Longplayer Live

This past Saturday I was awake for 20 hours straight, to attend the 1,000 minute excerpt of Jem Finer's Longplayer at YBCA. Longplayer is a conceptual piece of music that takes 1,000 years to unfold. It is currently being performed by a computer at a lighthouse in London, but it is also possible for musicians to perform it live, which is what I witnessed on Saturday. The instrument consists of curved tables arranged in 6 concentric rings, representing a sort of planetary system. The instrument covered almost the entire floor of the YBCA's Forum room, leaving only a narrow space along the walls for the audience. The players strike & rub singing bowls arranged on the tables according to an algorithm that cycles, with slight shifts, every 2 minutes. The bowls are in a range of sizes, & the lowest ones you can feel vibrating through the floor. The bowls were amplified, which unfortunately flattened out the sound. The motion of the music is stately & slow. Sometimes several bowls resonate at once, creating elaborate, beating overtones. Patterns of chimes move in & out of phase. In the late evening a drone began on one of the lower pitches, & it continued until the end of the performance. Perhaps the most natural response to the music is to sit on the floor & meditate, which I saw one woman do for over an hour in the late afternoon.

The purpose of Longplayer is to explore issues of long-term continuity. Because of the performance aspect, Longplayer probably does an even better job than the Clock of the Long Now of raising questions about sustainability. 18 musicians played in one-hour shifts to keep the piece going for the 1,000 minutes. The act of one player handing his stopwatch & mallet to another player was a metaphor for the passing down of cultural traditions.

My ticket for this event allowed me to wander in & out of the performance, as well as to attend the Long Conversation, a 6 hour marathon of talks at the Contemporary Jewish Museum. I had hoped to hear Danny Hillis speak, but he had to cancel due to illness. I did get to hear Stewart Brand, though, who made an interesting connection between Longplayer & the practice of change ringing. I also took advantage of entrance to the CJM to view the happy Maira Kalman show.

I was present when the music began at 7am, when there were more performers than audience. Altogether I heard about 4 hours of the piece. I was curious to see how they would end it, so I was back for the final hour, when there were about 40 audience members. The composer was in the rotation, & at 11:40pm he struck a pair of hand cymbals twice, at which point the musicians dropped out one by one as the lights dimmed. The ensuing silence was so pure that the only sound was the hum of the sound system. After perhaps 2 minutes, someone broke the spell by starting applause. When someone jokingly yelled, "Encore!", one of the musicians replied, "Come back in a thousand years!"

As I was about to leave, someone put a glass of champagne in my hand. I may have been mistaken for a staff member of Longplayer. So I stayed around to hear the director of the Long Now & the composer give their thanks to the assembled participants. I also chatted briefly with one of the musicians, who introduced himself as "Mole." I was glad to hear that the experience of playing the piece does not feel rote or mechanical & that the musicians do plenty of listening while they perform.

§ Longplayer Live
Saturday October 16, 02010 - San Francisco, CA
Longplayer 7am-11:40pm at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Long Conversation 3pm-9pm at the Contemporary Jewish Museum

APE 2010

I was at both days of the Alternative Press Expo this weekend, which has expanded significantly. Someone told me there were at least 50 more vendors than last year. There seemed to be a lot more illustration art, professionally printed books & stuff that I would file under "too many art schools." Almost the first thing I saw was a copy of Adam Levin's audacious 1,000+ page novel The Instructions, which is thicker than any book I've seen except for a dictionary.

Fortunately there are still plenty of scrappy characters around. As always, it was a treat to catch up with that phenomenon known as Justin Hall, who proudly gave me a peek at full-color pages of his up-coming Glamazonia collection. It was also fun to buy a copy of Phase 7 from Alec Longstreth, whose beard is much more impressive in person than in his drawings. The creator of Buttersafe practically jumped over his table to make sure I did not walk by without a copy of his comic. I enjoyed chatting with Neil Brideau, who works at Quimby's in Chicago. He is someone I need to start following.

I sought out Nick Mullins to pick up the latest installment of his intricate & freaky Carnivale story. There are at least 3 more parts to come, & I am trying to be patient. I also could not resist Reid Psaltis's creepy drawings of cryptids. Jakc Designs sold little smiling hamburgers & steamed jiaozi made of felt, whose cuteness can only be described as criminal.

