Choices for May 18, 2019

Last month I advised against making a mad dash from one event to another, even if they did not overlap. This month the situation is a bit more viable for those wishing to attend two “completely different” offerings on the same day. Indeed, for one of those events, it will be possible to postpone seeing it until the following afternoon. Specifics are as follows:

4 p.m. and 6 p.m. (as well as Sunday, May 19, 2 p.m.), Community Music Center (CMC): Opera Parallèle will conclude its 2018–2019 San Francisco season with a “main stage” production of the one-act opera “Xochitl and the Flowers,” composed by Christopher Pratorius Gomez and based on a children’s book of the same name by Jorge Argueta. Roma Olvera transformed Argueta’s text into the opera’s libretto. The original production was developed under the Hands on Opera education and youth performance program over the course of an eight-week residency with third graders in the Alvarado Elementary School Spanish Immersion Program, whose classes are bilingual (English and Spanish). Olvera’s libretto, which is set in the Mission District, was correspondingly bilingual, with transitions between the two languages that are often too smooth to detect. That production was premiered in the relatively intimate setting provided by the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts.

This revival production will take place in the more formal setting of the CMC Concert Hall. Stage Director Beth Wilmurt will provide staging appropriate for that setting, assisted by Rachael Heiman, who provided the designs and costumes for the original performances. Soprano Sabrina Romero-Wilson will reprise the title role, and mezzo Yemonja Stanley will again sing the role of Xochitl’s mother. The other cast members will be tenor Sergio González as Xochitl’s father, baritone Jorge Ruvalcaba as their landlord, and baritone Lauro Lara as Xochitl’s grandfather.

The CMC Concert Hall is located at 544 Capp Street, between Mission Street and South Van Ness Avenue and between 20th Street and 21st Street. There is no charge for admission, and the general public is invited. However, those wishing to attend are encouraged to RSVP by making a reservation at no charge. Reservations may be made online through a Brown Paper Tickets event page. That page has a pull-down menu for selecting the date and time for the reservation being made.

7:30 p.m., Seventh Avenue Presbyterian Church: The next installment in the Seventh Avenue Performances recital series will be an album release show. The title of that album is Sacred Root; and it is the third in a series of performances by Cornelius Boots on shakuhachi (the end-blown Japanese version of a flute that comes in at least two different sizes) under the collective title Shakuhachi Unleashed. The program will include traditional music, original compositions, and jamming in a variety of genres along with guest performers Kevin Chen, The Stikman, and Nils Frykdahl.

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.

[added 5/16, 11:35 a.m.:

7:30 p.m., Bird & Beckett Books and Records: The next event in the jazz club! series held on Saturday nights will be presented by the Jazz Philanthropists Union. The performers will be the Invisible Guy trio of Ben Goldberg on clarinet, Michael Coleman on piano, and Hamir Atwal on drums. This performance will require a $20 cover charges, with a sliding scale available if necessary. Bird & Beckett is located at 653 Chenery Street, a short walk from the Glen Park station for both Muni and BART.]