Another Opening, Another Show: August 2023

 As is traditional, August is one of the lighter months in the performance year, though there is, of course, plenty to occupy you, should you wish to be occupied, before the autumn season gears up.

Theatrical

Shotgun Players at the Ashby Stage present a Summer Salon series from 23 July to 19 August, with one-person shows from Josh Kornbluth (Red Diaper Baby on 23 July, Ben Franklin: Unplugged on 30 July, Sea of Reeds: The Second Parting on 6 August, & The Bottomless Bowl on 13 August), Brian Copeland (Grandma and Me: An Ode To Single Parents on 29 July), The San Francisco Neo-Futurists (The Infinite Wrench on 17 August), the Ashby All-Stars 21+ (a night of stand-up comedy, on 18 August), & Mrs. Winchester, or, A Gun in the First Act – A National Delivery Live Engagement (written & staged by Joe Christiano, performed by Lisa Morse, on 19 August).

BroadwaySF presents Tina – The Tina Turner Musical at the Golden Gate Theater from 1 to 27 August.

BroadwaySF presents Disney's Aladdin at the Orpheum Theater from 2 to 13 August.

The Oakland Theater Project presents J Jha in a one-person adaptation by Geetha Reddy of the Mahābhārata, directed by Michael Socrates Moran; that will be at Z Space from 10 to 20 August.

Golden Thread presents New Threads, a staged reading series, with Black Panthers in Algiers by Tariq Hamami (dramaturgy by Dawn Monique Williams), which is "[i]nspired by the Black Panthers’ residency in Algiers in the 1960s" on 20 August & Alaa by Adam Ashraf Elsayigh (dramaturgy by Salma Zohdi), which is about "British-Egyptian blogger and high-profile political prisoner, Abd El-Fattah" on 27 August; both readings will take place at the Brava Theater Center & are free but registration is strongly recommended as seating is limited.

TheatreFirst presents WMB by Marisela Treviño Orta, directed by Karina Gutiérrez, & here's the description from the site: "When a world-wide virus threatens healthy pregnancies, WMB (pronounced “womb”) clinics are created to provide a virus-free environment for those who can afford the expensive nine-month residency. WMB trainee Claudia faces her final evaluation just as tensions between the have’s and the have not’s reach a boiling point"; that's 25 - 27 August, & you can click here for an update on the theater's uncertain future.

ACT presents Hippest Trip – The Soul Train Musical (book by Dominique Morisseau, choreography by Camille A Brown, directed by Kamilah Forbes) from 25 August to 1 October at the Toni Rembe Theater.

Operatic

West Edge Opera continues its annual summer festival into this month, with Monteverdi's The Coronation of Poppea (conducted by Adam Pearl, directed by NJ Agwuna, starring Shawnette Sulker as Poppea) on 22 & 30 July & 3 August; Cruzar la Cara de la Luna (To Cross the Face of the Moon), composed by José “Pepe” Martínez to a libretto by Leonard Foglia (conducted by Sixto Montesinos, directed by Karina Gutierrez, starring Efraín Solís) on 23 & 28 July & 5 August; & a double-bill of Stravinsky's Le Rossignol (The Nightingale) & Schoenberg's Erwartung (Expectation) (both conducted by Jonathan Khuner & directed by Giselle Ty, with Helen Zhibing Huang in the title role of the Stravinsky & Mary Evelyn Hangley in the Schoenberg) on 29 July & 4 & 6 August (all performances are at the Scottish Rite Center in Oakland).

In addition to the three main presentations, West Edge will perform a work-in-progress orchestra preview of Dolores, a work it commissioned from Nicolás Lell Benavides (music) & Marella Martin Koch (libretto), based on the life of labor activist Dolores Huerta, & that's 13 August at the Taube Atrium Theater in San Francisco.

San Francisco Opera's Merola program finishes its season with the Schwabacher Summer Concert (conducted by Steve White, directed by Omer Ben Seadia) at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music on 3 & 5 August, when the Merolini will perform "extended scenes from works by Donizetti, Handel, Verdi, and others", followed by the Merola Grand Finale at the Opera House on 19 August (conducted by Kelly Kuo, directed by Tania Arazi-Coambs).

