Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Options for the Last Day of this Month

April will continue to be a busy month up to its final day. The good news is that those options have been spaced across the afternoon, evening, and night. On the other hand, there is so much substance to the content that it would probably not be advisable to take in more than one! Here, in chronological order, are the current choices available for Sunday, April 30:

2 p.m., Davies Symphony Hall: This will be the next chamber music recital offered by members of the San Francisco Symphony (SFS). The primary composition, which may well fill the second half of the program, will be Antonín Dvořák’s Opus 97 string quintet in E-flat major, the quintet that, like the Opus 96 string quartet in F major, is sometimes called the “American,” because it was composed during Dvořák’s 1893 summer in Spillville, Iowa. At the other end of the program, the concert will begin with Bohuslav Martinů’s second piano trio in D minor. Martinů was another significant Czech composer, but this trio was written late in his life, when he was living in New York, in 1951. The program will also include Benjamin Britten’s Opus 36 (second) string quartet and an early composition by Philippe Gaubert, three short pieces that he called “Aquarelles” (water colors), scored for flute, cello, and piano.

All tickets for this concert will be $40, and the First Tier and Second Tier will be closed. Tickets may be purchased online through the event page for this program on the SFS Web site, by calling 415-864-6000, or by visiting the Box Office in Davies Symphony Hall, whose entrance is on the south side of Grove Street between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin Street. The Box Office is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, and from noon to 6 p.m. on Saturday. It will also open two hours before the performance begins.

5:30 p.m., Taube Atrium Theater: The last of the four concerts being offered in the 34th season of the Schwabacher Debut Recitals, presented jointly by the San Francisco Opera Center and the Merola Opera Program, will feature a trio of Adler Fellows, soprano Amina Edris, tenor Amitai Pati, and baritone Andrew G. Manea. They will be joined by pianist Warren Jones. The program will provide an opportunity to depart from the opera repertoire in favor of art songs, both solos and duets. Opera composers Giuseppe Verdi, Gioachino Rossini, and Georges Bizet will contribute to the program; but that program will also feature songs by Francesco Santoliquido, Reynaldo Hahn, and Gabriel Fauré.

The Taube Atrium Theater is part of the Diane B. Wilsey Center for Opera, which is located on the fourth floor of the Veterans Building at the southwest corner of Van Ness Avenue and McAllister Street. General admission will be $30. Tickets may be purchased in advance online through an event page on the San Francisco Opera Web site. Note that, because much of the seating is raked, it is possible to select the option of Wheelchair Accessible seats. In addition, subject to availability, student rush tickets will go on sale at 5 p.m. at the reduced rate of $15. There is a limit of two tickets per person, and valid identification must be shown.

7 p.m., Custom Made Theatre: For those who prefer opera to art song, the night will belong to “something completely different.” Readers may recall that the second Snapshot program offered by West Edge Opera presented one of the results of the 24-Hour Opera Project run by the Atlanta Opera. Over the final weekend of the month, Opera Theater Unlimited will hold its 48-House Opera Festival. The “rules of the game” are basically the same. Over the course of 48 hours, teams of composers, writers, directors, and singers will collaborate to create new operas, all of which will have a duration between ten and fifteen minutes. The result will be six operas, whose respective composers will be Brian Ciach, Stephen Eddins, Kyle Hovatter, Emma Logan, Emily Shisko, and Ben Zucker. All the results will be presented in a single program.

The Custom Made Theatre is the performing space for The Custom Made Theatre Co. It is located northwest of Union Square at 533 Sutter Street. General admission will be $25 with a $20 rate for seniors and those under the age of 30. Tickets may be purchased in advance online through a Vendini event page.

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