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.
                                                                    #   
        If you liked www.artssf.com, BOOKMARK it! We're open 24 hours a day, give or take a break for doughnuts and Java.
       Home-page illustration by Ann Hertelendy