Alternative Press Expo
October 16 - 17
Concourse Exhibition Center

The Social Network

I was surprised that when we got to the Metreon to see the facebook movie on Friday night, the 8:35pm show was sold out. We saw the next show an hour later, & it was quite full too. I was kept busy following the talky plot & its barrage of events, but I found the movie uninteresting. I was not convinced by the attempt to make this a love story in the final moments. The only scene I got caught up in was when I was rooting for Eduardo to put out the wastebasket fire set by his crazy Asian girlfriend. I've been more impressed by the inescapable publicity surrounding the film. Every media stream I consume, even those not focused on movies or the tech industry, has mentioned it.

§ The Social Network
Director: David Fincher

Alex Ross at Cal Performances

I was happy to catch New Yorker music critic Alex Ross last night on the Berkeley campus. In what he warned us would be a "slightly massive" talk, Mr. Ross discussed chaconnes, laments & descending bass lines through 4 centuries of music. The material comes from the 2nd chapter of his new book, Listen to This, though in the live talk Mr. Ross plays musical clips to illustrate his points. He often juxtaposes musical examples in surprising & revealing ways. To demonstrate the resurgence of Baroque-style chromatic descending bass lines in popular music, he has an amusing 1960s medley that makes the point without further explanation. The well-culled selection of clips includes performances by Carlos Kleiber, Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson, Bob Dylan, Segovia & Nina Simone. It sometimes felt like Mr. Ross was an old friend spinning up some of his favorite disks for us. He even snuck in a recording of his cat's mew.

Wheeler Hall was nearly full & the audience contained many baby boomers for whom the 1960s selections no doubt had special significance. After his talk, which lasted over an hour, Mr. Ross stuck around to chat with people. I'm afraid I was a demanding fan, asking him to sign my copy of his book, complaining that I finished reading it far too quickly, & then blaming him for being the catalyst for my acquaintance with certain bloggers.

To round out the evening, I had the pleasure of meeting The Standing Room at long last. In the past we have managed to avoid one another even when in the same place. He was charmingly disappointed that The Opera Tattler was not in costume, though she reported that she was nearly denied entry into Disneyland recently due to an outfit which was deemed a "costume" by the park staff.

Cal Performances

Alex Ross

Chacona, Lamento, Walking Blues; Bass Lines of Music History

Thursday, October 14, 2010, 8pm

Wheeler Auditorium

Fleet Week

After hearing sonic booms over my neighborhood for the past 2 days, I accepted that if you can't beat 'em... So I walked to the Marina Green & joined the crowds at this afternoon's air show. It has been clear & cool this weekend, so one could not ask for better weather. I have to admit that I still get a thrill when I watch the Blue Angels roll in formation or fly so close that they look like they are going to fall on top of me. Stunt pilot Sean Tucker was one of their warm-up acts & performed spectacular maneuvers in a bright red, Oracle-branded bi-plane. There is something very human about his routine & the way he makes that plane corkscrew, somersault & tilt. At several points the plane hovers vertically, in defiance of gravity, & it seems to be a man with outstretched arms. I was close enough to the loudspeakers to hear the music & commentary that goes with the show. It was a bit freaky when they switched to Mr. Tucker's cockpit & he told the audience, through excited laughter, that the air show celebrates our American freedoms.

One end of the Marina Green had big inflatable structures for kids to play in. The weirdest attraction, though, was one in which an eager child is sealed in a large clear plastic balloon, which is then inflated & tossed into a wading pool. The kids flopped around in them like hamsters in a ball.





San Francisco Fleet Week
October 7 - 12, 2010

Saturday & Sunday: Full Air Show beginning at 1:00 and ending with the Blue Angels at 3:00-4:00pm. Excellent viewing along the waterfront from Marina Green to PIER 39.

Toy Theaters

Yesterday afternoon I went to see a small exhibit of paper toy theaters at the Museum of Performance & Design. The MPD's gallery space is the hallway going around the atrium on the 4th floor of the Veterans Building. The galley space feels peripheral in more ways than one. A law library occupies the central atrium.

The exhibit consists of modern toy theaters models plus original lithographic sheets containing sets & lively figures to cut out & place in the theaters. The exhibition notes that the layering of planes that create the illusion of depth in these toys is the same technique used by the multiplane camera on display at the Walt Disney Family Museum. Despite their size, the models have a lot of pictorial detail. The plays performed on them were sensational & exotic, as evidenced by scenes from "The Burning of Troy" & "The Explosion of the Mill" on display. A contemporary model depicts a scene from Turandot performed by pigs. The gallery provides a useful reference sheet for the exhibit, which includes links to wackily impressive fan sites.

