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 THIRTEENTH
good-luck season just
launched at 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, Georgia Rowe, 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 the British bailiwick, anticipating hits that may
cross
the pond our way next year.
The eleventh season had again featured more than 100 reviews in toto
from
the above
contributors---126, to be exact. The Greater 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. Most reviews appear
within 24 hours after a performance..
CURRENT REVIEWS and news follow,
starting
with the most recent:
-- (BOOKS) In "Unlikely Allies," a San Francisco historian tells of
enlisting French help in the Revolutionary War.
-- (THEATER) Santa Cruz Shakespeare also lights up with an engaging
"Lion in Winter."
-- (CHAMBER MUSIC) Music@Menlo's American program spotlights stunners:
The Jupiter Quartet and mezzo Sasha Cooke.
-- (SYMPHONY) Living composers, vibrant acoustics close out the
47-year-old Cabrillo Festival.
-- (OPERA) High drama even in Donizetti? Yes indeed, if it's the hit
midsummer "Lucia" in Walnut Creek.
-- (SYMPHONY) Santa Cruz's premiere-studded festival, under the maestra's baton.
Earlier
reviews and interviews include:
-- (CHORUS) The elite Desert Chorale in Santa Fe premieres an a
cappella "Vespers" by Robert Kyr.
-- (OPERA) A Santa Fe Opera world premiere grapples with dreams, life,
and: what is reality?
-- (OPERA) Some jolly good laughs in Benjamin Britten's "Albert
Herring," about a king---or is it a queen?
-- (MUSIC) New vocal works by Gordon Getty and Anthony Rosado fill out
a sunny California Sunday.
-- (SYMPHONY) Mexican podium guest Alondra de la Parra achieves
eloquence in trying circumstances.
-- (THEATER-DANCE AMALGAM) Joe Goode's "Traveling Light" thrusts us
into the stony vaults of the Old Mint.
-- (OPERA) The S.F. Opera's "Die Walkuere"
crackles with drama and love affairs.
-- (SYMPHONY) Petite doesn't mean small. Not when Yuja Wang plays three
works in a night with the S.F. Symphony
-- (MUSICAL THEATER) After too many plays about Parisian cafes and
night spots, ACT gives us one here in North Beach.
-- (CONTEMPORARY VOCAL) Staniland's "Dark Star Requiem" on AIDS themes
opens up hybrid musical structures. In Toronto.
-- (BALLET) The National Ballet of Canada with a fast-moving modern
program of Elo and Robbins.
-- (MUSICAL THEATER) Why undermine that fine 18th-century vocal music
with that lurid murderous tale? Toronto again.
-- (OPERA) Rufus Wainwright's first opera a gallant try about the
shattering life of a "Prima Donna." A North America premiere in
Toronto.
-- (OPERA) The Minnie of Deborah Voigt is the new Annie Oakley in the
Puccini western "La Fanciulla del West" (S.F. Opera).
-- (ELECTRONICS, CROSSOVER) Paul Dresher's chamber works show us
glimpses of the future.
-- (SYMPHONY) In San Jose, Mozart is stellar, eclipsing the ambitious
stab at Mahler.
-- (CHORUS) It took a community chorus to remind us of Samuel Barber's
versatility in this his centennial year.
-- (SYMPHONY) England's Robin Holloway, 66, has excerpts of his
passionate opera "Clarissa" at the S.F. Symphony.
-- (THEATER) BRT's new "In the Wake," a highly significant political
play makes its appearance.
-- (DANCE) Boston Ballet puts away its toe shoes for a night of Jiri
Kylian's ultra-modern dance innovations.
-- (SYMPHONY) The renowned Boston Pops, 125 years young, turn to
patriotism and TV.
-- (THEATER) "Norman Conquests" from the 1970s are back, somewhere
between hilarious and tedious. V.I. Hambleton reports.
-- (CHORUS) Volti sings Lauridsen and other living composers, and also
spotlights top high school choruses in concert.
-- (SYMPHONY) Freedom and finesse mark Dudamel conducting the L.A.
Philharmonic on tour.
-- (OPERA) Dallas Opera wins plaudits with world premiere "Moby Dick"
by Jake Heggie.
-- (CHAMBER ORCHESTRA) Nadja and the NCCO debut a Bolcom world
premiere, "Romanza." E bene!
-- (BALLET) Juliet's slip-ups, and rapid recovery, as Kochetkova closes
out the S.F. Ballet season on a high plane.
-- (SYMPHONY) Like a phoenix from the ashes, the New Mexico Symphony
rises, inextinguishable so far.
-- (THEATER) The world-premiere musical "Girlfriend" explores a gay
relationship at Berkeley Rep.
-- (SYMPHONY) Did the eminent composer Zemlinsky pen a symphony, or a
song cycle? His work resonates at the S.F. Symphony.
