June to Begin with a Busy Weekend

Readers may recall that the first weekend of this month was a busy one, accounted for by last week’s Bleeding Edge article. Next month’s first weekend will not be quite as busy, but it will still involve choices over the course of both Saturday (June 6) and Sunday (June 7). As far as I can tell, I have already accounted for only two items, both of which will take place on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.:

1. The San Francisco Symphony concert in Davies Symphony Hall, featuring mezzo Sasha Cooke singing both the song cycle Les Nuits d’été by Hector Berlioz and the “Liebestod” from the conclusion of Richard Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde.
2. The return to the San Francisco Opera of Gioachino Rossini’s The Barber of Seville staged by Emilio Sagi.

The remaining “competing” events will be as follows:

Saturday, June 6, 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, June 7, 3 p.m., Ruth Williams Opera House: Omari Tau, who is a composer as well as a stage director, will present theatrical interpretations of music from the current and preceding centuries. The program will begin with the world premiere performance of “Steam,” composed by David Dominique, who also prepared the libretto in partnership with Joseph Tepperman. This will be performed with cinematography by Kevin Everson. In the second half of the program, Tau will serve as narrator for a performance of Igor Stravinsky’s “L'Histoire du soldat” (tale of the soldier). Music will be provided by Left Coast Chamber Ensemble (LCCE) instrumentalists Anna Presler on violin, bassist Michel Taddei, and Loren Mach on percussion, joined by guest musicians Jamael Smith on bassoon, trumpeter John Freeman, and Chase Waterbury on trombone. LCCE has created a Web page with hyperlinks for purchasing tickets to both of the performances. The venue is located in South San Francisco at 4705 3rd Street.

Violinist Patrick Galvin and pianist Keisuke Nakagoshi (from the Eventbrite Web page for purchasing tickets to their duo performance)

Saturday, June 6, 7:30 p.m., Incarnation Episcopal Church: Violinist Patrick Galvin will perform duets with pianist Keisuke Nakagoshi. The major works on the program will be two sonatas, the first in G minor by Claude Debussy, and the second in F minor by Sergei Prokofiev, his Opus 80 and the first of the two violin sonatas he composed. The program will begin with the three-movement “Metamorphosis,” composed in 2021 by Emma Greenhill; and it will conclude with Amy Beach’s Opus 23, given the title “Romance.” The church is located in the Sunset at 1750. 29th Avenue. Tickets are being sold online through an Eventbrite Web page.

Saturday, June 6, 8:30 p.m., and Wednesday, June 17, 8 p.m., The Lab: As of this writing only two performances have been scheduled at this venue. The first of these will be two solo performances by Weston Olencki playing “prepared autoharp and electromechanical banjo.” Amy Koohbor will perform “Korkari,” which she composed for an electroacoustic backgammon board. The second will also be offer solo performances, but this time there will be three of them! Wendy Eisenberg is a virtuoso guitarist, who also composes and sings her own songs. Sound artist Mari Maurice will present the results of her latest project in Brooklyn, More Ease. The final performer will be another guitarist, Jas Stade, who is as comfortable with art rock as she is with the classical repertoire. For those that do not already know, the venue is located in the Mission at 1948 16th Street, a short walk east of Mission Street.

Sunday, June 7, and Sunday, June 14, 2 p.m., and Thursday, June 11, Friday, June 19, Tuesday, June 13, and Saturday, June 27, 7:30 p.m., War Memorial Opera House: This will be the first of the two operas to be presented by San Francisco Opera next month. The advance material I received describes Richard Strauss’ “Elektra” as a “tense, one-act thriller.” Keith Warner decided to stage the production in a museum with an exhibit about ancient Greece and the House of Atreus. A young woman is inadvertently trapped in the museum overnight and bears witness to the cycle of violence that Agamemnon and his family confronted after the Trojan War. The title role will be sung by Russian soprano Elena Pankratova, and Eun Sun Kim will conduct. A single Web page has been created for purchasing tickets to each of the performance. For those that do not already know, the venue is located at 301 Van Ness Avenue, on the other side of Grove Street from Davies Symphony Hall.

Sunday, June 7, 5 p.m., St. Mark’s Lutheran Church: Chanticleer will conclude its tour of the Bay Area for the final program of the season. The title of the program is American Early Music. Music was part of our country’s experiences at least since the eighteenth century, when hymns originating in England crossed the Atlantic Ocean. Related genres include spirituals and folk music, all with particular attention to the polyphony of part-singing. The church is located at 1111 O’Farrell Street, just west of Franklin Street. City Box Office has created a Web page for purchasing tickets, including a “map” showing where seats are available.