Friday Photo 2024/17

 

Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco

Poem of the Week 2024/17

When that I was and a little tiny boy,

    With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,

A foolish thing was but a toy,

    For the rain it raineth every day.

But when I came to man's estate,

    With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,

'Gainst knaves and thieves men shut their gate,

    For the rain it raineth every day.

But when I came, alas, to wive,

    With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,

By swaggering could I never thrive,

    For the rain it raineth every day.

But when I came unto my beds,

    With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,

With tosspots still had drunken heads,

    For the rain it raineth every day.

A great while ago the world begun,

    With hey, ho, the wind and the rain;

But that's all one, our play is done,

    And we'll strive to please you every day.

– William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act V, scene i, ll 391 - 410

He that has and a little tiny wit,

    With heigh-ho, the wind and the rain,

Must make content with his fortunes fit,

    Though the rain it raineth every day.

King Lear, Act III, scene ii, ll 74 - 77

Yesterday, 23 April, is the date traditionally assumed to be Shakespeare's birthday, but as he was not of an age but for all time, I figure it's OK to slip this form of commemoration to the day after.

The first & longer song above is the final moment of Twelfth Night. The action of the play has already concluded with Duke Orsino's speech tying up the various plot strands: go placate Malvolio, as we need information from him about the sea captain; his beloved Olivia will now be his sister, & he plans to stay on at her place until everything is settled; he will still refer to Viola by her male pseudonym, Cesario, until she's back in women's garb, when she will be "Orsino's mistress and his fancy's queen" – the same fancy (imagination) he indulged in his celebrated opening lines of the play, "If music be the food of love, play on, / Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, / The appetite may sicken, and so die". Guided by the whims of his fancy, Orsino's love for Viola seems unlikely to be as strong or as long-lasting as hers for him (a supposition foreshadowed & strengthened by their debate in Act II, scene iv). It's part of the underlying melancholy of this funny & sad play. (Most productions I've seen play up the farce at the expense of the poetry & pensiveness, which is too bad.)

This song continues the overcast mood of the play (very overcast, with all the wind & the rain). It is delivered by the fool Feste, who has sung other mournful & lovely songs for us, along with some drunken rounds. He wanders between households, disappearing & reappearing without excuse (his first appearance in the play, in Act I scene v, begins with the maid Maria reprimanding him for being gone without leave). Though involved in the action, particularly the plot against Malvolio, he stands a bit outside of it all. And in his final song, he sounds a bit outside his usual character; here he is not a witty jester but an ordinary, very ordinary, man, beaten down by life in general. In the final stanza, he abandons all pretense of being anything but a working actor, packing up his stage props & hoping you've found the show worth your time.

The song progresses through the stages of a man's life (very specifically a man's), somewhat in the manner of Jacques's famous, & more elaborately theatrical & poetical, Seven Ages of Man speech in As You Like It, Act II, scene vii. It begins with the singer as "a little tiny boy", surrounded by foolish things & trifles. But the second & fourth lines of this stanza, & each stanza to follow until a variant in the last line of the last stanza, cast a gloomier mood over the lyrics: after the traditional nonsense refrain of "hey, ho", we immediately get "the wind and the rain". Is the singer shrugging off the bad weather? defying it with a cheerful hey ho? merely noting its inevitability? Whatever it is, the wind & the rain are his constant companions through life. No golden afternoons here!

In the second stanza, the singer is now a man, & aware of the duplicity & cheating rampant among his kind: he shuts the gates against them. Then he marries, unhappily (alas!), though we don't hear his wife's side of things (personally I imagine her as sister to Chaucer's Wife of Bath, standing up for herself against a husband who tries to dominate through the ineffective arrogance of his swaggering). Then he becomes an old man (a physical diminution which seems to lie behind the more vivid metaphor of his coming "unto his beds"); he drinks too much, & hangs out with drunkards (tosspots). A sad & ordinary life, sad in its ordinariness, ordinary in its sadness. He still repeats his hey ho (philosophical acceptance? on-going resistance? merely the mental habit of a lifetime, carried into alcoholic elder years?) in the face of the constant wind & rain. Presumably some sunshine would be a  good thing, but he's beyond lamenting its absence, or wishing for its presence. (I at least find some beauty in the drama of the wind & rain; I keep picturing something like Hiroshige's Driving Rain at Shono).

The phrasing of the song, its persistent refrains, & its emblematic view of life make it sound like an old ballad, some sort of summation of folk wisdom. It's a beautiful & amusing song (the guy can't catch a break), but also resigned & even hopeless (because, again, the guy can't catch a break). The first line of the final stanza, A great while ago the world begun, moves us beyond the individual singer into a world-view, but one that does not contradict our singer's damp & chilly experience. That's all one, he shrugs, resigning himself to . . . fate? destiny? the universe? God? the general hardness of living? The simplifications of this sunless life lend it a ruefully comic aspect.

And as we all know, there is a very fine & blurry line between comedy & tragedy. This song must have been fairly popular, as it received a bit of a sequel in King Lear. Again, it is sung by a licensed jester, the enigmatic & satirical Fool, who comments on action that he is mostly apart from. He loyally follows Lear out into the literal wind & rain of the storm on the heath, which is where he sings his stanza. (Shortly after this song, the Fool makes his odd reference to a prophecy by Merlin, who will live after his (the Fool's) time: does this strange unearthly figure have some sort of second sight?)

But there are some interesting shifts from the Twelfth Night song to the lagniappe in King Lear: for one thing, we no longer have the impression that the singer is speaking of himself, & of himself as a sort of Everyman; here the first line singles out He that has and a little tiny wit: we don't know if the Fool means himself, Lear, or someone else, but the line does seem to make a distinction between those with "a little tiny wit" & others – he's commenting, to some extent, on the arbitrary divisions of fate (or destiny, the universe, chance, God. . . ). As in Twelfth Night's "a little tiny boy", we get the intensifier of a redundant "little tiny", but here it refers to insight & intelligence, not just to the general state of being a small boy. Such a one must make content with his fortunes fit (that is, be satisfied with the hard fortune that suits his level of wit/intelligence) though the rain it raineth every day. Though is an important switch there; in the Twelfth Night song, For the rain it raineth every day states a general truth; switching for (because) to though (that is, despite the fact that for you it raineth every day – it doesn't do so for all people, as for implies) makes it a more peculiar & individual fate. The rain is part of the hard fortune you must deal with, possibly through your own fault (that is, the fault of your "little tiny wit" & the errors it has led you into). In Twelfth Night, there is some human solidarity in the universal wind & rain; in King Lear, it becomes part of the inexplicable & arbitrary cruelties that fall on some but not on others possibly more deserving of punishment.

The reappearance of the comedy's song in the tragedy is an interesting link between what are probably my two favorite plays by Shakespeare. I used the Signet Classic editions (general editor Sylan Barnet), though of course there are many editions of both plays available.

Museum Monday 2024/17

 

Faith Ringgold, 8 October 8 1930 – 12 April 2024

detail of Listen to the Trees: The American Collection #11, seen at the de Young Museum's 2022 retrospective, Faith Ringgold: American People

Friday Photo 2024/16

 

The Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco

Poem of the Week 2024/16

To the River North Esk

In museful mood, how frequent here I stray

When summer smiles illume the lovely scene!

Sweet river! on thy margin, soft and green,

I turn, and oft retrace my winding way;

And often on thy changeful surface gaze,

Where the smooth stream reflects an azure sky,

Red rock, green moss, and shrubs of darker dye, –

Or gayly gleams with bright meridian rays.

Here, scarce a zephyr curves the glassy plain,

And scarce a murmur meets the listening ear:

There, white foam swells the wave, and still we hear

The rushing waters tumbling down amain,

Till, softening in their course, the noiseless tide

Within the enchanting mirror gently glide.

– Mary Edgar

The River North Esk, celebrated in this early nineteenth-century sonnet, can be found flowing in Angus & Aberdeenshire in Scotland. Edgar celebrates one of the beauties of her native land with a combination of the formal & elevated elegance of eighteenth century verse (museful, illume, bright meridian rays & curving zephyrs, amain) with the Romantic movement's fascination with the spiritual riches to be found by gazing, in solitude, upon a natural landscape. Museful in the first line means meditative & pensive, but also evokes the Muses, those classical inspirers of the arts, including poetry. The author is clearly in a "poetic" mood; she comes to the river without utilitarian purpose, in a spirit of admiration. She strays there, she retraces her wandering way . . . wandering, usually alone, is a great Romantic preoccupation. In the days before photography, as the rugged Scottish landscape was taking hold in the imagination of Romantic Europe, the poet guides her readers to see the beauties she sees, in quite a detailed & directed way. She starts with the river banks, covered with lush soft green grass, then moves to the surface of the river. It seems a placid stream, & the poet recurs to its reflective qualities: it reflects the sky, the vivid red rocks & green moss; it is a "glassy plain", unruffled by the breezes; she ultimately fulfills the comparisons by naming the river an enchanting mirror. The stillness of the water is echoed in the stillness of the air, where scarce a murmur meets the attentive wanderer. Then she brings us to some sort of cascade or waterfall, where the waters foam & rush & tumble down with force, until, in the final, summary & cumulative, couplet, the splashing & crashing waters subside into a once-again noiseless tide, gently gliding into the mirror of the river, reflecting back to poet & reader the enchantment & relief that Nature affords her devotees.

I took this poem from the Oxford World's Classics anthology Scottish Poetry, 1730-1830, edited by Daniel Cook.

Another Opening, Another Show: May 2024

 

(one of the Yayoi Kusama Infinity Rooms at SFMOMA, closing this month)

Posting this earlier than usual, because why not. This seems like a fairly light month, but June looks as if it will be quite loaded up.

Theatrical

San Francisco Playhouse presents Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie, directed by Jeffrey Lo, from 2 May to 15 June.

Berkeley Rep presents Galileo, which is not Brecht's play but a world-premiere rock musical about the silenced scientist with book by Danny Strong, music & lyrics by Michael Weiner & Zoe Sarnak, & choreography by David Neumann, directed by Michael Mayer, & that's at the Roda Theater from 5 May to 16 June.

At New Conservatory Theater Center, Jonathan Larson's rock musical Tick, Tick... Boom! runs from 10 May to 9 June, & their high school performance ensemble presents The Giver, adapted by Eric Coble from the book by Lois Lowry, directed by Stephanie Temple, from 26 April to 5 May.

The African-American Shakespeare Company gives us The Taming of the Shrew, directed by Giulio Cesare Perrone & L. Peter Callender, from 11 to 26 May at the Marines’ Memorial Theater.

