ARTS COME ALIVE IN SAN
FRANCISCO
BAY AREA!
Classical Music, Books, Theater, Dance
The life of a zine is about a minute
---San Francisco Chronicle headline.
But clearly, they weren't talking about the arts-review 'zine
artssf.com!
Welcome to the TENTH
season
of: www.artssf.com, the independent, non-commercial observer-critic of
the arts, your best source in the San Francisco Bay Area for reviews.
With weekly reviews on WHAT'S NEW on the arts scene: Modern
music
(non-commercial), premieres, theater reviews, dance, rarities, and
new-book reviews
involving
Northern California authors or themes. At times, even a review or two
from
far-off lands. Also some reports from the major symphonic,
chamber
and operatic concerts, all emphasizing new or modern creativity.
Read the reviews first on artssf.com. Reports are compiled by veteran
Bay
Area critics Paul Hertelendy, D. Rane Danubian, Carol Benet, V.I.
Hambleton, J. Charles, Alix
Schwartz,
Karl Toepfer et al in a vast (?) staff
of a good (very good!) six-to-seven
collaborators. Then there's our secret-weapon time machine: roving
London
critic Steven Emanuel, who scouts theater, thespians, books and
other themes in Tony Blair's bailiwick, anticipating hits that may
cross
the pond our way next year.
The ninth season had again featured more than 100 reviews in toto from
the above
contributors---107, to be exact. The S.F. Bay
Area remains a
bellwether
in new works and modern approaches, as stimulating as ever, fed by an
audience thirsty for the fresh, novel and profound.
CURRENT REVIEWS and news follow,
starting
with the most recent:
-- (THEATER) An arresting new one-woman show, "No Child..." at the
Berkeley Rep, written and acted by Nilaja Sun.
-- (DANCE) A Balinese gamelan lights up the night with an elegant
jangle at a small San Francisco church.
-- (OPERA) A hot-cold double bill in Berkeley, with a "Bluebeard's
Castle" a must to include on your vicarious journeys.
-- (BALLET) The S.F. Ballet's 10-premiere season-ending blowout: A huge
success by any measure.
-- (THEATER) Sam Shepard looks again at the dysfunctional US family.
US, or us??
-- (THEATER) Berkeley Rep produces yet another "Figaro," with a French
accent.
-- (OPERA) The children's classic "The Little Prince" could
become a classic kids' opera.
-- (SYMPHONY) The orchestra from Santa Cruz pulls out all the
stops to cap its 50th season finale.
-- (SYMPHONY) The Boston Symphony does a concert version of Berlioz'
immense opera "Les Troyens."
Earlier
reviews and interviews include:
-- (SYMPHONY) Hugh Wolff brings off an all-French program, with
Dutilleux and others.
-- (BALLET) Wheeldon's ingenuity in S.F. Ballet's
new-works Program A.
-- (BALLET) S.F. Ballet's New Works Festival draws wows,
the crowds, the buzz & ripples. All world premieres.
-- (THEATER)
"Caveman" tells us man is the hunter, woman the gatherer. Carol Benet
reports.
-- (THEATER)
"The Trojan Women" have moved
to the Balkans. Hmm. Does Euripedes know about this? Carol Benet
reports.
-- (SYMPHONY)
Mozart, for whom Bell toils in grand fashion, at the S.F. Symphony.
-- (BOOKS)
Wallace Stegner remembered, and his West of
small dusty towns becoming Silicon Valley slurbs.
-- (NEW MUSIC) Composers Inc. went green long
ago, presenting composers from both coasts.
-- (BALLET) Given enough
pruning, the on-again, off-again Oakland Ballet might make "The Secret
Garden" work.Rake, any one?
-- (SYMPHONY) A whole Don Quixote evening at the
S.F. Symphony: Eccentricity in excess.
-- (CHAMBER MUSIC) Juilliard String
Quartet: tough sledding in an increasingly competitive SQ world.
-- (THEATER) The
Ashland (Ore.) Festival
uncorks a wealth of new dramas, including "Welcome Home, Jenny
Sutter." Georgia Rowe reports.
-- (BALLET)
Top visiting ballet companies from
Canada, NYC and Monte Carlo show diversity of choreography .
-- (SYMPHONY) Berkeley Symphony runs through myths
and literature withs a female music-director candidate.