I also took a quick walk through the other exhibits, which focus on the Bay Area performance scene. I learned that San Francisco's first performance of Wagner's Ring took place in 1900 at Morosco's Grand Opera House on Mission St. It was a touring production from Grau Metropolitan Grand Opera, & San Francisco gave them their greatest advance sale outside of New York. We were mad for opera even then.

Museum of Performance & Design
Toy Theatres: Worlds in Miniature
The exhibition is scheduled to run through the end of 2010

Walt Disney Family Museum

This weekend the Walt Disney Family Museum in the Presidio has been celebrating its one year anniversary. I've been wanting to check out the museum, so I attended their Saturday Night Soiree, mainly to take advantage of the half-off admission. Apart from the evening hour, the only other thing that made it feel like a soiree was the sale of beverages in the lobby.

This boutique-like museum is not affiliated with the Disney company, & its focus is on Walt Disney the man, though it is impossible to separate him from his studio. The collection is extensive, including everything from Walt's baptismal certificate to cartoon tributes upon his death. A bench from Griffith Park somehow made its way into the museum as well. The 1st rooms focus on Walt's early life & first animation studio in Kansas City, Missouri. To get to the next galleries, one takes an elevator decked out like a train car, the elevator ride representing the Disney brothers' move to California. Subsequent galleries contain a wealth of documentation about the Disney studio, its films & projects. Video screens & interactive kiosks make available tons of additional material. There is really far too much to take in on one visit. Just when you think you're at the last gallery, you turn a corner to find even more. A spectacular room near the end features a model of Disneyland as Disney last envisioned it.

There were perhaps 40 people lined up when the doors opened for this event. Many of the attendees were Asian, & there were some families, though the museum is not really for children. The museum staff, in purple bellhop uniforms, all seem to be Disney fanatics themselves & have clearly received exemplary customer service training.

Saturday Night Soiree

Walt Disney Family Museum

6 PM to 9PM on Saturday, October 2

A Film Unfinished

I saw this eerie holocaust documentary this afternoon. The basis for the documentary is a silent film shot by the Nazis on location in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942. At first, this film appears to document life in the ghetto, some of it looking comfortable, most of it brutal. A reel of outtakes reveals that it is actually staged, even street scenes showing SS men dispersing a crowd.

A Film Unfinished presents the raw documentary footage plus the outtakes, thoughtfully intercut with interviews of former ghetto residents watching the film & excerpts from an evasive post-war deposition by the cameraman Willy Wist. As one would expect, the images are visceral & powerful, especially the piercing, emaciated faces of the ghetto residents. Just as powerful is the modern-day footage of a ghetto survivor averting her eyes from the film at its most horrific moments. Because the ultimate purpose of the Nazi film is unclear, this documentary unfolds like a mystery story without a solution.

This is not something that is going to cheer anybody up, but it treats the content with an almost surgical calm & gives you room to think as well as to react. I like that the ghetto survivors are listed as "Witnesses" in the closing credits. Many of the people who attended the screening came in supplied with popcorn, snacks & soft drinks. I would not recommend this, as the film is replete with images of starvation.

A Film Unfinished

Director: Yael Hersonski

At Opera Plaza Cinema

PIXAR: 25 Years of Animation

This afternoon I visited the Oakland Museum to see the PIXAR exhibit. I've actually been excited to see this, but was waiting for the summer crowds to go away. It's a large show of the preliminary art for the Pixar films. Much of it is still done by hand. There are finished works in pencil, pastel, oil, gouache, acrylic & collage. I really liked the wall-sized colorscripts, which are high-level story boards showing the over-all mood & color scheme of an entire movie. Lou Romano's colorscript for The Incredibles is strikingly bold, with its flat colors & nearly abstract style.

I was especially eager to see the 3D Pixar Zoetrope. It is a turntable about 6 feet across, carrying life-size models of Toy Story characters. Once the turntable spins up, a strobe light comes on, & the models jump to life. It's magic. The Pixar Artscape installation is a 15 minute film projected on a screen about 5 times as wide as it is tall. It evokes the landscapes of the Pixar films, & one feels immersed in a richly textured world.