The Lamplighters present The Mystery of Edwin Drood, the Rupert Holmes musical based on Dickens's final & uncompleted novel, on 4 - 5 May at the Douglas Morrison Theater in Hayward, & on 11 - 12 & 17 - 19 May at the Presidio Theater Performing Arts Center in San Francisco; this version is described as a "hilarious whodunit", which the novel emphatically is not (hilarious, that is; it is indeed a mystery, permanently unsolvable), so this adaptation is probably pretty loose; it's done in Edwardian Music Hall style & the audience gets to choose the murderer.

Shotgun Players presents Best Available, a new play by Jonathan Spector, directed by Jon Tracy, about a theater company's search for a new artistic director, & that's at the Ashby Stage from 18 May to 16 June.

Theater Rhinoceros presents All's Well That Ends Well from 24 May to 2 June, adapted & directed by John Fisher; as this is billed as both "by William Shakespeare" & "a world premiere", I think the emphasis is on the adapted.

The Berkeley Playhouse presents Head Over Heels, the unlikely musical mash-up of the Go-Go's & Sir Philip Sidney, directed by Mel Martinez, from 24 May to 30 June.

The much-praised National Theatre & Neal Street Productions presentation of The Lehman Trilogy by Stefano Massini, adapted by Ben Power & directed by Sam Mendes, tracing the founding, rise, & collapse of finance company Lehman Brothers, comes to ACT's Toni Rembe Theater from 25 May to 23 June. I have mixed feelings about trigger warnings, but ACT's site cautions us that "This production includes gendered language and references to s**cide and abuse" – "s**cide"? Seeing the "ui" in the word would push someone over the edge, but it's OK with the prophylactic *s inserted? Really?

Theater Lunatico presents The Revolutionists by Lauren Gunderson, directed by Lauri Smith, about playwright Olympe de Gouges trying to make" art out of chaos" during the Reign of Terror "by welcoming three influential women of the French Revolution into her study"; it's a "meta-theatrical screwball comedy" & runs at La Val's Subterranean Theatre in Berkeley from 25 May to 9 June.

Talking

Cal Performances presents an Evening with David Sedaris at Zellerbach Hall on 5 May.

Retired Justice Stephen Breyer will discuss his new book, Reading the Constitution: Why I Chose Pragmatism, Not Textualism, with Sarah Isgur for City Arts & Lectures on 22 May.

Writer & filmmaker Miranda July will appear in conversation with Anna Sale for City Arts & Lectures on 23 May.

Operatic

On 18 May at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, the Wagner Society of Northern California will present West Edge Opera Music Director Jonathan Khuner discussing their upcoming revival of Legend of the Ring.

Music of Remembrance presents the world premiere of Before It All Goes Dark (music by Jake Heggie, libretto by Gene Scheer), about a Vietnam veteran who discovers he is heir to an art collection stolen by the Nazis, on 22 May at the Presidio Theater.

Choral

The Golden Gate Men's Chorus will join with the Peninsula Women's Chorus to perform Puccini's Messa di Gloria & other choral works on 4 May at Mission Santa Clara & on 5 May at Mission Dolores Basilica in San Francisco.

Sacred & Profane gives us Songs for Solace & Restoration, a program featuring works by Ysäye Barnwell, Eric Whitacre, Shawn Kirchner, Zanaida Robles, Morten Lauridsen, Dale Trumbore, & Dave Malloy, & that's 11 May at Saint Mark's Episcopal in Berkeley & 12 May at Saint Mark's Lutheran in San Francisco.

Guest conductor Ash Walker leads Chora Nova in music for chorus & organ (featuring organist John Wilson) by Pavel Chesnokov, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Louis Vierne, Brahms, Morten Lauridsen, & Gilbert & Sullivan, at First Congregational in Berkeley on 25 May.

On 30 May at the Scottish Rite Center in Oakland, the San Francisco Girls Chorus School will perform their spring concert, which includes the world premiere of a commission by 2023-2024 Composer-in-Residence Sahba Aminikia.

Vocalists

Lieder Alive! closes its season on 5 May at Noe Valley Ministries, with mezzo-soprano Kindra Scharich, cellist Jennifer Culp, & pianist Jeffrey LaDeur performing works by Schubert, Borodin, Schumann, Brahms, Franck, Berlioz, Amy Beach, Rachmaninoff, Greene. & Bernstein.

Holly Near: The Almost 75 Birthday Concert will be held at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley on 18 May.

Soprano Jill Morgan Brenner performs with pianist Paul Dab at Old First Concerts on 31 May; the program has not yet been announced.

Orchestral

Daniel Hope & the New Century Chamber Orchestra will be joined by pianist Awadagin Pratt for Jessie Montgomery's Rounds, for piano and string orchestra, David Diamond's Rounds, for strings, Florence Price's Adoration for violin and strings (arranged by Paul Bateman), & Leonard Bernstein's Serenade (after Plato’s Symposium), on 2 May at First Congregational in Berkeley, 3 May at the Green Music Center at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, & 4 May at the Presidio Theater in San Francisco.

David Milnes leads the UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra in Reflets de l’ombre by Carmine Cella, Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, & Richard Strauss's Alpine Symphony on 3 & 4 May at Hertz Hall on the Berkeley campus.

Donato Cabrera leads the California Symphony in the world premiere of Mishwar (A Trip) by resident composer Saad Haddad, along with Clara Schumann's only surviving Piano Concerto (with soloist Robert Thies), & the Brahms 1, on 4 - 5 May at the Lesher Center in Walnut Creek.

Marta Gardolińska leads the San Francisco Symphony in Overture by Grażyna Bacewicz, the Elgar Cello Concerto (with soloist Pablo Ferrández), & the Mendelssohn 3, the Scottish, on 10 & 12 May.

Omid Zoufonoun leads the Oakland Symphony Youth Orchestra in the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto (with soloist Ben Chen), Concertstück by Gabriel Pierné (with harp soloist Viviana Alfaro), & the Tchaikovsky 5, on 12 May at the San Leandro Performing Arts Center.

Ryan Bancroft leads the San Francisco Symphony in the American premiere of a Symphony commission, Alaraph ‘Ritus des Herzschlags’ by Unsuk Chin, the Violin Concerto #5 by Henri Vieuxtemps (with soloist Joshua Bell), Earth by Kevin Puts, & La Mer by Debussy, on 16 - 18 May.

Kyle J Dickson leads the Oakland Symphony in Aaron Copland's Canticle of Freedom, Wynton Marsalis's Violin Concerto (with soloist Kelly Hall-Tompkins), & the Beethoven 5, at the Paramount Theater on 17 May.

On 18 May at the Grand Theater in the Mission, the San Francisco Lesbian & Gay Freedom Band will perform music from animated films, anime, & video games, including selections from Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros, Aladdin, Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and others (including some sing-along material).

Daniel Stewart will lead the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra in the Mahler 5 at Davies Hall on 19 May.

On 25 May at Herbst Theater, Jessica Bejarano will lead the San Francisco Philharmonic in Glinka's Overture to Ruslan and Lyudmila, Dvořák's Romanze for Violin (with soloist Thomas Yee), Saint-Saëns's Phaeton, & the Mendelssohn 3, the Scottish.

Urs Leonhardt Steiner leads the Golden Gate Symphony Orchestra & Chorus in a performance celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Beethoven 9th on 26 May at Herbst Theater in San Francisco.

Chamber Music

The Ives Collective performs Germaine Tailleferre's Quatuor, Emilie Mayer's Piano Quartet in G major, & Mozart's String Quintet in C major at Old First Concerts on 5 May.

Berkeley Chamber Performances presents the Telegraph Quartet performing Fanny Mendelssohn's String Quartet, Kenji Bunch's String Quartet #3, & the Dvořák String Quartet #14 at the Berkeley City Club on 7 May.

Chamber Music San Francisco presents the Viano Quartet at Herbst Theater on 7 May, performing Haydn's Quartet in D Major, Opus 64 #5, Smetana's Quartet in E minor: From My Life, & Beethoven's Quartet in E minor, Opus 59 #2.

On 24 May at 405 Shrader in San Francisco, the Friction Quartet will perform Janáček's String Quartet #2: Intimate Letters, along with other pieces to be announced.

On 25 May at Hertz Hall on the UC Berkeley campus, there will be a 40th anniversary celebration of the Crowden School, featuring faculty, alumni, & current students; the program includes violinists David McCarroll & Nora Chastain leading a work commissioned for celebration from Samuel Adams, the Catalyst Quartet performing the Mendelssohn Octet, a cello ensemble led by Bonnie Hampton, the Friction Quartet performing Carrot Revolution by Gabriella Smith, Audrey Vardanega performing pieces by Piazzolla, a composition to be announced from school benefactor Gordon Getty, the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis by Ralph Vaughan Williams, & a John Adams Young Composers Program student premiere, performed by The Crowden School Lower School Orchestra.

A chamber ensemble of San Francisco Symphony musicians will perform pieces by Durwynne Hsieh, Krzysztof Penderecki, Edgar Meyer, & Tchaikovsky in Davies Hall on 26 May.

Instrumental

Jonathan Biss completes his Echoes of Schubert series for San Francisco Performances on 2 May at Herbst Theater, where he will perform the Impromptu in B flat Major, #3 & the Sonata in B flat Major, paired with a new work by Tyshawn Sorey.

The San Francisco Symphony presents a solo recital by pianist Evgeny Kissin in Davies Hall on 7 May, when he will play Beethoven's Piano Sonata #27 in E minor, the Nocturne in F-sharp minor & the Fantaisie in F minor by Chopin, Four Ballades by Brahms, & the Piano Sonata #2 in D minor by Prokofiev.

Chamber Music San Francisco presents violinist Mayuko Kamio with pianist Noreen Polera at Herbst Theater on 12 May, performing works by Bach, Mozart, Brahms, Elgar, Dvořák, Ponce, Dinicu, Monti, Tchaikovsky, Kreisler, & Rachmaninoff.

Chamber Music San Francisco presents pianist Bruce Liu at Herbst Theater on 17 May, performing Haydn's Sonata in B minor, Chopin's Sonata #2, Nikolai Kapustin's Variations, Opus 41, Rameau's Six Pieces, & Prokofiev's Sonata #7.

Harpist Kaitlin Miller performs at Old First Concerts on 19 May; the program has not yet been announced.

Alasdair Fraser and the San Francisco Scottish Fiddlers will perform traditional tunes at Freight & Salvage on 19 May.

Early / Baroque Music

Pianist Víkingur Ólafsson piano plays Bach's Goldberg Variations in Zellerbach Hall for Cal Performances on 4 May.

