detail of The Lagoon of Saint Mark, Venice by Paul Signac, seen at the de Young Museum as part of the special exhibit Monet and Venice
04 May 2026
01 May 2026
30 April 2026
at the Phoenix Theater: Long Day's Journey Into Night
For years I didn't think much of Eugene O'Neill. He towers over the history, such as it is, of the American theater, but I found his works ponderous & overly earnest in a way that seemed to guarantee their limits. What was I basing this opinion on? I can't remember seeing any of his plays live besides A Moon for the Misbegotten, which I saw at ART when I lived in Boston (so, decades ago). I saw Ah, Wilderness! on PBS back in the 1970s, when they used to show such things. I did not like it. I saw the films of Anna Christie with Garbo & The Emperor Jones with Paul Robeson, but Garbo & Robeson can carry most things on their own, regardless of whatever interest the material has. I had seen, also long ago, the film of Long Day's Journey Into Night, directed by Sidney Lumet, with Hepburn & Richardson. I didn't much like any of these, & I thought all that was enough. But O'Neill kept recurring in books about the 1920s & 1930s, I kept wondering about his reputation (did he just do things I didn't care for? there must be something behind the high esteem in which he is held). Sometimes artists nag at us like this, squirreled away in the back of our minds, & that's a signal we need to revisit their work. I don't need to cling to opinions I formed 40 years ago. So when I heard that Long Day's Journey Into Night would be staged at the Phoenix Theater, I went.
As you can probably guess, I have recanted my heresy. The production, directed by Jeffrey Hoffman, is fluid & forceful; the play has been trimmed but still runs over three hours (with one 15-minute intermission) & it does not lag or drag, & I ended up re-examining my opinions about more things than the plays of Eugene O'Neill.
The mother, Mary Tyrone, embodied here by Angela Dant, was the fulcrum of the story: after a short period of sobriety, she reverted to her morphine addiction, an addiction that works not only physiologically but psychologically to alleviate her depression, her regrets, her loneliness. Dant has a wonderful voice for the role, combining a girl's fluty tones with the querulous ones of an aging woman. So here's my first switch: I have said for years that the problem with dramas about addiction is that they are essentially undramatic, in that the addiction will always win out: that's pretty much the definition of addiction. My mistake was in thinking that the drama would be about the addiction itself, rather than in the way those around the addict (even more than the addict herself) view & react to the addiction.
Her family has fooled itself, more or less, into thinking that maybe this time Mary really has conquered her dependence. The revelation of her addiction (which I thought was one of those things everyone knew, but apparently not; I overheard two women in the audience at intermission trying to figure out what exactly she was on – by intermission it's become clear that it's some sort of medically prescribed painkiller) is made slowly: There are references, when she is absent, about "the last time" & actions that resemble her addicted behavior (what is she doing alone at night in the upstairs room?). The emphasis is on the family's reactions & thoughts & suspicions, & on Mary's reactions. She feels under constant surveillance. Sometimes it seems the main connection this lonely woman has with her family is her resentment at their monitoring. Though she clearly sees herself as a peacemaker, trying to smooth things over with her husband & their two sons, particularly the elder, Jamie, who is already an alcoholic, she will also jab at the others, sometimes with a one-two punch of "understanding" & criticism. (It reminded me of a time years ago when I went with a friend to the house of her parents, who were very quarrelsome with each other; they started arguing about something & though I was listening carefully there was a moment when they switched the positions they had taken, he taking hers & she taking his, without missing a beat & without lessening the tension of the argument; it was like watching two amazing aerial acrobats: a blur of spangles & presto! they have exchanged their swings & are now facing each other on opposite sides high above the ring.)
And she's not wrong (or "wrong") about either the compassionate remarks or the critical ones. None of them are. That's another thing: I had always thought dismissively of this play, & other such family dramas, as plays in which Truths Are Told. And I think I'm not wrong in finding that unrealistic; most truths (or "truths") are told indirectly, inadvertently, not in big confrontations in which X tells Y some home truth, & Nothing Is Ever the Same Again. But what we see here, & what is very true to life, is seeing people weaponize the idea of truth, as revelations to undercut or jab at someone else, or even themselves. (It's not just Mary but also the self-lacerating Jamie who is an example of this tendency.) The very notion of "truth" evaporates; what we are given are more in the nature of different points of view; a twist of the prism shining new colors from old lights. It's all part of the archeology of the family, the resurrection of partly buried incidents or, more to the point, emotions surrounding those incidents, & I was impressed by how skillfully O'Neill paced the revelations.
And that brings me to another objection, which actually experiencing this play led me to set aside: the idea that what we're seeing on stage is the one singular turning point. Nothing Is Ever the Same Again is, by & large, not how most lives happen; even if something appears that way, time moves on & emotions keep shifting. There is change, but incidental & incremental, & linked not only to whatever big revelation has formed the climax of the first act but to the passing of time, the aging of our bodies, the forward current of the culture around us. What is most powerful about this play, though O'Neill has perceptively set it at a time when the family thinks things are changing, is the certainty that nothing has changed, or will change; it is not just this one significant night on which Mary Tyrone will appear like a ghost, clutching her wedding gown, lost in the flowered field of her past; it is night after night after night.
Is escape possible? I used to be convinced, in my blithely & naively American way, that it was: you simply leave. You cut ties. You move on. You put certain people in your past. But it turns out they don't stay there, at least mentally, & that's the mistake I made there: even if you have removed yourself from certain situations or people, they still inhabit your mind. You can make efforts to redirect the steam of your thoughts, but it will keep flowing back to certain people & times. (I have a friend whose memory is going; she has one sister, whom she has not spoken to for years. She claims not to know why her sister doesn't speak to her. We both have our suspicions, but as always in such cases there's a whole iceberg submerged below that tip. But even though the sister is, for all practical purposes, out of her life, & has been for many years, & even though she remembers less & less of her life & the world she lives in, she keeps recurring to the situation, announcing regularly that she doesn't know why her sister refuses to speak to her. . . )
I do get frustrated with plays in which the main character reaches some level of understanding, which leads towards compassion/forgiveness/ &, to use the current inevitable buzzword, "connection". I think that moment is there to give us fake reassurance at the end of whatever traumas the play has been processing, as if we've had a rough voyage & now we're going to be pushed in a comfy chair we can sink obliviously into. My experience is that you work towards understanding & forgiveness & then you cycle back towards anger & just go through the cycle over & over, until time sweeps you away too. I give O'Neill credit for insisting on the hardness & repetitiveness of what we face in life.
