July is usually a light month, but this July appears even lighter than usual, which, sadly, confirms the trend of scaled-back performances & lowered expectation among performance venues. Time to show whatever support you can by buying tickets &/or donating to your favorite groups!
Theatrical
The Marsh Berkeley presents The DMV, a one-person show written, directed, & performed by Don Reed, from 7 June to 19 July.
The Marsh San Francisco presents Hick: A Love Story, Based on Eleanor Roosevelt’s Letters to Lorena Hickok, written by Terry Baum & Pat Bond, directed by Sarah Albertson & Bill Peters, & performed by by Terry Baum, from 9 June to 14 July; then from 7 to 28 July they revive Dirk Alphin’s Axis, directed by Alphin, a revival of his play about a family dealing with their sinking fortunes in a sinking town.
Berkeley Rep presents The Best of the Second City, featuring old & new sketches written & performed by famed comedy troupe The Second City, directed by Jeff Griggs & playing from 16 to 28 July.
Shotgun Players at the Ashby Stage present Collective Rage: A Play in Five Betties by Jen Silverman, directed by Becca Wolff, in which "Five people named Betty clash and connect in this queer fantasia of riotous self-discovery"; that starts 20 July & runs through 18 August.
BroadwaySF presents Ramy Youssef in his one-person show at the Curran Theater on 27 July.
BroadwaySF presents Girl from the North Country, written & directed by Conor McPherson & featuring songs by Bob Dylan (orchestrated by Simon Hale) at the Golden Gate Theater, from 30 July to 18 August.
Operatic
The Merola Opera Program presents the Schwabacher Summer Concert on 11 & 13 July at the SF Conservatory of Music; conducted by Louis Lohraseb & directed by Omer Ben Seadia & Anna Theodosakis, the concert features this year's Merolini in "extended scenes from works by Donizetti, Gounod, Leoncavallo, Massenet, Puccini, and Richard Strauss, among others."
Pocket Opera & Cinnabar Theater present Puccini's beloved (though not particularly by me) La Bohème, conducted by Mary Chun & directed by Elly Lichenstein, on 14 July at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 21 July at the Hillside Club in Berkeley, & 28 July at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.
At the Lesher Center in Walnut Creek on 12 & 14 July, Festival Opera gives us a double-bill of Poulenc's La Voix Humaine (conducting & piano-playing by Robert Mollicone, directed by Céline Ricci, starring Carrie Hennessey) & Purcell's Dido & Aeneas (conducting & harpsichord-playing by Zachary Gordin, directed by Céline Ricci, starring Kindra Scharich as Dido, Lila Khazoum as Belinda, Matthew Lovell as Aeneas, & Sara Couden as the Sorceress).
Ars Minerva offers a preview on 17 July at the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco of its next revival, La Flora by Antonio Sartorio & Marc'Antonio Ziani, scheduled for full performances this coming November 15 - 17 at the ODC Theater.
Choral
The celebrated Blind Boys of Alabama will appear at the SF Jazz Center from 25 to 28 July.
Vocalists
On 5 July, Old First Concerts presents soprano Jill Morgan Brenner with pianist Alex Katsman performing Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder, Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs, & lieder by Alma Mahler & Schubert.
Orchestral
On 11 & 13 July, Carlos Miguel Prieto leads the San Francisco Symphony in Spanish Favorites, a program with featured soloists Pablo Sáinz-Villegas on guitar & soprano Caroline Corrales performing selections from Suite Española by Isaac Albéniz (orchestrated by Frühbeck de Burgos), Concierto de Aranjuez by Joaquín Rodrigo, & The Three-Cornered Hat by Manuel de Falla.
On 25 July, Earl Lee leads the San Francisco Symphony in Fate Now Conquers by Carlos Simon, Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto (with soloist Stella Chen), & the Tchaikovsky 4.