The Lamplighters present Il Ducato, their reimagined version of Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado, on 12 - 13 August at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 19 - 20 August at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco, & 25 - 27 August at the Lesher Center in Walnut Creek.

Festival Opera presents Carmen on 18 & 20 August at the Lesher Center in Walnut Creek, conducted by Robert Mollicone & directed by Michael Mohammed, featuring Taylor Raven in the title role, Dane Suarez as Don José, Hope Briggs as Micaëla, & Young Kwang Yoo as Escamillo.

Choral

Robert Geary's San Francisco Choral Society with the California Chamber Symphony will perform Requiems by Shchetynsky & Mozart (dedicated to the memory of Ukrainian conductor Yuri Kerpatenko) on 18 August in Davies Hall; soloists in the Shchetynsky will be Jessica House Steward, soprano; Stacey Helley, mezzo soprano; :ee Steward, tenor; & Sidney Chen, bass; & for the Mozart,    Emily Sinclair, soprano; Shauna Fallihee, mezzo soprano; Michael Jankosky, tenor; & Eugene Brancoveanu, bass.

Vocalists

On 3 - 4 August at the Strand Theater, Opera Parallèle joins with The Transgender District to present Expansive – A Showcase of Transgender and Non-Binary Classical Artists, hosted by Afrika America & featuring singer Katherine Goforth, harpist & multidisciplinary artist Ahya Simone, & mezzo-soprano Nikola Printz, who will incorporate aerial work into their performance, with accompaniment by Taylor Chan.

Chamber Music

On 11 August at Old First Concerts, the Bridge Music Collective (Jessica Folson, violin; Sarah Hooton, viola; Carlos Valdez, double bass; T Colton Potter, oboe; Caleb Rose, clarinet) gives us Prokofiev: Explored, in which they use the Russian's Quintet as a springboard for sound exploration in works using similar instrumentation by Rebecca Clarke, Daniel Chiva Sanz, Randall Thompson, & David DeBoor Canfield.

On 13 August at Old First Concerts, you can hear Unfretted: Indian Strings in Conversation, featuring Sruti Sarathy (Carnatic violin), Vishaal Sapruram (chitravina), & Akshay Anantapadmanabhan (mrdangam), with a program of Carnatic, Hindustani, & original compositions.

Instrumental

The 6th Annual San Francisco International Piano Festival will take place from 18 to 26 August, featuring Master Classes led by Tanya Gabrielian, Sharon Mann, Kathleen Riley, & Garrick Ohlsson, & performances by Tanya Gabrielian, Sarah Yuan & the Aveta Trio, Festival Founder & Artistic Director Jeffrey Ladeur, Alvise Pascucci, Parker van Ostrand, Stephen Prutsman, & the Telegraph Quartet (the quartet will be joining Prutsman in performing his original score to Buster Keaton's College); you can check out the full schedule here.

Early / Baroque Music

American Bach Soloists will present two concerts at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music featuring the faculty from their summer Bach Academy (Elizabeth Blumenstock, violin; Corey Jamason, harpsichord; Steven Lehning, violone; Robert Mealy, violin; Sandra Miller, flute; Debra Nagy, oboe; & Kenneth Slowik, violoncello): on 5 August you can hear music by Castello, Bach, Couperin, Philidor, & Janitsch, & on 11 August by Boismortier, Telemann, Couperin, Bach, Matteis, & Baltzar.

On 13 August at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Jeffrey Thomas will lead the American Bach Academy orchestra & singers in Bach's Magnificat in D Major & the cantatas Jesu, der du meine Seele (Cantata 78) & Laß, Fürstin, laß noch einen Strahl (Cantata 198).

Modern / Contemporary Music

Nat Evans appears at the Center for New Music on 12 August, when "he presents an evening of new works for percussion, gentle textures from combinations of amplified household appliances, and field recordings. Interwoven with these sounds will be spacious works for guitar played by Giacomo Fiore from Evans’ albums Coyoteways and Flyover Country".

