woogie Festival, featuring Luca Sestak, Lluis Coloma, Chase Garrett & Emilie Richard, Carl Sonny Leyland, & “Blue Lou” Marini. takes place at the SF Jazz Center on 10 November.

The Erik Jekabson Stringtet, joined by vocalist Jackie Ryan,  will play music by Duke Ellington, as arranged by Jekabson, at the Berkeley Hillside Club on 22 November.

The Sun Ra Arkestra plays the Great American Music Hall from 22 to 24 November.

The SF Jazz Center hosts Blues Blowout, "a cross-section of artists representing the living soul of Texas, the deep Chicago blues tradition, and the signature sound of West Coast blues", including vocalists Diunna Greenleaf, Oscar Wilson, & Mark Hummel (who also plays harmonica), guitarists Anson Funderburgh, Junior Watson, & others; & that's 29 November - 1 December.

Dance

Oakland Ballet celebrates Dia de los Muertos with Luna Mexicana at the Paramount on 2 November.

Cal Performances presents Step Afrika! in The Migration: Reflections on Jacob Lawrence, based on Jacob Lawrence's series of paintings chronicling the Great Migration & using music that includes works by Nina Simone & John Coltrane as well as gospel & West African drumming, & that's at Zellerbach Hall on 2 - 3 November.

La Rumba No Para (The Rumba Doesn’t Stop), directed and choreographed by Andrea Rodriguez, a "salsa love story" that combines film, dance, & spoken word to tell a story about growing up in San Francisco, plays at ODC Theater on 8 - 10 November.

Smuin Ballet gets an early jump on the holidays with the return of The Christmas Ballet, playing 23 - 24 November at the Lesher Center in Walnut Creek, 5 - 8  December at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, & 13 - 24 December at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco (20 December is LGBTQ+ Night with special guest Lady Camden).

Cal Performances presents Pilobolus in re:CREATION from 30 November to 1 December at Zellerbach Hall.

Art Means Paintins

Born of the Bear Dance: Dugan Aguilar’s Photographs of Native California, showing contemporary (1982 to 2018) Indigenous California life, opens at the Oakland Museum on 8 November.

Dress Rehearsal: The Art of Theatrical Design opens at the Legion of Honor on 9 November & runs through 11 May 2025.

In honor of the museum's centennial, Celebrating 100 Years at the Legion of Honor will open at, of course, the Legion of Honor on 9 November (it runs until 2 November 2025). 

Amy Sherald: American Sublime, a comprehensive exhibit of the artist best known for her portrait of Michelle Obama, opens at SFMOMA on 16 November & runs through 9 March 2025.

Cinematic

On 3 November, the Roxie in San Francisco celebrates the 25th anniversary of 69 Love Songs with a showing of Strange Powers: Stephin Merritt and the Magnetic Fields; Merritt himself, along with co-director Gail O’Hara & Daniel Handler (also known as Lemony Snicket, also known as the accordionist for the Magnetic Fields) will appear in person & in conversation after the movie.

BAM/PFA have a couple of enticing series this month: Sergei Parajanov: Centennial Celebration, featuring the poetic works of the great Armenian director, runs 1 - 22 November, & Jia Zhangke: Filmmaker in Residence will feature the Chinese director in person with his films, & that runs 7 - 30 November; BAM/PFA's Special Screening series also has lots to offer, including a new digital restoration of Jean-Pierre Melville's Le samouraï (The Godson) starring Alain Delon; Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus, a final concert film from the late composer; a digital restoration of The Stranger and the Fog (Gharibeh va meh) by Bahram Beyzaie, an Iranian film banned for decades after the Iranian Revolution; & the new restoration of Kurosawa's Seven Samurai.

The San Francisco Transgender Film Festival plays at the Roxie from 13 to 16 November.

Museum Monday 2024/44

 

detail of The Girls by Tamara de Lempicka, seen at the de Young Museum as part of the special de Lempicka exhibit

Friday Photo 2024/43

 

Lincoln Park, San Francisco

San Francisco Opera: Tristan & Isolde

I was at the first performance of San Francisco Opera's superb production of Tristan & Isolde, & went again, last night, to the second.

