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Author: Paul Hertelendy

‘TIS THE SEASON TO BE JOLLY

‘TIS THE SEASON TO BE JOLLY

When spirits sag lowest in the darkest of December, we always compensate by getting a shot in the arm via the Chanticleer holiday program. I’d say it’s virtually guaranteed; even when a couple of the dozen singers get respiratory ailments, as this month, the show goes on full-force, with Music Director Tim Keeler stepping in as designated hitter to provide yet another countertenor voice. Chanticleer provides amazing performance in an unusually broad Nativity-oriented repertory hard to find these days, some…

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A NINTH GEARED TO OUR UNCERTAIN TIMES

A NINTH GEARED TO OUR UNCERTAIN TIMES

The Beethoven 9th at center stage this week was over the top. Conductor Xian Zhang was making the grand gesture again and again while pacing this glorious work, bringing it home in a brisk 63 minutes. Her letter-perfect crescendo building up in the opening movement was enough to make every one sit up and take notice right away. It was the right work at the right time in our lives—-a cry of hope during a cruel war raging in the…

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Orpheus Returns

Orpheus Returns

Call the opera “Orphée,” “Orfeo,” or, like the SF Opera, “Orpheus and Eurydice”—whatever the name, the production here offers breakthroughs in many directions—a dazzling feast of primary colors and lighting, acrobatic dancers, a goddess descending from heaven on a swing, and the most nimble of males ever in the title role. This reprise of Gluck’s early classical-period opus in this memorable new production is a feast for ears and eyes, despite the severe dramatic limitation of having merely three solo…

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LEAVING A MARK ON MUSIC HISTORY 

LEAVING A MARK ON MUSIC HISTORY 

BURLINGAME, CA—It took a senior musician confined to the back rows to come up with something new and novel in his premiere. Meet composer Shinji Eshima, a bass player relegated to the back of orchestras, rarely getting solos or, even rarer, contrabass concertos. His notable first was the lineup for a quintet even rarer than Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet (which, yes, also has a string bass): Clarinet, piano, marimba, cello and bass. The night’s versatile cellist Emil Miland, who has been…

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OAKLAND’S BROAD MUSICAL HORIZON

OAKLAND’S BROAD MUSICAL HORIZON

A leader in symphonic innovation and imagination now for six decades, the Oakland Symphony launched its first full post-pandemic season this month with the first of its music-director candidates out front. And, of course, with an innovative program. Through countless setbacks, the ensemble  keeps emerging again and again like a phoenix from the ashes; its struggles remain a challenge for the future. Has any ensemble suffered greater adversity? It went bankrupt after the off-season death (accidental drowning) of its highly…

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A LEAP INTO MUSICAL NIRVANA

A LEAP INTO MUSICAL NIRVANA

Mahler’s “Resurrection” was a revelation, leaving us in the audience limp and giddy, as if, in a euphoric state of ecstasy, we had just been led through the Pearly Gates into the great beyond. And it was the finest hour yet for Maestro Esa-Pekka Salonen in the bows when the orchestra remained steadfastly seated, deflecting the cheers to the conductor himself. The audience too responded with an inordinate five-minute ovation for the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus et al for…

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A MASTER CLASS IN MODERN BALLET  

A MASTER CLASS IN MODERN BALLET  

In its 29th season, the 16-member Smuin Contemporary Ballet is joyous, youthful and exuberant, meticulously rehearsed in fast-moving sequences that enkindle audiences again and again. And its post-Covid rebirth is grounds for celebration. For that dance critic who once said, I won’t go any more, they are too commercial, all one can say is phooey. With new personnel, the troupe continues to enkindle the vitality and eclectic dance diversity of founder Michael Smuin, who had already passed on 15 years…

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1938 MUSIC & SPEECH: ILL-DIGESTIBLE SANDWICHES OF HISTORY

1938 MUSIC & SPEECH: ILL-DIGESTIBLE SANDWICHES OF HISTORY

Somewhere between a theater piece and a radio-show reenactment, “Berlin 1938” played over the weekend with devastating force. It is destined to be a prize-winning venture as it relives a highly precarious time between escapism and the horrific persecutions on the eve of World War Two. Even if yours was not among the families directly impacted back then, this musical show cum political theater unleashed grim edges both telling and terrifying. Daniel  Hope’s NCCO was converted into a stage band…

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SHAKESPEARE: BRUSH UP YOUR LIBRETTO!

SHAKESPEARE: BRUSH UP YOUR LIBRETTO!

One of the real problems in John Adams’ new opera is that Shakespeare wrote plays but never opera librettos. Now, Will, “Hamlet,” “Macbeth” and “Othello” are all well and good as stage plays, but couldn’t you think of baritones and sopranos too? In using Shakespeare and earlier texts for almost all of his libretto, composer Adams was stuck with lines rarely ending in vowels. He thus  saddles the singers with drooping fade-out lines that suppress their attractiveness and expressiveness. Just…

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‘ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA’ IN MORE FORMAL, MORE MODERN ATTIRE 

‘ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA’ IN MORE FORMAL, MORE MODERN ATTIRE 

Composer John Adams has made a welcome attempt to bring under control the unwieldy “Antony and Cleopatra” story out of Shakespeare. Evolving from there, past  composer Samuel Barber’s grand 1966 Met failure, to Adams’ world premiere, it has been  boiled down from some 40 scenes and two dozen solo voices (ouch!) to this sleek, late-model version in three hours, two acts debuting Sept. 10 to mark the 100th year of the San Francisco Opera. If you were waiting for gooey…

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