Choices for October 15, 2023

The first “busy weekend” of the new season will be limited to a Sunday, which is October 15. However, so many choices are involved that at least some of us would have appreciated their being spread out over the entire three-day weekend. (Mind you, I have already settled my plans for Friday and Saturday!) Two of the dates in this article are launching their respective seasons, so a summary of the entire season will also be in order. However, where it seems appropriate, hyperlinks will be deployed to “economize” on space for extended enumerations. Here are the basic specifics: [added 10/11, 10:05 a.m.:

10 a.m., video stream: In addition to the many “physical” performances that will be taking place, this date will mark the next release of a video offered by the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts. The next video to be added to the OMNI on-Location video series will offer a unique approach to a five-movement suite composed during the last century by Vicente Asencio. Composed for solo guitar, the title of the suite is Collectici Intim; and it will be performed by Marcin Dylla. What will make the performance unique is that each movement will be played on a different guitar. The oldest instrument was built by Antonio De Torres in 1886. The other four instruments were made during the twentieth century, the most recent being in 1967, made by Daniel Friederich. The performance will be streamed through the Omni Foundation YouTube channel. The Web site for this particular selection has already been created and will be available through the hyperlink at the header for this paragraph.]

Noon, San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center: The first event “out of the gate” will be this year’s annual SF Music Day. As in the past, performances will take place simultaneously in four different sites in the Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Avenue: Herbst Theatre, the Green Room, and the Diane B. Wilsey Center for Opera on the fourth floor, maintaining the Dianne and Tad Taube Atrium Theater and the John M. Bryan Educational Studio. Performances will run through 7 p.m. Full details are available through the home page for this event on the InterMusic SF Web site, including hyperlinks for two formats of the entire program. Registration is desirable for all attending and may be enabled through a hyperlink at the head of that home page. [added 10/13, 2:15 p.m.:

Noon and 2 p.m., Salesforce Park: As was announced on this site near the end of last month, Post:ballet will give two performances.]

2 p.m., War Memorial Opera House: The third opera in the current San Francisco Opera season will be Richard Wagner’s Lohengrin. Some readers may recall that Music Director Eun Sun Kim has planned that, for the foreseeable future, every season will include at least one opera by both Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner. In that context, Verdi began the season with Il trovatore; and the next offering will mark Wagner’s turn.

This will be a new production of Lohengrin, shared with the Royal Opera House (ROH) Covent Garden and Opera Vlaanderen. ROH performed the work for the first time, with staging by David Alden, in April of 2018; and Peter Relton will make his SFO debut serving as Associate Director. The title role will be sung by tenor Simon O’Neill, who will be making his American debut. He is the knight that has appeared in the dreams of Elsa (soprano Julie Adams making her role debut), the older sister of Duke Gottfried of Brabant, who has mysteriously disappeared. Count Friedrich of Telramund (baritone Brian Mulligan, also making a role debut) accuses Elsa of murder, with support from his wife Ortrud (mezzo Judit Kutasi, making her American debut). King Heinrich der Vogler (bass Kristinn Sigmundsson) decides that the matter will be settled through ordeal by combat and asks Elsa to name her champion. She can only describe a knight that she saw in her dreams; and (because this is opera) Lohengrin appears. He defeats Telramund but spares his life. All of this takes place during the first act, which is followed by two acts of further complexities!

This afternoon will present the first of six performances. It will be followed by five performances, all beginning at 7 p.m., on October 18, 21, 24, and 27 and on November 1. Ticket prices range from $26 to $426. All tickets may be purchased in the outer lobby of the War Memorial Opera House at 301 Van Ness Avenue or by calling the Box Office at 415-864-3330. Box Office hours are 10 a.m.–5 p.m. on Monday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesday through Saturday. In addition, there will be a livestream beginning at 7:30 p.m. on September 20. The charge will be $27.50, and it may be purchased through a separate Web page.

2 p.m., Sha’ar Zahav: The Bridge Players, led by violinist Randall Weiss, have been giving chamber music concerts at this venue for over twenty years. These take place during the first half of each year. However, they have agreed to present a special performances as a pay-what-you-want fundraiser for the Sha’ar Zahav synagogue. Weiss will be joined by cellist Victoria Ehrlich and pianist Marilyn Thompson. The major work on the program will be Felix Mendelssohn’s Opus 66 (second) piano trio in C minor. The program will begin with the passacaglia movement from George Frideric Handel’s HWV 432 keyboard suite in G minor, arranged by Johann Halverson as a duo for violin and viola. This will be followed by Paul Schoenfield’s raucous “Café Music” and a duo for violin and cello by W. Jay Sydeman. Congregation Sha’ar Zahav is located at 290 Dolores Street at the northwest corner of 16th Street.

4 p.m., Calvary Presbyterian Church: The San Francisco Bach Choir and Artistic Director Magen Solomon will begin the 2023–2024 season with a program entitled Roll up the Rugs! An Afternoon of Love and Dancing. This title was probably inspired by the primary work on the program, Johannes Brahms’ Opus 65, a collection of fifteen waltzes entitled Neue Liebeslieder. Other composers on the program will include Gabriel Fauré and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. There will also be folk songs from both Appalachia and Samoa, Broadway melodies, and dance music from both Sephardic Spain and Romani Central Europe. Calvary Presbyterian Church is located at 2515 Fillmore Street on the northwest corner of Jackson Street. General admission will be $40, $35 for seniors, and $15 for students. Those under the age of eighteen will be admitted for free. The remaining two programs for the season (also at Calvary Presbyterian and with hyperlinks for further information) will be as follows:

1. Saturday, December 2,  7:30 p.m., and Sunday, December 3, 4 p.m.: This will be the annual “seasonal” program entitled A (Mostly) English Candlelight Christmas and featuring works by composers active between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries.
2. Sunday, May 19, 4 p.m.: The final program will be devoted entirely to Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 245, best known as the St John Passion. [added 10/10, 7:15 a.m.:
   

4 p.m., Old First Presbyterian Church: This will be the previously reported recital by pianist Monica Chew for Old First Concerts.]

6 p.m., BIPOC Artists Sanctuary: The PUSH Dance Company will give its first performance at the new BIPOC Artists Sanctuary. The program will feature the world premiere of “Performable Posthumanism” created by Artistic Director Raissa Simpson. She describes her piece as “an Artificial Intelligence site-specific dance work” (which will probably raise some eyebrows). Associate Artistic Director Ashley Gayle will also present a new work, but specifics have not yet been provided. The other works on the program will be Snowflake Calvert’s “Seeds/Sequence” and Farah Yasmeen Shaikh’s “Noorani Dance.” The new venue is located at 447 Minna Street in downtown San Francisco. Ticket prices will be $50, $35, $30, and $15. A Web page has been created for the online purchase of tickets. [added 10/11, 8 a.m.:

7:30 p.m., Davies Symphony Hall: The San Francisco Symphony 2023–24 Great Performers Series will begin with a piano trio recital performed by violinist Lisa Batiashvili, cellist Gautier Capuçon, and pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet. The program will consist of three trios, each from a different century. It will begin with Joseph Haydn’s Hoboken XV/28 trio in E major, which will be the earliest work on the program. This will be followed by the twentieth-century trio by Maurice Ravel. The second half of the program will account for the nineteenth century with a performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s Opus 66 trio in C minor. The entrance to Davies Symphony Hall is on the south side of Grove Street between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin Street. Ticket prices range between $129 and $25. A Web page has been created for the online purchase of tickets.]