Geoff Vasile at CAM

Last Thursday evening, goaded by a timely tweet from MariNaomi, I jogged from a history talk at the Mechanics' Institute straight to the Cartoon Art Museum, where I arrived for the tail end of a reception for cartoonist Geoff Vasile, whose work is being featured in the museum. There was time to have a beer, watch Mr. Vasile draw a dinosaur & hear him hold forth on Erik Larson's drawing skills. I also heard attendees trade improper stories about strip clubs.

Mr. Vasile's own drawings are on display at the back of the museum, on the wall next to the restrooms. I liked seeing pages from his latest autobiographical story "My Mom Just Died!" Its content is characteristically inappropriate yet entirely sincere. It was interesting to see the fastidiously clean lines of his originals.

§ Small Press Spotlight on Geoff Vasile
Thursday, April 16, 2015 from 5:00 to 8:00pm
Cartoon Art Museum

The Mechanics' Institute's Industrial Fairs

Last week, Mechanics' Institute librarian Taryn Edwards gave a slide lecture about the 31 industrial fairs hosted by the San Francisco Mechanics' Institute in the period 1857 - 1891. We learned that in 1848 the population of San Francisco was just 800, but it boomed rapidly in the 1850s to well over 50,000. Most things still had to be imported into California, so these fairs promoted the production & consumption of local goods.

Ms. Taryn is a perky historian & presented many entertaining facts that made the era sound a lot more fun than today. The 1st fair in 1857 took place where the Crocker Galleria is now, in a pavilion with a canvas roof that was the largest building in California at the time. Visitors saw a range of products, including machinery, clothing, wine, beer & paintings. The fair had its own song, a skating rink, a hedge maze & a post-exhibition ball that was attended by 1,000 people. The dogged Ms. Taryn managed to identify 3 African-American exhibitors & noted that 25% of the exhibitors were women, even though women made up a far smaller proportion of the general population.

I liked seeing the bunting-filled photos by Carleton Watkins of subsequent fairs & learning about the 4,000 pound cheese on display in 1864. By the 1860s, San Francisco was already being viewed as a gateway to trade with Asia, & products from Japan were exhibited. After 1906 the fairs stopped being daily news & dropped from local history.

The lecture was well-attended & seating was cramped. Refreshments were available. An attendee brought along a stunning quilt made from silk cigar wrappers that was stitched by her great-grandmother. The quilt is in beautiful condition & has been on the Antiques Road Show, but the owner admitted to me that a museum conservator who has seen it is appalled by the way she currently handles it.

§ Before the PPIE: The Mechanics’ Institute and the Development of San Francisco’s “Fair Culture” (1857–1909)
A lecture & slideshow by Taryn Edwards
Thursday, April 16, 2015 - 6:00pm
The Mechanics' Institute

The Salt of the Earth

Last week I saw The Salt of the Earth, a potent documentary about photojournalist Sebastião Salgado, made by Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, the photographer's son. Salgado started out as an economist but switched to photography in 1973 at the age of 29. The documentary traces his career & personal life & shows him still at work, travelling all over the world, photographing nature, wildlife & pre-agricultural societies. But it is his powerful photographs of momentous human events that predominate. I loved seeing his cinematic photos of Serra Pelada fill the screen in the beginning of the movie. Even though they are static images, they seem to be in motion. His pictures of burning oil fields in Kuwait are monumental & hallucinatory projected on a movie screen.

A core sequence presents his darkest work, documenting famine in Ethiopia & genocides in Rawanda & Yugoslavia. This part of the film is difficult to watch. Salgado himself became so disgusted by what he witnessed that he basically concluded humans are unredeemable. The film ends with some light, thankfully. Salgado's current projects include an interesting experiment in which he replanted the forest that was once cleared for his family farm in Brazil.

Wim Wenders narrates the film in English, though Salgado speaks mostly in French when interviewed. I attended a matinee at the Embarcadero Cinema & was disheartened that there were only 10 of us in the audience.

