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 launching of the ELEVENTH
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, 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 Tony Blair's bailiwick, anticipating hits that may
cross
the pond our way next year.
The tenth season had again featured more than 100 reviews in toto from
the above
contributors---130, 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.
CURRENT REVIEWS and news follow,
starting
with the most recent:
-- (BOOKS) Shawna Yang Ryan's "Water Ghosts" evokes bygone days of a
San Joaquin river town.
-- (OPERA) Forget stodgy, stagey opera---this San Francisco "Porgy and
Bess" hits to the heart.
-- (CHAMBER CHORUS) Chanticleer guides us back to the 16th century's
"Divine Orlando."
-- (SYMPHONY) Brilliance of music in the S.F. Symphony & Chorus
closing out the impressive Schubert-Berg Festival.
-- (SYMPHONY) After 84 years, a daring Alban Berg concerto is still not
San Francisco's cup of tea.
-- (STADIUM OPERA) A live simulcast of "Tosca" in a ballpark brings out
interesting new dimensions to the experience.
-- (SYMPHONY) What to do when star soloists have nothing to do? The
S.F. Symphony grapples with an embarrassment of riches.
-- (DANCE) The Mark Morris Dance Group does Handel with imagination,
subtlety, humor, flow---and orchestra and chorus.
Earlier
reviews and interviews include:
-- (SYMPHONY) The bookend romantics, Schubert and Berg, featured in the
S.F. Symphony's three-week festival.
-- (BALLET) The 16-member Smuin Ballet is spicy, modern, sophisticated,
sexy, as it tours Northern California.
-- (THEATER) Emperor Nero struts again in Berkeley Rep's "You, Nero."
Georgia Rowe reports.
-- (MUSIC) The S.F. Symphony in a Bates world premiere, plus a tiny but
astonishing pianist from China.
-- (THEATER) Yet ANOTHER hit play from that ingenious Sarah Ruhl. Carol
Benet reports.
-- (CHAMBER ORCHESTRA) Nagano's Berkeley Akademie does musician
vanishing
acts to rival Houdini.
-- (CHORUS) San Francisco's Volti does nothing but modern music---with
skill.
-- (BALLET) Choreographers to watch: Yuri Possokhov and Jorma Elo at
S.F. Ballet.
-- (DANCE) Russia's Eifman Ballet overwhelms with a
hyperkinemtic, 21st-century "Onegin."
-- (DANCE) The bags are full, the wonders many as Paul Taylor Dance
unreels three programs over just four days.
-- (THEATER) The brilliant Martin McDonagh squeezes laughs and a
revenge tragedy into the same play. Georgia Rowe reports.
-- (SYMPHONY) Romanticism rules at the National Symphony, while
sell-outs do not.
-- (BALLET) San Francisco's LINES Ballet reminds us of
harsh
realities in Alonzo King's choreographies.
-- (SYMPHONY) Oakland's inspiring downtown revival, with the symphony a
focal player.
-- (DANCE) Garrett-Moulton's exceptional, novel dance collaboration
debuts, with cast of 24.
-- (THEATER) After more than a century, Strindberg's "Miss Julie" still
has the power to shock with sex. Georgia Rowe reports.
-- (SYMPHONY) Albuquerque is on fertile soil where the New Mexico
Symphony thrives.
-- (BALLET) Wild horses couldn't drag us away from Wheeldon's modern
"Within the Golden Hour" at the S.F. Ballet.
-- (BALLET) Dennis Nahat's "Midsummer Night's Dream" sparkles at Ballet
San Jose.
-- (THEATER) Playwright Lillian Groag tackles the Trojan War---also
lengthy, also with a large cast. Georgia Rowe reports.
-- (SYMPHONY)
Calling the new
violin concerto by Thomas Adès fiendlishly difficult
may be understatement. S.F.
Symphony.
-- (NEW MUSIC) Ensembles pay tribute to composers Messiaen and Grisey,
as well as accompany a surreal silent film---all French.
-- (CHORUS) The transition from double-chorus polyphony to the baroque
is beautifully traced out by the Tallis Scholars.
-- (SYMPHONY) The drama-charged "Belshassar's Feast" shows the S.F.
Symphony and Chorus at their best.
-- (THEATER) When does a reporter become part of "The Story?" Georgia
Rowe reports.
-- (MALE CHORUS) Bates, Crouch, O'Regan---a law firm? No, no, they're
three emerging composers with premieres.
-- (BOOKS) John Muir as the botanist and traveler extraordinary, in a
new biography. J. Charles reports.
-- (PERFORMANCE ART) William Kentridge combines theater and visual art
at SFMOMA. Carol Benet reports.
-- (SYMPHONY) Who better to revive the power of Prokofiev than the
touring London Symphony with Gergiev?
-- (BALLET) What could be more futuristic than the Mark Morris/John
Adams "Joyride" at the S.F. Ballet?
-- (BOOKS) The turbulent years of Kit Carson and the taming of the
West. Steven Emanuel reports.
-- (SYMPHONY) Mason Bates, 31, crafts a memorial tribute to Alan Lomax
in Walnut Creek (premiere).
-- (THEATER PIECE) A stageful of snazzy new computer-assisted
instruments. But "Schick Machine" needs an oil change.
-- (CHAMBER ORCHESTRA) Western strings, Korean gestures blend in gentle
Na premiere in San Jose.
-- (SYMPHONY) Pianist Martha Argerich finally turns up at the SF
Symphony and brings down the house.
-- (CHAMBER ORCHESTRA) The ingenious innovator Darius Milhaud honored
via his music at Mills College, Oakland.
-- (BALLET) Five premieres at Ballet San Jose, where Karen Gabay's "2-2
Tango" is the cream of the crop.
-- (SYMPHONY) An unforgettable tour de force, Gubaidulina's Violin
Concerto No. 2 with Anne-Sophie Mutter.
-- (MODERN MUSIC) The landmark Mills College Concert Hall reopens at an
ambitious and eclectic festival.
-- (THEATER) San Jose Stage in an amazing tale of a transvestite'
real-life survival in Germany. V.I. Hambleton reports.
-- (SYMPHONY) A little lady with a big penchant for pushing the
envelope, Sofia Gubaidulina, at the S.F. Symphony.
-- (THEATER) Destinies propelled by random events---familiar themes in
John Guare plays. Carol Benet reports.
-- (THEATER) Berkeley Rep presents Sarah Ruhl's new play that would
shock Victorians. Carol Benet reports.
-- (THEATER) The musical "Wicked" is back out west again. And it's so
b-a-a-a-d, it's good! Carol
Benet reports.
-- (NEW MUSIC) Stanford's CCRMA celebrates J.-C. Risset's 70th with
live players, computers, phantom musicians.
#
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