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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             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.
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             Stay tuned for more every week!
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             Or by mail to: Paul Hertelendy, Coordinator and Webmaster, artssf.com, Box 505, (note new box number!) Berkeley, CA 94701.
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