The Cantata Collective continues its traversal of Bach's cantatas with its 26 May performance at Saint Mary Magdalen's in Berkeley of Was mein Gott will, das g'scheh allzeit, BWV 111 & Ach Herr, mich armen Sünder, BWV 135, featuring soloists Michele Kennedy (soprano), Heidi Waterman (alto), Kyle Stegall (tenor), & Harrison Hintzsche (bass).

Modern / Contemporary Music

Gabriel Kahane returns to Herbst Theater & San Francisco Performances on 3 May, after his PIVOT Festival appearances earlier this year (my write-up is here); this time he is joined by violinist Pekka Kuusisto, & the program has not been released yet but will contain "the world premiere of a collaboratively written song cycle exploring the joys and griefs of life in the 21st century, around which Kuusisto and Kahane have built an eclectic program ranging from Bach and Nico Muhly to Scandinavian folk music and songs from Kahane’s catalog".

On 3 May at Old First Concerts, Duo HaLo (Andrew Harrison, saxophone & Jason Lo, piano) will play Imaginary Folksongs for Saxophone and Piano, featuring Stephen Lias's Imaginary Folksongs, Florence Price's Three Negro Spirituals (arranged by Harrison), Lori Laitman's Journey, Ryota Ishikawa's Rhapsody on Japanese Folksongs, & Jennifer Jolley's Lilac Tears.

On 10 May at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Martin West will lead the SFCM Orchestra (along with members of the SF Ballet Orchestra) in the Conservatory's Concerto Winner's Concert, featuring Leo Brouwer's Guitar Concerto #4, Concerto de Toronto, with soloist Juan Samaca (2022 Guitar Concerto Competition Winner) & Jeremy Beck's Death of a Little Girl with Doves, with soloist soprano Rayna Campbell (2023 Voice Concerto Competition Winner).

On 16 May at the Berkeley Piano Club on Haste Street, the Friction Quartet will perform Dan Becker's Vanishing Point, Jörg Widmann's String  Quartet #3: Jagdquartett, Caroline Shaw's Three Essays for String Quartet, Paweł Malinowski's I <3 Franz, & Toru Takemitsu's A Way A Lone (I assume this title is a Finnegans Wake reference).

Violinist Sarah Saviet plays Xenakis’ Miika, a new work by herself, & two recent works by Lisa Streich & Tim McCormack at the Center for New Music on 17 May.

At the San Francisco Conservatory of Music on 18 May, composer Jeff Gao will present the world premieres of his Sonata for Alto Saxophone & Piano & his Lenny's Defiance, along with Elinor Armer's Romantic Duo, the Brahms Clarinet Sonata #2, & Paganini's Moto Perpetuo (the concert will feature Wenbo Yin on alto saxophone & Jenny Ma on piano).

The Alchemist Quintet plays at the California Jazz Conservatory on 18 May.

On 19 May at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Valérie Sainte-Agathe leads the San Francisco Girls Chorus Premier Ensemble in a concert with special guest percussionist Haruka Fujii, featuring new music, including a commissioned work from Fujii.

On 20 May at Old First Concerts, Earplay gives us the world premiere of a new work for sextet & voice by Erin Gee (commissioned for Earplay), along with Sami Seif's Syriac Fugato for violin and viola, George Walker's Perimeters for clarinet and piano, & a new work by Byron Au Yong for flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello, and piano

On 30 May at the Brava Theater, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players joins with Volti to present the Bay Area premiere of Elliott Carter's Asko Concerto, the world premiere of Richard Festinger's Worlds Apart, & a set of new music for Chamber Choir; the program will feature soprano soloist Winnie Nieh & is preceded by one of SFCMP's How Music Is Made discussions, this time with Festinger.

Dance

The San Francisco Ballet presents Swan Lake from 30 April to 5 May.

The Oakland Ballet presents Lustig Live! at Laney College on 3 - 4 May, featuring the world premiere of Faun, inspired by the life of Nijinsky, with music performed by flutist Arturo Rodriguez & pianist Hadley McCarroll, as well as the Oakland Ballet premieres of Uncertain Steps, with William Skeen on Baroque Cello, & Dialogues, with musical performances by soprano Shawnette Sulker & pianist Hadley McCarroll, & Heartbreak Hotel, with Hank Maninger on vocals & guitar & Leor Beary on vocals and drums.

Smuin Ballet presents Dance Series 2, featuring the world premiere of Tupelo Tornado by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Broken Open by Amy Seiwert (composer/cellist Julia Kent will play live 3 - 5 May), Untwine  by Brennan Wall, & Starshadows by Michael Smuin, from 3 - 12 May at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco.

Art Means Painting

SFMOMA opens The Art of Noise on 4 May & it runs through 18 August; this looks like another attempt to cash in on boomer-rock nostalgia, & is part of the museum's on-going disregard of any modern music that isn't pop- or rock-based, but, you know, maybe I'm wrong. (I eagerly await their programming celebrating the Schoenberg sesquicentennial.) Also, 28 May is your last day to experience the Yayoi Kusama Infinity Rooms; they are quite enjoyable, but it's a much lighter experience than I expected; I know some who have been disappointed, but in my view "fun" & "enjoyable", even on a strictly time-limited basis (2 minutes in each room), is not to be dismissed lightly.

American Beauty: The Osher Collection of American Art, showcasing American art from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, opens at the de Young on 18 May & runs through 20 October.

Cinematic

On 1 May at Davies Hall, Constantine Kitsopoulos leads the San Francisco Symphony as they play along with The Wizard of Oz; I'm normally pretty dubious about these Symphonic replacements of a film's existing soundtrack (silent films are a different matter), but . . . it's the great & powerful Wizard of Oz.

What is described as the Final Cut of Coppola's Apocalypse Now, an adaptation of Heart of Darkness to the jungles of Vietnam, will screen at the Roxie on 19 May.

Museum Monday 2024/16

 

Saint Ursula, with some of her 11,000 virgin companions: a detail of Triptych of the Virgin and Child with Saints, now at the Art Institute of Chicago

SF Conservatory of Music: Handel's Serse

Last year the San Francisco Conservatory of Music's Historical Performance Department gave us Handel's Flavio (my post is here), a rarity; this year it gave us his Serse, one of his more popular operas. Once again the performances were led by Corey Jamason from the harpsichord, leading the Conservatory's Baroque Ensemble. I heard the Saturday cast; I would have gone back for the Sunday afternoon cast but I had a conflict.

The Saturday performance was so enjoyable that I regretted not being able to go back & experience the production again through the prism of different performers. Once again, the staging is fairly minimal; the singers wear appropriate costumes & act out the roles in front of the orchestra, but the set is restricted to some large boxes that are useful for hiding behind, putting disguises in, & so forth. A witty touch in the costuming was that two lovers who will clearly end up together, Arsamene & Romilda, were both wearing purple; he was in a suit & she in a gown. So they were visually linked from the beginning, though the shades did not match exactly, reflecting the turbulent vacillations of their fancies.

The titular monarch, Serse (Xerxes), is the unstable core of a whirligig of romance. The opera famously opens with what used to be known as "Handel's Largo", the dulcet aria Ombra mai fu, in which the Emperor expresses his love for . . . a tree. It's apparently a very attractive tree. I think we can all sympathize, as spring is now bringing the fresh green leaves out on the twining branches. Most of the plot revolves around the Emperor's arbitrary decision to love or not to love, & the implicit threat to others in his power.

The other lovers are not really more stable, though less dangerous because less powerful. Serse's brother Arsamene is in love with Romilda, whom Serse decides he must have for his own (he thinks his brother's loves are as easily transplanted as his); Romilda is in love with Arsamene, but the two of them are subject to intense fits of jealousy, leading to much musical sniping. Romilda's sister Atalanta is in love with Arsamene, & tries to sabotage her sister's relationship with him whenever possible. There's also Amastre, a neighboring princess in love & promised to Serse, who arrives disguised rather dashingly as a man; Elviro, Arsamene's comic servant, & Ariodate, the well-meaning father of Romilda & Atalanta, round out the cast of characters. The sniping, the jealousy, the comical confusions about love, the underlying threat from an arbitrary power . . . despite baroque opera's reputation for rarefied silliness, the actions & emotional affects here strike me as much more life-like than the strained melodramas of the so-called "verismo" school of opera.

The whole cast was very strong. The title role was performed by mezzo-soprano Jordan McCready, with the confident air (& even physical aggression – s/he more or less playfully pushed people around physically as well as emotionally) of a supreme ruler. The exquisite lovers Arsamene & Romilda were performed by, respectively, countertenor Kyle Tingzon & soprano Camryn Finn. The conniving sister Atalanta was soprano Catherine Duncan. Mezzo-soprano Cambria Metzinger, looking stylish in her man's disguise of black leather boots & a hat with a large feather (quite jaunty for a despairing lover!) was the intense Amastre. Bass-baritone Joseph Calzada was quite funny as the servant Elviro, who would rather go off somewhere with a bottle of wine, & baritone Aaron Hong was the suavely blundering (to good effect) Ariodate. The orchestra gave lively shape to the music.

It's kind of amazing that so much work went into what was essentially a one-off performance (for the singers; the orchestra was of course the same for both performances). It's even more amazing that such a high level of performance was given to the public for free (as are many programs at the Conservatory): all you had to do to get a ticket was make a reservation. Kudos to the Conservatory for serving Handel & the public (& its students) so well.

Friday Photo 2024/15

 

eat Carnation mush, San Francisco, April 2024

Poem of the Week 2024/15

They Mock Me for Planting Trees at My Age

Seventy, and still planting trees. . . 

Don't laugh at me, my friends.

Of course I know I'm going to die.

I also know I'm not dead yet.

– Yuan Mei, translated by JP Seaton

This pellucid poem doesn't really call for much commentary, I think, as it elegantly sums up, in just four lines, a situation, a conventional social reaction, & the narrator's defiant wisdom, part of the great tradition of carpe diem poetry. So here's a variant translation of the same poem:

If at seventy I still plant trees,

Lookers-on, do not laugh at my folly.

It is true of course that no one lives forever;

But nothing is gained by knowing so in advance.

– Yuan Mei, translated by Arthur Waley

Unfortunately in my ignorance of Mandarin, I can't comment on how closely either version hews to the eighteenth-century original. The gist of both translations is the same, but with some differing nuances: In the Seaton, the poet addresses his friends, in the Waley, the more general lookers-on (who may or may not be well-intentioned in their views of the old man, while friends, though perhaps lacking in understanding of why he is planting trees he is unlikely to see grow to maturity, are presumably basically accepting in their views of him & his actions). In the third line of the Seaton, the knowledge of looming mortality is much more personal: Of course I know I'm going to die. In the Waley, It is true of course that no one lives forever is much more indirect – the abrupt honesty of die vs the indirect truth that no one lives forever, the straightforwardness of Of course I know against the more genially philosophical proposition that It is true of course, the first-person I against the third-person no one. You get the same contrast in the two treatments of the final line: the Seaton more personal & defiant, the Waley more abstract & stoic. I have no preference between the two approaches; a single poem in Mandarin has fructified into two convincing versions in English.