As I said to someone (actually, no doubt more than one person) before the performance, there are opera fans, & there are Wagner fans, & though there's a Venn Diagram intersection there, the two are not really the same thing. I'm tempted to add another category, those for whom Tristan is itself set apart, even from the rest of Wagner's works. Tristan is not an opera, nor (pace the Master & his acolytes) a music-drama: it is a psychic derangement; it is flesh (infused with never-ending yearning, & deeper & more powerful than anything our actual poor little meat-machines can manage) transubstantiated into sound, swelling, cresting, subsiding only to tumesce forward, stretching endurance almost beyond comprehension; it is an auricular opiate &, like the products of the nodding poppy, it can nauseate some while leaving others disoriented (on a spiritual as well as physical level) for days, while they still long for another dose. Like Rilke's Archaic Torso of Apollo, it is an artwork with an imperative message: You must change your life.

This is, of course, not an easy command to follow, or even to comprehend; hence some of the discontent this disturbing, titanic work leaves in its wake. During my first performance, those seated around me were rapt; on the second, there were the usual gaggle of operatic whisperers & crinklers of cellophane. I would gladly have beaten them to death, my only defense being: "Your Honor, they were crinkling during Tristan!" The usual intermission exasperations – people moving too slowly, standing obliviously in some obviously inconvenient spot, expressing their stupid opinions too loudly – filled me with more than the usual rage. We all seem so much less significant in the light of this work (A judgment from which I do not, of course, exclude myself.) This is . . . not a healthy way to approach life.

Tristan, though, is not a "healthy" work, whatever that might be, unless having your little boat upturned, throwing you into more than usually stormy psychic seas, counts, in some long run, as healthy. The Wagnerian penchant for extremities – greatest of heroes, weakest of cowards, most wondrous of women, deepest of betrayals – is here in full force, & it doesn't take long after the initial movement of Eun Sun Kim's masterly baton to pull us into this worldscape. Here betrayal is the deepest truth, day, strikingly, with its sunlight & openness, is the enemy of all we long for, & night what we pine for unceasingly (that is, if "we" are pulled into the psychological orbit of the two lovers; some no doubt resist). Night isn't even our day-following hours; it is death, but not even death, oblivion but not quite that; it is some sort of cosmic universal force, darkly centered in a somehow joyous non-existence (is this bliss because we experience oblivion, or is the bliss so intense as to swirl us into a state of oblivion?).

I overheard someone during an intermission talking about "well, when two people are very much in love", as if, had things fallen out a bit differently, Tristan & Isolde would be picking out china patterns & shopping for a nice little castle somewhere. In this work love & sex stand in for something mightier than our little awkwardnesses, as with angelic intercourse in Paradise Lost, where the heavenly lovers:

obstacle find none
Of membrane, joint, or limb, exclusive bars:
Easier than Air with Air, if Spirits embrace,
Total they mix, Union of Pure with Pure
Desiring; nor restrain'd conveyance need
As Flesh to mix with Flesh, or Soul with Soul.

(Book 8, ll 624 - 629)

The world keeps intruding, though, usually in the form of King Marke & his court; in this production, directed by Paul Curran, the first act ends (after the lovers have downed the death/love potion that gave them permission to act on their deepest desires, & they need to be forcibly separated from their embrace of each other by the faithful Brangäne & Kurwenal) as a white-clad, somewhat ghostly looking Marke, elevated on a mobile platform, moves toward them from behind. At the end of the second act, the lovers' ecstatic duet ends abruptly with the sudden return of King & court, led by Melot, who has accused Tristan of betraying his King & loving uncle. The third act would end with Marke uniting the two, except Tristan has died & Isolde sweeps aside Marke & the rest of the world with her enraptured Liebestod (only to have the world sweep that aside for us, the audience, who must stagger out of our seats & wander back through crowded streets & noisy trains to the theatrical sets we call reality).

