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Author: Paul Hertelendy

OLD-RUSSIAN TRAGEDY AT S.F. BALLET

OLD-RUSSIAN TRAGEDY AT S.F. BALLET

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‘Onegin’ in Dazzling Return Trip By Paul Hertelendy artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music and dance Week of May 1-8, 2016 Vol. 18, No. 66 The brilliant evening-length “Onegin” is back at the S.F. Ballet, chockful of elevated drama, dancing, and the elegant old-Russian milieu. You can nod toward Pushkin for the plot, and to Tchaikovsky for the (unfamiliar) music, but ultimately it comes down to the genius of the choreography by the late John Cranko…

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OPERATIC ‘STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE’ IN SAN JOSE

OPERATIC ‘STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE’ IN SAN JOSE

With Focus on a New Soprano as Blanche SAN JOSE—Happy to say, André Previn’s wrenching opera “Streetcar Named Desire” has benefited from a streamlining with a smaller orchestra and trims in the libretto. Yet the drama remains as violent as a 8.0 earthquake, following closely the searing Tennessee Williams play. Despite some miscalculations, Opera San Jose has brought off the work with fiery impact, propelled by a powerful Blanche Dubois (spinto soprano Ariana Strahl in her OSJ debut) who patterned…

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INNOVATIONS AT OAKLAND BALLET

INNOVATIONS AT OAKLAND BALLET

But Where Did They Forget the Toe Shoes? HAYWARD—-Give the plucky Oakland Ballet an A for innovation, and something lower for execution. In years of ballet-going, you are very unlikely to witness what this chamber-ballet troupe did on its most recent program: Dance a whole evening to live vocal music. No rhythm section, no beat, no percussion, no instrumentalists at all. You are also unlikely to see a non-balletic ballet evening like Oakland’s: A whole evening without a single dancer…

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START WITH TIARAS, TUTUS

START WITH TIARAS, TUTUS

And the Ballet Crowd Will Go Wild Two modern pieces, a world premiere that roused the crowd, and a throwback to the glories of St. Petersburg studded the S.F. Ballet’s latest program April 7 at the Opera House. However you may relish the new pieces, I don’t think you can dismiss recalling old St. Petersburg and the 19th-century Mariinsky Theatre, though you had to be troubled here by immense waves of applause at the first up-curtain on merely viewing the…

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SACRIFICE TO ATTAIN WISDOM, REVELATIONS

SACRIFICE TO ATTAIN WISDOM, REVELATIONS

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S.F. SoundBox Thrives with Unique Concerts The San Francisco Symphony’s highly innovative SoundBox series has sparked national interest among musicians, concert managers and music critics alike. It’s a seminar in rather unfamiliar live music by a cornucopia of small ensembles, with complementary projections of custom-designed videos created for the occasion, now in its second season. Soundbox tickets sell out in a couple of hours when announced, making this arguably the hottest ticket in San Francisco. They bring in an audience…

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MONTREAL SYMPHONY CROSSES THE BORDER

MONTREAL SYMPHONY CROSSES THE BORDER

Nagano Accentuates Montreal-Paris Nexus in NorCal Tour ROHNERT PARK, CA—A touring orchestra dares to play a bold all-20th-century program, without even a note of Rachmaninoff or Sibelius? Yes, workable if that music-explorer Kent Nagano is at the helm, with his Montreal Symphony pulling the load. They brought the audience to its feet more than once here with mostly-Parisian servings of Debussy, Stravinsky and Prokofiev. And there’s proximity there: Culturally, Montreal and Paris have long been cheek-to-cheek. And, despite his 10-year…

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CURIOUS FIGHTS BY THE ACOUSTICS

CURIOUS FIGHTS BY THE ACOUSTICS

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The S.F. Conservatory’s Contemporary Concert By Paul Hertelendy artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music and dance Week of March 20-27, 2016 Vol. 18, No. 56 A quintet of living composers provided an ambitious set of instrumental works from a solo to a 40-plus-member wind ensemble knocking the roof off the S.F. Conservatory of Music. Here is the new genre of cross-over composer, of utmost versatility, creating everything from hiphop to DJ electronica to instrumentals to conducting….

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NEGLECTED JEWEL AT THE OAKLAND SYMPHONY

NEGLECTED JEWEL AT THE OAKLAND SYMPHONY

Cherubini Requiem, Alongside New Piccolo Concerto OAKLAND—In symphony concerts, give me the thrill of discovery every time. The Oakland Symphony offered not one but two revelations in a single concert, one very old, the other very new. When, if ever, have you heard a piccolo concerto? Or Cherubini’s Requiem of 1816? Never? Me neither. But then, I’ve only reviewed some 6,500 concerts lifetime. The Italian-French composer Luigi Cherubini (1760-1842) was a stodgy symphonist of the early romantic era. In his…

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DIGGING UP NEW MUSIC, DIGGING UP AN OLD POPE

DIGGING UP NEW MUSIC, DIGGING UP AN OLD POPE

Other Minds in Unusual Vocal Music Zounds! A contemporary concert takes up sacred music along with a satirical work highly critical of Church history. If you hate the one, you might LOVE the other! Such was the opening event of the unique Open Minds festival, which brings in close to a dozen living composers for residencies and three tightly-packed concerts over three days—then often goes dormant for another 364. It’s a dizzying, high-quality whirl that can and should attract a…

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PARDON AND PERFORMANCE FOR EXCLUDED USSR COMPOSERS

PARDON AND PERFORMANCE FOR EXCLUDED USSR COMPOSERS

As Yuja Wang and Encores Bring Down the House The Russian National Orchestra has a field day playing on tour. On the same San Francisco program, they present USSR-era composers who were citizens in good standing (Khatchaturian), citizens who were slapped down and denounced (Shostakovich), and citizens who were deemed taboo as émigrés (Stravinsky). However you feel about Russian politics today, you have to admire their current catholic spectrum coming from varied pan-Russian sources. Also they are inordinately generous in…

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