§ The Salt of the Earth
A film by
Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado
2014, 109 Mins

Philharmonia Baroque & SF Opera Adlers

Last Friday night I heard Philharmonia Baroque in a concert featuring San Francisco Opera Adler Fellows. Board member Kay Sprinkel Grace took 5 minutes at the start to talk about the orchestra's current $8 million fund raising campaign. In the 1st half we heard 4 Mozart vocal numbers, each paired with a short instrumental dance. The singers were on a raised stage behind the orchestra, & there were supertitles.

Bass Anthony Reed had a lambent, even sound & open, relaxed low notes in "Per questa bella mano." Double bass player Kristin Zoernig stood beside him & performed the aria's wildly virtuosic accompaniment. It was amusing to watch her flit all over the instrument while Mr. Reed remained stationery. Soprano Julie Adams sang the cute "Nehmt meinen Dank" with a room-filling sound that I could feel physically. Baritone Edward Nelson sang a comic, multilingual aria from La finta giardiniera with a lovely voice, & his acting was so adroit that his strutting entrance got laughs even before he started singing.

I sat on the side of the hall, behind the orchestra & had a good view of conductor Nicholas McGegan, whose gleeful expressions were infectious. The orchestra's playing was consistently sprightly, though the valveless horns struggled to sound in tune. During Mr. Nelson's aria, 2 men seated themselves in our row & were a bit chatty, but they did not return after intermission.

Rossini's enjoyably silly one-act opera La cambiale di matrimonio, written when he was 18, took up the 2nd half. There was a lot of action, & the 6 singers created a fun & lively theatrical atmosphere with just a few chairs & props. Soprano Jacqueline Piccolino was a strong-willed Fannì & sounded brilliant & secure, especially in her short coloratura aria near the end. Tenor Brian Thorsett's singing was high, clear & elegant, even though his character, Fanni's young lover, often behaved boorishly. Baritone Efraín Solís was hearty & sympathetic as an earnest Canadian merchant who arrives wearing a big fur coat. His singing was warm & focused, & every note was distinct in his rapid coloratura passages.

As the lovers' main obstacle, bass Matthew Stump was appropriately obtuse, & his voice was firm & well-grounded. Mezzo Nian Wang, sounding secure & bright, was a flustered maid, & Mr. Reed was a contrastingly cool butler. Maestro McGegan's perky conducting was a good fit for Rossini, & the evening was entirely vivacious. The audience was engaged & laughing, even after the supertitles crapped out before the final ensemble.

The show was immediately followed by an LGBT reception in the lobby, where sparkling wine & cookies were served. My concert companion & I mingled with some of the performers, & we learned that Maestro McGegan asked the singers not to look at him. I was at 1st suspicious of the pink sparkling wine, which an old lady at the reception correctly identified as a rosé Crémant.

§ Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra
Nicholas McGegan, conductor

Ted Huffman, director
Julie Adams, soprano
Jacqueline Piccolino, soprano
Nian Wang, mezzo-soprano
Brian Thorsett, tenor
Edward Nelson, baritone
Efraín Solís, baritone
Anthony Reed, bass
Matthew Stump, bass

MOZART
Overture in D major, K. 106
“Per questa bella mano”, K. 612
    Anthony Reed, bass
    Kristin Zoernig, double bass

Contredance No. 1 in D major, K. 106
“Nehmt meinen Dank”, K. 383
    Julie Adams, soprano

Contradance No. 2 in A major, K. 106
“Con un vezzo all’Italiana” from La finta giardiniera
    Edward Nelson, baritone

Contradance No. 3 in B-flat major, K. 106
“Dite almeno, in che mancai”, K. 479
    Julie Adams, soprano
    Brian Thorsett, tenor
    Edward Nelson, baritone
    Anthony Reed, bass

ROSSINI
La cambiale di matrimonio (The Marriage Contract)
    Fannì — Jacqueline Piccolino, soprano
    Clarina — Nian Wang, mezzo-soprano
    Edoardo Milfort — Brian Thorsett, tenor
    Slook — Efraín Solís, baritone
    Norton — Anthony Reed, bass
    Tobia Mill — Matthew Stump, bass

