September is usually considered the start of the performance season, & though the big guns of the SF Opera & SF Symphony are certainly clanking into place, it does seem as if over the last few years more & more groups are actually pushing events out to October or even November, & of course the first week of December is usually a pile-up before everything dissolves into sugarplums dancing in our dreams. There are also reports that a new COVID surge may be coming this autumn, so though most venues have dropped mask mandates you might still want to wear one, & be on the lookout for possible COVID-related cancellations.
By the way I have unilaterally resolved the "do we spell it theater or theatre?" dilemma by setting myself firmly down on the "theater" side.
Theatrical
Aurora Theater presents Liz Duffy Adams's Born with Teeth, directed by Josh Costello, about Shakespeare & Marlowe & their early days together, from 1 September to 1 October.
Shotgun Players present Hansol Jung's Wolf Play, directed by Elizabeth Carter, which incorporates puppetry & human actors to explore the life of a boy who feels more connected to wolves than people; that starts 2 September & runs to 1 October.
The Oakland Theater Project gives us the west coast premiere of Taylor Mac's Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus, directed by Emilie Whelan; I have a very soft spot for Titus Andronicus & have wanted to see something by Taylor Mac for years now, so this looks promising; it runs from 8 September to 1 October.
Berkeley Playhouse brings back the popular Broadway musical Kinky Boots (book By Harvey Fierstein, music & lyrics by Cyndi Lauper), directed by William Thomas Hodgson, from 8 September to 15 October.
Ray of Light Theater presents Cruel Intentions: The '90s Musical, created by Jordan Ross, Lindsey Rosin, & Roger Kumble, based on the movie which, if I'm remembering correctly (I never saw it, only read some reviews) is an updated American teen version of Dangerous Liaisons; the songs will be familiar to anyone who listened to pop music in the 1990s, which is very much not me, but you can check it out at the Victoria Theater from 8 September to 1 October.
BroadwaySF brings back Hadestown, the Tony-winning musical updating of the story of Orpheus & Eurydice, to the Orpheum Theater from 12 to 17 September.
The New Conservatory Theater Center presents Before the Sword, a world premiere commission from Andrew Alty, directed by Ed Decker, about TH White & the beginnings of The Sword in the Stone, & that's 15 September to 15 October.
From 21 September to 1 October, Theater Rhinoceros presents Overlooked Latinas, written & performed by Tina D’Elia & directed by Mary Guzmán, in which "Butch dyke Angel thinks she’s having one of the best days of her life. Enter the femme fatale who creates chaos with Angel’s wife and Angel’s life."
On 25 & 26 September, as part of their Champagne Staged Reading Series, Shotgun Players, in partnership with Crowded Fire Theater, presents (trans)formada by lily gonzales, directed by linda maria girón, about Sam, who is "queer, a little trans, and a child of Mexican immigrants living in Texas."
San Francisco Playhouse gives us Nollywood Dreams by Jocelyn Bioh, directed by Margo Hall, from 28 September to 4 November, about a young woman in Lagos who dreams of becoming a star in the Nigerian film industry, & complications, of course, ensue.
Berkeley Rep presents Selina Fillinger's POTUS: or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying To Keep Him Alive, directed by Annie Tippe. from 16 September to 22 October, & I went back & forth on whether to list this at all because it honestly sounds like complete rubbish: "When the President unwittingly spins a PR nightmare into a global crisis, the seven brilliant and beleaguered women he relies upon most [sic] risk life, liberty, and the pursuit of sanity to keep the commander-in-chief out of trouble. (Any resemblance to past White House shenanigans is purely coincidental.)" Shenanigans? Shenanigans? What are they talking about? "Shenanigans" are when you filch the rival football team's mascot. Anything in the White House that turns into a "global crisis", which is something that could potentially upend or even destroy the lives of millions, is something beyond "shenanigans" – maybe high crimes & misdemeanors? & what "past" White House are they talking about? John Quincy Adams, Rutherford P Hayes, or is this just another coy evasion of criticizing Trump? Name, blame, & shame, I say. I've heard & seen way too many announcements & speeches from various stages or newsletters since 2016 that talk about these days or our times & similar euphemisms, & I don't understand why they're afraid to say pointblank that we're all under threat by lunatic thugs – yet they discreetly decline to name the prime mover. (What's the risk? I truly doubt that the Bay Area performing arts audience, even for the more mainstream institutions like Berkeley Rep, is full of die-hard, or even lukewarm, Trumpers.) Also, if it is in fact Trump they're suggesting here, the idea that there would be no less than seven "brilliant" women around him is . . . unlikely. I mean, just look at the women who actually are around him. "Brilliant" women, or even ones with normal levels of integrity, intelligence, & competence, are not going to be kept around by someone like Trump, if they're even working for him in the first place. & if they're not talking about Trump here, then what's the point? Do we really need to highlight comparatively minor missteps by Biden or Obama? On top of that, the whole notion that men in power are, of course, all "dumbasses" who were privileged into their positions while the "brilliant" women are doing unappreciated dogwork in the background is a particularly tired & implausible cliché (though certainly one that is going to please rather than challenge many in the Berkeley Rep audience). The whole thing sounds like an inflated version of The Honeymooners. Proceed at your own risk.