Jazz

The SF Jazz Center gives us the great Taj Mahal from 3 to 6 August in a Savoy Ballroom Tribute with the John Simon Orchestra, Maria Muldaur, & others; these concerts are "the world premiere performances of material from his forthcoming album Savoy — a jazz-inflected tribute to the music of his childhood and the legendary Harlem ballroom of the 30s, 40s, and 50s, . . . The project has special meaning for Mahal — his parents met at the Savoy during an Ella Fitzgerald concert . . ." I had to include that part about the Fitzgerald concert because it's so charming.

The Preservation Hall Jazz Band, with special guest vocalist Tarriona "Tank" Ball & multi-instrumentalist Norman Spence II, will visit the SF Jazz Center from 17 to 20 August.

Dance

ODC/Dance presents a State of Play festival from 3 to 13 August, featuring premieres as well as works-in-progress from local and national dance-makers; check out the full schedule here.

Art Means Painting

Drawing the Line: Michelangelo to Asawa, an exhibition of drawings from their collection, will be at the Legion of Honor from 5 August to 25 Febuary 2024.

The East West Bank Art Terrace, "featuring a rotating selection of large-scale contemporary sculptures and commissioned installations", will open at the Asian Art Museum on 24 August.

Cinematic

BAM/PFA presents The Art of Animation: Storytelling in the Digital Age, featuring works from Pixar, Studio Ghibli, & others, including some free outdoor screenings, launches on 3 August & runs through the 31st.

For the finale of the San Francisco International Piano Festival, pianist Stephen Prutsman will be joined by the Telegraph String Quartet in Prutsman's original score to Buster Keaton's College; before the movie, Prutsman will perform works by Rachmaninoff, including his Second Sonata, to commemorate the composer's 150th year; that's at Old First Concerts on 26 August.

Museum Monday 2023/29

 

detail of a portrait of Elizabeth I, attributed to the workshop of Nicholas Hilliard, currently on view in the special exhibit The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco

Friday Photo 2023/28

 

First Congregational Church in Berkeley

Museum Monday 2023/28

 

detail of Mrs Daniel Sargent (Mary Turner) by John Singleton Copley, now in the de Young Museum in San Francisco

Friday Photo 2023/27

 

the Ferris Wheel in Golden Gate Park

Museum Monday 2023/27

 

detail of Selected Letters by Liu Jianhua, at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco

Friday Photo 2023/26

 

detail of a doorway, Oakland California

Museum Monday 2023/26

 

title & logo of the 10 February 1867 edition of the Parisian newspaper La Lune, seen as part of the exhibit  Alexandre Dumas’s Afro: Blackness Caricatured, Erased, and Back Again at BAMPFA

Another Opening, Another Show: July 2023

As is traditional, July is a slow month, though there are still plenty of exciting prospects, particularly for film or opera buffs.

Theatrical

The New Conservatory Theater gives us Drag Queen Storytime Gone Wild, featuring the Kinsey Sicks, from 5 to 16 July.

BroadwaySF presents Les Misérables at the Orpheum from 5 to 23 July.

The African-American Shakespeare Company, in collaboration with the Craft Institute, presents Echoes of Us, directed by Michele Shay, a series of monologues covering the African diaspora featuring Vanessa Bell Calloway, Anna Maria Horsford, L Peter Callender, Jason Dirden, Sola Bamis, & Desean Terry, at the Marines’ Memorial Theater from 15 to 17 July.

The Berkeley Playhouse presents Disney's Newsies, with book by Harvey Fierstein, music by Alan Menken, & lyrics by Jack Feldman, from 15 to 23 July.

As part of its Champagne Staged Reading Series, Shotgun Players at the Ashby Stage will perform Eric John Mayer's The Antelope Party, directed by Kieran Beccia, about a group of young men who are fans of My Little Pony & a paranoid "neighborhood watch" brigade, & that's on 17 & 18 July.

On 21 July at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, you can see UnRavelled, "the story of Dr. Anne Adams and her obsession with Ravel’s Bolero. How she, through her diagnosis of Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD), developed as a painter and became a remarkable artist. Through her story the play also uncovers the mystery of Ravel’s similar diagnosis almost 100 years earlier"; the play is created & written by Jake Broder & directed by James Bonas, with Curt Pajer conducting the music.