The Seaton translation is from I Don't Bow to Buddhas: Selected Poems of Yuan Mei, translated from the Chinese & with an introduction by J P Seaton. In his introduction, Seaton recommends Waley's biography Yuan Mei: Eighteenth Century Chinese Poet, which is where I got the Waley translation.

Museum Monday 2024/15

 

at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, with David Brenner's living wall on the right in the background, & two sculptures by Alexander Calder: to the right, part of Big Crinkly, & on the left, the Intermediate maquette for Trois disques (Three Discs)

Friday Photo 2024/14

 

a springtime afternoon in Berkeley California

Poem of the Week 2024/14

A Light exists in Spring

Not present on the Year

At any other period –

When March is scarcely here

A Color stands abroad

On Solitary Fields

That Science cannot overtake

But Human Nature feels.

It waits upon the Lawn,

It shows the furthest Tree

Upon the furthest Slope you know

It almost speaks to you.

Then as Horizons step

Or Noons report away

Without the Formula of sound

It passes and we stay –

A quality of loss

Affecting our Content

As Trade had suddenly encroached

Upon a Sacrament.

– Emily Dickinson

Here we begin with light, a certain light visible only for a liver of the year, in early Spring. It would be the result of atmospheric conditions & so forth, but is treated as a thing-in-itself, not as a result of natural processes: it is described as being present on the Year, as if it were a physical object placed over another object. The light becomes a Color (Dickinson capitalizes both Light & Color, emphasizing them as entities, though of course they are disembodied perceptions of our eyes). Like the Light that is on the Year, the Color stands abroad, as if it is also a separate, physical object rather than an effect of the light (a perceptual manifestation of a natural phenomenon that exists only on the level of photons).

It stands on Solitary Fields – perhaps solitary rather than empty, to give a human, emotional dimension to the separation & isolation of the fields. Presumably there are no other people in evidence, except for the poet, observing the Light & its resultant Color. The second stanza ends with an emphasis on the human observer, & the effects of the light/color are taken as not individual but general: this is what Human Nature feels, looking at this color, not what one particular individual witnesses. Science cannot overtake the Color, we are told: is it too evanescent to be analyzed as part of the spectrum of light? too dependent on a combination of other factors (the time of year, the atmosphere) to be reduced to a standard formula? Dickinson will develop this thought further at the end of the poem.

The Light/Color continues to be treated as an entity, given an almost physical shape in the poet's vision, existing as a separate part in the landscape. Not only a physical-seeming entity, but one with consciousness: it waits up on the Lawn. (Lawn suggests human habitation in a way that fields does not; people do not actually appear in this poem, but their effects are palpable, as is the Light/Color they're interacting with.) It shows us a Tree on a Slope – both further out than perhaps we would normally look. The Light draws us there, manifesting the Tree & the Slope as objects we are drawn to. The Light/Color almost speaks to you; here the poet reinforces the suggestion that these are not her individual reactions, but ones that any observer would have. Yet the Light/Color, though presented in almost human terms – as something that can speak directly to us – doesn't quite reach that human-like form; it almost speaks, we are on the verge of being told something, but it eludes us, slipping away with distance & time.

Distance & time are made explicit in the next stanza, with Horizons stepping away & Noons reporting away. Again, conceptual entities – the horizon, noontime – are personified as taking physical action: the Horizons step, the Noons report. Stepping, reporting: business-like & efficient! Formula in the third line of the stanza also carries business-like, scientific overtones: sound is a formula, a product of certain scientific/mathematic principles. This is another way for Dickinson to make her point about the Light/Color almost speaking: it exists, it has something to say, but it passes without saying it in words we can understand.

But perhaps the meaning lies not in sentences that can be formulated with words, but in the quality of loss the poet mentions at the beginning of the last stanza: that evanescent, ineffable feeling that strikes us deep inside, "Affecting our Content" as the poet says: Content here refers primarily, I think, to happiness & satisfaction – contentment – but there's also the implication of our "contents", that is, the miscellaneous things we contain. That's the deep level of effect this passing experience has.

The poem closes with a vivid simile: As Trade had suddenly encroached / Upon a Sacrament. Trade brings up the American mercantile world of buying & selling; it connects with the other scientific/business-like terms to oppose one world – the burgeoning world of American capitalism, based on engineering, mathematics, getting & spending – with the solemn world of the Sacraments. For a nineteenth-century New England poet like Dickinson, the memory of the Puritan colonists would never be far away, even as it was being supplanted by a materialistic, profit-driven society. The fleeting Light/Color leaves us behind, with a sense of loss, as solitary as the fields or the single Tree out on a far slope, divided between an inner sense of a solemn manifestation of the Creator/Redeemer – a Sacrament – which is, however, intruded upon by the bustling new world of capitalism, using, exploiting, & changing Nature to spin the wheels of trade.

This poem strikes me as a spring-time equivalent of Dickinson's wintry There's a certain Slant of light: both poems deal with the interior, psychological & spiritual, effects of light upon a landscape.

This is #812 in Thomas H Johnson's edition of The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson.

Museum Monday 2024/14

 

detail of Lamentation Over the Dead Christ by Giovanni della Robbia, now at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston

Shotgun Players: A Midsummer Night's Dream

Last Sunday I was at the Shotgun Players production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by William Thomas Hodgson, the opening play of the theater's 2024 season. Midsummer Night's Dream is probably the Shakespeare play I have seen staged most often, & I've read it many times (I re-read it just a few weeks ago). & this production made me laugh out loud several times. That's really high praise.

The whole look (scenic design by Sarah Phykitt, costume designs by Ashley Renee as realized by Madeline Berger, if I'm reading the program correctly) is both hodge-podge & sophisticated. The set is a unit, with alcoves & cubbyholes built in, & passageway ramps going up & across, leading down to enough bare space in the front of the stage for fights (sword & verbal) & chases & sweet meet-ups. There are enough natural touches – tufts of foliage, tree trunks with rough bark – to make it plausible as the forest, but enough formal structure to let it pass for an interior in Athens. The costumes are a wild mélange of bright colors & wild patterns, harmonious in their dissonance.

The text is trimmed reasonably, with a few words thrown in to hilarious effect; not to give anything away, but one character starts off her speech with "Bitch, . . ." It was unexpectedly funny, as was the way they riffed on Bottom's inability to get the names of Pyramus & Thisbe correct. The "bergomask" at the end of the mechanicals' play, given in lieu of an epilogue, was a song from Twelfth Night; this journey also ended in lovers' meeting, so it did slide right into context. Egeus is now Hermia's mother instead of father, a change I am all in favor of; the authority there is generational & parental, not necessarily patriarchal. Titania's attendant fairies were, for I think the first time in the stagings I have seen, given distinct personalities, & some had comically negative reactions to the strange ass-headed commoner their mistress is inexplicably enamoured of, whom she had them serving.

Another noteworthy thing about this production, though I feel funny about mentioning it, as it always sounds so patronizing to say it, but clearly it's a point with this production, so here goes: they have a wonderfully open & diverse approach to casting, going beyond race- & gender-blind casting; some of the male characters are androgynous, some of the women are large; nothing is made of this (except for Helena's being taller than Hermia, which is canon), & nothing should be; they're all beautiful embodiments of their characters. Again, it seems condescending to talk about how wonderful that young lovers & heroic warriors look like ordinary people, & making a point of saying it even contributes, in subtle, indirect ways, to reinforcing the traditional standards of casting that are being ignored (in that it makes you conscious of those standards), but it's a good direction to go in, so . . . I mention it.

Such casting wouldn't be much good without strong performers, & the cast is by & large excellent. I was particularly impressed with Rolanda D Bell as Helena; often with productions of Shakespeare you feel they've learned the lines but not in a deep level, but Bell not only read the verse musically, but she spoke it as if it was very naturally the way this character would speak; you could see the shifting psychology underneath the pentameter. I don't know if she's done much Shakespeare (if not, this was particularly impressive) but I hope she continues. I also really liked Oscar Woodrow Harper III as Bottom, who is a character I can easily get enough of, but Harper, who had an inexplicable Southern twang & a bit of Elvis-like swagger, made him quite charming as well as hilarious – you really understood why the other mechanicals felt Bottom was the one man in Athens necessary for their play.

Mentioning those two isn't to slight the rest of the cast, many of whom play multiple roles. All of them give the audience giddy moments. Egeus, mentioned earlier, is played by Susannah Martin, who also plays Quince & Peaseblossom. Her attempts as Quince to rein in the rambunctious Bottom are an amusing echo of her attempts as Egeus to rein in Hermia; this is one of the serendipitous insights you get with such casting (she's also very funny as a Peaseblossom dragooned into serving Bottom, another, more distant, echo of her role as Quince). Aside from Bell as Helena, the quartet of lovers is rounded out with Celeste Kamiya, a lively powerhouse as Hermia (she also plays one of the fairies); she & Helena share some sweet sisterly moments amid the madness. Fenner Merlick is an insinuating Demetrius, just on the right side of shady. At my performance, Lysander was performed by Devin A Cunningham, who was apparently pulled in at something like the last minute, as he had to have a script with him – but he handled that so unobtrusively, & gave such a lively & physical characterization, that not being offbook was not intrusive. So Kudos to him.

Jamin Jollo filled the minor role of Philostrate & the major role of Puck, to which he brought an impish physicality, just on the right side of malicious. Radhika Rao has the traditionally doubled roles of Hippolyta & Titania, & Veronica Renner doubles as Theseus & Oberon, both authoritative in their spheres. Kevin Rebultan (Moth, a different unnamed Fairy, & Flute) was especially good as Thisbe, & Matt Standley (as Snug & Snout) gets more laughs out of less material than I would have thought possible.

My performance was a mask-mandatory matinee. I wonder how long those can continue, given that the majority of the audience was pretty careless about masking. With a few exceptions, they had them on, but often were wearing them incorrectly, were removing them to eat & drink in the theater, took them off during the performance (the young woman next to me had hers entirely off for most of the second act; she may have forgotten to put it back on when she finished her drink). & honestly, I don't see people getting more careful about masking. Either the theater is going to have to start enforcing the rule in a way that will . . . ruffle some feathers? annoy people? not sit well with them? be a burden all around? – or they're going to have to lift the "mandatory" part. I know some people deliberately choose the mask-mandatory performances, but others choose the performance based on date or time or some other factor. Personally, I am fine either way (despite the weird harassment I was subjected to at Shotgun's last play of last season), but I do think that people who are uncomfortable around people who aren't wearing masks are probably, at this point, just not going out at all. But the rule should be either enforced or modified.