Talking
On 2 September at the Asian Art Museum, poet Forrest Gander & artist Lam Tung Pang, assisted by Senior Associate Curator Abby Chen as moderator, will discuss "the role of craft, memory, landscape, and innovation in literature and the arts" as well as their new collaboration, a limited-edition artists' book published by Arion Press with a poem by Gander inspired by Pang's gorgeous Past Continuous Tense, a monumental piece currently on view at the Museum.
BroadwaySF presents Jane Goodall on 15 September at the Golden Gate Theater, where she will talk about her life & work & take questions from the audience.
Cal Performances, in association with BAMPFA & the Townsend Center for the Humanities, present Ai Weiwei in conversation about life, art, & politics, with Peter Sellars & Orville Schell at Zellerbach Hall on 24 September.
On 27 September the Curran Theater will kick off Unscripted, "an all-new original series where culture-shaping luminaries and innovators bring their singular perspectives to San Francisco for an unforgettable evening of engaging conversation and captivating storytelling, live on stage"; Unscripted: The San Francisco 49ers will feature Harris Barton, Dwight Hicks, Brent Jones, Ronnie Lott, & Steve Young in conversation with Olympian Kristi Yamaguchi about "their extraordinary lives both on and off the football field."
Operatic
The San Francisco Opera opens its 101st season this month. They have wisely abandoned the idea of presenting an actual opera on opening night, as it only delays that particular audience from getting to the party, so instead they have an Opening Night Concert on 8 September, with conductor & Music Director Eun Sun Kim leading the orchestra & chorus along with guest soloists Roberto Alagna (tenor) & Aleksandra Kurzak (soprano); no repertory has been announced but expect popular favorites & greatest hits. I generally don't list galas, benefits, &c, as they tend to be more about the party than the performance, but this seems like sort of a borderline case & you are the best judge of your own tolerance level for the opening-night crowd.
There are two operas being presented this month: first, & I am happy to see this as it's one of my all-time favorites, Verdi's Il Trovatore, in a David McVicar production conducted by Eun Sun Kim with Angel Blue as Leonora, Anita Rachvelishvili as Azucena, Arturo Chacón-Cruz as Manrico, & George Petean as the Count di Luna, & that's on 12, 17, 20, 23, & 29 September & 1 October; next up is the Mason Bates (music) / Mark Campbell (words) The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, rescheduled after its pandemic postponement, conducted by Michael Christie, with John Moore as Jobs & Sasha Cooke as his wife, & that's 22, 24, 27, & 30 September & 3 & 7 October.
San Francisco Opera’s Dramaturg Emeritus Kip Cranna will discuss Opera & the Bible: Epic Stories from the Stage at the Jewish Community Center in San Francisco on 19 September.
Choral
Chanticleer presents Music of a Silent World, exploring & imagining the sounds of the natural world, centering around a new arrangement of Majel Connery’s The Rivers are our Brothers, along with music by William Byrd, Heinrich Isaac, Max Reger, arrangements of songs by Tom Petty & the band Lawrence, & a new piece by the group's composer-in-residence, Ayanna Woods, & that's 23 September at Mission Santa Clara, 24 September at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, & 26 September at Saint John's Lutheran in Sacramento.
Orchestral
Nicholas McGegan leads the Orchestra of the Cantata Collective in the Haydn Symphonies 6, 7, & 8 (the Morning, the Noon, & the Night) & Mozart's Deh Vieni from Le Nozze di Figaro & Voi avete un cor fedele with soprano soloist Sherezade Panthaki on 9 September at First Congregational in Berkeley.