Operatic

The Merola Opera Program presents Britten's The Rape of Lucretia, conducted by Judith Yan & directed by Jan Essinger, at Herbst Theater on 13 & 15 June, but it looks as if they don't let you choose your own seat, which is going to make this a non-starter for some of us.

Pocket Opera presents Tosca in a co-production with Cinnabar Theater, with music direction by Mary Chun & stage direction by Elly Lichenstein, with Michelle Drever in the title role, Alex Boyer as her ill-fated lover Cavaradossi, & Spencer Dodd as the villainous Scarpia, & that's on 16 July at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 23 July at the Hillside Club in Berkeley, & 30 July at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.

On 22 July West Edge Opera launches its annual summer festival, which will once again be at the Scottish Rite Center in Oakland, with Monteverdi's The Coronation of Poppea (conducted by Adam Pearl, directed by NJ Agwuna, starring Shawnette Sulker as Poppea), which will play on 22 & 30 July & 3 August; then comes Cruzar la Cara de la Luna (To Cross the Face of the Moon), the "mariachi opera" composed by José “Pepe” Martínez to a libretto by Leonard Foglia (conducted by Sixto Montesinos, directed by Karina Gutierrez, starring baritone Efraín Solís (a memorable Golaud when West Edge performed Pelléas several years ago)), & that plays on 23 & 28 July & 5 August; then comes a double-bill of Stravinsky's Le Rossignol (The Nightingale) & Schoenberg's Erwartung (Expectation) (both conducted by Jonathan Khuner & directed by Giselle Ty, with Helen Zhibing Huang in the title role of the Stravinsky & Mary Evelyn Hangley in the Schoenberg), & those play on 29 July & 4 & 6 August.

In addition to their three main presentations, West Edge is offering a work-in-progress orchestra preview of Dolores, a work it has commissioned from Nicolás Lell Benavides (music) & Marella Martin Koch (libretto), based on the life of labor activist Dolores Huerta, & that's 13 August at the Taube Atrium Theater in San Francisco.

Vocalists

Enrico Lopez-Yañez leads the San Francisco Symphony in a program (details yet to be announced) featuring the "Queen of Mariachi," Aída Cuevas, on 15 July.

Orchestral

The San Francisco Symphony is in summer mode this month (popular classics, lots of film play-alongs), but you can also hear Joshua Weilerstein conducting Pavel Haas's Study for Strings, the Sibelius Violin Concerto (with soloists Alexi Kenney), & the Dvořák 9, From the New World, on 6 July; Anna Rakitina conducting the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto #2 (with soloist Denis Kozhukhin) & Elgar's Enigma Variations on 13 July; & on 22 July Edwin Outwater conducting musical highlights from The Golden Age of Cinema, featuring cellist Sterling Elliott & music by Elmer Bernstein, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Leonard Bernstein, Bernard Herrmann, Miklós Rózsa, & John Williams.

Sun Ra & his Arkestra will be in residence at the SF Jazz Center this month; on 20 - 21 July, they will focus on "the more experimental exploratory music from Sun Ra’s songbook" & on 22 - 23 July on his "music associated with the big band swing tradition".

Chamber Music

On 23 July, Old First Concerts presents cellist Sarah Hong & pianist Makiko Ooka in Le Due Muse: An Evening of Music by Latin American Composers, featuring works by Manuel M. Ponce, Heitor Villa Lobos, Alberto Ginastera, & Astor Piazzolla.

Early / Baroque Music

The Handel Opera Project will perform Psalms by Handel, Liszt, & Vivaldi, along with Purcell's Come, Ye Sons of Art, featuring Sara Couden, Angela Jarosz, Jennifer Mitchell, Reuben Zellman, & Bradley Kynard, on 16 July at the Maybeck-designed First Church of Christ Scientist on Dwight Way in Berkeley.

