ABS: Sémélé

Rebecca Myers Hoke (Sémélé) and Sara LeMesh (Juno). Photo: Gas Lamp Productions.

Last week the American Bach Soloists Festival & Academy presented Sémélé, a 1709 opera by Marin Marais, in a concert version that was its North American premiere. ABS fielded a large orchestra of at least 45 musicians, plus a dozen soloists, plus a chorus of 17. The music is pretty & elegant throughout, with lots of dances & choruses. Characters behave politely, using flattering language no matter what the situation.

The performance was impeccably well-prepared. The orchestra played cleanly, with detailed articulation, & never tired over the 3-hour evening. Concertmaster Robert Mealy made a sweet sound, & the violins were perfectly synchronized even in very rapid passages. The extended trumpet solo in the Prologue was impressively secure & in tune, & the Fourth Air was exceptionally graceful. I liked the soft timbres of the woodwinds, & the flute solos were clear & smooth. The percussion had a cheerful bounciness. The low, heavy sound the strings made to depict an earthquake was striking. It was nice having the continuo harpsichord in front of the orchestra, where it was easier to hear.

The youthful cast were even & well-matched. Soprano Grace Srinivasan displayed a light, pretty voice as a Priestess & a shepherdess, & baritone Ben Kazez got a laugh for his wide-eyed exit as the drunken High Priest. This opera's Sémélé constantly worries about her predicament, & soprano Rebecca Myers Hoke was a tormented & even grieving Sémélé from the start, her voice sounding dark & mature. I liked soprano Chelsea Morris's beautifully sustained sound & gliding high notes as the confidante Dorine. Tenor Steven Brennfleck portrayed a stylish Adraste, & his phrasing was expressive & conversational. Bass Christopher Besch had a compressed sound & conveyed in authoritarian Jupiter. Mezzo Sara LeMesh was an appropriately stern Juno, her singing strong & vivid.

The chorus was satisfyingly proficient, & I enjoyed listening to their wonderfully balanced, polished sound. Conductor Jeffrey Thomas kept to regular, squared-up tempos & did a good job keeping everything consistent & together. The computer running the supertitles misbehaved several times during the show, resulting in the audience seeing the OS X desktop instead of the words. The audience was generally attentive, though there was some attrition after intermission. Each half of the concert received enthusiastic applause & cheers, & there was a partial standing ovation.

During the intermission I was introduced to journalist Chloe Veltman. I do not bake much, so I was unreasonable excited that the lemon yogurt cake I brought to share got good reviews. I found the recipe here, but to make it Sémélé Intermission Lemon Cake, use 2 lemons supplied by Patrick from his garden.

§ Sémélé (1709)
Composed by Marin Marais (1656-1728)

American Bach Soloists Academy Orchestra
American Bach Choir
Jeffrey Thomas, conductor

The Grand Priestess of Bacchus: Julianna Emanski Grace Srinivasan, soprano
The Grand Priest of Bacchus: Ben Kazez, baritone
Apollon: Matthew Hill, tenor
Cadmus: Corbin Phillips, baritone
Sémélé: Rebecca Myers Hoke, soprano
Dorine: Chelsea Morris, soprano
Adraste: Steven Brennfleck, tenor
Mercure (Arbate): David Rugger, baritone
Jupiter (ldas): Christopher Besch, bass
Junon: Sara LeMesh, mezzo-soprano
Shepherd: Ryan Strand, tenor
First shepherdess: Hannah De Priest, soprano
Second shepherdess: Grace Srinivasan, soprano

2015 American Bach Soloists Festival & Academy
Thursday August 13, 8p
San Francisco Conservatory of Music

SFIFF: City of Gold

Last Saturday evening I joined a line at the Kabuki Cinema that went around the block for City of Gold, a new documentary about Jonathan Gold, the Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic for the LA Times. The rumpled Mr. Gold comes across as a critic for the people, as we see him drive around LA in a Dodge pickup, adventurously eating anywhere, from food trucks to modern French restaurants. He shows a warm enthusiasm for everything, even places he hates. We're made to feel like we're just hanging out with him while he's out to lunch with Calvin Trillin or at home with his family.

The film contains excerpts from Mr. Gold's reviews, interviews with food writers & chefs & nice stories about the small, hard-working restauranteurs that he has made successful by writing about them. The festival audience laughed at the look of fear that glazes over the face of the chef at a fancy restaurant when the critic walks in with a party of 6. It's also fun seeing footage of Mr. Gold playing cello in a punk band back in the day. Like Mr. Gold's reviews, the movie is really about Los Angeles itself, which is presented as a colorful & vibrant hive of ethnic enclaves.