The Phoenix is an intimate theater, which works well for this play, brining us into a fairly cramped cottage in which it's difficult for the quartet not to get in each other's way. The furnishings are few but suitably both genteel & shabby (the Sunday afternoon I was there a table broke & the cast admirably incorporated the incident & stayed in character; at least, I assume it was an accident). I've mentioned Dant as Mary but I don't want to stint the men. Kevin Copps as James Tyrone brings considerable dignity & empathy to a part that could be a caricature of a penny-pinching ham actor. Peter Malmquist as Jamie brings simmering sarcasm & anger to his role from the start, building up to the self-destructive explosions of this burdened son (again, you feel that his drunken attacks will be enacted over & over, a terrible mirror of his father's destruction as an artist by playing the same money-making role over & over until he lost both the ability to play anything else & a public interested in anything else). The exploration of alcohol & the role it plays among the Tyrones is another rich exploration of the behaviors that surround addiction. Miles Milliken as Edmund (the stand-in for O'Neill) brings the sort of sweet decency to his character that gives you a feeling that, damaged though he is, & precarious though his health is, he alone of the quartet might be able, to the extent that it is possible, to step out of this cycle of anguish & destruction, at least to some degree.
Theater can do a lot of things, of course. One of those things is making us aware of how time has passed with us, & how our perceptions & conceptions have changed, when confronted by the same work in different periods of our lives. When a production makes you rethink the playwright, the play, your dramatic assumptions, & your family / life assumptions, then that production has given you more than most visits to the theater do give you. I had to go for a long walk after the show. And I've been pondering the drama since. The play & the performances have riches I've barely touched on. So, yes, I'm recommending this production, which runs until 10 May. Click here for more information.
27 April 2026
24 April 2026
Another Opening, Another Show: May 2026
I divide these previews by month, though of course performance dates often straddle such arbitrary divisions, in which case it's a bit of a judgment call. For example, the San Francisco Opera's summer season actually starts at the end of this month, but it's only one performance near the very end of the month, so to me it made more sense to wait until June for that entry. Other times, it's a matter of where the majority of the performances fall, or when they start. But there's another factor that has become more prominent: it's seemed to me, for a long time, that shows are listed in a weirdly laggard fashion on websites. More & more often, I've come across something that I would have listed, except it's only just shown up on a website & it's happening in the month I've already posted (obviously I prepare these in the month preceding the one featured), which means it must not have been posted until a week or two before the event, which seems . . . counterproductive to me. Maybe not everyone plans far in advance? (That applies to both arts organizations & audiences – but is a month ahead really "far in advance"?) People have busy lives; don't they need to know things fairly early to schedule them? I do, & my life is less busy than that of many others. Very strange. That's on top of the difficulty on some websites in just figuring out how to find what's coming up: the information is buried many clicks in, or in a blizzard of miscellaneous classes or whatevers, & then there are the sites that make a distinction between "events" & "performances" & "projects". . . . I don't understand why upcoming events that you would like people to know about (& buy tickets for) aren't showcased on sites" right up there, easy to find, clearly labeled, with full information. The incoming flood of useless AI slop has already made the Internet more difficult to navigate; why not try to be clear when you can?
Anyway, if you're wondering why a number of April items are showing up in the merry month of May, that's why.
Potpourri
The San Francisco International Arts Festival, featuring "over 50 artists & ensembles from nine countries", takes place from 29 April to 10 May; click here for a full listing of the various events (the Festival handily offers both a full calendar & separate listings by discipline: thank you for making it easy!).
Theatrical
The New Conservatory Theater Center presents Silent Movie, a comedy about film-making in the 1920s, written & directed by Stephanie Temple & performed by NCTC Education’s High School Performance Ensemble, from 24 April to 3 May.
A Beast with Two Backs Productions presents Shades and Shadows by William Brasse, a world premiere retelling of the Orpheus & Eurydice myth including live music & dance, directed by CC Miller, at the Magic Theater from 30 April to 3 May.
Drapetomania, written & performed by Wayne Harris & directed by David Ford, about his US-State Department-sponsored time in Palestine running storytelling workshops & performing a piece about Martin Luther King Jr, plays at The Marsh Berkeley on Fridays from 1 to 22 May.
Awesome Theatre presents Bloodline: A DEI Horror Comedy by Rebecca Pierce, directed by Marc Abrigo, about a laid-off SF DEI consultant who inherits a plot of line in Missouri only to discover it comes with heavy historical baggage, & that's at the Eclectic Box Theater from 1 to 23 May.
Ray of Light Theater presents Mean Girls The Musical, with book by Tina Fey, music by Jeff Richmond, & lyrics by Nell Benjamin, & that runs 1 to 30 May at The Barbary Stage on Jackson Street in San Francisco (this is the same theater where 42nd Street Moon used to perform).
What Just Happened?, written & performed by Nina Wise, an improvised look at personal & political developments in the 24 hours before each performance, plays at The Marsh Berkeley on Saturdays from 2 to 16 May.
Oy, What They Said About Love, written & performed by Steve Budd & directed by Mark Kenward & Kenny Yun, about Budd's search for what brings couples to get married & why he doesn't seem to be able to, plays Saturdays at The Marsh San Francisco from 2 May to 6 June.