--(CHAMBER ORCHESTRA) The new
Chinese piano star, Yuja Wang, makes a Mozart concerto come alive.
-- (SYMPHONY) The
symphony in San Jose
presents Beethoven's Ninth impressively under Fabio Mechetti.
-- (DANCE-THEATER)
How San Francisco!
An all-women company in upbeat themes of solidarity, politics and
reform.
-- (SYMPHONY) The
Americanization of U.S.
podiums
continues handsomely with Alan Gilbert, 40, the latest guest of
the SFS.
-- (SYMPHONY)
Gustavo Dudamel, 27, the latest podium star, conquers San Francisco
with "The Firebird." ,
-- (DANCE) With new works by Brenda Way and KT
Nelson, ODC/Dance remains a very special experience.
-- (SYMPHONY) A
detailed orchestral look and listen to the music of Persia, before a
large Oakland crowd.
-- (CHORUS, STRINGS) Without images or language,
Chen Yi's world premiere leaves listgeners up in the air.
-- (SYMPHONY) The
lustrous new mezzo from Puerto
Rico,
Gabriela Garcia, illuminates the Berkeley Symphony's concert.
-- (THEATER) A new Edna O'Brien
play, to get your
Irish up in time for St. Patty's Day.
-- (CHAMBER
ORCHESTRA) Lights on, light off: The conductor examines dark
corners of moderns in San Jose.
-- (BALLET) The S.F. Ballet takes four
views of lovers in
very different styles.
-- (DANCE) Shen Wei and his stunning Dance Arts
company comes to San Francisco.
-- (SYMPHONY) S.F. Symphony readies
for its Carnegie
Hall tour with rerun repertoire.
-- (MODERN
ENSEMBLE) Composer Osvaldo
Golijov
has the versatility and originality to be considered the new
Stravinsky.
-- (SYMPHONY)
Michael Tilson Thomas, as conductor-composer, leading the S.F.
Symphony.
-- (OPERA) San Jose's
pulse-quickening
"Rigoletto" reminds us that opera is also about drama.
-- (SYMPHONY) A U.S. premiere of
sorts at the Berkeley Symphony, with the original Yiddish reattached to
the Shostakovich song cycle "From Jewish Folk Poetry."
-- (THEATER) Four New Yorker 30somethings
on the move, on the prowl, in the fast-rising play, "The Scene."
-- (OPERA) Los Angeles Opera's
awe-inspiring one-act tragedy by Zemlinsky on quite another
beauty-and-the-beast theme.
-- (DANCE)
Kunst-Stoff, a local troupe
in a German
vein.
-- (BALLET)
Yet another ballet troupe in S.F.? Yes, indeed. We're having Company,
C?
-- (NEW MUSIC) A John Adams
premiere, with the equally remarkable ensemble, Alarm Will Sound.
-- (RECITAL)
Cello legend Yo-Yo Ma wows his devotees despite handmedowns, rehabs and
borrowings.
-- (BALLET) American
Ballet Theatre brings new choreographers Elo and Millepied to
Berkeley, with resonance.
-- (CHAMBER OPERA)
Steven Clark's new "Dionysus" enlivens a
hot-and-cold double bill in Oakland.
-- (REDISCOVERED CONCERTO) Celebrate
composer Michael Haydn's
bicentennial, and that noteworthy cello concerto---legit or bastard?---
exhumed from his library holdings.
#
LINKS TO SIMILAR SITES AROUND THE COUNTRY---A consortium
of independent sites reviewing live performances around the country
promises painless linkage and free surfing. Interested? Click here!
Also, prominent West Coast entertainment writers have their own
(rival!) web
site now, featuring fresh columns on an almost-daily basis. Check out links.
#
Stay tuned for more every week. The tally for our sixth season ending
summer, 2004 was 123 reviews and stories, improving on the fifth season
with a record 106 reviews and stories.
#
Feedback time? Send comments to us to danubian@earthlink.net via e-mail
(We'd like to use them as appropriate in our column entitled "Reader
Ripostes."
Label your e-mail "letters to the editor" in the subject space).
Or by mail to: Paul Hertelendy, Coordinator and Webmaster, artssf.com,
Box 505, (note new box number!)
Berkeley, CA 94701.
For dissent with the critics, letters to the editor, the occasional
poem,
and other variety, check out our Feature Page.
#
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illustration by Ann Hertelendy