We, of course, can revisit the experience not only through our imperfect memories but also through the many recordings easily (maybe too easily) available to us. Though every note of the score (performed uncut in this production) may have sunk into our psyches, there is still a freshness & force to hearing it live, even in our days of dozens of recorded choices, especially with playing as dauntless & inspired as the Opera Orchestra's. I can only imagine how mighty, how intoxicating, this work appeared to those experiencing it in the opera house in the days before recording, when only rumor, piano reductions, or the occasional excerpt performed in concert could give people some idea of what was involved. (Even for us, though, there are new things to notice; this time I was particularly struck by Wagner's astute & careful use of the sparkling harp.)

Even so, excerpts, piano reductions, even recordings, can't give you a full sense of the experience. Sitting through it is part of it. The music keeps unrolling gloriously, perverse in its beauty; even Brangäne's second act warning to the lovers to beware floats above them like a celestial benediction. Are we hearing it as they hear it, as a beautiful sound that doesn't quite reach them? Wagner is careful not to ridicule or dismiss King Marke & his Court, or the other representatives of the world, such as the Steersman in the first act & the shepherd in the third. Marke has a touching monologue about Tristan's betrayal, one that gives us some sense of the depth & dignity possible in being merely, or "merely", human. The interior perspective of the lovers is not the only, or even perhaps the best, way of seeing things. One can long for rapturous annihilation while still realizing there might be other, though perhaps less grand or deep, possibilities. These cosmic forces are too difficult for us to live with in our daily way.

This famously or notoriously interior & lengthy work presents considerable challenges in staging; this production makes astute use of touch – the characters mostly stand apart from each other, so a hand on a shoulder (as Isolde's on Tristan's when she urges him towards the potion) or two hands slowly joining (as during the heedless lovers' second act duet) carry considerable force. Astute use is made of lighting, in harmony with the longing for darkness / night / oblivion of the lovers; when they first drink what Brangäne has given them, they fall to the floor & the already dim stage suddenly goes dark as the unfolding music suspends them & us in transformative time; as the light returns, isolating the two of them in its white pools, they slowly reach their hands towards each other, coming close to contact.

The pale walls – high, with windows up above, criss-crossed by timbers – that portray the interior of the ship in Act 1 return in Act 3's delirium & isolation, only this time hung askew, deranged, smashed: a society of shipwreck. Act 2 has more formal white walls, a bit palatial looking, with a large tree in the front: only the tree's branches are stubby, knotted; the tree, which is all a lovely silver, slants to one side. It is beautiful but thwarted, frustrated. Tristan's costumes are mostly modernish, a sort of suit & white shirt; Isolde is in a long green-gold robe, like a Celtic princess, & Brangäne in a similar robe of sort of a maroon. Marke wears a long pale tunic, hovering somewhere between medieval & contemporary. When Melot & company rush in at the climax of Act 2, they are accompanied by soldiers looking very medieval in chain mail & dark red velvety tunics. It's a striking effect, given the sudden intrusion of a storybook-medieval look. But even Tristan's more modern garb, which helps set the hero apart, suits the ambiguous time-setting; this is a world in which swords & magic potions are plausible, but also a psychological / spiritual / mythic world beyond the clanking of such plot devices.

The whole cast was strong – beyond strong; dazzling, given the sheer physicals demands of this work. Christopher Oglesby, as the singer of the haunting sea chantey in Act 1; Thomas Kinch in the small but striking role of Melot; Christopher Oglesby as the loyal shepherd in Act 3 & Samuel Kidd as the Steersman; Kwangchul Youn as a dignified, touching King Marke; Wolfgang Koch as a gruff & loyal Kurwenal (faithful to his hero Tristan, even if he doesn't always understand Tristan the lover); Annika Schlicht as a compassionate, anguished Brangäne: all superb. But of course separate praise is due to the tireless Simon O'Neill as Tristan, whose anguished hallucinations in Act 3 blazed forth; & to the powerful, brooding Isolde of Anje Kampe, whose glorious Liebestod was the only fitting conclusion to the eveing. Eun Sun Kim shaped a clear, deep, & rich sound. (The English horn soloist, Benjamin Brogadir, also deserves highest praise!)