Director of Programming Rachel Rosen conducted a Q&A with filmmaker Laura Gabbert & Mr. Gold after the screening. Ms. Gabbert told us she was able to gradually approach Mr. Gold about being the subject of the film because both their kids go to the same school. She shot the film on & off over a period of 5 years. The ending credits show Mr. Gold cooking at home with his family, & it was nice to learn that he actually cooks for his family most days before he goes out to work. Of course all the audience wanted to know was where Mr. Gold was going to eat while he was in San Francisco. I sat next to a dedicated festival-goer who was seeing 8 films over the weekend & was primarily interested in documentaries.

§ City of Gold
Director: Laura Gabbert
USA, 2014, 91 mins.

§ 58th San Francisco International Film Festival
April 25, 2015   6:30 p.m.   Sundance Kabuki Cinemas
April 28, 2015   9:15 p.m.   Sundance Kabuki Cinemas

Cherry Blossom Festival

I spent Saturday afternoon with a friend, walking around the Cherry Blossom Festival, which is taking place over 2 weekends in Japantown. The event was densely crowded with young people, & there were long lines at the food stalls. A lot of people showed up in costumes.

The origami exhibit was in a small but lively space.

This mask with astonishing facial details must be by Joel Cooper.

Origami artist Linda Mihara explained that this huge structure, still under construction, is a Level 3 Menger Sponge, a fractal sculpture composed of thousands of folded, interlocking business cards. It's part of an even larger, virtual construction whose components are distributed around the world.

Ms. Mihara also made sure we visited the Paper Tree store to see this scaly dragon, folded from a 6 foot square of paper.

At the end of the day we found the Hello Kitty Cafe Truck, which had a line half a block long. Fans were waiting to buy donuts, petit fours & macarons. Just as we got there, though, 3 cops came & shut it down. My companion inquired what the trouble was, & apparently Hello Kitty is not allowed to serve customers past 6:00pm.

§ 48th Annual Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival
April 11, 12, 18, 19
11a - 6p
San Francisco, Japantown

MVFF37: Soul of a Banquet

Last week I saw a preview of Soul of a Banquet, a modestly produced documentary by Wayne Wang about San Francisco restaurateur Cecilia Chiang. In the first half, Ms. Chiang, now a charming & august woman in her 90s, describes her privileged childhood in China before the war & then how she came to open the Mandarin Restaurant in the 1960s, despite feeling excluded by the Cantonese speakers of San Francisco's Chinatown. Alice Waters & food writer Ruth Reichl provide additional culinary & sociological commentary. It adds up to an oral history of a certain class of Chinese in the 20th century. Ms. Chiang's tragic account of her 1972 visit to China is riveting.

The film's 2nd half documents a fancy private banquet hosted by Ms. Chiang in honor of Alice Waters. The camera gives us many closeups of the elaborately detailed preparations & does a good job capturing the textures of the food. Ms. Chiang explains each course to her guests with a story, & the theatrical meal includes paper-thin slices of abalone, 2 tantalizing pork belly dishes & a chicken baked in a clay casing which has to be shattered with a hammer when it's ready to be served. Soul of a Banquet will screen at the Mill Valley Film Festival on October 5th, with Mr. Wang & Ms. Chiang attending. There is a repeat showing on October 7th.

§ Soul of a Banquet
Wayne Wang, dir., US, 2014, 78 mins.

§ The 37th Mill Valley Film Festival
Sun, Oct 5 5:00 PM, Rafael 1 (Special Screening with Wayne Wang and Cecilia Chiang)
Tue, Oct 7 2:15 PM, Sequoia 1

SF Street Food Festival

Late Saturday afternoon I met up with a couple of friends at the San Francisco Street Food Festival, in a lovely tree-lined stretch of Folsom Street in the Mission. The festival has been attracting such big crowds in its 6-year history that this is the last time it will be held here.

I was told that earlier in the day it was so packed that food lines extended the full width of the street. By the time I got there the lines were much shorter, but at least half the vendors had sold out of food.

Attendees were mostly young people, & the atmosphere was cheerful.

It was nice to see the eponymous chef of Gerard's Paella manning the paella pans.

Drinkers were corralled in specially demarcated areas.

There was also non-comestible entertainment that seemed appropriate to the neighborhood.