-- (THEATER) Ibsen's antique tale of a fraudulent banker revived
implausibly in Berkeley.
-- (SYMPHONY) For one night in Oakland, the big band lives via a world
premiere by Brydern.
-- (RECITAL) Christopher O'Riley tackles stormy late Beethoven in San
Jose with panache.
-- (BALLET) Second casts looks exquisite as the S.F. Ballet features
modern works.
-- (SYMPHONY) The Los Angeles Philharmonic unleashes surprises with a
British composer/guest conductor.
-- (OPERA) Los Angeles Opera mounts the stirring drama "The
Stigmatized" by Schreker in its North American premiere.
-- (BALLET) S.F. Ballet produces a breath-taking Zanella world
premiere, "Underskin," plus a glance at Russian village life.
-- (SYMPHONY) Show tunes from "Whisper House" enkindle controversy at
the S.F. Symphony as programming stands in crisis mode.
-- (THEATER) Dan Hoyle's engaging vignettes and profiles of small-town
America.
-- (THEATER) A star turn for ACT San Francisco, with Olympia Dukakis in
a Gogol-style play "Vigil."
-- (SYMPHONY) A US premiere, and a new music director under the
microscope at the Berkeley Symphony.
-- (NEW CHORAL MUSIC) Enriching sacred works by MacMillan, O'Regan,
Paert in splendid surroundings.
-- (OPERA) Pocket Opera presents the Polish rarity "Halka" on an
intimate stage.
-- (THEATER) The smallest theater? Try SFPlayhouse, with the hit "Den
of Thieves." Carol Benet reports.
-- (BALLET) Neumeier's large-scale "The Little Mermaid" embraces life,
fantasy, even world cultures at the S.F. Ballet.
-- (NEW MUSIC) Earplay's expressive Schoenberg, and modern music
leaping into San Francisco Bay.
-- (THEATER) The beauty of early 1880's cameras, plus a complex tale,
at Berkeley Rep opener.
_
-- (RECITAL) The mercurial Thomas Ades of Britain is back as both
pianist and bigger-than-life composer.
-- (CHAMBER MUSIC) Dan Becker's adroit new work pairs with Brahms as
well as a memorable clarinetist.
-- (SYMPHONY) The Grammy-winning S.F. Symphony preps for a tour with
grand Mahler: Chorus, soloists, over 200 on stage, and a symphony
of
super-dimensions.
-- (DANCE) ODC brings off Brenda Way's satirical, iconoclastic bent in
a premiere downtown.
-- (RECITAL) Violinist Jennifer Koh---remember the name. She masters
both the very old and very new.
-- (SYMPHONY) Kissine's premiere at the San Francisco Symphony comes in
like a lamb, goes out like a lion.
-- (BALLET) Fokine's deftly recreated "Petruchka," and two really
modern ballets, at the dazzling S.F.B.
-- (BOOKS) Will Jane Frank's short stories vie for a place on the shelf
with Cheever and Wharton? Conceivably. J. Charles reports.
-- (BALLET) An extravagant, reshuffled "Romeo and Juliet," where Friar
Laurence too aspires to stardom.
-- (SYMPHONY) Michael Morgan's Oakland miracle continues apace, with
Americana and a world premiere.
-- (DANCE) Robert Moses' Kin company premieres his "Cinderella
Principle" in an all-Moses program.
-- (THEATER) The stimulating return of Brecht's "Caucasian Chalk
Circle" at ACT.
-- (SYMPHONY)
Russ-USA relations are on a fine footing, musically at least, as the
Russian National Orchestra plays Berkeley.
-- (RECITAL) The recuperating pianist Misha Dichter, 64, coming back on
the lengthy comeback trail, at Stanford.
-- (CHAMBER MUSIC) The Takacs Quartet unfurls the vivid theater of a
new James MacMillan work.
-- (BALLET) Will the real Balanchine stand up? The variety of his
choreography resonates at the S.F. Ballet.
-- (BALLET) Wheeldon's premiere "Ghosts" is a stunning mood piece at
the S.F. Ballet.
-- (MUSIC) A retrospective concert for Berkeley composer Herbert
Bielawa, 80---plus a world premiere.
-- (SYMPHONY & CHORUS) A new orchestration of Ives' massive
"Concord Sonata" makes waves and crashing surf out west.
-- (THEATER) Shannon Koob's versatile solo stint in "The Syringa Tree,"
at Walnut Creek. Georgia Rowe reports.
-- (MUSIC) The resourceful violinist Midori does it all---education,
performance, panels, and a spotlight on new music.
-- (CHAMBER MUSIC) The intensity of sirocco wind
propels a Viñao opus, stirring up Mozart and Dvorak.
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(We'd like to use them as appropriate in our column entitled "Reader
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Label your e-mail "letters to the editor" in the subject space).
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Box 505, (note new box number!)
Berkeley, CA 94701.
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