David Milnes leads the UC-Berkeley Symphony Orchestra in Dreaming a world’s edge by Cindy Cox, the Shostakovich Cello Concerto 2, (with Emile Serper as soloist), & the Prokofiev 5 at Hertz Hall on 22 & 23 September.
Edwin Outwater leads the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Orchestra on 23 September in Anna Clyne's Masquerade, William Walton's Viola Concerto (with soloist Isabel Tannenbaum), Glinka's Kamarinskaya, & the Shostakovich 1.
The San Francisco Symphony launches its season at the end of the month, first with the inevitable gala opening on 22 September, featuring Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen leading Richard Strauss's Don Juan, Mahler's Songs of a Wayfarer (with soloist Simon Keenlyside), Anders Hillborg's Rap Notes, & Ravel's Boléro; the season continues on 29 - 30 September & 1 October, when Salonen leads the first SFS performance of Herald, Holler and Hallelujah! by Wynton Marsalis, along with the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto (with soloist Leonidas Kavakos) & Richard Strauss's An Alpine Symphony.
Donato Cabrera leads the California Symphony in Juan Pablo Contreras's MeChicano, Wynton Marsalis's Violin Concerto in D (with soloist Kelly Hall-Tompkins), Ruth Crawford Seeger's Rissolty Rossolty, & Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring Suite at the Lesher Center in Walnut Creek on 30 September & 1 October.
Chamber Music
The American Patchwork Quartet (vocalist Falu Shah, guitarist Clay Ross, bassist Yasushi Nakamura, & drummer Clarence Penn) celebrate the immigrant roots of American music, particularly roots & jazz, on 23 September at the SF Jazz Center.
The Berkeley Symphony's chamber series launches on 24 September at the Piedmont Center for the Arts with American Intersections, a program including Vijay Iyer's Dig the Say, Credo by Margaret Bonds, Anatomy is Destiny by Molly Joyce, Source Code by Jessie Montgomery, & Dvořák's String Quintet 3 in E-flat Major.
The Ives Collective will perform Fauré's Piano Quintet 2 in C minor, Opus 115, & Brahms's Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Opus 115, at Old First Concerts on 24 September.
Instrumentalists
Pianist Francesca Khalifa will perform Debussy's Images, Book I as well as pieces by Brian T Field, Bartók, Gabriela Ortiz, & Miguel del Aguila at Old First Concerts on 8 September.
Early / Baroque Music
The Cantata Collective continues its series of free concerts exploring the Bach cantatas on 17 September in Saint Mary Magdalen's in Berkeley, where you can hear Sie werden euch in den Bann tun (BWV 44) & Herr, gehe nicht ins Gericht mit deinem Knecht (BWV 105), with soloists Sherezade Panthaki (soprano), Sara Couden (alto), Derek Chester (tenor), & Paul Max Tipton (bass).
The San Francisco Early Music Society presents Ensemble Mirable in a program of baroque rarities, including some by Buxtehude & Corelli but also by such little-known masters as Biagio Marini, Jean Zewalt Triemer, Sylvius Leopold Weiss, Dietrich Becker, Andrea Falconieri, & more; that's 29 September at First Presbyterian in Palo Alto, 30 September at First Congregational in Berkeley, & 1 October at Saint Mark's Lutheran in San Francisco.
Modern / Contemporary Music
Composer John Zorn will celebrate his 70th birthday with a five-day run of concerts from 30 August to 3 September, mostly at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco but with one event (an organ recital) at Grace Cathedral; check out the full line-up here & get more information here.
On 16 September at the Center for New Music, composer Brett Austin Eastman & flutist Jessie Nucho give the third & final concert exploring the various means & meanings of "feedback"; the program includes Elizabeth Shearon’s I Want You To Panic, Allison Loggins-Hull’s Homeland, & Eastman’s Feedback Suite, which includes the premiere of its third & concluding part.
On 22 September at Old First Concerts, Ensemble for These Times will explore Transformations in a program including Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night), arranged for piano trio by Eduard Steuermann, Darian Donovan Thomas's Fluid, Lisa Bielawa's The Dragon and the Girl, inti figgis-vizueta's a bridge between starshine and clay, & songs by Franz Schreker.
Nicole Paiement leads the San Francisco Conservatory of Music New Music Ensemble on 29 September in Jocelyn Morlock's Lacrimosa, Clayton Luckadoo's Phenomenologies (with Luckadoo as clarinet soloist), Jay Cruz's Hermes, Saariaho's Terrestre, & David Garner's Cello Capriccio.