Fri, April 17 @ 8:00PM
SFJAZZ Center, San Francisco

Cal Performances 2015/16 At a Glance

§ Cal Performances 2015/16 Season

September
11 & 12 The National Circus and Acrobats of China
18 Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis
24 & 25 Simón Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, Gustavo Dudamel, music director

October
1-4 Mariinsky Ballet and Orchestra, Cinderella
9 Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club
11 Bollywood Masala Orchestra and Dancers of India
11 Takács Quartet
16-18 Twyla Tharp 50th Anniversary Tour
23 eco ensemble
24 Bach Collegium Japan
29 & 30 Circa, Opus

November
6-7 Ensemble Intercontemporain
7 Youssou N'Dour
8 Leila Josefowicz, violin
13 & 14 Compañia Flamenca José Porcel
19-22 Rude Mechanicals, Stop Hitting Yourself
22 Danish String Quartet
27-29 Mummenschanz

December
6 Garrick Ohlsson, piano
12 & 13 Ira Glass with Monica Bill Bames and Anna Bass, Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host

January 2016
22 & 23 Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan, Rice
24 Monterey Jazz Festival On Tour
24 Yefim Bronfman, piano
29 & 31 St. Louis Symphony

February
14 eighth blackbird, Hand Eye
21 Takács Quartet
26 Jordi Savall, viol, Frank McGuire, bodhrán
27 & 28 Chitresh Das Dance Company, Shiva
28 Danish String Quartet

March
4 & 6 Yefim Bronfman, piano
5 Renee Fleming, soprano
6 Binge-Worthy Journalism with Sarah Koenig and Julie Snyder
11-13 Mark Morris Dance Group, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato
18 & 19 Trajal Harrell
19 Buika
19 L'Arpeggiata
20 Savion Glover with the Jack DeJohnette Quartet
26 Montreal Symphony Orchestra
29-April 3 Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

April
2 Musicians from Marlboro
9 The Tallis Scholars
10 Brentano String Quartet
14 Gil Shaham, violin, with films by David Michalek
16 globalFEST, Creole Carnival
17 Murray Perahia, piano
26 Matthias Goeme, baritone

May
1 Kronos Quartet
5-8 Edgar Oliver, Helen & Edgar
7 David Finckel, cello, Wu Han, piano, The Passionate Cello
12 Philippe Jaroussky, countertenor 

§ Subscriptions

Cal Performances 2015/16 Season Announcement

Monday morning Cal Performances held the press announcement for their 2015/16 season, also billed as the inaugural season of Berkeley RADICAL (Research And Development Initiative in Creativity, Arts and Learning), which aims to attract a millenial audience. Executive & Artistic Director Matías Tarnopolsky called conductor Gustavo Dudamel the poster child for the new initiative, & Maestro Dudamel will lead the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela in Beethoven Symphonies 7, 8 & 9 & participate in additional public programs.

Several musical performances involve collaborations with visual artists. The St. Louis Symphony's concert of Messiaen's Des Canyons aux Étoiles will be augmented by photographer Deborah O'Grady's images of the American landscapes which inspired the piece. Ms. O'Grady was in attendance, & we saw a short video about the project, in which she pointed out Messiaen's explicit references to geological formations in the score. Ensemble Intercontemporain, led by Matthias Pintscher, will give the American premiere of U.C. faculty member Edmund Campion's Cluster X, with a video by Austrian artist Kurt Hentschläger. The Kronos Quartet's performance of Terry Riley's Sun Rings will have a visual accompaniment, as will Gil Shaham's recital of the Bach solo sonatas & partitas.

Pianist Yefim Bronfman will perform all the Prokofiev piano sonatas in a set of 3 recitals. Baritone Mattias Goerne will sing Die schöne Müllerin, & countertenor Philippe Jaroussky will present a program of French songs from the 19th & 20th centuries. Mark Morris's  L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato will be back, & the Mariinsky Ballet will come with their production of Cinderella.

