38th SFP Season will Begin with All-Bernstein

Isabel Leonard (courtesy of San Francisco Performances)

At the very beginning of next month, the 38th Season of San Francisco Performances (SFP) will get under way with the first concert in its Vocal Season. The vocalist will be mezzo Isabel Leonard (pictured above); and her program will consist entirely of music by Leonard Bernstein. This will be part of the ongoing celebration of Bernstein’s 100th birthday, which will take place on August 25, 2018. The San Francisco Symphony (SFS) is also contributing to this celebration, and the previous week Leonard will join bass-baritone Ryan McKinny in performances of Bernstein’s Arias and Barcarolles in the first series of SFS subscription concerts of the season.

For her SFP recital, Leonard will be accompanied by pianist John Arida. She has prepared a program of nineteen songs from Bernstein’s musicals and operas, along with pieces written for specific occasions. These will be grouped into four categories. The full program is as follows:

LENNY ON LOVE

A Little Bit in Love (Wonderful Town)

Build My House (Peter Pan)

I Feel Pretty (West Side Story)

My Twelve Tone Melody (written for Irving Berlin’s 100th birthday)

What a Movie! (Trouble in Tahiti)

BERNSTEIN FOR KIDS (OF ALL AGES)

I Hate Music (A cycle of five kids songs)

So Pretty (1968 anti-war song first performed by Barbra Streisand)

I’m a Person Too (A cycle of five kids songs)

Peter, Peter (Peter Pan)

Something’s Coming (West Side Story)

BERNSTEIN IN MY MIND

Maria (West Side Story)

Piccola Serenata (1979 song for Karl Böhm’s 85th birthday)

Lonely Town (On the Town)

To What You Said (Songfest)

I Was Standing in a Garden (Trouble in Tahiti)

LENNY & LEONARD SAY GOODBYE

It Must Be So (Candide)

Greeting (Arias and Barcarolles)

Take Care of This House (1600 Pennsylvania Avenue)

Some Other Time (On the Town)

This performance will begin at 7 p.m. on Sunday, October 1. The venue will be Herbst Theatre, whose entrance is on the ground floor of the Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Avenue on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. Premium tickets are $65 with tickets in other sections of the house selling for $55 and $40. Tickets may be purchased online through a City Box event page, which provides a floor plan color-coded according the the ticket prices. As of this writing, tickets are available at all prices. Those wishing further information may call 415-392-2545.

Because this is the first concert of a series, subscriptions are also still on sale for $240 for premium seating in the Orchestra and the front and center of the Dress Circle, $200 for the Side Boxes, the center rear of the Dress Circle, and the remainder of the Orchestra, and $140 for the remainder of the Dress Circle and the Balcony. Subscriptions may be purchased online in advance through a City Box Office event page. Orders may also be placed by calling the SFP subscriber hotline at 415-677-0325, which is open for receiving calls between 9:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.