On 3 May in downtown Berkeley, as part of the Jewish Arts & Bookfest hosted by UC Berkeley’s Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, the Yiddish Theatre Ensemble will present its artistic director, Laura Sheppard, in Paris Portraits, a one-person show about Harriet Levy, who first moved from San Francisco to Paris with her friend Alice B Toklas, before Toklas moved on to & in with Gertrude Stein.
Theatre Lunatico presents The Grown-Ups, written by Skylar Fox & Simon Henriques & directed by Devon deGroot, about a group of camp counselors who have to deal with creeping political divisions intruding on the summertime experience, & that runs at La Val's Subterranean in Berkeley from 2 to 17 May.
Hell's Kitchen, the musical by Alicia Keys, plays at the Orpheum Theater from 6 to 24 May.
From 8 May to 7 June, the New Conservatory Theater Center presents Hedwig & the Angry Inch, with book by John Cameron Mitchell, music & lyrics by Stephen Trask, directed by Chris Morrell, with music direction by Jake Gale & choreography by Fuchsia.
The African-American Shakespeare Company presents Shakespeare Over My Shoulder, written & directed by Ted Lange, a comedy about Shakespeare & his contemporaries, from 12 May to 7 June at Theater 33 (on Sutter Street in San Francisco).
Theater Rhinoceros presents the Harvey Fierstein (book) & Jerry Herman (music & lyrics) musical La Cage aux Folles from 14 May to 7 June.
The Oaklash Festival, a "celebration of drag and queer performance", will take place in downtown Oakland on 16 May.
On 16 - 17 May at the Magic Theater in San Francisco, the Lorraine Hansberry Theater presents a workshop production of Sistahfriend by Phaedra Tillery-Boughton, directed by Margo Hall, exploring the long & deep friendship of three Black women.
From 17 May to 28 June, Berkeley Rep presents the world premiere of The Lunchbox, a musical based on the popular rom-com about a mistaken delivery of a lunchbox that brings two people together, with book by Ritesh Batra, music by the Lazours, lyrics by Batra & the Lazours, directed by Rachel Chavkin, with choreography by Reshma Gajjar.
San Francisco Playhouse presents Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really, based on the novel by Bram Stoker as adapted by Kate Hamill; the show is directed by Bill English & runs from 14 May to 27 June; one of the changes is a gender-switch for Van Helsing, & let me say I recently read the novel for the first time & frankly I found him A LOT so I'm on board with that change.
The 30th PlayGround Festival of New Works will take place at the Potrero Stage from 15 to 31 May; admission is free but donations are welcome; check here for the line-up.
Sugar Mud - A Surreal Comedy, a "surreal clown show presented by Meat Bar" inspired by a Borges short story, their "Granny (born 1908) getting picked up by a tornado (in 1920)", their Mormon Temple, & various rocks, plays at the Eclectic Box Theatre in San Francisco on 20 May.
The Oakland Theater Project presents Federico García Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba, in an adaptation by Chay Yew, directed by Michael Socrates Moran; as I've mentioned before, I have wanted for years to see one of Lorca's plays on stage, & I thought I would have a chance a few years ago when Shotgun staged Yerma, but that travesty doesn't count (my entry on it is here), so I'm strongly tempted by this but . . . this is a much greater play, in my opinion, than Yerma (or at least a play that is closer to my heart), & can the theater gods break my heart twice? Of course they can, but will they? I (& you) can find out from 22 May to 7 June.
The Berkeley Playhouse presents Cats (because of course it's back: now & forever!), the musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber to poems by T S Eliot, directed by Kimberly Dooley, from 22 May to 21 June.
Shotgun Players at the Ashby Stage presents Continuity by Bess Wohl, directed by Emilie Whelan, "[s]et on a Hollywood film shoot where the chaotic soundstage mimics the real-world climate crisis their big-budget movie addresses," & it opens 23 May & runs to 21 June.
On 26 May at La Val’s Subterranean Theater in Berkeley, the Actors Ensemble of Berkeley will present a staged reading of Aphra Behn's The Emperor of the Moon, adapted by Victoria Siegel & Erin Perry & directed by Perry.
The Waiting Period, written & performed by Brian Copeland & developed with & directed by David Ford, about the suicidal Copeland's waiting period to purchase a gun, plays at The Marsh Berkeley on 28 May; this is part of a run of this show at the Marsh Berkeley & San Francisco stages for which free tickets are available; see here for more information.
ZSpace presents Becoming a Man by P Carl, directed by Lyam B Gabel, the story of a person who lived as a girl, then a queer woman, before transitioning to manhood after age 50, at ZSpace's Steindler Stage from 28 May to 14 June.
Flight Risk, written & performed by Carole Klyce & directed by Deb Fink, about Klyce's life as "an incorrigible run away from a group foster care home and an escapee from a Juvenile Correction Facility at the age of 12", plays Saturdays at The Marsh Berkeley from 30 May to 20 June.
Operatic
On 7 & 8 May in Hume Concert Hall at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the SFCM Opera will present its season finale opera showcase, featuring Act 1 of Puccini's La rondine & Act 4 of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, directed by Heather Mathews & conducted by Dana Sadava; as usual with the Conservatory, there will be different students cast in each performance.
Pocket Opera presents a 90-minute version of Donizett's Don Pasquale, with music director Paul Dab & stage director Bethany Baeyen, featuring Robby Stafford in the title role, Abigail Bush as Norina, Orson Van Gay as Ernesto, & Ryan Braford as Doctor Malatesta, & that's for one performance only, on 17 May, at the Legion of Honor's Gunn Theater.
On 20 May at the Presidio Theater, Music of Remembrance presents the premiere of The Dialogue of Memories. with music by Tom Cipullo & libretto by Howard Reich with Cipullo, about the "son of an aging Holocaust survivor [who] searches for meaning in his mother’s battle with the ghosts of her past. He finds enlightenment from an unexpected source: Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel"; with baritone Daniel Belcher as Wiesel, mezzo-soprano Megan Marino as Sonia Reich, & tenor Dominic Armstrong as her son Howard; Alastair Willis is the conductor, Erich Parce the director, & Peter Crompton the media designer.