Mr. Tarnapolsky clearly enjoyed introducing the season's Bach offerings with a photoshopped picture labelled "ZellerBACH" that showed huge portraits of Bach adorning the facade of Zellerbach Hall. We also learned that the Berkeley RADICAL season has its own cocktail, which would be unveiled at the reception immediately following the press conference. During the Q&A, the only question was from a local music critic who wanted to know the recipe for the cocktail.

§ Cal Performances 2015/16 Season
Website | Brochure | Press Release (PDF) | Subscriptions

§ Cal Performances 2015/16 Season Press Announcement
Meyer Sound, Berkeley
Monday, April 20, 9:30 a.m.

Sunday at the Cherry Blossom Festival

This afternoon, on my way to the gym, I passed through Japantown & happened to catch the tail end of the Cherry Blossom Festival parade.

Teams of mikoshi carriers crossed Fillmore Street...

...including those wild guys in their loin cloths.

I've never seen the Cherry Blossom Festival so crowded.

Traditional exhibits like bonsai trees are still to be found...

...but the biggest draw seemed to be the anime cosplay talent show on the main stage.

I saw people in costume...

...in every direction I looked.

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

SFIFF58: Romeo is Bleeding

This week I attended a preview screening of Romeo is Bleeding, a documentary about an East Bay youth arts program created in response to deadly gang violence in Richmond. The film centers on Donté Clark, the smart & persevering leader of a group of teenagers who are mounting a production of Romeo & Juliet. In their version, the feuding families are rival gangs of North & Central Richmond, & the cast's own urgent & angry spoken word poems replace Shakespeare's speeches. The collegial atmosphere of the preparations is apparent, though we only get small glimpses of the actual play in performance. The film has an elaborate sound design, crisp photography & a strong sense of place. A floating camera sometimes gives us views above BART trains & neighborhoods. I liked a sequence in which the camera accompanies D'Neise Robinson, the high school student playing Juliet, on her tedious nighttime commute home after a rehearsal.

Romeo is Bleeding has its official premiere at the San Francisco International Film Festival this month, at a special event at El Cerrito High School, where the play documented in the film was performed. Mr. Clark will attend the premiere, as well as festival screenings at the Kabuki & the PFA. Jason Zeldes, the film's director, will attend the premiere & Kabuki screenings.

§ Romeo is Bleeding
Director: Jason Zeldes
2015, USA, 93 mins.

§ 58th San Francisco International Film Festival
April 29, 2015, 7:30 p.m.  El Cerrito High School
May 1, 2015, 6:30 p.m.  Sundance Kabuki Cinemas
May 3, 2015, 2:00 p.m.  Pacific Film Archive Theater

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

SFCM: L'elisir d'amore

Saturday evening I attended the SF Conservatory of Music's sold-out performance of L'elisir d'amore, in a sunny production directed by Jose Maria Condemi. The opera was moved to rural America, circa 1950. The set design did a good job filling the space vertically. Scenery on the back wall depicted a farm landscape, with a sun, & later a giant Harvest Moon, hanging in the sky. Bales of hay & a clothes line were the main on-stage props. A grassy walkway extended from the stage to around the orchestra & was used effectively for numbers like the barcarole, which Adina & Dulcamara sang in front of the orchestra.

The cast all gave cute, animated performances, & the action moved quickly. Nemorino was a plucky teenage milkman, & tenor Mario Rojas sang him with a lovely plush, ringing tone & sense of a yearning. His singing maintains a nice line. "Una furtiva lagrima" felt like it consisted of just 2 long phrases, & it received prolonged applause. Soprano Evan Kardon has a strong, penetrating voice, & her Adina sounded potent & mature. In a pantomime during the overture, she was contemptuous & abusive toward Nemorino.

Baritone Daniel Cameron as Belcore walked with a great hip-dislocating swagger & sang with a pleasant light, high voice. He was especially amusing doing an exercise routine involving a kettle bell swung between his legs. Baritone Sergey Khalikulov made a clear, open sound & was a snazzy Dulcamara. I enjoyed hearing soprano Sabrina Romero's high, warbling & youthful voice as Giannetta.

