ATHERTON, CA— Music@Menlo is one of the jewels of the Bay Area summer, which needs it; otherwise, the season is so often laggard in performing arts. This major chamber-music outlet brings in distant artists (19 of 49 from New York this year) for a wealth of concerts in an inviting setting. This year’s format is stimulating: Seven concert programs in chronological sequence, each focusing on a significant decade of creativity. And each time a whole new team of three or…
Three peas in a pod? Hardly. Three new dances differ. But count on Imagery ballet to come up with an adroit unifying element for three choreographers doing world premieres. This time, it was: Use projections, any way you want them (plus suggestions of the usual 20-to-25-minute length). And in movement, innovation and risk-taking should prevail, even if you fail. So instead of three works heading off willy-nilly toward different nebulae, the current program had a link, with the same eight…
WALNUT CREEK, CA—Zounds, is acting now encroaching on the world of opera? It flourished this summer in both the top-of-the-line S.F. Opera’s “Orlando” and now the struggling Festival Opera here with its history of multiple Lazarus-like revival modes. The casts of actor-singers provide a new vitality to the medium, often compensating (and then some) for less-than-Met voices. The latest such miracle was brought off by a stage director better known as a Bay Area dance director, Mark Foehringer. The vehicle…