Twice I've been, & twice I've staggered dizzily out, spending the day (or days) afterwards with what felt like a hangover: listless, headachey, discombobulated. Yet I'm thinking of going again, if I can, tossing aside such worldly concerns as my parlous financial state & the physical & psychic after-effects. Look, I could quibble or carp about things here & there in particular performances or staging moments, but what would be the point? It would be like rating the ecstatic visions of a mystic saint. Tristan is a miracle, & as such it is impossible to stage perfectly, as we do not live in a miraculous world, but it's difficult for me to imagine performances that come closer to the unrealizable goal. This has been artistically a very successful year for San Francisco Opera.

Poem of the Week 2024/43

Frost

Therefore, lest this inclement friend should maim

Your valued plants, plunge pots within a frame

Sunk deep in sand or ashes to the rim,

Warm nursery where nights and days are grim;

But in the long brown borders where the frost

May hold its mischievous and midnight play

And all the winnings of your months be lost

In one short gamble when the dice are tossed

Finally and forever in few hours,

– The chance your skill, the stake your flowers, –

Throw bracken, never sodden, light and tough

In almost weightless armfuls down, to rest

Buoyant on tender and frost-fearing plants;

Or set the wattled hurdle in a square

Protective, where the north-east wind is gruff,

As sensitive natures seek for comfort lest

Th'assault of life be more than they can bear

And find an end, not in timidity

But death's decisive certainty.

– Vita Sackville-West

There is a long history of poetry as an instructional tool, particularly for agriculture; this makes sense, as the rhythms & rhymes of poetry make it easier to memorize than prose (at least back in the time before we outsourced our memories to reference books in general & the Internet in particular), & instructions on how to grow things would be a life necessity in a time when a family's or town's survival might depend on one harvest. There is also a long history of using the garden as a metaphor for various human elements, including life in general. Sackville-West, a noted gardener as well as writer, calls on these traditions in this seasonal poem.

Even with global climate change menacing our lives & shaking up our habits & assumptions, this is the time of year when farmers & gardeners (even those who just grow a few green things in pots on the patio) have to prepare for oncoming winter. The nights, if not always the daylight hours, are colder, & the darkness lasts a bit longer each day as we gradually approach the winter solstice. The poet here offers solid advice on protecting your precious flowers, & perhaps yourself, from oncoming frost. But she doesn't see frost as an enemy; as part of the natural world & its cycle, it is what gardeners choose to deal with. So it is called a friend, though an inclement one; inclement would refer not only to the harsh weather of winter, but to the nature of frost itself: clemency is mercy, so inclement suggests there is something merciless about frost. It doesn't choose which particular plants to strike; it just strikes. Such is its nature. We all have friends (or know people) like that.

Sackville-West proceeds with some useful advice about burying the pots in a frame or box filled with sand or ashes; her language throughout is vigorous & active: plunge the pots in, sink them deep, up to the rim. She describes the effect of the frame as a warm nursery when nights & days are grim; a summation that easily extends to a view of human life: a nursery is not only a place where young plants are raised & sold, but a room in which young children are raised. When not only nights but also days are grim & cold, a retrospective look at the warm nursery we might have had as children can be a comforting memory.

The poet amps up her comparisons: the frost's mischievous and midnight play – a delightful phrase, reminiscent of Shakespeare in its yoking of two disparate but somehow harmonious modifiers, making one think of the frost as the personification Jack Frost or some other fairyland inhabitant – establishes a sort of casino in which you, the gardener, are, willing or not, one of the gamesters. Do you dare to risk your months of hard work, cultivating some rare or special (at least to you) bloom? The brown borders (that is, borders of bare earth; no summer abundance here, of either cultivated plants or weeds) give visual evidence that winter is coming. Your whole garden could, with one hard frost, turn into a bare brown plot.

She tells you how to hedge your bets: mulch, specifically a mulch of bracken (a type of fern), though not sodden; this dry mulch is light, almost airy; it is tough (it would take a longer time to decompose than more tender greens), it is buoyant. Again, the poet's language is astute and strong; you can feel the protective quality of the bracken, its resilience. You are throwing down the almost weightless armfuls (so, again, there's practical advice here: you'll need a lot of mulch); just as you plunged rather than placed the pots, so you throw down (continuing the gambling metaphor, of course) rather than place the bracken.