§ San Francisco Street Food Festival
Saturday, August 16, 2014, 11 a.m - 7p.m

Ramen Street

Two weekends ago I was headed down Fillmore Street from Pacific Heights, intending to visit the J-Pop Festival in Japantown. I expected to see people in great costumes, check out the street vendors & eat a quick lunch. Blocks away from Post Street, the sidewalks were unexpectedly jammed.

When I got to Post Street, I was in the biggest crowd I'd ever seen for a Japantown street fair. I had no idea what was going on. After walking up one and a half blocks, I couldn't get any farther, & the street felt dangerously overcrowded.

It turned out that this year the J-Pop Festival was held in conjunction with Ramen Street, a traveling show of 6 ramen vendors from the US & Japan. The attendees were all young people. I was too scared to stick around, & people around me who had come specifically for the ramen were also making alternate plans, hence the overflow into the surrounding neighborhood.

I passed through the neighborhood again the next morning around 10:30a, half an hour before the official opening time. Volunteers corralled people into orderly lines that were already over a block long.

A volunteer told me that the expected wait was 3 to 4 hours.

I got a better view of the action by walking behind the booths.

Cooks were preparing everything on site in small batches, so it's no surprise that fulfilling orders takes a long time. I did not spot any customers with the product in hand during either of my visits.

§ Ramen Street (Ramen Yokocho)
J-POP Summit Festival
2014/7/19 (Sat) & 7/20 (Sun)
San Francisco Japantown

Mmm... Donuts

I recently noticed that the small round hut at the Little Marina Green, near the St. Francis Yacht Club, is occupied.

It is currently a remote outpost of the Mission's Dynamo Donuts. Their maple bacon donut always sounded like something concocted specifically for Homer Simpson.

It turns out to be not so gluttonous, though $3 is certainly the most I've ever paid for a single donut.

Mochitsuki

The Asian Art Museum belatedly celebrated the New Year with a mochi-pounding demonstration by Kamagi Kai, who turned the preparation of this traditional Japanese treat into an hour long performance piece. The crowd was standing room only.

Calligrapher Shioh Kato interpreted the character for the Year of the Snake on a wall-sized surface, accompanied by ominous taiko drumming. He channeled a quivering energy that would put any abstract expressionist to shame. He grunted & yelled & even blew pigment onto the surface.

Nowadays mochi is of course made by machine, so it's impressive to see the physicality of the traditional process in which the rice is pounded in a large mortar by sticks & mallets. Alarmingly, one optimistic person has to stick his hand into the mortar to wet & turn the doughy mixture between blows. Set to the rhythm of the taiko, it was a lively dance.

There were many gleeful volunteers for the audience participation portions.

It was a great event for kids...

... & adults. Kamagi Kai's finale involved juggling mallets, flinging the mochi into the air & leading the audience in synchronized clapping. Samples of mochi were distributed at the end. The audience was warned to take small bites.

§ Mochitsuki!
Mochi-Pounding Ceremony
Saturday, January 12, 11am - 4pm
Samsung Hall, Asian Art Museum

The Last Underground Market

San Francisco Soda Fountain

On Saturday I went to the nighttime edition of the Underground Market, an indie food mart taking place at SOMArts. Every since a New York Times article, the City has been threatening to shut it down, so this was the last event of its kind. There were about 20 vendors, all perky & lovingly proud of their food. Everything looked & tasted homemade.

I arrived a little before 8p, & the place quickly became a crush of low-key hipsters. It was sometimes difficult to figure out where the lines were. As one of my friends came away from a booth, a woman stopped him so she could photograph his 2 plates of food.

Raw Daddy Ruben Cone

I was excited to eat this crispy flax seed cone & its tangy filling of uncooked ingredients featuring sauerkraut & mustard. It made me think of Bavaria.

Braised rabbit ragu over polenta, with biscuit. One Ninety Seven.

This braised rabbit ragu with polenta & a dense biscuit was hearty.

Moroccan lamb pie. Desperation Bakehouse.

I liked the sweet flavors in this Moroccan lamb pie.

One of my friends bought us these rich moon pies for dessert.

Simply Mochi

I couldn't leave without this sampler of fresh mochi. The dessert flavors, such as strawberry cheesecake, tasted just like their descriptions.

Admission required a hand stamp, as well as a warning that we might encounter food that was technically uncooked.

Another hand stamp was required for alcoholic beverages. It looked like a fish when applied but soon resembled an unsightly birthmark. This was not a cheap dinner, & drinks in particular were overpriced.

§ The Last Underground Market
Saturday December 22nd, 2012
11am-4pm: Drinks, Take-homeables (gifts and packaged items)
6pm-2am: Drinks, Hot Food, Music
SOMArts