         
|
|
||
by Nina Beckwith 1st appeared 31 August 1998 NINA'S ARTS NOTES New Season of World Class Arts Four weeks have passed since our last Arts report and a new season is about to start so it's an appropriate moment to remind ourselves that San Francisco boasts superlative arts organizations which are truly extraordinary for a city of only 750,000. "World class" is now a trite phrase: let's be proud that our Symphony, Opera, and Ballet, several of our other music, theater, dance and cultural groups and many of our visual artists need not take second place to those of the greatest cities in this country and abroad. And that all of our arts are alive with originality and fervor. * * * * * Mark your calendars now so you don't miss any of the new and exciting---and free---Chancellor's Concerts to be given in UCSF's Cole Hall this fall at noon on Thursdays. Doors will open at 12; concerts will be performed from 12:15 to 12:45, allowing time for seating and lunch. Programs will range from the Baroque through Beethoven and Schubert to the 20th century. While serving as Chancellor, Haile Debas founded this concert series to enhance the quality of life on the UCSF campus. We are privileged to have as soloists and performers some of the most accomplished and acclaimed professional musicians in the Bay Area: they are SF Symphony members and faculty from the SF Conservatory of Music. On Thursday October 15 the Inaugural Concert will be introduced by Dean Debas and soloists will be Stephen Paulson, bassoon (the new Conductor of the UCSF Orchestra), Eugene Izotov, oboe, and Robin Sutherland, piano, all SF Symphony members. The October 22 concert features Ian Swenson, violin, one of the very few musicians to have been awarded top prize in both the International Violin Competition and the International Chamber Music Competition of the Naumberg Foundation. On October 29 Lisa Lhee is the violin soloist, and Mark McCray, from the SF Conservatory, is the accompanist. We will update on the November concerts nearer the time. Just be sure to keep this hour on Thursdays for thrilling, life-enhancing musical experiences. * * * * * San Francisco's acclaimed A.C.T. American Conservatory Theater is offering half-price subscriptions for all full-time students with valid I.D. for its l998-99 season in the beautifully restored Geary Theater. Students can subscribe to all seven plays or create their own series by selecting the four plays they would most like to see. Subscription plays are: Fool Moon by David Shiner and Bill Irwin; Euripides' Hecuba starring Olympia Dukakis; Sean O'Casey's classic Irish drama Juno and the Paycock; the American premiere of Tom Stoppard's Indian Ink ; the Eugene O'Neill epic drama Long Day's Journey into Night ; The First Picture Show, a play with music about the early film industry; and Moliere's wonderfully funny Tartuffe. Call 749-2250 or online at www.act-sfbay.org * * * * * This is the last week to see the marvelous Christopher Plummer in William Luce's play Barrymore at the Herbst Theatre, closing September 6. Call BASS 776-1999. Also closing on September 6 is the Stanley Spencer exhibit at the Legion of Honor. As described in our Arts Notes for the week of July 20, many of Spencer's paintings are shocking, most are powerful, all are original and memorable. It would be a pity to miss this exceptional show. * * * * * September 9 brings the first of the new season's big musical salvos with the San Francisco Symphony Opening Gala: a celebration of the Gershwin centenary with SFS dynamic music director Michael Tilson Thomas as conductor and pianist, followed by more Gershwin, including scenes from Porgy and Bess, on September 10 and 12. Mahler's Symphony No. 1 is the major work on September 16, 18, and 19, when music of Henry Cowell and Charles Ives will also be heard and when the radiant soprano Sylvia McNair joins the SFS in Samuel Barber's poignant Knoxville: Summer of 1915. MTT and the orchestra continue their celebration of the new season with a Free Concert on Friday, September 18, at noon in Yerba Buena Gardens, between Mission and Howard, just off Third Street. Could be a lunchtime treat for UCSF folks who work downtown and at the Mission Center. On Sunday afternoon, September 20 in Davies Hall, Michael Morgan comes from the East Bay to lead the Symphony in the season's first Music for Families concert, a Happy Birthday salute to George Gershwin, with informative talks and other events especially for children age seven and older who attend for half-price. During the regular