Saturday, April 29, 2023

Benjamin Appl Debut to Conclude SFP Season

Baritone Benjamin Appl (photograph by Lars Borges, courtesy of SFP)

Next month in Herbst Theatre, the final program in the San Francisco Performances (SFP) Art of Song series will also mark the conclusion of the entire 2022–23 season. The vocalist will be baritone Benjamin Appl, performing with accompanist James Baillieu. They will begin a North American Concert Tour on May 2, culminating in a Carnegie Hall debut recital on May 20.

The program to be performed throughout that tour has been given the title Nocturne. The content of that program has been described as “a nighttime journey with selections arranged according to facets of the night – romance, the moon, stars, nightmares, fancies, insomnia, dreams, the darkest hour, and finally, morning.” The contributing composers will extend from the early nineteenth century of Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann to living composers from Seattle (William Bolcom, born in 1938) and Scotland (James MacMillan, born in 1959). The conclusion of the journey at morning will be taken by that last of the four songs in Richard Strauss’ Opus 27, entitled, appropriately enough, “Morgen!”

This program will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 10. The entrance to Herbst is on the ground floor of the Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Avenue, located on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. This venue is excellent for public transportation, since that corner has Muni bus stops for both north-south and east-west travel. All tickets are being sold for $65 for premium seating in the Orchestra and the front and center of the Dress Circle, $55 for the Side Boxes, the center rear of the Dress Circle, and the remainder of the Orchestra, and $45 for the remainder of the Dress Circle and the Balcony, and they may be purchased through an SFP secure Web page. As available, single tickets will be sold at the door with a 50% discount for students and a 20% discount for seniors. Single tickets may also be purchased by calling 415-392-2545.

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