Jazz, Roots, Folk, & Blues
The Mike Greensill Trio, joined by guest singer Gale Terminello, will give its annual Labor Day celebration of the Great American Songbook at Old First Concerts on 3 September.
Fado singer Camané visits the SF Jazz Center on 6 September.
Jazz singer Lizz Wright appears at the SF Jazz Center from 7 to 10 September, performing music from her forthcoming album, Shadows.
Jazz singer Ledisi will perform her tribute to Nina Simone on 8 September at Davies Hall, accompanied by a full orchestra (not the SF Symphony, I should clarify, lest the mention of Davies Hall confuse anyone).
As part of the celebrations for its Opening Week, the SF Jazz Center brings together past & present members of the SF Jazz Collective to do their thing; on 7 - 8 September, you can hear Etienne Charles (trumpet), Robin Eubanks (trombone), Helen Sung (piano), Matt Penman (bass), & Kendrick Scott (drums); on 9 - 10 September, the line-up will be Martin Luther McCoy (vocals), Mike Rodriguez (trumpet), Warren Wolf (vibraphone), Matt Penman (bass), & Obed Calvaire (drums).
Trombonist Jennifer Wharton, accompanied by fellow trombonists John Fedchock, Nate Mayland, & Alan Ferber, will play pieces from their albums Bonegasm & Not A Novelty at the California Jazz Conservatory on 15 September.
Pianits Vijay Iyer, vocalists Arooj Aftab, & bassist Shahzad Ismaily perform from their new album, Love in Exile, at the Great American Music Hall on 21 September.
Bass player Christian McBride brings his quartet, New Jawn (McBride on bass, Marcus Strickland on saxophones, Josh Evans on trumpet, & Nasheet Waits on drums) to the SF Jazz Center on 24 September.
The Manhattan Transfer is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a final world tour, which will be stopping at the SF Jazz Center on 29 - 30 September.
Dance
The Smuin Ballet presents Dance Series I, featuring The Man in Black (choreography by James Kudelka, set to recordings by Johnny Cash), Tutto Eccetto il Lavandino (everything but the kitchen sink) (choreography by Val Caniparoli), & a world premiere by Darrell Grand Moultrie to an original Cuban jazz score by Charles Fox; & that's 15 - 16 September at the Lesher Center in Walnut Creek, 21 - 24 September at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, & 29 September - 7 October at the Cowell Theater at Fort Mason in San Francisco.
On 29 September at the Paramount Theater, the Oakland Ballet Company & Misty Copeland's Life in Motion Productions present Flower, a family-drama film directed starring Copeland & paying homage to Black silent films, with music by Raphael Saadiq & choreography by Alonzo King and Rich + Tone Talauega; the movie is preceded by performances from Babatunji Johnson, Krow, Angela Watson, Destiny Arts, TURF dancers, & artists of the Oakland Ballet Company.
Art Means Painting
Takashi Murakami: Unfamiliar People — Swelling of Monsterized Human Ego, the first solo exhibition in San Francisco by the artist, opens at the Asian Art Museum on 15 September & runs through 12 February 2024. The Museum has also announced the postponement of the opening of its new Art Terrace to some as yet unspecified time in the fall.
MOAD has some interesting exhibits opening at the end of this month: starting 27 September, there will be an exhibit, the first in a San Francisco museum, of works by self-taught painter/collage-maker/installation artist Joe Sam; on the same day, Spectrum: On Color & Contemporary Art will explore the ways color is used by contemporary Black artists; also opening on that same busy day is Salimatu Amabebe's GRASS, a multimedia show "dedicated to Black nightlife, communication, communion"; &, finally, on the same day, The Only Door I Can Open: Women Exposing Prison Through Art and Poetry will also open.
Cinematic
The PFA portion of BAMPFA launches a number of film series for the fall this month, starting on 2 September with a Rialto Pictures Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Salute, featuring a dazzling array of foreign classics from Godard, Fellini, Kurosawa, & others, including Carol Reed's The Third Man; that's followed on 6 September by Alternative Visions, the PFA's annual showcase of classic & new experimental films; then Georgian Filmmaker Salomé Jashi in Person from 10 - 17 September; Illuminations: Jerome Hiler, starting on 13 September, with the filmmaker in person, & including films that explore his love of medieval stained glass, among other things; then documentarian Dawn Porter in Person from 21 to 23 September; Cambodian Cinema: Rising from the Ashes starts on 24 September, & The People Are Present: Films of Želimir Žilnik on 28 & 29 September, with the filmmaker present.
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