The show really has a lot, & there are many gems. I love the satirical drawing by Dominque R. Louis of Sullivan as a hairy blue monster in glasses & a tie, looking like a corporate drone. Neftali Alvarez's model of Carl Fredricksen's house is complete from all sides, even the bottom. Simón Vladimir Varela drew eerie seascapes in charcoal for Nemo. Videos provide behind-the-scenes glimpses of the artists & the production process.

The young children I saw seemed to enjoy running through the maze-like galleries more than looking at the art. Their behavior confirms that Pixar's target audience is really adults.

PIXAR: 25 Years of Animation
Oakland Museum of California
July 31 - January 9, 2011

Up-coming: Heidi Melton at Noe Valley Chamber Music

Another chance to hear soprano Heidi Melton: I see that she is now on the calendar of Noe Valley Chamber Music for Sunday, November 7 at 4:00pm. The note says she replaces Eleazar Rodriquez, who must have been booked before he got his European gig. Instead of her usual recital partner John Parr, pianist Allen Perriello will accompany her. Apparently the program will be opera arias. NVCM is in a small church venue. I attended once before, & I think we all just sat in folding chairs, which we helped put away afterward.

Free for All

I spent a few hours on Sunday at Cal Performances's first Free for All, a day of free performances on the U.C. Berkeley campus. Since they had performances happening simultaneously in different venues, one could sample only a fraction of the offerings. At 11am I showed up at Hertz Hall for an ample hour-long guitar recital by Marc Teicholz. I had planned to hear Teslim at Wheeler Hall at noon, but by the time I got there the venue was full. In fact the venue filled for every performance I attended. Cal Performances seemed well-prepared for the large turnout. Staffers in blue t-shirts made sure people got into lines & received programs & that performances more or less started on time.

I went back to Hertz Hall for the San Francisco Opera Adler Fellows concert with sopranos Leah Crocetto & Sara Gartland, tenor Brian Jagde & pianist Tamara Sanikidze. Cal Performances Director Matías Tarnopolsky was on hand to introduce the performers & announce a 10% discount on single tickets purchased that day by Free for All attendees. The singers performed familiar opera scenes, starting with Sull'aria from Le Nozze di Figaro. The sopranos got a laugh when Ms. Crocetto, as the Countess, pulled out her iPhone & handed it to Ms. Gartland's Susanna, who typed out her message to the Count on it. Hertz Hall has a great acoustic for singers, & Ms. Crocetto's large voice felt like a physical force in that room.

I then headed to Zellerbach Hall where the line was so long that it already went out to the sidewalk & down into the underground parking lot. Once we got in, though, I was rewarded with a seat 3 rows from the stage. David Lenventhal & John Heginbotham of the Mark Morris Dance Group led people on stage & in the auditorium in some of Morris's witty choreography. The obvious glee with which everyone participated made me realize that even when we are audience members, deep in our hearts we really want to be the performers.

Fall Free for All!
Open House at Cal Performances
Sun, Sept 26, 11 am-6 pm
Zellerbach Hall, Lower Sproul Plaza,
Wheeler Auditorium, and Hertz Hall
Free and Open to the Public

NCCO: An Evening with Edgar Meyer

On Saturday night I was at the New Century Chamber Orchestra's season opener, featuring bassist Edgar Meyer. In the opening Rossini String Sonata in G, NCCO's own bassist, Anthony Manzo, played his solos with excellent intonation & a pleasing, soft-edged sound. It is always possible to pick out his sound, & yet he somehow also blends very well with the rest of the ensemble. During one of his solos, a cell phone with a xylophone ring tone went off, seemingly in time to the music.

Edgar Meyer first played the Prelude to the Bach Cello Suite No. 2 in d minor. His playing draws the listener in & is surprisingly intimate. In the virtuoso Bottesini concerto, Mr. Meyer was an unshowy but impressive soloist. His motions are efficient & effortless. He modestly wore a blue shirt, with the sleeves rolled up, & a bow tie. My concert companion was amused by the comfortable way Mr. Meyer leaned on his instrument when playing. Mr. Meyer received an immediate standing ovation, at which point his bow somehow flopped out of his hands, to gasps from the audience. As an encore, he gave us a light & jazzy improvisation in which he plucked & slapped the strings instead of bowing.