West Bay Opera presents Puccini's Tosca, conducted by José Luis Moscovich & directed by José María Condemi, with Julia Behbudov in the title role, Robert Balonek as Scarpia, & Xavier Prado as Cavaradossi, on 22, 24, 31, & 31 May at the Lucie Stern Theatre in Palo Alto (there is also a free preview with piano on 14 May at the Holt Building in Palo Alto).
On 29 - 31 May at ODC, Laptopera Productions and 836M co-present The Glance: A Laptopera, a re-imagining of the Orpheus myth for "laptop orchestra and live voices"; the opera was created by composer Anne Hege "with collaborators including electronic instrument builders Daniel Iglesia and Curtis Ullerich; vocalists Sidney Chen, Carmina Escobar, and Michele Kennedy; art director Kim Anno; lighting designer Mitchell Ost; and choreographer Carrie Ahern".
Opera Parallèle presents a newly revised version of Doubt, with music by Douglas J Cuomo to a libretto by John Patrick Shanley, based on his play & film (the libretto has been abridged by Kevin Newbury); the immersive new production has been conceived by Brian Staufenbiel & will be conducted by Nicole Paiement, with Matthew Worth as Father Flynn, Rhoslyn Jones as Sister Aloysius, Naomi Steele as Sister James, & Deborah Nansteel as Mrs Miller, & you can experience it at the Presidio Theater in San Francisco on 29 - 31 May.
Choral
Clerestory presents Prima Materia: Elemental Forces, exploring "the elemental forces of earth, water, fire, and air" through music ranging from "Renaissance madrigals to the mythic sweep of Timothy Takach’s Ragnarök", along with pieces by Saint Hildegard von Bingen, Samuel Barber, & contemporary Indigenous composers, & you can hear it 2 May at Saint Mark's Lutheran in San Francisco & 3 May at the David Brower Center in Berkeley.
Sacred & Profane performs Terra ad Caelum: Songs of Land & Sky, featuring Arvo Pärt’s I Am the Vine, Shawn Crouch’s Marshland Elegy, & Frank Ticheli’s Earth Song, as well as Irish folk song, a Saami joik, & works by Ēriks Ešenvalds & Karin Rehnqvist, & you can hear it 8 May at Saint Mark's Episcopal in Berkeley & 9 May at Noe Valley Ministry in San Francisco.
Resound Ensemble presents Refuge, exploring the idea of music as a sanctuary in the "messy mix" of life through works by Imogen Heap, Ivo Antognini, Jennifer Lucy Cook, Rollo Dilworth, Jocelyn Hagen, Sarah Quartel, Jake Runestad, Reginal Wright, & Tracey Wong, & you can hear it 8, 9, & 11 May at Noe Valley Ministry in San Francisco.
Sweet Honey in the Rock plays the Presidio Theater on 9 - 10 May.
On 9 - 10 May at Saint Matthew's Lutheran (near Mission Dolores) in San Francisco, the Golden Gate Men’s Chorus presents Eastern Wind and Western Skies, a program featuring works by Veljo Tormis, Hugo Alfvén, The Eagles, Crosby, Stills & Nash, "arrangements of American spirituals by Joseph Jennings and Ethan Soledad’s In effect it is this: that I love you, a setting of a love letter written in 1917 by Wilfred Owen to his colonel Siegfried Sassoon".
On 16 May at Saint Mary Magdalen in Berkeley, WAVE (Women’s Antique Vocal Ensemble) will perform A Treasury of Jewish and Arabic Music, featuring "liturgical music, love songs, lullabies, and celebratory songs from the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe".
On 16 May at First Congregational in Berkeley, John Kendall Bailey leads Chora Nova in Orff's Carmina Burana & James W Cook's The Brightest Sound (a commissioned work in honor of the Chorus's 20th anniversary), with vocal soloists Shawnette Sulker (soprano), Joseph Meyers (tenor), & Igor Vieira (baritone); there will also be a 20th anniversary celebration party with the audience.
Urs Leonhardt Steiner leads the Golden Gate Symphony Orchestra & Chorus in Orff's Carmina Burana, with vocal soloists Gabrielle Goozee-Nichols (soprano), Jack Wilkins (tenor), & Harlan Hays (baritone), along with Vivaldi's Gloria & Winter & Spring from his The Four Seasons, & that's 24 May at the Clock Tower in Benicia & 30 May at McKenna Theatre at San Francisco State University.
On 31 May in Davies Hall, Jenny Wong leads the San Francisco Symphony Chorus in their annual choral concert; accompanied by John Wilson (piano) & Jonathan Dimmock (organ), they will perform O schöne Nacht, Opus 92, #1 by Brahms, the Cantique de Jean Racine, Opus 11 by Fauré, O Radiant Dawn by James MacMillan, Hymne au soleil by Lili Boulanger, Across the Vast, Eternal Sky by Ola Gjeilo, Lux aeterna by Morten Lauridsen, & the Shawn Kirchner arrangement of Heavenly Home: Three American Songs.
Vocalists
On 3 May in Zellerbach Hall, Cal Performances presents soprano Renée Fleming with pianist Inon Barnatan performing Mozart's Laudate Dominum from Vesperae Solennes de Confessore, Handel's To fleeting pleasures make your court from Samson & his Lascia ch’io pianga from Rinaldo, Puccini's O mio babbino caro from Gianni Schicchi, Mendelssohn's Rondo capriccioso, Opus 14 (solo by Barnatan), Reynaldo Hahn's L’heure Exquise, his Si mes vers avaient des ailes, & his Les étoiles, some traditional American songs to be announced from the stage, J Todd Frazier's We Hold These Truths, John Kander's A Letter from Sullivan Ballou, The Man I Love & I Got Rhythm from 7 Virtuoso Etudes after Gershwin by Earl Wild (solo by Barnatan), Cole Porter's Down in the Depths (on the 90th Floor) & his So in Love, Lerner & Loewe's I Could Have Danced All Night, & Andrew Lippa's The Diva.