Or you could build a barrier using a wattled hurdle. A hurdle in this sense is a British term for a rectangular portable frame to be used as a temporary fence; the wattles would be twigs, reeds, or branches woven into a more or less solid barrier. Cover, comfort, protection from on-rushing roughness of wind & cold: here Sackville-West moves just a bit away from the garden into general observations on humanity (though her use of sensitive natures reminds us, with her astute use of natures, that humanity is, whether we admit it or not, inextricably part of the natural world). She says that these sensitive natures (as a member of the Bloomsbury circle, Sackville-West would probably be thinking of her artistic, emotionally & socially daring friendships among the cultural elite) seek comfort, not out of laziness or self-indulgence, but as a protective cloak, a way of bearing with life's hardness & cruelty, which can beat such natures down (resulting in the timidity she mentions) or even lead these natures towards suicide, as a way of seeking rest from uncertainty & hazard & finding some sort of peace in the decisive certainty, the finality, of death. A garden is not just a luxury or indulgence; it is one of those comforts that help us stave off hopelessness.

I took this poem from the anthology Garden Poems, edited by John Hollander, in the splendid Everyman's Library Pocket Poet series.

Museum Monday 2024/43

 

detail from one of the Battle of Pavia tapestries, currently on view at the de Young Museum as part of the special exhibit Art and War in the Renaissance: The Battle of Pavia Tapestries

Friday Photo 2024/42

 

a view from the #1 California bus, San Francisco

Poem of the Week 2024/42

That time of year thou mayst in me behold

When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang

Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,

Bare ruined choirs where late the sweet birds sang.

In me thou seest the twilight of such day

As after sunset fadeth in the west.

Which by and by black night doth take away,

Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.

In me thou seest the glowing of such fire

That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,

As the deathbed whereon it must expire,

Consumed with that which it was nourished by.

    This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,

    To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

– William Shakespeare, Sonnet 73

This sumptuous & celebrated sonnet is, on the surface, deceptively simple. Each of the three quatrains takes a standard trope indicating waning energies / the end of life – the autumn of the year, sunset &  night falling, a fire dying into embers – & works it into a vivid poetic statement, followed by a concluding couplet suggesting the recipient, seeing these things, can only feel love strengthened by impending loss.

The first quatrain portrays Fall not in the usual terms of fields bared by harvest but by the dying leaves (there's nothing fruitful here). Yet there's something odd in the second line when the poet initially says no leaves are left on the boughs but then immediately amends that to "well, maybe a few" – why the self-revision? Why the insistence on some remaining energy? It's not a word order necessitated by rhyme, so something else must be going on.

After this odd moment, the poet returns to the description of Fall: cold (the coldness of Winter / Death) is approaching, which makes the boughs shake (almost as if they were human limbs shivering). The boughs are likened, in a famous phrase, to bare ruined choirs, likening the natural world of trees stripped of leaves to the surrounding English landscape dotted with monastic ruins. It's worth remembering that those ruins were, just a few decades before Shakespeare was born, vital institutions, until Henry VIII decided he was better off without them. Again, this is perhaps a suggestion that beneath this image of wasting away is some underlying vitality, at least until quite recently, which is what late means in this context (as when we refer to a recently deceased person as the late X). Associating himself with the choirs is also a way of emphasizing that the speaker is older than the recipient, perhaps of a generation that could remember back to the choirs when they were, like the poet, singing. Is there something a touch histrionic in the sweet birds, especially coming, as they do, after a sere series of terms: dead leaves, stripped boughs, shaking with cold, bare, ruined: even words that have a different function, like hang & late, carry overtones of suffering & missing out.

The second stanza runs along much the same lines: the speaker compares himself to twilight; the busy day has sunk out of sight, & by and by black night (oblivion, & not just the temporary oblivion of sleep, Death's second self) covers all. By and by also seems perhaps a touch melodramatic, indicating an impending darkness that is less imminent than it actually would be at that time of day.

