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 TWELFTH
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 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:
-- (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.
Earlier
reviews and interviews include:
-- (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.
-- (OPERA) In "Wozzeck," is he the victim or the perpitrator? The
touching drama of the outsider, in a new intimate treatment.
-- (THEATER) Fugard peruses the South African drama of the AIDS
epidemic; at Berkeley Rep.
-- (NEW MUSIC) The influence of digital permeates the style of new
compositions at the SFCMP.
-- (BALLET) A local Walnut Creek troupe lights up the night in a busy
dance week.
-- (SYMPHONY) Is wear and tear getting to Yo-Yo Ma, 54? Ma plays
Shostakovich at the San Francisco Symphony.
-- (BALLET) The pricey San Francisco Ballet gala---insanity, intensity,
proficiency. And nuttiness in the lobby.
-- (SYMPHONY) San Francisco Symphony residency by the noted
British composer George Benjamin, gutting out a rough start.
-- (MUSIC) 2009 was not a great year, but a good one, for serious music
in the Bay Area, chockablock with surprises.
-- (BALLET) We all know about opening nights. But are last nights as
good, as in the S.F. Ballet "Nutcracker?"
-- (CHORUS) The sacred music of Christmas, in eight languages: nowhere
better than at Chanticleer.
-- (CHAMBER) Kronos Quartet for once delves into both nostalgia and
novelty. And it was moving.
-- (BALLET) Two Bay Area cities get creative, pool resources for one
effective "Nutcracker."
-- (THEATER) Alfred Hitchcock's oldie "39 Steps," revived with new
chuckles.
-- (THEATER) The War Between the States seen cheerfully, in Palo Alto's
"Civil War Christmas."
-- (SYMPHONY) San Francisco's stimulating all-Viennese program,
spanning from Beethoven to Webern.
-- (CHORUS) Is the vaunted Tallis Scholars' crown slipping a bit to the
side? A Renaissance rollercoaster ride in Berkeley.
-- (SYMPHONY) The ingratiating sounds of Steven Stucky, and Stravinsky
adventures. At the Berkeley Symphony.
-- (SYMPHONY) The elite of the elite, the Berlin Philharmonic, glows in
its all-German program under Simon Rattle.
-- (SYMPHONY) The renaissance of Western music in China is exemplified
by the Shanghai Symphony, with Yuja Wang.
-- (CHAMBER ORCHESTRA) Berkeley is a crucible of ideas and musical
currents: Tuition protests, sports, Bolcom-Strauss.
-- (SYMPHONY) The latest Russian fire-eating pianist, Nikita Abrosimov,
21, triumphs at Stanford as a concerto sub.
-- (OPERA) The world premiere "Dark River" in a tiny Oakland venue
ambitiously tackles a history of civil rights.
-- (SYMPHONY) A cellist's late cancelation brings on many changes, many
questions at the S.F. Symphony.
-- (OPERA) Verdi's masterpiece "Otello," with the bigger-than-life
tenor Johan Botha in the title role.
-- (CHAMBER MUSIC) Even the floor vibrates with the fiery play of the
Borealis String Quartet.
-- (SYMPHONY) Rachmaninoff's popular Symphony No. 2 amd his cantata on
Poe, "The Bells."
-- (THEATER) David Mamet's "November:" a farcical look at a
fictionalized White House. Georgia Rowe reports.
-- (NEW MUSIC) What's this? The chips accompany the guitar, and a watch
ticks on Irish time.
-- (THEATER) A new Kushner collection in Berkeley, still needing trims
and edits.
-- (DANCE) Alonso King's Lines Ballet with his new work, work, work,
plus a Moroccan theme.
-- (SYMPHONY) With the style of a champion boxer, conductor
Osmo Vänskä shows a surprising
Nordic persona.
-- (SYMPHONY) What doesn't Lorin Maazel do? He's conducting,
composing, guesting. Report from Washington, D.C.
-- (SYMPHONY) Poles apart geographically, a Brazilian orchestra
collaborates with the
British superpercussionist Evelyn Glennie.
-- (SYMPHONY) Under Joana Carneiro's baton wizardry, the Berkeley
Symphony sounded like some elite Euro import.
-- (CHAMBER/WORLD MUSIC) The Kronos Quartet, with 10 works from almost
as many lands, and unseen cohorts.
-- (S.F. SYMPHONY) A modern Australian gives a vivid, almost fiendish
perspective of composer Carlo Gesualdo (1560-1613).
-- (MUSIC) The S.F. Contemporary Music Players unveil a new song cycle
by John Harbison, 71.
-- (SYMPHONY) The symphony in Oakland tries out a revamped high-camp
site, the Fox Theater, amplified.
-- (THEATER) The hilarity of spouse-swapping in Aronson's new play,
"First Day of School."
-- (DANCE) A brilliant new Lincolnesque dance-theater piece from Bill
T. Jones' company.
-- (SYMPHONY) Mahler's Fifth, paired with Scelsi's unlikely "Hymnos"
meditation.
-- (THEATER) Noel Coward's classic love story, "Brief Encounter," with
modern theater technology added.
-- (CHORUS) Chanticleer keeps changing repertoire and personnel while
maintaining its a cappella excellence.
-- (SYMPHONY) Broken-field running, musicologically,
in a skilful
lecture-concert by MTT opens up insights on Gustav Mahler.
-- (THEATER) Can Judas Iscariot make a comeback? A San Jose theater
entertains the idea implausibly.
-- (OPERA) Puccini's odd triptych "Il Trittico" scores with "Gianni
Schicchi" at the S.F. Opera.
-- (OPERA) The opera strikes out to the ballpark with "Il
Trovatore"---and strikes out.
-- (DANCE) Mark Morris' "V" is a stunner, in an otherwise uneven
program given at Berkeley.
-- (THEATER) "American Idiot," a rock band with theater, premiering at
Berkeley Rep.
-- (SYMPHONY) The S.F. Symphony's Mahler First explores freedoms
unheard in ages, to immense acclaim.
-- (THEATER) The poles of art and religion power a new play, My Name Is Asher Lev,
in Marin County.
-- (SYMPHONY) A so-so symphony gala is saved by the pianist Lang Lang
from China, who loves every minute on stage.
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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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