On 5 May at the First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco, the San Francisco Opera Center & the Merola Opera Program present the second of this season's Schwabacher Recital Series, this time featuring baritone Gabriel Natal-Báez with pianist Tzu Kuang Tan, who will perform Paths of the Heart, a program starting with songs by Vaughan Williams & Schubert, followed by "an exploration of Spanish literature" through works by Ravel & Miguel Ortega, followed by a series of Latin-American songs by Luis Antonio Ramírez, Manuel Ponce, Astor Piazzolla, & Alfonso Esparza Oteo.
Orchestral
On 2 May in Hertz Hall, Matthew Sadowski leads the UC Berkeley Wind Ensemble in a matinee performance of the Variations on “America” by Charles Ives, the world premiere of Fallen Angel by Anthony Sanchez, & the Symphony #5 by David Maslanka.
On 2 May in Hertz Hall, Wei Cheng & Noam Elisha lead the UC Berkeley Philharmonia Orchestra in Fiesta! by Jimmy López, Appalachian Spring by Aaron Copland, & the Organ Symphony by Saint-Saëns.
On 2 May in Hume Concert Hall at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Edwin Outwater leads the SFCM Orchestra in Beethoven's Overture to King Stephen (this piece will be conducted by Jason Gluck), Absolute Jest by John Adams (for which the Orchestra is joined by the Esmé Quartet: Wonhee Bae & Yuna Ha, violins; Dimitri Murrath, viola; Yeeun Heo, cello), Sensemayá by Silvestre Revueltas, & The Rite of Spring by Stravinsky.
Jory Fankuchen leads the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra in the third movement of Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson's Sinfonietta #1, Mozart's Violin Concerto #5 in A major (with soloist Julia Schilz), & the Schubert 5, & you can hear it 1 May at the Taube Atrium Theater in San Francisco, 2 May at First United Methodist in Palo Alto, & 3 May at First Congregational in Berkeley; the concerts are free but RSVPs are appreciated.
On 8 May at the Saint Joseph's Arts Society in San Francisco, Jessica Bejarano leads a string section from the San Francisco Philharmonic in Palladio by Karl Jenkins, the Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber, La Oracion del Torero by Joaquin Turina, the Hungarian Dance #5 by Brahms, & the Serenade for Strings by Tchaikovsky.
On 8 & 9 May in Hertz Hall, David Milnes leads the UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra in The Phoenix Ascends by Shuying Li & the Mahler 3, with the San Francisco Early Music Society Youth Choir led by Derek Tam & the University Chorus led by Wei Cheng.
On 8 - 10 May, Dima Slobodeniouk leads the San Francisco Symphony in Henri Dutilleux's Métaboles, Jacques Ibert's Flute Concerto (with SFS Principal Flute Yubeen Kim as soloist), & the Tchaikovsky 4.
On 9 - 10 May at the Lesher Center in Walnut Creek, Donato Cabrera leads the California Symphony in a world premiere by Saad Haddad along with the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto #3 (with soloist Sofya Gulyak) & Borodin's Symphony #2.
On 10 May at the Valley Center for Performing Arts in Oakland, Omid Zoufonoun leads the Oakland Symphony Youth Orchestra in Copland's Four Dance Episodes from Rodeo, Johann Hummel's Introduction, Theme and Variations, the Symphony #5 by Glazunov, & the Farandole from Bizet's L’Arlésienne, Suite 2 (performed side-by-side with MUSE VIVO Strings led by Jessica Ivry, MUSE Winds led by Holly Shogbesan, & Rahul Ghosh on oboe).
On 15 May at the Paramount, Kedrick Armstrong leads the Oakland Symphony in the Beethoven 3, the Eroica, & R Nathaniel Dett's The Ordering of Moses, with the Oakland Symphony Chorus led by Zach Salsburg-Frank & vocal soloists Shawnette Sulker (soprano), Krysty Swann (mezzo-soprano), Terrence Chin-Loy (tenor), & Kenneth Kellogg (bass).
On 15 - 17 May, Conductor Laureate Herbert Blomstedt leads the San Francisco Symphony in the Mahler 9.
On 17May at First Presbyterian in Oakland, Samantha Burgess leads the Community Women's Orchestra in Melodic Resistance, a program featuring Death on the Pale Horse by Ruth Gipps, the Beethoven 5, & the US premiere of Grażyna Bacewicz's Violin Concerto #1 (with soloist Yuri Kye).
On 17 May at First Baptist in San Francisco, Michelle Maruyama leads the Civic Strings of the San Francisco Civic Music Association in Adoration, a program featuring The Deserted Garden by Florence Price, her A Gay Moment from Thumbnail Sketches of a Day in the Life of a Washerwoman, & her Adoration, as well as Georg Philipp Telemann's Viola Concerto in G Major (with soloist Lisa Ponton) & Haydn's String Quartet in D Major, Opus 20, #4; the concert is free & reservations are appreciated but not required.
On 17 May, Radu Paponiu leads the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra in Scherzo for Orchestra by Youth Orchestra member Dylan Hall along with the Beethoven 1 & the Shostakovich 5.
On 17 May at the Grand Theater on Mission Street in San Francisco, Artistic Director Matthew Fell will lead the San Francisco Pride Band in a Spotlight on Broadway concert, hosted by Leanne Borghesi & Donna Sachet, joined by vocalist Jae Truesdell, the ensemble will perform works from Les Mis, Six, Mamma Mia, West Side Story, Cabaret, & more.
On 22 - 24 May, Cristian Măcelaru leads the San Francisco Symphony in the world premiere of an SFS commission, Embers by Tyler Taylor, as well as the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto #1 (with soloist Simon Trpčeski), & the Dvořák 9, From the New World.
On 29 - 30 May, Miguel Harth-Bedoya leads the San Francisco Symphony in the US premiere of an SFS commission, Shift by Jimmy López (a trombone concerto featuring SFS Principal Trombone Timothy Higgins), along with Dances from Estancia by Alberto Ginastera, Danzas fantásticas by Joaquín Turina, & Ravel's Rapsodie espagnole.