The third stanza follows a similar pattern: it opens, as does the second, with In me thou seest, followed by an elaboration of a basic metaphor for ending: this time, it's a fire dying out. The fire, reduced to a glow, is at the stage where it is being consumed by the ash it has already produced, the ashes, specifically, of a spent youth. The metaphor is strengthened by the invocation of a deathbed. But, again, there is an emphasis on the strength that was there, & which has not quite entirely disappeared, though the end is near.

So what is going on here? It's important to remember that Shakespeare's sonnets were initially circulated in manuscript (this was not an unusual practice) & when they were published, it was, apparently, without the poet's agreement or supervision. No one really know why or to whom Shakespeare wrote the series (though theories, of course, abound). This sonnet is part of the series traditionally held to have been addressed to an unknown young man, though there's nothing in the phrasing of this particular poem that genders the recipient, & the order of the sonnets as they've come down to us may be by someone other than the poet.

Clearly, though, a single individual is being addressed here: the thou who is repeatedly conjured to notice the impending end of the speaker must be not only an individual, but an intimate (thou strikes a modern reader as formal, because it is archaic, but in Shakespeare's day it was, like the French tu, the singular second person, used for an intimate or social inferior). One of the many unknowable things about the sonnets is when exactly they were written, but scholarly speculation is that he wrote them, give or take a few years, around the age of 30. Even considering that death came earlier then for most people (Shakespeare himself was 52 when he died), it seems a bit odd for a man in his 30s – out of his youth, but one would think in the prime of his life – to draw repeated & elaborate attention to his oncoming demise. And he seems aware that his recipient is maybe not giving him his full attention; each quatrain opens with instructions on what the recipient is supposed to be seeing, & the speaker feels the need to make his point three separate times, in three separate ways, though always with some similar adjuration: thou mayst in me behold or (twice) In me thou seest.

After repeatedly telling his apparently younger friend that the end is near, the concluding couplet sums up the lesson, as it usually does in sonnets with this three-quatrains-and-a-couplet construction: all this I'm telling you is going to make your love for me even stronger, as you won't have me around to love for much longer. But the phrasing is notable: this thou perceiv'st: perceive means to become aware or conscious of something, to come to a realization, to interpret or view someone or something in a particular way: in other words, this is not something the recipient is realizing on his own (otherwise, why would the speaker have to reinforce the image repeatedly?) but something the speaker hopes the recipient will come to realize, a learned response, an insight he will, at some point, achieve – someday, when I'm gone, you'll wish you'd loved me more! Also, given the preceding quatrains, all of which suggest it is the speaker who will be leaving, the last line suddenly makes the recipient the one who will be leaving. Is the speaker perhaps aware that the recipient is drifting away from him, & the whole sonnet is, essentially, a dramatic speech warning him that the speaker won't be around forever & he should keep loving him while he can? Does the strange shift in who is leaving intimate that the speaker knows, perhaps on a not-quite conscious level, that the recipient is planning on leaving him?

Another thing no one knows about Shakespeare's sonnets is what relation, if any, they bear to his life. There is an assumption that they are autobiographical (if only we could crack the code!), but that may or may not be true – we are, after all, talking about probably the greatest dramatist in history; clearly he was able to imagine himself into all sorts of moods & situations that have little, no, or tangential connection to the facts of his biography. There seems something a touch theatrical, even slightly comic, but also deeply moving, about this sonnet read as a speech (& keep in mind that Shakespeare did incorporate sonnets into some of his plays, most famously when Romeo & Juliet meet for the first time): we have here a man summoning up dazzling rhetorical powers to persuade a younger & perhaps slightly uninterested friend that in fact his (the poet's) end is near & that's all the more reason to keep his (the friend's) love strong. Hence the underlying hints of on-going vigor beneath the eloquent, picturesque invocations of impending death. In this light, the poem, no matter what remove it is from Shakespeare's lived experience, is not only gorgeous, but also slightly comic, & also deeply poignant: comic & poignant in the way of all attempts to persuade someone else that their love for us should be as strong (at least!) as our love for them.

There are many editions of Shakespeare's sonnets, of course: I use the Signet Classic.