November is shaping up to be far less busy than October was. Once we get beyond this coming weekend, things begin to thin out significantly. By the time we get to the middle of the month, Saturday, November 17, is the only date requiring a major choice; and one of the options has eight subsequent alternatives. Three of the events on November 17 begin at the same time, 7:30 p.m. Here they are, basically in the order in which they came to my attention, followed by the one alternative that begins at 8 p.m.:
War Memorial Opera House, 7:30 p.m.: This will be the final production in the Fall Season of the San Francisco Opera (SFO), the West Coast premiere of Jake Heggie’s latest opera, It’s a Wonderful Life. The opera was co-commissioned and co-produced by SFO, the Houston Grand Opera, and the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Gene Scheer’s libretto takes, as its point of departure, Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life but also draws upon the short story on which the film was based, Philip Van Doren Stern’s “The Greatest Gift.”
Like many of Capra’s films, It’s a Wonderful Life deals with the trials of an Everyman figure. In this case that character is George Bailey (James Stewart in the film); and the narrative, which is set on Christmas Eve, begins with Bailey contemplating suicide. He is stayed by the intervention of an “Angel 2nd Class,” Clarence Odbody (Henry Travers), who interrupts the flow of time to allow George to review past achievements in his life and reflect on what the world would be without him. As might be guessed, the narrative concludes with George choosing life and Clarence earning his promotion.
Heggie’s opera was premiered by the Houston Grand Opera in 2016. However, both composer and librettist have implemented revisions for the coming SFO production. Bailey’s role will be sung by tenor William Burden, while Clarence has transformed into Clara, who will be sung by South African soprano Golda Schultz. The banker Henry F. Potter (performed by Lionel Barrymore in the film), the nemesis figure of the narrative, will be sung by baritone Rod Gilfry. Staging will be directed by Leonard Foglia; and the conductor will be Patrick Summers, who conducted the world premiere in Houston.
Following the opening on the evening of November 17, It’s a Wonderful Life will be given eight additional performances. These will take place at 7:30 p.m. on November 20 and 29 and December 1, 4, and 7 and at 2 p.m. on November 24 and 25 and December 9.. The libretto will be sung in English with English supertitles. The approximate running time will be two hours and 30 minutes with one intermission.
The War Memorial Opera House is located at 301 Van Ness Avenue, on the northwest corner of Grove Street. Single tickets are priced from $26 to $398. Tickets may be purchased online through an event page on the SFO Web site. Tickets may also be purchased at the Box Office in the outer lobby of the Opera House. The Box Office may also be reached by telephoning 415-864-3330. Standing room tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. on the day of each performance. They are sold for $10, cash only.
Seventh Avenue Presbyterian Church, 7:30 p.m.: The sixteenth season of the Seventh Avenue Performances series will begin with a percussion duo recital entitled Jazz, Minimalism and Grooves. The performers will be Elizabeth Hall (who is also a vocalist) and Divesh Karamchandani, both of whom are based in San Francisco. The program will feature “In Together/Out Together,” written on a commission by local composer Joseph Colombo. There will also be a performance of the sixth of Philip Glass’ piano etudes in an arrangement for marimba and vibraphone.
The Seventh Avenue Presbyterian Church is located at 1329 Seventh Avenue, about half a block south of the stop for the Muni N trolley line. General admission will be $15 with a $10 rate for students and seniors. Tickets are available in advance online through a Brown Paper Tickets event page.
Taube Atrium Theater, 7:30 p.m.: The Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts will continue the 38th season of its Dynamite Guitar Series with the return of Kazuhito Yamashita. On his last visit Yamashita performed arrangements of the solo cello suites of Johann Sebastian Bach. This season’s program will be equally ambitious but will advance from the eighteenth century into the twentieth. Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco composed Caprichos de Goya as a series of 24 musical reflections on Los caprichos, the collection of 80 prints by Francisco Goya. Yamashita will play Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s cycle in its entirety.
The Taube Atrium Theater is located on the fourth floor of the Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Avenue, on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. Tickets will be sold for $50 and $60. Tickets may be purchased in advance online through a City Box Office event page.
St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, 8 p.m.: Voices of Music will begin its 2018–2019 season with a program devoted entirely to early sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven. Eric Zivian will play fortepiano, and he will be joined by both violinist Cynthia Miller Freivogel and cellist Tanya Tomkins. This program will be presented in collaboration with the Valley of the Moon Music Festival run by Tomkins and Zivian.
St. Mark’s is located at 1111 O’Farrell Street, just west of the corner of Franklin Street. General admission will be $47 with a $42 rate for seniors and members of several of the local early music organizations and $5 for students. Tickets may be purchased in advance online through an Arts People event page. In addition, the Box Office may be reached by telephone at 415-260-4687.
This will be the first of the four concerts to be presented in the 2018–2019 season. Subscriptions for the entire season will be $155 with the reduced rate being $135. The Voices of Music Web site does not appear to be set up for processing subscription orders; so those interested are invited to call 415-260-4687. All remaining concerts in San Francisco will also take place on Saturdays at 8 p.m., except for the final concert, which will take place on Friday at 8 p.m. Specifics are as follows, with hyperlinks connecting the dates to the Web pages for ticket purchases:
- December 22: The annual Holiday Celebration concert will present virtuoso concertos by Arcangelo Corelli, Giuseppe Torelli, and Antonio Vivaldi; featured soloists will be trumpeter Dominic Favia, violinists Augusta McKay Lodge and Carla Moore, and cellists William Skeen and Tomkins.
- January 26: Musical Crossroads will feature the sounds of both Western and non-Western instruments. The program will present music from the fourteenth through eighteenth centuries. The geographical span of the program will include America, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Ireland, Bulgaria, Quebec, Scotland, and Slovenia. There will also be a new work by Voices of Music co-Director Hanneke van Proosdij.
- March 29: Guest soloists will be soprano Amanda Forsythe and tenor Thomas Cooley. The program will feature arias from the operas of George Frideric Handel. The instrumental selection will be Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1067 orchestral suite in B minor, whose performance will feature flute solos performed by Emi Ferguson.
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