On 30 May in Herbst Theater, Jessica Bejarano leads the San Francisco Philharmonic in Tchaikovsky's March Slav, his Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33 (with cellist Anne Richardson as soloist), & Elgar's Enigma Variations, Opus 36.
Chamber Music
On 2 May at Noe Valley Ministry, the San Francisco Civic Music Association presents An Afternoon of Chamber Music, featuring László Lajtha's Quatre hommages, Shostakovich's String Quartet #8, Ponchielli's Quartetto for Four Winds with Pianoforte, & Erno Dohnanyi's Serenade in C major, Opus 10; the concert is free & reservations are appreciated but not required.
On 3 May in Davies Hall, a chamber group of San Francisco Symphony players will perform Negro Lullaby & An Ante-Bellum Sermon from Six Plantation Melodies Old and New by Harry T Burleigh (as arranged by the Apollo Chamber Players), Carl Nielsen's Serenata in vano, Mozart's Divertimento in B-flat major, #5, & Prokofiev's Quintet in G minor, Opus 39.
On 3 May in the Maybeck Christian Scientist Church in Berkeley, Lieder Alive! presents mezzo-soprano Gabrielle Beteag & pianist Peter Grünberg, who will perform lieder & intermezzos by Brahms as well as the Mahler 5 Adagietto (as arranged by Grünberg) along with his Rückert-Lieder; the artists dedicate this concert to the memory of the late Michael Tilson Thomas.
On 5 May at Old Saint Mary's in San Francisco, Noontime Concerts presents cellist Jennifer Kloetzel & pianist Allegra Chapman performing the Grande Sonata for Piano and Cello in B flat Major, Opus 11 by Hélène Liebmann (née Riese), Berceuse by Germaine Tailleferre, & the Cello Sonata in E minor, Opus 1, #2, by Leokadiya Kashper.
On 9 April in Zellerbach Hall, Cal Performances presents pianist Lara Downes and Friends in This Land: Reflections on America, a program that "explores the richness and complexity of the American experience." through a combination of classical & popular music; the Friends are singers Judy Collins & Tarriona “Tank” Ball, the Invoke Quartet (Karl Mitze, viola, mandolin; Geoff Manyin, cello; Zach Matteson, violin; Nick Montopoli, violin, banjo), & the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir.
On 10 May in Herbst Theater, Chamber Music SF presents pianist Olga Kern, who will announce her pieces from the stage; she will also be joined by special guest the Dalí Quartet (Ari Isaacman-Beck & Carlos Rubio, violins; Adriana Linares, viola; Jesús Morales, cello) for Piazzolla's Tango Ballet & Dvořák's Piano Quintet #2 in A Major, Opus 81.
On 12 May at the Berkeley City Club, Berkeley Chamber Performances presents the Strobe Quartet (Laura Griffiths, oboe; Laura Keller, violin; Elizabeth Prior, viola; Krisanthy Desby, cello) in repertory that has not yet been announced.
On 17 May in the Presidio Theater, Chamber Music SF presents the Escher Quartet (Adam Barnett-hart & Bryan Lee, violins; Pierre Lapointe, viola; Brook Speltz, cello) with flutist Brandon Patrick George performing Amy Beach's Theme & Variations for Flute & String Quartet, Opus 80, Verdi's String Quartet in E minor, Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings, Mozart's Flute Quartet in D Major, & Ginastera's Impresiones de la Puna.
On 30 May at Saint John's Presbyterian in Berkeley, Four Seasons Arts presents its 2026 Founder’s Concert: Commemorating Dr W Hazaiah William, "one of the first African American presenters of classical music in the United States" this year's concert features Alias Brass (Jon Bhatia & TJ Tesh, trumpets; Natalie Brooke Higgins, horn; Dunwoody Mirvil, trombone; Clayton Maddox, tuba), performing works by Bach, Bernstein, Bizet, Duke Ellington, Kevin McKee:, Hoagy Carmichael & Mitchell Parris, Ennio Morricone, Billy May, Harold Arlen, & Vittorio Monti, as well as some traditional tunes.
On 31 May in the Gunn Theater at the Legion of Honor, Alexander Barantschik (violin), Peter Wyrick (cello), & Anton Nel (piano) of the San Francisco Symphony will perform Mozart's Piano Trio in E major, the Brahms Cello Sonata #1 in E minor, Opus 38, & the Schumann Piano Trio #1 in D Minor, Opus 63.
On 31 May at the Piedmont Center for the Arts, the Berkeley Symphony presents I, Too, Sing America, a chamber concert (curated by James Parrish Smith) featuring the String Quartet by Brian Raphael Nabors, Breathing Statues by Anna Clyne, & Dvořák's String Quartet #12 in F Major, Opus 96, the American.
Instrumental
On 1 May in Herbst Theater, San Francisco Performances in association with the OMNI Foundation for the Performing Arts presents The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.
Early / Baroque Music
On 2 May in Hume Concert Hall at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the Youth Baroque Ensemble, directed by Pauline Kempf, will give a matinee performance of the Concerto Grosso a 6 in F Major by Johann Christoph Pepusch, the Concerto Grosso, Opus 2 #6 in D Major by Charles Avison, the Violin Concerto RV 389 in B minor by Vivaldi (featuring YBE Concerto Competition Winner Henna Lam on violin), & the Concerto Grosso in G Major, Opus 5 #2 by Evaristo Felice Dall’Abaco.
Nate Widelitz leads the California Bach Society & the Jubilate Baroque Orchestra in Psalmen Davids: Three Centuries of Sacred Song, a program centered on Heinrich Schütz’s Psalmen Davids; interspersed with Schütz’s settings will be others of the same psalms by Mendelssohn, Gallus, & Rossi, & that will be 1 May at Saint Mark's Lutheran in San Francisco, 2 May at All Saints Episcopal in Palo Alto, & 3 May at Saint Mark's Episcopal in Berkeley.