Jeffrey Thomas & the American Bach Soloists launch their annual summer festival this month, beginning on 27 July with music by John Blow, Vivaldi, Telemann, & Bach, along with the world premiere of Spring in San Francisco by José Daniel Vargas, the winner of the American Bach New Music for Period Instruments Competition; followed by Explorations: Bach Beyond Baroque on 28 July, featuring pianist Oliver Moore playing music by Bach & arrangements of Bach by Camille Saint-Saëns, Busoni, & Liszt (& of Handel by Brahms); an informal, immersive performance of Vivaldi's Four Seasons on 29 July, featuring SFBaroque (Jacob Ashworth, Tatiana Chulochnikova, Tomà Iliev, & YuEun Gemma Kim); & on 30 July, ABS's annual performance of the Mass in B Minor, featuring soprano Hélène Brunet, mezzo-soprano Sarah Coit, contralto Agnes Vojtko, tenor Aaron Sheehan, & bass-baritone Christian Pursell.

Modern / Contemporary Music

On 1 July at the Center for New Music, you can hear Desert Magic performing Dance of the Planets, a "theatrical solar system sonification which involves paper-mache planet hats and guitar patterns mapped to the orbital speeds of the planets", as well as their current project, songs using Ursula K Le Guin’s version of the Tao Te Ching as text; the ensemble's current make-up is Alex Wand (viola da gamba, resonator guitar, voice), Steven Van Betten (electric guitar, voice), Logan Hone (drums, saxophone, voice), Heather Lockie (viola), Stuart Wheeler (voice, organ), Mustafa Walker (hurdy gurdy, lute), Jessica Hemingway (dance), & Brock Stuessi (upright bass).

Other Minds offers two concerts this month: on 13 July at the Dresher Ensemble Studio in Oakland, as part of The Nature of Music series, Wendy Reid will discuss and perform a set of her Tree Pieces, focusing on the Bird Collection, five works spanning four decades; & on 22 July at Saint John the Evangelist Episcopal in San Francisco, you can hear experimental ambient music from Joel St Julien, Christopher Robin Duncan, & CGRSM (Christopher Reid Martin &  Gabie Strong).

Dance

Savion Glover will be in residence at the SF Jazz Center with two different programs: on 13 - 14 July, he pays tribute to Gregory Hines & the Hoofers, & on 15 - 16 July, to Sun Ra & his Arkestra.

Art Means Painting

At the Oakland Museum of California, Into the Brightness: Artists from Creativity Explored, Creative Growth & NIAD is now on view, showcasing "myriad works from contemporary artists with developmental disabilities".

Bouke de Vries: Memories in Porcelain, in which the artist repurposes broken ceramics into new or recreated forms, opens at the Legion of Honor on 22 July & runs through 24 March 2024.

Crafting Radicality: Bay Area Artists from the Svane Gift opens at the de Young Museum on 22 July & runs through 31 December.

Hung Liu: Witness, featuring works by the late artist in SFMOMA's collection, opens at the museum on 30 June & runs through 10 December.

Cinematic

BAMPFA begins several interesting-looking film series this month: Luis Buñuel’s Magnificent Weapon surveys the surrealist filmmaker's work, beginning 7 July; Out of the Vault: The Enchanted Yuliya Solntseva begins on 21 July & showcases Solntseva as both actor & director (including collaborations with her husband, Oleksandr Dovzhenko. including possibly his best known film, Earth); & Preston Sturges: More Than Comedy begins on 27 July & highlights the brief but wild flourishing of actor-director Sturges.

The Roxie Theater in San Francisco presents Three in the Key of Tarr this month, starting 7 July with a new restoration of Werckmeister Harmonies, the seven-hour epic Sátántangó on 23 July, & Twilight (from regular Tarr collaborator György Fehér & never before released in the US) on 15 July.

The annual San Francisco Silent Film Festival will run at the Castro Theater from 12 to 16 July, & the usual riches will include a new restoration of Sessue Hayakawa's The Dragon Painter; you can see the full schedule here.

The Jewish Film Festival opens at the Castro Theater on 20 July with a tribute to Gene Wilder & ends on 30 July at the same venue with Bella!, a documentary about Bella Abzug; you can find the whole schedule here.

Friday Photo 2023/25

 

the Transamerica Pyramid