Anyway: this season at Shotgun is off to an excellent start with this fresh, inventive, & very funny production. It's been extended to 27 April; go if you can.

(The photograph above is from the outside wall of the Ashby Stage; as usual, the mural changes with each play, & again as usual, it is by graphic artist R.Black)

Live from the Met: Roméo et Juliette

My Opera List tells me I have seen Gounod's Roméo et Juliette twice on stage, but the first performance I don't remember at all & the second was deeply flawed (for one thing, they decided to replace a lot of the non-aria parts with Shakespeare's dialogue, even though they had a cast of young singers for most of whom English was a second language – R&J is not an easy play to perform & it was just asking too much of the singers), so I headed out to the Met livecast last Saturday. It was touch-&-go for me until the last minute, as the local rain was heavier than expected, but I did make it to the theater in time – I, normally panicked at the thought of not being in my seat at least 20 minutes before the show starts, was even hoping I would cut it so close I wouldn't have to listen to the ridiculous pre-livecast promos from Rolex & other luxury brands, but there I was, & there they were.

The rain had mostly cleared up by the time I left for the theater, but in New York they were, as Peter Gelb described them during intermission, "torrential", which led to some transmission problems. This was unfortunate & annoying, but also something to take in stride. You know what was really irritating? Listening to the reactions of the audience around me. Much stirring about, loud talking, slow claps (I wonder what that woman thought she was accomplishing), huffing & puffing . . . I had the impression most of my audience thought there was someone in a booth running a projector who could fix things. I don't bother too much with tech stuff but . . . I thought it was generally known the livecasts use satellite transmissions? Which are sometimes interrupted by natural causes? Nothing like an opera audience to make even an aging Luddite feel youthful & tech-savvy.

Irritations aside, I found the show thoroughly enjoyable. It brought to mind last autumn's L'Elisir d'Amore at San Francisco Opera (my write-up is here), in that I can't imagine this opera being given a better presentation. I know people for whom Gounod is a non-starter but I don't have a problem with him. I do have a problem with most Shakespeare operas, but though this one does not capture the strange atmosphere & wild poetry of Shakespeare's play (neither, to my mind, does Verdi's Otello), it does an excellent job of conveying what most people remember or think they know of the play, which is the heightened passion of two youthful lovers, doomed by family hatreds. The plot (& there's a lot of plot machinery in R&J) is pared down: Romeo has poison, but no apothecary who sells it to him.

An adaptation of this sort is going to hang on the two performers in the title role, & here's where the Met came up strong; physically & dramatically & vocally, Nadine Sierra & Benjamin Bernheim were ideal. Both are attractive & youthful looking (they're not going to pass for teenagers, but then R&J seldom do). Sierra has such joy in the role & such commitment to it; as she progresses from a somewhat shy girl, eager for & hesitant about love (at least until she sights Romeo), she sang with splendor & controlled abandon. I had heard her before, but Bernheim was new to me, though years ago I heard a recording of his, I think. He can have a touch of goofiness (as does Romeo) but he is handsome & has great hair; the costumes by Catherine Zuber highlighted his sexiness, with a plunging neckline (his was much lower than Sierra's) & high black leather boots (he could probably use the same costume if he ever sings Hamlet, maybe minus the ruffles on the shirt). He sang with elegant virility & he & Sierra clearly have excellent chemistry together. He is scheduled for the title role in next season's first livecast, Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann, an opera I much prefer to this one, so I'm looking forward to that.

The secondary roles were also very strong, even though the characters themselves are diminished from their Shakespearean originals; even Mercutio seems subsidiary. He was sung (very nicely!) by Will Liverman, last seen by me in the title role of the livecast of Anthony Davis's X. Frederick Ballentine was an appropriately snarling presence as Tybalt, Samantha Hankey lively in the trouser role of Stéphano (a role built up from the play, actually, in a reverse of the usual cutting-down), Alfred Walker an imposing Frère Laurent. I was glad to see so many Black singers, & very glad to see that there was no attempt to separate the Capulets & the Montagues racially; you see this frequently with productions of Shakespeare's play (one family is white & the other black! or, we're in Ireland & one family is Catholic & the other Protestant! & so forth) & it drives me nuts, as that is not Romeo & Juliet, it is West Side Story. Dividing the families like that gives a cultural/social/political/religious dimension (or even justification) to the quarrel that isn't supposed to be there. The whole point is that there is no reason for the quarrel: it just is, & has been for so long that no one questions it. No origin for the animosity is ever given. It's right there in the first line of the play: "Two households, both alike in state & dignity. . . " The pointlessness is part of the tragedy.

Anyway, no need to ride that hobbyhorse right now. The production is, to borrow the Met's own word, sumptuous, & Yannick Nézet-Séguin was certainly a convincing advocate for the work, for which he had assembled a dazzling cast – almost too dazzling, with too much artistic power, some might think, for the work in question, but, as I said, they were making the best case for this opera that could be made.

Friday Photo 2024/13

 

two pigeons, San Leandro BART station

San Francisco Performances: Ilker Arcayürek & Simon Lepper

Last Thursday I was back at Herbst Theater for tenor Ilker Arcayürek's all-Schubert recital for San Francisco Performances, with pianist Simon Lepper accompanying him. The repertory was similar to his recent recording The Path of Life, & as explained by the singer, the songs were chosen to illustrate the arc of a life: from Love to Longing (I appreciate that that is the order there) to The Quest for Inner Peace to Resignation to, as a final touch, Redemption. In the Before Time I heard a number of recitals by women that traced the arc of a woman's life & I wanted a man to do something similar, & that was the tenor's plan here.

Arcayürek did an excellent job darkening his voice as the arc progressed, starting with the lively initial numbers, several of which centered around fishing, for some reason (I suppose it is a bucolic & sporty activity; the songs certainly sounded youthful & optimistic), then moving on to the more spiritually searching numbers as well as the emotionally wrenching discovery that one is not loved. There was an intermission, but I wish there hadn't been, as it would have been wonderful to experience the emotional journey straight through. Redemption was a single song, sort of an afterlife lagniappe, Des Fischers Liebesglück, which neatly ties back to the theme of fishing, as well as love & transcendence; the song leaves us "up above / on another shore".

The first song of The Quest for Inner Peace, Die Sterne (The Stars), was particularly touching in its serenity. Of course someone in the audience had to intrude on the moment by applauding (even though the program clearly asked us to hold our applause until the end) & whoever it was didn't even have the respect or taste to wait until the last notes of the song had died away. The one encore, Nacht und Träume, was another inward & contemplative number; as Arcayürek said to the audience while introducing it, the end of The Path of Life is . . . the end (meaning, of course, death) so he wanted to leave us on a more uplifting note.

A very satisfying recital! It was interesting to note that for the second performance in a row (I was at Herbst a week earlier for Jonathan Biss's Schubert concert), a lot of the intermission talk I overheard concerned the SF Symphony's failure to sign Esa-Pekka Salonen for another term. It was understandable the first time, as the news had broken just a day or two before, so it was interesting that it continued into another week. It is a mistake on the Symphony's part that is going to keep on rippling outward for quite some time, I fear.

Poem of the Week 2024/13

The Pitcher

His art is eccentricity, his aim

How not to hit the mark he seems to aim at,

His passion how to avoid the obvious,

His technique how to vary the avoidance.

The others throw to be comprehended. He

Throws to be a moment misunderstood.

Yet not too much. Not errant, arrant, wild,

But every seeming aberration willed.

Not to, yet still, still to communicate

Making the batter understand too late.

– Robert Francis

Here's a poem for this week's opening of the 2024 baseball season.

As the poet analyzes the skills involved in throwing a baseball towards a hitter, it's implicit (the second word of the poem is art) that he's describing not just a particular skill in a particular sport, but the requirements for a poet, or indeed anyone involved in some sort of creative work, even creative works that aren't always seen as such, like cooking. He's avoiding the obvious, while still moving towards a particular point; he wants to be misunderstood (or obscure) but only with the goal of ultimate clarity.

I particularly like the line breaks in this poem. In the first one, aim / aim at, the words echo, with a slight variation: the at gives focus to the aim, as we move from aim in the sense of his goal to aim in the sense of the particular point in space at which he is aiming – a subtle redirection that exemplifies the technique the poet is describing.

In the second couplet, we have passion balanced & supplemented in the next line by technique. The second word, technique, is how the first word is enacted. The end words (obvious / avoidance) reinforce each other; avoidance of the obvious is the aim, & it's important that he varies the methods, before they too become expected & obvious.

In the third couplet, the others who throw to be comprehended would be the other players on the pitcher's team; if you're playing outfield or on one of the bases, you want your throw to your teammates to be perfectly clear, so that you can get the all-important out of the opposing player. Comprehended usually refers to take something in & fully understanding it mentally, so beyond just realizing where the ball is headed, it includes understanding why the ball is headed there & where it needs to happen, & of course the word suggests also the skills involved in reading a poem, or appreciating any other work of artistry. He (the pitcher) teeters at the end of the first line, separated from the others even though they are his teammates; perhaps this isolation leads him to be, in his own mind, misunderstood, even though that is his aim (but misunderstood only for a moment).

The fourth couplet describes the limits within the pitcher's artistic misdirection must work. The errant / arrant combo is a bit of flashy wordplay, part of the music & play of language that makes poetry appealing. The words are linked in origin & were used interchangeably until the past few centuries, when their paths split, with errant meaning "behaving wrongly, straying outside the proper path or bounds, or moving about aimlessly or irregularly" & arrant meaning "being notoriously without moderation" (definitions come from Merriam-Webster's on-line dictionary). Both words are a bit antique (like the sport of baseball), & tend to be used in literary contexts more than everyday speech. (Errant even has a medieval whiff to it, as it brings to mind a knight-errant.) Any such throw is to be avoided in this context, along with anything else too wild; & the wild / willed line ends, with their close verbal echo & adjustment, move from what the throw should not be (wild) to what it should be (willed, that is, controlled by the pitcher / artist).