Jeffrey Thomas leads the American Bach Soloists in a celebration of Bach's Harpsichord with performances of the Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 903, the Sonata #6 in G Major for Harpsichord and Violin, BWV 1019, the Brandenburg Concerto #5 in D Major BWV 1050, the Concerto in A Minor for Flute, Violin, Harpsichord, and Strings, BWV 1044, & the Concerto in C Major for 2 Harpsichords, BWV 1061, & that's 1 May at Saint Stephen's in Belvedere, 2 May at Saint Mark's Episcopal in Berkeley, 3 May at Saint Mark's Lutheran in San Francisco, & 4 May at the Davis Community Church in Davis.
The San Francisco Bach Choir under Magen Solomon performs Bach's Mass in B Minor, with the Jubilate Orchestra & vocal soloists Clarissa Lyons & Morgan Balfour (sopranos), Heidi Waterman (alto), Sam Faustine (tenor), & Curtis Streetman (bass) on 9 May at First Congregational in Berkeley & 10 May at Calvary Presbyterian in San Francisco.
On 31 May, the Cantata Collective continues its traversal of Bach's cantatas at Saint Mary Magdalen's in Berkeley with performances of Gleichwie der Regen und Schnee vom Himmel fällt, BWV 18 & Du Hirte Israel, höre, BWV 104, with vocal soloists Morgan Balfour (soprano), Kimberly Leeds (alto), Nicholas Phan (tenor), & Jonathan Woody (bass).
Modernist / Contemporary Music
On 1 May at the Center for New Music in San Francisco, you can hear Alit, aQarawaQ, and more: New Music from Indonesia, a program featuring "new music for piano and percussion from Balinese and Javanese composers" including Dewa Alit, Dion Nataraja, Putu Tangkas, & resident guest artists of Gamelan Sekar Jaya.
On 3 May in Sol Joseph Recital Hall at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, harpist Jennifer Ellis will give a solo recital featuring her own Laba: A Broken Harp & the premiere of her Sewing Circle, as well as Elinor Armer's Oasis, David Conte's Marian Variations, & works by David Garner, including the premiere of My Right Foot, & a work by a student composer at the Conservatory.
Pianist Sarah Cahill celebrates the 90th birthday of the great Terry Riley with a program including Keyboard Studies, Be Kind to One Another, The Walrus in Memoriam, Fandango on the Heaven Ladder, & The Great Beauty, along with Circle Songs by Danny Clay & Shade Studies by Samuel Adams (the Clay & Adams pieces were composed to honor Riley's 80th birthday), & you can hear it all on 9 May at the Dresher Ensemble Studio on Poplar Street in Oakland & 24 May in the Latino/Hispanic Meeting Room at the San Francisco Main Library.
On 11 May at The Chapel in San Francisco, you can attend "an intimate evening of poetry and music celebrating Allen Ginsberg's Centennial and the 70th anniversary of Howl and Other Poems, featuring Merrill Garbus of Tune-Yards, Andy Cabic of Vetiver, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Oliver Ray & No Land, Kim Stanley Robinson, Peter Coyote, Tongo Eisen-Martin, Dominique DiPrima, Brontez Purnell and Eleni Sikelianos, culminating in a rare performance of Kronos Quartet’s Howl"; the event is "[c]urated and produced by Peter Hale and Jesse Goodman, in collaboration with the Allen Ginsberg Estate and (((folkYEAH!)))".
On 14 May at Littlefield Concert Hall at Mills College in Oakland, Other Minds presents pianists Dennis Russell Davies & Maki Namekawa performing A Lotta Sonatas – in fact, Other Minds describes itself as "besot with excitement for the white-hot pianists Dennis Russell Davies and Maki Namekawa to perform A Lotta Sonatas" – & you too can be besotted with the sounds of works by Lou Harrison (in his centennial year), William Bolcom, Joe Hisaishi, Philip Glass, Paul Hindemith, & Arvo Pärt; the Hisaishi & Glass sonatas were written especially for Namekawa.
On 15 May in Wu Performance Hall on the UC Berkeley campus, recorder virtuoso Tosiya Suzuki will perform works by the UC Berkeley graduate student composers (Josiah Adrineda, Xinglan Deng, Claire Hu, Pablo Teutli, Shu Wang, Jenny Xiong, & Tianyu Zou) who are in Ken Ueno's studio; on 8 May in Wu Performance Hall, Professor Ueno will lead From Geno-Song to Installation: Traversing the Space of Performativity, a colloquium centering on his performance/composition practice.
On 16 May at Knuth Music Hall in the San Francisco State University School of Music, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players will perform American Reflections: Full Circle, featuring the world premiere of an SFCMP commission, Symphony: Color and Line by Edward Smaldone, as well as Flexible Music by Nico Muhly. Divisions II for Strings, Clarinet, and Marimba by Haruka Fujii, Concerto Grosso (for Charles Baudelaire) by John Zorn, & Son of Chamber Symphony by John Adams.
On 16 May at the Center for New Music, Ensemble for These Times (Nanette McGuinness, soprano; Megan Chartier, cello; Margaret Halbig, piano; & guests Lylia Guion on violin & coloratura soprano Chelsea Hollow) will perform El Tiempo Latine, celebrating the release of the Ensemble's sixth & latest CD, "featuring music by modern Latine composers with a selection of works from the recording by
Gabriela Lena Frank, Carla Lucero, Tania Leon, Claudia Montero, Gabriela Ortiz, and Brennan Stokes".
On 17 May at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley, Bang on a Can All Stars & Gyan Riley (Terry Riley's son) will host a 90th birthday celebration for Terry Riley, along with special guests Hank Dutt (former long-time violist of the Kronos Quartet), George Brooks, Molly Holm, Joel Davel, & Sameer Gupta; the program will feature Riley's iconic In C as well as A Rainbow in Curved Air in a new transcription by Gyan Riley (the composer himself will not be there in person, as he now lives full-time in Japan).