The orchestra's playing was secure & balanced, & conductor Scott Sandmeier led with gentle tempos, though there were occasional coordination problems between singers & orchestra. The chorus of about 16 sounded cohesive & easily made a big sound in that hall. They also did a maypole dance to end act 1.

The audience laughed at all the jokes & gave the performers a standing ovation. Two latecomers during the 1st half were not hesitant to walk directly in front of the orchestra to reach their seats on the opposite side of the auditorium. My opera companion & I happened to be seated next to the woman who also sat next to me at La Cleopatra a few weeks ago.

§ L'elisir d'amore
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
Scott Sandmeier, conductor
Jose Maria Condemi, stage director
Members of the SFCM Opera program and Conservatory Orchestra

Adina............Evan Kardon
Giannetta......Sabrina Romero
Nemorino......Mario Rojas
Belcore.........Daniel Cameron
Dulcamara.....Sergey Khalikulov

Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall
Saturday, 04 April, 2015 | 07:30 PM SFCM: L'elisir d'amore

Trevor Paglen at Altman Siegel

This week I checked out the handful of works by conceptual artist Trevor Paglen at the Altman Seigel gallery at 49 Geary. Mr. Paglen investigates secrecy, communications technology & government surveillance, & though his art is part documentary, it is not self-explanatory. Code Names of the Surveillance State is a video scroll of the nerdy, boastful & funny names of NSA spying programs. Large photographs of people at the beach are paired with annotated maps revealing that these are also landing sites & choke points for the undersea cables carrying the world's Internet traffic.

Inside a curtained room, a projected video gives us a long, continuous shot of the GCHQ's UFO-like headquarters, filmed from an aerial camera that circles the building & occasional zooms in on cars & employees.

This sculpture of computer parts sealed in a plexiglass container looks like a skinned Power Mac G4 Cube, but it's a functioning wi-fi hotspot which communicates with Websites through the Tor network, a protocol designed to disguise a Web user's location. It is difficult to give concrete, visual form to subjects that are by nature hidden & recondite, but I found the exhibit a bit spooky nonetheless.

§ Trevor Paglen
March 5 – May 2, 2015
Altman Siegel
49 Geary Street, San Francisco

Spring Book Sale at Fort Mason

This week is the Spring Book Sale at Fort Mason, where people buy used books, CDs & DVDs by the shopping cart. Prices are $1 - $3, & everything goes for $1 on Sunday. Though the books are sorted into piles by general categories, it's very much about browsing.

§ 5th Annual Spring Book Sale
Friends of the San Francisco Public Library
Fort Mason Center’s Festival Pavilion
April 1-5th, 2015
10 AM-6 PM every day

Salon at the Rex: Saeunn Thorsteinsdottir

Last week I heard Icelandic cellist Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir give a solo recital in the Salon at the Rex. The somber & introspective program paired Bach's Cello Suite in C major with Britten's Suite for Solo Cello #3, which has a theme clearly based on the Bach. I was immediately struck by the dark, chocolately sound of Ms. Thorsteinsdóttir's cello, & her playing was soft & had no rough edges. She displayed a rhythmic freedom that made her performance feel ruminative & personal. The eerie opening of the Britten, with its stretched notes, silences & pizzicato, was effective in the small space, & Ms. Thorsteinsdóttir executed the piece's many technical challenges with nonchalance.

The program continued with the slightly hypnotic Portrait, by New York-based composer Jane Antonia Cornish. Its non-stop arpeggios create the illusion of multiple voices. Ms. Thorsteinsdóttir concluded with her own arrangement of an Icelandic folk song. She explained that the song's last line, "You know what I mean," refers to something unspoken, & its mood was fittingly forlorn.

The lights were dimmed for this performance, & the salon attendees were quiet & attentive listeners. A Q&A followed, & we learned that Ms. Thorsteinsdóttir recently performed in Abu Dhabi. The audience was interested to see how she read the music off an iPad, using a foot pedal to turn the pages.

§ Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir, cello
Salon at the Rex

J.S. Bach: Suite in C major BWV 1009
B. Britten: Suite for Solo Cello #3 op. 87
Jane Antonia Cornish: "Portrait" for Solo Cello

Encore:
Icelandic folksong, arranged by the performer

Wednesday, March 25, 2015
6:30pm
Hotel Rex

Wolf Hall Preview

Last Saturday afternoon at the Castro Theatre, KQED hosted a free preview of the 1st episode of Wolf Hall, the TV serialization of Hilary Mantel's historical novel about the court of Henry VIII. The screening was introduced by Bud Gundy, who reassured us that this was not a pledge break. The show looks like what one would expect of a Masterpiece Theatre drama & is filled with authoritative acting & opulent period costumes & settings. Mark Rylance is a chilly but benign Thomas Cromwell. His character is at the center of every scene, a hand-held camera often following him in & out. Damian Lewis portrays a fit Henry VIII, as opposed to an obese sybarite wielding a turkey leg.

Older females made up the majority of the audience, & my movie companion suggested that Wolf Hall was Game of Thrones for public television. He also admitted that he tried to read the novel but couldn't get through it, though seeing this inspired him to try again. It was nice to hear the Castro's organ before the show, but none of the selections appeared to be from the Tudor period.

§ KQED presents MASTERPIECE: Wolf Hall starring Mark Rylance and Damian Lewis
Wolf Hall Preview
Saturday, March 28 at 1pm
The Castro Theatre

§ Upcoming Broadcasts:
KQED 9: Sun, Apr 5, 2015
KQED 9: Mon, Apr 6, 2015
KQED Life: Tue, Apr 7, 2015
KQED Life: Wed, Apr 8, 2015

SFIFF58 Opening Press Conference

Yesterday morning the San Francisco Film Society held the opening press conference for the 58th San Francisco International Film Festival, which runs April 23 to May 7. Executive Director Noah Cowan gave us an overview of this year's films & events, along with programmers Rachel Rosen, Rod Armstrong, Sean Uyehara & Audrey Chang.

The printed program groups over 180 films under blurry categories like "Masters," "Global Visions" & "Vanguard" but is difficult to navigate. There is definitely a strand about technology, starting with opening night film Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine, a new documentary by Alex Gibney. Mr. Gibney will also be interviewed onstage in a separate Cinema Visionaries event. Alex Winter's documentary Deep Web explores the trial of Silk Road owner Ross Ulbricht. Special effects master Douglas Trumbull will discuss new immersive cinema experiences in a State of Cinema talk, & Nonny de la Peña will talk about using technology to create immersive journalism.

Guillermo del Toro & Richard Gere are among the special guests receiving awards. Performance artist Miranda July will do a live event involving audience participation. The Kronos Quartet will accompany a film constructed from World War I footage. Films about music include a Brian Wilson biopic & documentaries about Nina Simone & The Residents. The documentaries City of Gold, about food critic Jonathan Gold, & Very Semi-Serious, a look at The New Yorker's cartoonists, should be entertaining. Monte-Cristo, a 3-and-a-half-hour French silent film from 1929, will be presented with a recorded soundtrack as part of an afternoon with subtitler Lenny Borger.

Ms. Rosen announced 3 films not in printed program: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, The Overnight & Ride, with Helen Hunt acting, directing & writing. Mr. Cowan tried to end the event without a Q&A, but a few media representatives piped up with questions anyway. I felt sorry for the publicity staff, who had to check in attendees using a multi-page list that did not have our names in alphabetical order.

§ Festival Website | Film Finder | Calendar | Program Guide PDF | Tickets

§ Opening Press Conference
March 31, 2015
The Crown Room of the Fairmont San Francisco

§ 58th San Francisco International Film Festival
April 23 - May 7, 2015

NCCO Open Rehearsal

This morning I heard an open rehearsal for this week's concerts by the New Century Chamber Orchestra, featuring violinist Glenn Dicterow as their guest concertmaster. The rehearsal began with Holst's St. Paul's Suite. The orchestra worked on the movements out of sequence & brought out the dance element in each. It was nice hearing Mr. Dicterow's warm, seamless sound in the solos. His tone remains sweet even when he's playing very high notes. He was friendly & relaxed, & he kept the mood of the rehearsal light. The 19-member ensemble is conductorless, so the musicians spend a lot of time discussing among themselves issues such as tempo, cueing & the character of the music.