The final couplet, with its halting, complicated syntax, throws us a bit of a curveball. Not to communicate while communicating: this is the indirection of a great pitcher, or a poet, who speaks deeper or evanescent truths through metaphor (as Dickinson noted, "Tell all the truth, but tell it slant"). In the middle of the line still is repeated. Still is a powerful word. It moves in both time & space: time as it indicates continuing on-going action & space as it indicates a state of being motionless. It also indicates a sort of quiet & calm – an oasis in the middle of the physical & psychological & technical battle between pitcher & hitter. It's a freighted word, one with ambiguous meanings. The final line clarifies the first line in the couplet, & indeed sums up the point of the poem: the batter will understand the pitcher's intent, but only when it's too late for him to parry it with a successful hit. So far the end words have played off each other, but in the penultimate couplet, wild / willed, we have our first example of lines ending with a slant rhyme. The poem culminates with the end words communicate / too late, giving us as the finale, for the first time in this poem, the satisfying verbal chime of an exact rhyme.

I took this poem from Heart of the Order: Baseball Poems, edited by Gabriel Fried.

Another Opening, Another Show: April 2024

By the end of this month, nearly all of the local performing arts groups will have announced their line-up for the next season (which, weirdly, still runs on the same track as the school year, as if all of us are heading off to our mountain villas or beach houses for the summer). Suitably for the spring-time weather, it's a time of renewed hope & excitement, though maybe less so this year: first we had the SF Opera's shrunken season (down to six operas & some specialty concerts; they've also, for reasons I do not understand, reverted to having an actual opera as the sacrificial victim for the Opening Night ceremonies, rather than the highlights concert more suitable to the occasion that they've been presenting the past few years) & then that was followed by the overwhelming disappointment of hearing that Esa-Pekka Salonen is not renewing his contract with the SF Symphony, as he & the Board do not agree on the future of the Symphony. Usually "artistic differences" is a euphemism, but here it seems to be the heart of the matter. Salonen, of course, is a world-renowned composer & conductor, with many contacts among today's artists (it's difficult to describe him & them without falling into horrible PR/Management speak like "visionary", "bold", exciting & innovative", but . . . those are the suitable words). The Board is . . . a lot of rich people? who, like most rich people, think they're smarter than they really are? I don't know what the Board thinks they're doing. Presumably at some point they will try to let the rest of us know. For now, we're left with the departure of one of our time's leading musical artists, & our local scene diminishes correspondingly (though, in the spirit of springtime hopefulness, I will mention that while the SF Opera & the SF Symphony are both pillars of the local performing-arts world, there are plenty of smaller groups that continue to produce interesting works). "So quick bright things come to confusion" as Shakespeare tells us. & speaking of him, to continue in the spirit of happier notes, here is your reminder that 23 April is, among other things, the traditional date given as Shakespeare's birthday. There are no specific commemorations of that momentous day listed below, but I'm sure you can think of something suitable, & there's plenty of other stuff to keep you going until May.

Theatrical

ACT presents Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord, a one-person show written & performed by Kristina Wong, directed by Chay Yew; she started sewing masks in the early days of the pandemic & the project grew. . . . ; the show is at the Strand Theater from 30 March to 5 May.

BroadwaySF presents John Cleese: Last Time to See Me Before I Die, featuring comedy & conversation from the celebrated Mr Cleese, at the Orpheum Theater on 5 April.

From 5 April to 12 May, the New Conservatory Theater Center, in association with Golden Thread Productions, presents The Tutor, a world premiere commission by Torange Yeghiazarian, directed by Sahar Assaf, about a Bay Area man just married to an Iranian woman who hires a lifelong female friend to tutor her, only to have the two women fall in love.

On 6 April at the Alcazar Theater, you can experience Toxic, a one-person comedy show by Abhishek Upmanyu; how could I not list someone who describes himself as a "haiku enthusiast"?

On 6 - 7 April the Oakland Theater Project presents a world premiere workshop performance of Dan Hoyle's Takes All Kinds, a one-person show exploring the political divisions in America.

Brian Copeland’s popular one-person show, Not a Genuine Black Man, returns for a limited engagement (Saturdays only, between 6 April & 4 May) at The Marsh San Francisco.

Axis, written & directed by Dirk Alphin, exploring the last family left in a town sinking into the earth during the American bicentennial year, plays The Marsh San Francisco from 7 to 28 April.

Golden Thread Productions presents Returning to Haifa, based on the short novel by Ghassan Kanafani (about a Palestinian couple after the Six Days' War returning to the home in Haifa they were forced out of in 1948), adapted for the stage by Naomi Wallace and Ismail Khalidi & directed by Samer Al-Saber, running at the Potrero Stage from 12 April to 4 May.

While their mainstage continues with A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Shotgun Players Champagne Staged Reading Series will take over on 15 - 16 April with The Motion by Christopher Chen, directed by Patrick Dooley, about something that starts as a scholarly debate about animal rights & ends up as something else.

BroadwaySF presents the touring company of the musical Hairspray! at the Orpheum Theater from 16 to 21 April.

ACT presents the Tony- & Pulitzer-winning musical A Strange Loop, with book, music, & lyrics by Michael R Jackson, choreography by Raja Feather Kelly, directed by Stephen Brackett, about a queer Black writer writing a musical about a queer Black writer writing a musical about a queer Black writer, at the Toni Rembe Theater from 18 April to 12 May.

42nd Street Moon presents the popular jukebox musical Forever Plaid, directed by Daniel Thomas, from 18 April to 5 May.

Aurora Theater presents Tanya Barfield's Blue Door, directed by Darryl V Jones, about a Black professor of mathematics who spends a fevered night (or dreams during that night) with three generations of his ancestors; the show runs from 19 April to 19 May.

The UC Berkeley Drama Department (not their official name, I believe, but you know what I mean) presents The Wednesday Club, with book, lyrics, & direction by Joe Goode & music & music direction by Ben Juodvalkis, runs at Zellerbach Playhouse from 25 to 28 April & explores collaboration among a group of "LGBTQ+ drama nerds (and their allies)".

The Oakland Theater Project presents the world premiere of Red Red Red by Amelio Garcia, directed by William Thomas Hodgson, based on Anne Carson's Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse, a riff on the Greek mythological tale of Geryon & Herakles, & that runs from 26 April to 19 May.

BroadwaySF presents Funny Girl, the classic musical from Jule Styne & Bob Merrill with an updated book by Harvey Fierstein, directed by Michael Mayer, at the Orpheum Theater from 30 April to 26 May.

Talking

Ocean Vuong will appear in conversation with Cathy Park Hong on 4 April at BAM/PFA & on 5 April, at the same venue, he will read from his latest poetry collection, Time Is a Mother.

Joan Nathan, celebrated for her books on Jewish food traditions, will discuss her latest, My Life in Recipes: Food, Family, and Memories, with chefs Charles Phan (of The Slanted Door) & Mourad Lahlou (of Aziza & Mourad) at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco on 30 April.

Operatic

Opera Parallèle presents Birds & Balls, a double-bill of Vinkensport (The Finch Opera) with music by David T Little & text by Royce Vavrek, about the Flemish sport of Finch Sitting, & Balls, a world premiere with music by Laura Karpman & text by Gail Collins, about the 1973 "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match between Billie Jean King & Bobby Riggs, & that's 5 - 7 April at the SF Jazz Center.

The San Francisco Conservatory of Music Historical Studies Department presents Handel's Serse on 6 & 7 April.

On 7 April at Hertz Hall at UC Berkeley, you can see the Musical Theater Prize Concert, featuring the world premiere of The Little Prince, an opera by Cal student Chengrui “Tom” Pan.

The San Francisco Conservatory of Music's Opera and Musical Theatre program presents Pauline Viardot's chamber opera Cendrillon on 20 & 21 April.

Pocket Opera presents Janáček's Cunning Little Vixen, in a Donald Pippin translation they found in their archives, on 14 April at the Hillside Club in Berkeley, 21 April at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, & 28 April at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco; music direction is by Jonathan Khuner, stage direction by Nicolas A Garcia, & choreography by Lissa Resnick.

Choral

21V, a chorus for alto & soprano singers of all genders, performs Reclaiming Radical, a program including a world premiere from Chris Castro celebrating César Chavez & Dolores Huerta, Trevor Weston's Truth Tones in honor of Dr Martin Luther King Jr, Stacy Garrop's setting of the last letter written to Ruth Bader Ginsburg by her husband (this is a new work composed for 21V), & Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate's We Are the Storm; you can hear it all on 5 April at Mission Dolores (the old church, not the basilica) & 6 April at the Berkeley Hillside Club.

On 6 April at Saint Mark's Lutheran in San Francisco, Pacific Edge Voices will present The Sound Garden of Love (the title plays off Blake's poem The Garden of Love), & the program will include Elgar’s Lux Aeterna, Meredith Monk’s Panda Chant, Dahlgren’s God’s Great Dust Storm, Dylan Tran’s If Music Be the Food of Love, & the group's first live performance of Vienna Teng’s Hymn of Acxiom, which they recorded during the lockdown; the chorus will be joined for this concert by Soul Beatz, Oakland’s community drum circle; selections from the program will be performed on 7 April as part of a free outdoor concert at the Pergola on Lake Merritt in Oakland.

On 20 - 21 April at Calvary Presbyterian in San Francisco, Bob Geary leads the San Francisco Choral Society in Dvořák's Mass in D Major, in Goin’ Home, a song arrangement attributed to William Arms Fisher based on the celebrated theme from Dvořák's 9th Symphony, From the New World, & Margaret Bond’s Credo; featured are soloists Benjamin Bachmann on organ, soprano Shawnette Sulker, mezzo-soprano Kindra Scharich, tenor Lee Steward, & bass-baritone Wilford Kelly.

Vocalists

The Schwabacher Recital Series presents mezzo-soprano Samantha Hankey with pianist Carrie-Ann Matheson on 3 April at the Taube Atrium Theater; repertory to be announced.

On 9 April at the Century Club in San Francisco, Taste of Talent presents Dayenu: A Passover Celebration, with the launch of JIVE (Jewish Innovative Voices & Experiences), led by producer Ronny Michael Greenberg, the cantor of Sherith Israel baritone Simon Barrad, countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, & violinist Elizabeth Castro Greenberg; they plan to "bring together the themes of freedom, bondage, and resilience through new perspectives, new works and creative arrangements representing the rich and diverse Jewish musical traditions"; this concert will feature music from the Hans Zimmer / Stephen Schwartz soundtrack to Prince of Egypt, as well as pieces by Simon & Garfunkel, Gerald Cohen, Samuel Barber, Robert Owens, Tom Cipullo, Ernest Bloch, & Yiddish songs, Jazz, Cabaret, & Operetta arias composed by Jews imprisoned during the Holocaust, such as Viktor Ullmann, Ilse Weber, & Joseph Beer.

The San Francisco Symphony presents Patti LuPone: A Life in Notes at Davies Hall on 14 April.