In the bleak Shostakovich String Quartet No. 8, the orchestra made much of the rough & violent middle sections, really digging in. Principal cellist Susan Babini played her soft solos with great control. At the beginning of the evening, leader & music director Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg announced that the final piece, the Adagietto from Mahler 5, would be recorded for the group's up-coming CD, & she requested our quiet. I think we were very silent.

The NCCO is conductorless, & the musicians do a good job cuing each other, though I am sometimes visually distracted by Ms. Salerno-Sonnenberg's movements. There was certainly nothing tentative about entrances or the sustained pianissimos that ended both the Shostakovich & Mahler. I liked the enthusiastic Herbst Theatre audience, which clapped for individual movements of the Rossini & Bottesini. At the end of the intermission, I was entertained to learn that a 12 year old girl who studies the bass was taken backstage & was thrilled to meet Mr. Meyer.

New Century Chamber Orchestra
An Evening with Edgar Meyer

Rossini: Sonata No. 1 in G major
Bottesini: Concerto for String Bass No. 2 in B minor
Edgar Meyer, bass
Mahler: Adagietto from Symphony No. 5
Shostakovich (arr. Barshai): Chamber Symphony in C minor (Op. 110a)

Saturday, September 25 at 8pm
Herbst Theatre

Central Market Arts Preview

Straight from the SF Symphony's noon concert, I took the 14-Mission to Mint Plaza, where a free dance program was underway. Mint Plaza is this unlikely corridor around the Old Mint building, on one of the seediest blocks in the area. It feels set apart from the surrounding streets. There are a couple of fancy restaurants & the laboratory-like Mint Plaza Cafe.

A couple of young woman were at the entrance, waving giant we're-number-one gloves to attract attention into the plaza. I saw dances from Robert Moses Kin, KUNST-STOFF & LEVYdance. There was quite a bit of down time between dances as technicians fiddled with the sound system. During one of the pieces, a woman, perhaps from the neighborhood, sat herself close to the stage & did shoulder stands & kicked her legs in the air. Cops kept a close eye on her after that.

This afternoon's program was a preview event for 24 Days of Central Market Arts, a schedule of performances & art shows in the area. Free performances will be taking place in Mint Plaza all weekend.

24 Days of Central Market Arts
Sneak Peek
Friday, September 24 1-2 pm
Mint Plaza
(Fifth Street between Market & Mission Streets)

SFS: Free Noontime Concert

The gorgeous weather today made it seem foolish to miss the San Francisco Symphony's annual free concert at Justin Herman Plaza today. This is a good sign for outdoor events going on in the City this weekend. Since the sun was really shining down on the plaza, I sat in a shady spot off to the side & ate my lunch during the music. The event was introduced by KDFC's Rick Malone, though Maestro MTT announced each piece. The Symphony is back from its European tour, & MTT proudly crowed, "We knocked their socks off!"

The orchestra sounded surprisingly fresh. Berlioz's Roman Carnival Overture was played with real bite. The opening movement of Beethoven's 5th was measured & emphatic but not ponderous. The Ferry Building clock struck the half hour right before the orchestra launched into the Overture to The Flying Dutchman, which was played with urgency. MTT then sandwiched in a frolicking ballet piece from Delibes. Its brass fanfares were quite clean. The orchestra was light on its feet for the final movement of Tchaikovsky's 4th, which ended the concert.

I'm beginning to wonder how they put up that huge covered stage for these outdoor concerts. I've seen it at least 3 times now this year.

San Francisco Symphony
Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor

Berlioz
Roman Carnival Overture

Beethoven
Allegro con brio from Symphony No. 5

Wagner
Overture to The Flying Dutchman

Delibes
Cortège de Bacchus from Sylvia Suite

Tchaikovsky
Finale: Allegro con fuoco from Symphony No. 4

Fri, Sep 24, 2010 12:00pm
Justin Herman Plaza

SFO: Figaro

Last night I was glad to be at the first night of SF Opera's Figaro. I enjoyed the strong casting in both the large & small roles. Luca Pisaroni has a fresh, bright-sounding voice, & his Figaro is youthful, swaggering & angry. Danielle de Niese is a plucky Susanna, both vocally & visually pretty. She & Figaro were a frisky couple. Lucas Meachem's warm & even voice was a good contrast to Pisaroni. His Count was often frustrated but not too menacing. Ellie Dehn's Countess was civilized & restrained, in both singing & acting. John Del Carlo was terrific as Dr. Bartolo, & Greg Fedderly was hilariously distateful as Don Basilio, in Act I sniffing the Countess's laundry & grotesquely squeezing a pimple on his face. Even in the minor part of the drunkard Antonio, Bojan Kneževiċ raised the level of the ensembles with his copious bass-baritone.