Mr. Dicterow did more leading when they played Grieg's Two Nordic Melodies, & their performance sounded cohesive already. The music is beautifully song-like, & Mr. Dicterow clearly loves it. His playing had bite in the rhythmic final section, which he called a "hoedown."

The rehearsal ended with run-throughs of all 3 movements of Mozart's Divertimento in D. The orchestra's playing was at first robust & vigorous, but Mr. Dicterow thought it felt too pushed & suggested ways to make it more elegant & light. The full program also includes Brahms's Sextet for Strings, which we did not hear. The musicians clearly enjoyed playing with Mr. Dicterow, & he told us how welcoming they had been & how amazing he thought they were.

The audience lined up for coffee & donuts during the break. A school group from, I think, Antioch made up a large portion of the attendees. They were perfectly quiet & better behaved than some of the adults who freely came & went while the musicians were playing.

§ New Century Chamber Orchestra
Program 3. Dicterow Leads Brahms and Mozart
Glenn Dicterow, Guest Concertmaster

Mozart: Divertimento in D Major K. 136
Grieg: Two Nordic Melodies, Op. 63
Holst: St. Paul’s Suite, Op. 29, No. 2
Brahms: Sextet for Strings No. 1 in Bb Major, Op. 18

Open Rehearsal
Wednesday, March 4, 2015, 10am, Kanbar Performing Arts Center

Berkeley
Thursday, March 5, 2015, 8pm, First Congregational Church

Palo Alto
Friday, March 6, 2015, 8pm, First United Methodist Church

San Francisco
Saturday, March 7, 2015, 8pm, Nourse Auditorium

San Rafael
Sunday, March 8, 2015, 5pm, Osher Marin Jewish Community Center

Relighting of the Ferry Building

This evening, in commemoration of the centenary of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, the City lit up the Ferry Building with a big "1915." This recreates the building's lighting display during the fair. The lights look Christmasy & will stay on until December 4th, the date the fair closed.

When I arrived to see the lights turned on, a small ceremony was being held across the street from the building. Charlotte Mailliard Shultz, Willie Brown & Mayor Ed Lee were among the speakers.

A comparison with old photographs shows that the new lights fall a bit short of replicating the original display.

§ Relighting of the Ferry Building
Tuesday, March 3, 2015, 6:15
1 Ferry building

BarelyOpera

Last night I was at the Rickshaw Stop for BarelyOpera, a pop-up musical evening featuring SF Opera Adler Fellows Zanda Švēde, Maria Valdes, Julie Adams, Edward Nelson, Efraín Solís, Chong Wang & Anthony Reed. The SF Opera, aiming beyond its traditional audience, publicized the event primarily through social media. When I arrived 5 minutes before the doors opened, the line was already down the block, & I was surrounded by a lot of people I don't think I normally see at the opera.

The program was a mix of opera & musical theater & was partly determined by audience members who spun a wheel to randomly select the next number. The venue was packed, & the atmosphere was lively & fun. My favorite part was hearing people applaud & cheer spontaneously during the arias, something I can imagine happening in 18th century opera houses before it all got so serious.

The young Adler Fellows were very appealing in this setting. Baritone Efraín Solís engaged with the audience through his convivial personality as well as his hearty singing, & he took a selfie with us. Baritone Eddie Nelson took me by surprise with his tasteful & lovely renditions of Noël Coward songs, even accompanying himself on the piano. Tenor Chong Wang literally ended the show on a high note with glorious renditions of "Nessun dorma" & "O sole mio."

Robert Mollicone was the night's excellent emcee, & he was both sincere & funny. At one point he got all the singers to yodel for Yahoo's 20th anniversary. Slides projected behind the singers provided hilariously modern translations, as well as informative factoids about the composers & the music. Costumed supers from the opera greeted guests, & there was a rack of costumes for attendees to try on themselves. There were door prizes from the SF Opera, & I received a packet of pop rocks on the way out. For those who stayed, a dance party immediately followed. All this for $10!