In Zellerbach Hall on 23 April, Cal Performances presents soprano Amina Edris & tenor Pene Pati, accompanied by pianist Robert Mollicone, in Voyages, a program including songs by Duparc, Ravel, Saint-Saëns, Quilter, & Vaughan Williams, as well as traditional songs from Egypt (where she's from) & Samoa (where he's from).

Cal Performances presents Angélique Kidjo at Zellerbach Hall on 26 April.

Orchestral

The San Francisco Symphony presents the Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields, led by & featuring on solo violin Joshua Bell, at Davies Hall on 7 April, when they will perform Flight of Moving Days by Vince Mendoza, featuring percussionist Douglas Marriner (a new composition marking the centenary of Academy founder Sir Neville Marriner) along with the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto & the Schumann 2

Richard Egarr leads the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in Romantic Radiance, a program featuring Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto (with soloist Shunske Sato) & the Beethoven 3, the Eroica, on 11 April at Herbst Theater in San Francisco, 12 April at Bing Concert Hall at Stanford in Palo Alto, & 13 April at First Congregational in Berkeley.

On 13 April at the Taube Atrium Theater, guest conductor Paul Phillips leads the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony in Britten's Sinfonietta opus 1, the Saint-Saens Violin Concerto #3 in B minor (featuring soloist Michael Long), Wang Lu's Surge, & William Dawson's Negro Folk Symphony (the program will be repeated on 14 April at Stanford University's Dinkelspiel Auditorium).

Karina Canellakis leads the San Francisco Symphony in Richard Strauss's Don Juan & his Death and Transfiguration & Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand (featuring soloist Cédric Tiberghien) & his La Valse on 18 - 20 April.

Jory Fankuchen leads the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra in the world premiere of Trevor Weston's Aqua as well as Respighi's Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite #3 & the Mozart 40, & you can hear it 19 April at Saint Mark's Lutheran in San Francisco, 20 April at First United Methodist in Palo Alto, & 21 April at First Congregational in Berkeley.

Gustavo Gimeno leads the San Francisco Symphony in Funeral March from The Great Citizen, Opus 55 by Shostakovich, William Walton's Viola Concerto (with soloist Jonathan Vinocour), & the Prokofiev 3 on 25 - 27 April.

On 27 April at the Swedish American Hall in San Francisco, One Found Sound will perform the west coast premiere of Sam Wu's Hydrosphere (the winner of One Found Sound's 2023 Emerging Composer Award), Ruth Gipps's Seascape, & the Beethoven 3, the Eroica.

On 27 April at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Edwin Outwater leads the SFCM Orchestra in the world premiere of Acequia by Nicolás Lell Benavides, as well as Peter Lieberson's Neruda Songs (featuring mezzo-soprano Nikola Printz), & Ravel's Rhapsodie Espagnole & his La Valse.

On 27 April at Hertz Hall, the UC Berkeley Philharmonia Orchestra will be led by Thomas Green & Noam Elisha in Ravel's orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.

Chamber Music

On 2 April, for Chamber Music Tuesday at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the Jupiter Quartet will play Anton Arensky's String Quartet #2 in A Minor, Nathan Shields's Medusa, & Max Bruch's String Octet in B-flat Major.

Noontime Concerts at Old Saint Mary's in downtown San Francisco offers violinist Florin Parvulescu & pianist Samantha Cho performing Beethoven's Violin Sonata #1 in D Major, Fauré's Violin Sonata #1 in A Major, & Earl Wild's setting of the Gershwins' Embraceable You on 2 April; & violinist Yip Wai-Chow, cellist Ayoun Alexandra Kim, & pianist Jon Lee performing Haydn's Piano Trio in E-flat major, Clara Schumann's 3 Romances for Cello and Piano, Schubert's Rondo for Violin and Piano, & Debussy's Piano Trio in G major on 9 April; the rest of the month's schedule hasn't been released yet, but you can check for it here.

On 13 April in Zellerbach Hall, the Danish String Quartet, joined by cellist Johannes Rostamo, returns to Cal Performances, bringing Schubert's String Quintet in C major, a new work for string quintet by Thomas Adès, & some Schubert lieder, as arranged by the Quartet.

On 14 April at the Piedmont Center for the Arts, the Berkeley Symphony presents Play on Words, a program featuring Korngold's Suite from Much Ado About Nothing for Violin and Piano, Gordon Getty's Four Dickinson Songs for Soprano and Piano, Jake Heggie's Shed No Tear (from a poem by John Keats) for Soprano and Piano, & Schubert's Trio in E-flat major, Opus 100 for Piano, Violin, Cello; the musicians featured are soprano Lisa Delan, violinist René Mandel, cellist Evan Kahn, & pianist Kevin Korth (with Jake Heggie as special guest pianist for Shed No Tear).

Chamber Music San Francisco presents cellist Steven Isserlis & pianist Connie Shih at Herbst Theater on 14 April, where they will perform Busoni's Variations on a Finnish folk song, Kultaselle, Schubert's Arpeggione Sonata, Bloch's Pieces from Jewish Life, Fauré's Sonata #1, & Poulenc's Sonata.

Cal Performances presents the Quatuor Ébène at First Congregational on 16 April, where they will perform Mozart's String Quartet #21 in D major, the Prussian, Schnittke's String Quartet #3, & Grieg's String Quartet #1 in G minor.

A chamber group of San Francisco Symphony musicians will perform Danzas de Panama by William Grant Still, Sextet in C major by Ernst von Dohnányi, & the String Quartet #3 in F major by Shostakovich at Davies Hall on 21 April.

On 25 April at Herbst Theater, San Francisco Performances presents the Dover Quartet & pianist Leif Ove Andsnes, performing Joaquín Turina's La oración del torero (The Bullfighter’s Prayer), the Dohnányi Piano Quintet #. 2 in E-flat Minor, & the Brahms Piano Quintet in F Minor.

This season's Saturday morning lecture/concert series from San Francisco Performances, Music as a Mirror of Our World: The String Quartet from 1905 to 1946, with host/lecturer Robert Greenberg & music from the Alexander String Quartet, concludes on 27 April at Herbst Theater with a session devoted to the United Kingdom, featuring the Britten String Quartet #2 in C Major, Opus 36 & William Walton's String Quartet #2 in A Minor.

On 30 April at Herbst Theater, Chamber Music San Francisco presents violinist Daniel Hope with pianist Simon Crawford-Phillips, performing Enescu's Impromptu Concertante, Ravel's Sonata Opus Posthumous, the American premiere of Jake Heggie's Fantasy Suite 1803, & Franck's Sonata in A Major.

Instrumental

On 2 April at Davies Hall, the San Francisco Symphony presents cellist Yo-Yo Ma & pianist Kathryn Stott performing the Berceuse, Opus 16 by Fauré, Songs My Mother Taught Me by Dvořák, Menino by Sérgio Assad, Cantique by Nadia Boulanger, Papillon, Opus 77 by Fauré, the Cello Sonata in D minor, Opus 40 by Shostakovich, Spiegel im Spiegel by Arvo Pärt, & César Franck's Violin Sonata in A major (transcribed for cello).

Cal Performances brings Japanese troupe Drum Tao & its 30th anniversary tour to Zellerbach Hall on 11 - 12 April.

The Dewing Piano Recital Series concert will take place at the Jeannik Méquet Littlefield Concert Hall at Mills College on 14 April, & will feature Varvara Tarasova playing solo works by Brahms & Schumann (the concert is free but you must register to attend).

San Francisco Performances presents the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain at Herbst Theater on 16 April; the program will be announced from the stage.

The San Francisco Symphony presents pianist Yefim Bronfman at Davies Hall on 21 April, when he will perform Schubert's Piano Sonata in A minor, Opus 143, Schumann's Faschingsschwank aus Wien, Opus 26, Esa-Pekka Salonen's Sisar, & Chopin's Piano Sonata #3 in B minor, Opus 58.

San Francisco Performances presents cellist Camille Thomas at Herbst Theater on 23 April, where she will perform works by Chopin as arranged by Auguste Franchomme & Mischa Maisky, a Nocturne & Air Russe Varié by Franchomme, & David Popper's Hungarian Rhapsody, Opus 68.

Early / Baroque Music

The San Francisco Early Music Society presents violinist Rachel Barton Pine & harpsichordist Jory Vinikour in a program of sonatas & partitas by Bach on 5 April at First Presbyterian in Palo Alto, 6 April at First Congregational in Berkeley, & 7 April at Saint Mark's Lutheran in San Francisco.

Cal Performances brings countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński & Il Pomo d’Oro to Zellerbach Hall on 9 April, where they will perform a program of baroque rarities by Monteverdi, Marini, Caccini, Frescobaldi, Kerll, Strozzi, Cavalli, Pallavicino, Netti, Sartorio, Jarzębski, & Moratelli.

Paul Flight leads the California Bach Society in a program of North German Masters, featuring music by Buxtehude, Schop, Tunder, & Bach, on 26 April at Saint Mark's Lutheran in San Francisco, 27 April at All Saints' Episcopal in Palo Alto, & 28 April at Saint Mark's Episcopal in Berkeley.

Under the heading Bach's Favorite Instruments, Jeffrey Thomas will lead the American Bach Soloists in Bach's Concerto in A Minor for Violin, his Concerto in D Major for Harpsichord, his Concerto in A Major for Oboe d’amore, & his Sonata in G Major for Two Flutes, as well as Telemann's Concerto in G Major for Viola & his Concerto in A Major for Flute, Violin, and 'Cello (with featured soloists YuEun Kim & Tomà Iliev on violin, Corey Jamason on harpsichord, Stephen Hammer on oboe d'amore, Bethanne Walker & Vincent Canciello on flute, Joseph Howe on violoncello, & Yvonne Smith on viola, & you can hear them 26 April at Saint Stephen's in Belvedere, 27 April at Saint Mark's Episcopal in Berkeley, 28 April at Saint Mark's Lutheran in San Francisco, & 29 April at Davis Community Church in Davis.

See also Handel's Serse at the SF Conservatory of Music, listed under Operatic.

Modern / Contemporary Music

On 1 April at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music there will be a composer portrait concert for David Conte, featuring his Elegy for Violin and Piano, selections from his one-act ballet Brokeback Mountain, the aria Willow from his opera East of Eden, Aria and Fugue for Viola and Piano, & Piano Trio #2.

On 5 April, Ensemble for These Times will collaborate with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (at the Conservatory's Barbro Osher Recital Hall) in a multimedia exploration of Expressionist music from the Second Viennese School & new music inspired by it, featuring the world premieres of a new chamber arrangement by TJ Martin of Berg's Sieben Frühe Lieder & two trios by David Garner & Valerie Liu, as well as music by Schoenberg, Webern, & Adam Schoenberg, & the winner of the SFCM TAC Department's student composition competition.

Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the American premiere of Pierrot Lunaire & the 150th birthday of its composer, the great Arnold Schoenberg, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players will host a two-day mini festival on 20 - 21 April at the Taube Atrium Theater: on 20 April, Pierrot RE:imagined gives us Kevin Day's un(ravel)ed, Katherine Balch's Musica Spolia, the American premiere of Massimo Lauricella's E Piove in Petto una Dolcezza Inquieta (with featured soloist soprano Winnie Nieh), Andrew Norman's Mine Mime Meme, & Mason Bates's Difficult Bamboo (before the concert Bates will be interviewed by SFCMP Artistic Director Eric Dudley); & on 21 April, Pierrot RE:encountered gives us Joan Tower's Petroushskates, selections from Schoenberg's Cabaret Songs, Jessie Montgomery's Lunar Songs: I. and III, & Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, which will be accompanied by a newly commissioned animated video by Simona Fitcal; mezzo-soprano Rachel Calloway will be the vocal soloist for the Montgomery & the Schoenberg selections.

Sarah Cahill’s Backstage Pass, presented by Amateur Music Network at Old First Concerts on 22 April, will feature Theresa Wong performing music from her album Practicing Sands & talking about composing & improvising on cello & other instruments.

On 25 April at the Center for New Music, the Nathan Clevenger Trio (which also includes Jordan Glenn & Cory Wright) will be joined by Phillip Greenlief & Marié Abe to celebrate the release of the Trio's new album, Unsettled by the Ocean, with an evening of improved & composed material..

On 26 April at the Center for New Music, violinist & composer Concetta Abbate will perform a program of her music for solo violin & voice to "showcase her new music and arts organization Sound & Memory", which seeks to "incorporate music into contemporary rituals for both grief and death."

Other Musical Traditions

The San Francisco Conservatory of Music will offer an evening of Jewish Music on 5 April; the program is yet to be announced.

The Ali Akbar College of Music will host a 15th Annual Birthday Tribute to Maestro Ali Akbar Khan. featuring vocalist Pandit Uday Bhawalkar as well as Alam Khan & Manik Khan on sarod & Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri on tabla performing Indian classical music, at Old First Concerts on 13 April.

On 26 April, Old First Concerts will present ZOFO (pianists Eva-Maria Zimmermann & Keisuke Nakagoshi) in Echoes of Gamelan, a program examining the influence of gamelan music on western composers, including Debussy, Godwosky, Gustav Holst, George Crumb, Brian Baumbusch, Ni Nyoman Srayamurtikanti, as well as transcriptions by Colin McPhee of Balinese ceremonial music.

The Berkeley Bluegrass Festival will take place 26 - 28 April at Freight & Salvage.

In celebration of the 25th anniversary of 69 Love Songs, the Magnetic Fields will perform the entire album live over two nights (26 - 27 April are sold out, but shows have been added on 28 - 29 April) at the Curran Theater.

Dance

The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater makes its annual springtime return to Zellerbach Hall & Cal Performances from 2 to 7 April, with five different programs: Program A (on 2 & 6 April), contains Dancing Spirit (Ronald K Brown, to music by Duke Ellington, Wynton Marsalis, Radiohead, War), Me, Myself and You (Elizabeth Roxas-Dobrish, to music by Duke Ellington, arranged by Damien Sneed & performed by Brandie Sutton), Solo (Hans van Manen to music by Bach), & Revelations (Alvin Ailey, to traditional spirituals); Program B (3 April) contains Following the Subtle Current Upstream (Alonzo King, to music by Zakir Hussain, Miguel Frasconi, & Miriam Makeba), CENTURY (Amy Hall Garner, to music by various artists), & Are You in Your Feelings? (Kyle Abraham, to music by various artists); Program C (4 April) contains Following the Subtle Current Upstream (Alonzo King, to music by Zakir Hussain, Miguel Frasconi, & Miriam Makeba), Me, Myself and You (Elizabeth Roxas-Dobrish, to music by Duke Ellington, arranged by Damien Sneed & performed by Brandie Sutton), & Revelations (Alvin Ailey to traditional spirituals, performed live at this performance by vocalists Chenee Campbell, Nia Drummond, Sean Holland II, & Marvin Lowe; The Revelations Choir and Band, comprised of Bay Area musicians; conducted by Damien Sneed); Program D (5 & 6 (matinee) April), contains Ailey Classics, featuring Reflections in D & excerpts from Memoria, Night Creature, Pas de Duke, Masekela Langage, Opus McShann, Love Songs, & For ‘Bird’ – With Love, & Revelations (Alvin Ailey, to traditional spirituals); Program 3 (7 April, matinee) contains Following the Subtle Current Upstream (Alonzo King, to music by Zakir Hussain, Miguel Frasconi, & Miriam Makeba), CENTURY (Amy Hall Garner, to music by various artists), & Revelations (Alvin Ailey, to traditional spirituals).

Vertical.Show, a combination of pole & aerial sports with modern choreography, plays the Great Star Theater in SF's Chinatown from 4 to 21 April.

The San Francisco Ballet starts the month with Next@90 Curtain Call, a program repeating some of the hits from last year's festival – Gateway to the Sun (choreography by Nicolas Blanc, to music by Anna Clyne), Violin Concerto (choreography by Yuri Possokhov, to music by Stravinsky), & Madcap (choreography by Danielle Rowe, to music by Pär Hagström) – & that runs between 2 & 13 April.

From 4 to 14 April, the San Francisco Ballet presents Dos Mujeres, a program featuring the world premiere of Carmen, with choreography by Arielle Smith to music by, no, not Bizet, but Arturo O’Farrill; &, for  those who feel they just haven't heard enough about Frida Kahlo lately, the SF Ballet premiere of Broken Wings, with choreography by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa to music by Peter Salem.

If you missed the Oakland Ballet Company's Dancing Moons Festival 2024 performance in March at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center, you can catch the same program (a reprise of Layer Upon Layer by Caili Quan, Ballet de Porcelaines by Phil Chan, & highlights from Exquisite Corpse by Elaine Kudo, Seyong Kim, & Phil Chan, & excerpts from the work-in-progress Angel Island, based on Huang Ruo’s composition inspired by poems carved into the walls of the west coast immigration detention center) at ODC in San Francisco on 5 - 6 April.

Nancy Karp + Dancers collaborate with the Friction Quartet & Haruka Fujii (percussion) & David A Jaffe (mandolin & mandocello) in Eppur si muove, a world premiere set to Sundial by Samuel Adams & fly through the night, and land near dawn, set to music by David A Jaffe, & that's at the Taube Atrium Theater on 6 - 7 April.

From 18 to 24 April, San Francisco Ballet will present an encore of the popular world premiere season opener, Mere Mortals, with choreography by Aszure Barton & music by Floating Points; the story is, as I understand it, a mash-up between Artificial Intelligence & the legends of Orpheus; the performance will be followed by an after-party.

Alonzo King LINES Ballet's spring program, featuring three works by King – a world premiere, a reimagined version of The Collective Agreement (in collaboration with jazz pianist Jason Moran & light-installation artist Jim Campbell), & Concerto for Two Violins (to music by Bach) – will be performed at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on 5, 7, & 10 - 14 April (the performance on the 11th will include a Q&A with King).

Cal Performances presents the Mark Morris Dance Group in Socrates, to the score by Erik Satie, & the world premiere of Via Dolorosa, set to Nico Muhly's The Street, using texts by Alice Goodman; as usual with MMDG, the music is live; you can experience it all at Zellerbach Hall on 19 - 21 April.

Art Means Painting

MOAD is opening its next round of exhibits on 27 March: we have !!!!!, the first solo museum show for British artist Rachel Jones; Unruly Navigations, which "testifies to the urgent, disorderly, rebellious, and nonlinear movements of people, cultures, ideas, religions, and aesthetics that define diaspora"; Value Test: Brown Paper featuring Mary Brown's "portraits depicting fictional Black women rendered in oil on brown paper bags. The eponymous “paper bag tests” were historically conducted amongst the Black upper classes to gauge entry into elite spaces, granting access only to those lighter than the brown paper" (Value Test runs through 19 May & the other two exhibits through 1 September).

Creative Growth: The House That Art Built, celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of Creative Growth, "the first organization in the United States dedicated to supporting artists with developmental disabilities", opens at SFMOMA on 6 April & runs through 6 October.

Two exhibits are opening at the Legion of Honor on 6 April: Japanese Prints in Transition: From the Floating World to the Modern World, examines the modernizing, westernizing Meiji-era changes in the ukiyo-e tradition, & Zuan-cho: Kimono Design in Modern Japan (1868 – 1912) examines kimono design books (zuan-cho means “design idea books”) from the same period.

A Movement in Every Direction: Legacies of the Great Migration opens at BAM/PFA on 13 April & runs through 22 September, the exhibit "features newly commissioned works across media by twelve artists, including Akea Brionne, Mark Bradford, Zoë Charlton, Larry W. Cook, Torkwase Dyson, Theaster Gates Jr., Allison Janae Hamilton, Leslie Hewitt, Steffani Jemison, Robert Pruitt, Jamea Richmond-Edwards, and Carrie Mae Weems", all examining the experience & legacy of the Great Migration.

Phoenix Kingdoms: The Last Splendor of China’s Bronze Age, highlighting recent archaeological discoveries from the Zeng & Chu states conquered by the First Emperor, opens at the Asian Art Museum on 19 April & runs through 22 July.

Cinematic

Berkeley & the Movies, an exhibit at the Berkeley Historical Society, opens on 7 April.

The good news is that the San Francisco Silent Film Festival's annual extravaganza is back; the bad news, at least for those of us who are nondrivers in the East Bay, is that due to the renovation/ruination of the Castro Theater, it is being held this year at the Palace of Fine Arts, a much less transit-friendly venue; nonetheless, the 10 - 14 April schedule holds many treasures, all with the SFF's signature live accompaniment.

As usual the Roxie in San Francisco has a lot going on, including the new documentary Carol Doda Topless at the Condor, 40th anniversary screenings of Hayao Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli release Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, & more in the series Taipei Tales: The Cinema of Edward Yang.

As part of its Unscripted series, the Curran Theater presents two evenings with John Cusack: on 18 April they will screen High Fidelity & on 19 April Being John Malkovich; both shows are followed by a discussion with Cusack that will include audience questions.

The San Francisco International Film Festival runs 24 - 28 April this year in various Bay Area locations; the programs have not yet been announced but when they are you can find them here.