Nicola Luisotti led a reduced orchestra, & the tempos were consistently fast. For the first time, his lack of precision bothered me, though the speedy pace did give me the feeling that the whole opera takes place in one frenetic day. In the last act the music did pause briefly for a moment of pathos for the Countess. Maestro Luisotti also manned the fortepiano for the recitatives, occasionally interjecting with a sassy musical aside or a bit of a Mozart piano sonata.

The familiar staging by John Copley is traditional & good-humored, & the audience laughed in all the right places. With only 1 intermission, the whole thing lasts just under 3 1/2 hours. During the 5 minute scene changes, many members of the audience stood like it was the 7th inning stretch. Following the performance, General Director David Gockley presented Mr.Copley with the San Francisco Opera Medal. Since 1982, only 6 seasons have passed without one of his productions. After citing some of the famous singers who have received the medal in the past, Mr. Copley said he was proud to be on the diva list at last.

I spent part of the evening in the tow of the Opera Tattler, who introduced me to Adler Fellows David Lomeli & Leah Crocetto as if they were old friends, which I guess they are! Ms. Crocetto is covering the Countess for these performances. I also witnessed the Opera Tattler & the Last Chinese Unicorn, those partners in crime, plotting their next opera star interview on their trip to LA Opera this weekend.

San Francisco Opera

Le Nozze di Figaro

Conductor: Nicola Luisotti

Director: John Copley

Figaro: Luca Pisaroni

Susanna: Danielle de Niese

Countess Almaviva: Ellie Dehn

Cherubino: Michèle Losier

Count Almaviva: Lucas Meachem

Marcellina: Catherine Cook

Don Basilio: Greg Fedderly

Doctor Bartolo: John Del Carlo

Don Curzio: Robert MacNeil

Antonio: Bojan Kneževiċ

Barbarina: Sara Gartland

First bridesmaid: Mary Finch

Second bridesmaid: Erin Neff

War Memorial Opera House

Tue Sep 21 2010 8pm

Up-coming: Faux Real

I'm glad to see that performance artist Monique Jenkinson aka Fauxnique is back with her solo show Faux Real at the Climate Theater for the next 3 weeks. I had a great time when I saw this last year, & she has promised surprises for those seeing it again. I hope that her yoga-practising Madonna is still in the show. For the classically inclined, there were homages to Maria Callas & Swan Lake.

Faux Real with Fauxnique at the Climate Theater

September 22 – Oct 9

Wednesday – Saturday at 8PM

BabyO

Through this article in Monday's Wall Street Journal, I learned of this Scottish Opera production called BabyO, a 30-minute opera "Suitable for babies aged 6-18 months old." Talk about reaching out to younger audiences. What's next, FetusO?

Roadworks Street Fair

Roadworks Street Fair
Sunday, September 19, 2010
12-5pm
Rhode Island Street between 16th and 17th Streets

It was drizzly on Sunday morning, so I was doubtful about this outdoor event, but fortunately it did not get rained out. The biggest pain was getting across town on Muni. Because of the Sunday Streets closure, 22-Fillmore passengers had to transfer to diesel buses for the Western Addition part of the route. This easily added 20 minutes to the trip, not including another break to change drivers at Bryant.

Roadworks is a fundraiser for the San Francisco Center for the Book. The main attraction is the 3 ton steamroller that is used to print linoleum blocks laid in the street. The process requires at least 4 printers, & everyone was so practiced that they moved with ritualistic efficiency. A nearby wall was already full of prints hanging out to dry.

The fair also features displays of print making & book arts & some live entertainment. There was a sizeable crowd. Quite a number of children & dogs attended as well. I enjoyed seeing Ginger Burrel again, whose artist's books effortlessly combine content & materials from disparate sources. I also seem to run into animator Sarah Dungan a lot. Fortunately I like her whimsical drawing. I was seduced by the morbid & insectoid designs that Korrupt Label prints on their t-shirts & hoodies. I totally think Axel would look great in them.