§ BarelyOpera
SF Opera Adler Fellows
Robert Mollicone, emcee
Noah Linquist & Ronny Greenberg, piano

Program, as much as I can remember:

Habanera from Carmen
Zanda Švēde

"Là ci darem la mano" from Don Giovanni
Maria Valdes & Edward Nelson

''Tirannia gli diede il regno'' from Rodelinda
Efraín Solís

"If Love Were All" by Noël Coward
Edward Nelson

"La donna è mobile" from Rigoletto
Chong Wang

"Ol' Man River" from Porgy & Bess
Anthony Reed

Flower Duet from Lakmé
Julie Adams & Zanda Švēde

"O Isis and Osiris" from Die Zauberflöte
Anthony Reed

"Fin ch' han dal vino" from Don Giovanni
Edward Nelson

"Make them hear you" from Ragtime
Efraín Solís

"O mio babbino caro" from Gianni Schicchi
Maria Valdez

"Mad about the Boy" by Noël Coward
Edward Nelson

"Nessun Dorma" from Turandot
Chong Wang

"O sole mio"
Chong Wang

Monday, March 2, 2015 at 8:00 PM
The Rickshaw Stop

ABS: St. Matthew Passion

Derek Chester

Sunday afternoon I heard American Bach Soloists deliver a spotless performance of the St. Matthew Passion, done with just one person per part. The singers were arrayed behind the orchestra, & 8 soloists sang both the arias & the choruses. Their combined voices were strong, & the choruses sounded incisive & convincing. 16 additional singers, representing the congregation, joined in the chorales & the opening & closing choruses. The Pacific Boychoir, sounding neat & poised, sang in both the opening chorus & the chorale at the end of part 1.

Tenor Derek Chester sounded sweet as the Evangelist, & his performance was much more like singing than declaiming. He was so consistently lyrical that the one or two times his voice had a slight hiccup, it was very noticeable. Baritone William Sharp sang Jesus plus the aria "Mache dich," & he conveyed maturity, softness & calm.

Agnes Vojtko, singing alto 1, made an earthy, grounded sound & sang with urgency. Clara Rottsolk sang the soprano 2 arias with a full, liquid voice & supple phrasing. Countertenor Jay Carter, as alto 2, had firm high notes, & his upper & lower registers were seamlessly connected. Soprano 1 Hélène Brunet's voice was light, high & a bit warbling. Charles Blandy as tenor 1 sounded bright & ringing, & 2nd tenor Jon Lee Keenan had a focused, slightly raw sound. Bass 1 Thomas Meglioranza made a big, open sound & projected the text well. Bass 2 Joshua Copeland sounded even & flexible.

Every number was meticulously prepared, & the orchestra played cleanly. Violinists Elizabeth Blumenstock & Tekla Cunningham & flutist Janet See executed their obbligato parts with virtuosity. Gamba player William Skeen accompanied "Komm, süßes Kreuz" immaculately & even squeezed a few extra notes into his already complicated part. Debra Nagy played multiple reed instruments with a steady, viscous sound. Conductor Jeffrey Thomas led with somewhat square tempos.

ABS audiences are extremely dedicated, & they were quiet & conscientious throughout, though someone's cell phone rang several times during the 2nd half. The owner apparently could not hear it. The performers received a standing ovation, cheers & even foot stamping from the audience. During the intermission someone reported being seated next to a father with a restless 4-year-old child. My concert companion was struck by the youth of many of the performers & was impressed by Mr. Chester's new facial hair.

§ Bach: St. Matthew Passion
American Bach Soloists
Jeffrey Thomas, conductor

Derek Chester, tenor (Evangelista)
William Sharp, baritone (Christus)

Hélène Brunet & Clara Rottsolk, sopranos
Agnes Vojtko, mezzo-soprano - Jay Carter, countertenor
Charles Blandy & Jon Lee Keenan, tenors
Thomas Meglioranza & Joshua Copeland, baritones
American Bach Choir & Pacific Boychoir
 
Sunday March 1 2015 4:00 p.m.
St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, San Francisco