POPULIST FOCUS AT S.F. SYMPHONY
Dispelling the Starch With the fluff and frills of the Gala opener out of the way, the San Francisco Symphony got down to business this week with a new work, and an East Coast conductor assisting the recuperating Michael Tilson Thomas on the podium. Clearly, both the SFS and the SFOpera had made an unaccustomed push toward new audiences via some Broadway programming—the opera actually opening the season in unprecedented fashion with the show “Sweeney Todd” instead of an opera….