Heidi Melton at Old First Church

Old First Concerts
Heidi Melton, soprano
John Parr, piano

Samuel Barber
Three Songs, Op. 45

Richard Wagner
Wesendonck Lieder

Alban Berg
Sieben Früher Lieder

Richard Strauss
Die Georgine
Ruhe, meine Seele!
Morgen
Frühlingsfeier

Encores:
Kurt Weill
My Ship

Richard Strauss
Zueignung

Old First Church
September 17, 2010 8pm

At the beginning of her recital at Old First Church, soprano Heidi Melton happily told us that she wanted to make this an informal Liederabend & that she could think of no better way to celebrate her birthday. Hearing her gorgeously full, rich voice really is a celebration. The sound in the lower register is wonderfully meaty, & as the evening progressed she gave us ever bigger high notes. At times I thought that she must be audible to people driving by outside. Yet even at its most powerful, her sound is never strained, & it seems that she could give even more.

She & John Parr focused on long lines & never rushed any of the tempos. There were some really intense moments. I might have been drooling by the time she ended "Stehe still!" from the Wesendonck Lieder. Berg's Sieben Früher Lieder are favorites of hers, & she rightly described them as every bit as romantic as the songs by Wagner. These songs are favorites of mine as well, & I was probably heaving a bit at the tremendous, compressed climaxes in "Die Nachtigall".

Mr. Parr dedicated the set of 4 Strauss songs to Philip Eisenberg, prompter at the San Francisco Opera, & Ms. Melton sang them with total comfort. During the entire recital, she made me feel that she was singing for familiar friends. When we gave her a big ovation, she said, "Thanks, guys!" After the duo came out for their 2nd encore, there was an amusing moment when they realized they could not start because the page turner had not followed them out with the music. Ms. Melton quickly took it upon herself to go back & retrieve him. I was surprised by the relatively small turn-out of around 60. Almost everyone lined up to greet Ms. Melton backstage immediately afterward.

Ms. Melton is scheduled to appear at a Salon at the Rex on December 1st, & I plan to be there too. According to the program notes, Ms. Melton is also the cover for SF Opera's Aida.

The Salt Plays: In the Wound

Shotgun Players
The Salt Plays: In the Wound
written & directed by Jon Tracy

September 17, 2010 3pm
John Hinkel Park, Berkeley

Aleph Ayin / Achilles
Daniel Bruno / Odysseus
Dave Garrett / Menaleus
Alex Hersler / Hektor
Yannai Kashtan / Telemachus
Roy Landaverde / Patroclus
Charisse Loriaux / Nurse 2
Dave Maier / Ajax
Lexie Papedo / Penelope
Harold Pierce / Paris
Nesbyth Rieman / Iphigenia
Emily Rosenthal / Nurse 3
John Thomas / Palamedes, Priam
Michael Torres / Agamemnon
Elena Wright / Nurse 1

I was pessimistic about the weather on Saturday afternoon, but it turned out to be pleasant for this outdoor show. The audience sits on terraces of stone & compacted dirt. People bring picnic lunches, & I was grateful for the bottle of Bracchetto that my theater companion contributed to ours. Food is also available for purchase.

The play grabs bits & pieces from the mythology of the Trojan War, reset to World War II. My interest was held by the constantly unfolding stage pictures, which are striking, harsh & pitiless. I liked the 3 Red Cross nurses who start the show by climbing up guard towers to play taiko drums. There are many rough fight scenes, in which people are thrown to the concrete floor or dragged around. 6 large wheeled flats are used to create locations, clear the stage & reveal tableaux, most dramatically at the end.

However, I could not make sense of the text. Familiarity with the Greek sources did not seem to help. Those 3 Red Cross nurses turn out to be Aphrodite, Athena & Hera. Odysseus is a kind of secretary of defense who keeps holding up a Moleskine notebook like it's Mao's Little Red Book. My theater companion & I were both baffled by the mysterious red briefcases chained to some characters' wrists, perhaps because we did not know until afterward that "horse" is drug slang for heroin.

Despite the outdoor location, the actors are audible without amplification. I was particularly impressed with Yannai Kashtan who plays the boy Telemachus & who does everything with complete conviction. The show has 30 actors, the largest cast ever for Shotgun Players. A raffle was held during the intermission. Prizes were a poster & a ticket to part 2, which opens in December.