On 25 May at Noe Valley Ministry, Earplay presents Is That Your Final Answer?, featuring, like the other Earplay concerts this season, The Unanswered Question by Charles Ives as arranged by Bruce Bennett, along with responses to that piece including a world premiere by Trevor Weston as well as a world premiere & Earplay commission by Aida Shirazi, along with Edmund Song's FlareStruck (the winner of Earplay's 2025 Vibrant Shores Composers Competition), Elliott Carter's String Trio, & Anthony Brandt's Four Score.
See also Huang Ruo's Angel Island, listed below under Dance.
Jazz
On 9 - 10 May at the SF Jazz Center, trumpeter / vocalist Benny Benack III along with players TBA will conjure up The Magic of Manhattan, centering on music, especially from Broadway, that sums up the heart of New York City.
On 10 May at the SF Jazz Center, bassist & bandleader Marcus Shelby & his New Orchestra revisit the seminal Miles Davis album Birth of the Cool.
The Scott Amendola Trio with Kasey Knudsen & Mat Muntz plays at the Center for New Music in San Francisco on 15 May.
On 21 - 22 May at the San Francisco Jazz Center, saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa & his Hero Trio (also including François Moutin on bass & Rudy Royston on drums) explore the music that shaped Mahanthappa, including works by Charlie Parker, Keith Jarrett, Stevie Wonder, & Johnny Cash.
On 28 - 31 May at the SF Jazz Center, trumpeter Terence Blanchard & saxophonist Ravi Coltrane will celebrate the centennials of Miles Davis & John Coltrane (Ravi's father); they will be joined by Charles Altura (guitar), Julian Pollack (keyboards), David Ginyard, Jr (bass), & Oscar Seaton (drums).
Dance
The Oakland Ballet Company offers its annual Dancing Moons Festival, this time titled Double Happiness, a program featuring two 2 world premieres: Double Happiness by Phil Chan & Child’s Play by Wei Wang, as well as a revival of Amber Waves by Phil Chan & Opposites Distract by Elaine Kudo, & that's 30 April - 2 May at the Great Star Theater in San Francisco.
On 2 May at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Philharmonia Baroque & Dance Through Time present Dance Like It’s 1699, a free 90-minute workshop, open to all skill levels, in which you can learn to dance early-style to live music; this event is part of Bay Area Dance Week.
Theatre Flamenco presents A Compas Flamenco on 3 May at the Brava Theatre Center in San Francisco.
On 8 - 9 May in Herbst Theater the The Oakland Ballet Company, joined by the Del Sol Quartet & Volti (conducted by Robert Geary) will perform Angel Island, composer Huang Ruo's meditation on the Chinese immigrants detained on the Angel Island Immigration Station between 1910 &1940; choreography is by Natasha Adorlee, Phil Chan, Lawrence Chen, Ye Feng, Elaine Kudo, Ashley Thopiah, & Wei Wang. In addition, on 5 May in the Green Room of the War Memorial Complex, you can hear Voices of Angel Island: Music, Memory and Movement with Huang Ruo, a conversation moderated by singer Sidney Chen among Ruo, choreographer Phil Chan, & members of Del Sol about the making of the piece.
On 21 - 23 May at ODC, REYES Dance performs String Quartet No. ATE by Jocelyn Reyes, "a new evening-length dance exploring the tension between food, pleasure, and health. Accompanied by a live music performance of Shostakovich’s String Quartet No.8 by One Found Sound.".
On 23 May at the Presidio Theater, Flamenco Arts International presents Songs From A Sinking Ship, featuring Marina Elana, Juan José Amador, Eugenio Iglesias, Carlos Menchaca, Marián Fernández, Reyes Martín, David Chupete, & El Torombo, directed by José Maldonado, with musical direction & original music by Eugenio Iglesias.
Mostly Museums
The Etruscans: From the Heart of Ancient Italy, showcasing the elusive culture that was subsumed by Rome, opens at the Legion of Honor on 2 May & runs until 20 September.
Matisse's Femme au chapeau: A Modern Scandal, exploring the shockingly colorful painting that once belonged to Gertrude Stein & is now the Mona Lisa of the SF Museum of Modern Art, opens at SFMOMA on 16 May & runs until 13 September.
Cinematic
The 69th San Francisco International Film Festival plays around the Bay from 24 April to 4 May; check for schedules, locations, & other pertinent information here.
On 2 May as part of its Disney Restoration Series, the Orinda Theater presents Hitchcock's 1944 Lifeboat, starring Tallulah Bankhead, William Bendix, & Walter Slezak.
The San Francisco Silent Film Festival is back at the renovated Castro Theater & to celebrate they have a stellar line-up of films & musicians, & that's 6 - 10 May.
Robert Wilson and the CIVIL warS, a 1986 film by Howard Brookner featuring Wilson, Philip Glass, & David Byrne, about the vast stage epic that ended up being staged only partly & in fragments (when I lived in Boston I saw one of those fragments, the Knee Plays, at ART, & it was memorably beautiful, though also "controversial"), plays at BAM/PFA on 10 May.
The 25th Annual City Shorts Student Film Festival, presented by City College of San Francisco’s Cinema Department, plays the Roxie on 10 May.
On 18 May at the Orinda Theater, you can see Charlie Chaplin's Red Letter Days, a combination of film & live performance by Dan Kamin (who trained Robert Downey, Jr for his role in the film Chaplin) about the great silent comedian's work on Shoulder Arms.
You can see the OG gangster film, Mervyn LeRoy‘s Little Caesar starring Edward G Robinson in the title role, at the Roxie on 26 May.
This month's Classic Movie Matinee at the Orinda Theater will be John Huston' 1948 Key Largo, starring Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, & Edward G Robinson, & that's on 26 May.
20 April 2026
Museum Monday 2026/16
detail of Lover Asleep by Jean Cocteau, seen at the Legion of Honor as part of the exhibit Drawing the Line: Michelangelo to Asawa,
17 April 2026
13 April 2026
10 April 2026
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