The San Francisco Symphony has a couple of movie-themed concerts coming up: on 12 & 14 July, Sarah Hicks leads the group in Disney in Concert: The Sound of Magic (the specifics have not yet been released); & on 19 - 20 July, Edwin Outwater leads them in Movie Music of John Williams, featuring pieces from Superman, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Jurassic Park, Munich, ET the Extra-Terrestrial, Schindler’s List, Lincoln, Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, & the Star Wars series.
Ben Folds appears with the San Francisco Symphony, led by Edwin Outwater, on 27 July; the program has not yet been announced.
Chamber Music
On 28 July Old First Concerts presents Le Due Muse (cellist Sarah Hong & pianist Makiko Ooka) performing Ravel's Sonata posthume & his Pièce en forme de Habanera, Frank Bridge's Sonata, & Britten's Sonata in C for cello and piano, & selected songs.
Instrumental
On 7 July, Old First Concerts presents pianist AnnaLotte Smith in Songs My Mother Taught Me, a program consisting of Sofia Gubaidulina's Chaconne, the Brahms Intermezzi, Reena Esmail's Rang de Basant, Debussy's Reflets dans l’eau, Monica Chew's Ice Calf, & Rachmaninoff's Moments musicaux, No. 4 in E minor.
The Art of the Piano Festival runs at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music from 24 June to 7 July, featuring master classes & recitals from HieYon Choi, Mikael Darmanie, Simone Dinnerstein, Vladimir Feltsman, Jeremy Jordan, Alexander Korsantia, Marina Lomazov, Yoshikazu Nagai, Jon Nakamatsu, Garrick Ohlsson, Awadagin Pratt, & Stephen Prutsman.
Early / Baroque Music
Jeffrey Thomas leads the American Bach Soloists in Viva Vivaldi, a program consisting of The Four Seasons, the Sonata for Cello and Continuo in A Minor, the Sonata for Two Violas and Continuo in E Minor, & the Concerto for Four Violins in D Major, & that's 27 July; on 28 July the ensemble performs Theater of Fate, featuring vocal soloists soprano Maya Kherani & mezzo-soprano Sarah Coit performing Handel's Agrippina condotta a morire, Vivaldi's Cessate, omai cessate & Amor hai vinto, (the program also includes Corelli's Concerto Grosso in C Minor); both performances are at Saint Mark's Lutheran in San Francisco.
See also Ars Minerva's preview concert under Operatic.
Modern / Contemporary Music
On 17 July at Brava Theater in San Francisco, Other Minds presents pianist Adam Tendler in Inheritances, a program of new works he commissioned after getting a legacy (in the form of "a wad of cash received in a parking lot") after his father's sudden death; the composers include Devonté Hynes, Nico Muhly, Laurie Anderson, inti figgis-vizueta, Pamela Z, Ted Hearne, Angélica Negrón, Christopher Cerrone, Marcos Balter, Missy Mazzoli, Darian Donovan Thomas, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Scott Wollschleger, Mary Prescott, Timo Andres, & John Glover.
Jazz
The Django Festival Allstars bring their School of Django Reinhardt stylings to Freight & Salvage on 20 July.
Dance
ODC / Dance presents their Summer Sampler, consisting of A Brief History of Up and Down by Brenda Way & 10,000 Steps: A Dance About Its Own Making by Catherine Galasso., from 18 to 21 July.
Art Means Painting
Kara Walker's Fortuna and the Immortality Garden (Machine) / A Respite for the Weary Time-Traveler. / Featuring a Rite of Ancient Intelligence Carried out by The Gardeners / Toward the Continued Improvement of the Human Specious / by / Kara E-Walker opens at SFMOMA on 1 July & is scheduled to run through next spring.
Cinematic
BAM/PFA continues to roll out its summer series of films; this month on 12 July they launch Made in Italy: Morricone, Leone, and More; on 19 July, Hiroshi Shimizu: Notes of an Itinerant Director; & on 26 July, Something Different: The Films of Věra Chytilová.
The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival runs from 18 July through 4 August in a variety of venues; check out the schedule here.
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