Davies Hall season, very good free Inside Music talks start one hour before concerts. TIP: For all but choral concerts, forty Center Terrace seats at $12 or $15 go on sale two hours early, at 6 pm. but the line usually forms earlier. For Symphony tickets call 864-6000, fax 554-0108. * * * * * Dream in the Park. It's utterly enjoyable, full of laughter and mistaken identities and magic---and it's absolutely free. The San Francisco Shakespeare Festival's delightful production of A Midsummer Night's Dream comes to Golden Gate Park on Labor Day weekend September 5, 6, and 7, and plays weekends through September and on October 3 and 4 . Take the whole family and make a Shakespearean picnic of it. This staging of Shakespeare's greatest comedy is directed by Nancy Keystone and features a company of talented actors who will perform in Liberty Meadow, just west of the splendid white Conservatory of Flowers. Nearest Park entrance is at Fifth and Fulton. Performances start at 1:30 pm but plan to arrive no later than 12 noon to find places. Last year `s shows were so popular that the space was soon filled and people had to be turned away. * * * * * Our beloved Golden Gate Park---specifically the vast Sharon Meadow near the eastern end---is also where the traditional Opera in the Park free concert takes place on Sunday, September 13. Take an operatic picnic and plan to arrive well before the concert begins at 2 pm. With performances by several internationally famous singers and the great SF Opera Orchestra, the Park Concert climaxes SF Opera's fall season opening weekend which takes off September 11 with the customary banquets and balls surrounding the gala performance of Puccini's fantastic opera Turandot, seen at the War Memorial Opera House in David Hockney's fabulous vision of legendary Peking. During the run, two sopranos take on the role of the Ice Princess Turandot, Gabriele Schnaut and Audrey Stottler, while tenors Richard Margison and Vladimir Bogachov sing the role of her suitor Calaf. Then on September 12 comes the season's first Arabella, one of Richard Strauss's most exquisite creations. This deliciously enchanting romantic comedy is the last of the six operas Strauss wrote with librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Strauss specialist Janice Watson sings the title role; conductor is the Opera's magisterial music director Donald Runnicles. There will be eleven more chances to see Turandot this year; Arabella will be given only six more times, with the last performance on October 4. Excellent lectures are given before many performances and are free to ticket holders. All SFO productions have English Supertitles. Don't delay getting your Opera tickets: single tickets went on sale August 17 when a record number were sold. Standing room is still only $10 and for some performances specially priced Student and Senior Rush tickets may be available. Opera Box Office phone 864-3330. fax 626-1729, online www.sfopera.com * * * * * Just as Michelangelo stands at the summit of Renaissance art, another amazing Italian symbolizes the questing spirit of the Renaissance in science and engineering as well as art: Leonardo da Vinci. Humanities West has planned a rich and varied weekend of lectures and musical performances devoted to Leonardo , the Original Renaissance Man, on Friday and Saturday October 9 and 10. Tickets for either or both days are still available through City Box Office, 153 Kearny Street, San Francisco 94108, phone 392-4400, fax 986-0411. On the Friday evening, Princeton's Theodore K. Rabb will examine the transformation of western history associated with the Renaissance and its new ideas about nature, politics, and war. Afterward, some of the music of Leonardo's time will be performed by the Four Humours, featuring the triple harp of Cheryl Ann Fulton. On Saturday's program UC Berkeley Professor Emeritus Gene Brucker illustrates the turbulent life of Leonardo's Florence; Constance Moffatt follows the most gifted polymath of his day while he loses his job and looks for another; Loren Partridge discusses Leonardo's Last Supper and Mona Lisa, and Paula Findlen peers into Leonardo's scientific mind and his constant efforts to comprehend nature's forces. The Italian Cultural Institute, one of the weekend's co-sponsors, is offering a free supplemental program on Mechanical Marvels: Invention in the Age of Leonardo, at 425 Bush Street, on October first at 6pm. Reservations required: call 788-7142 extension 16. |
|||
DAYBREAK | ARCHIVES | CALENDAR
| CAMPUS NOTES Copyright ©1998 Regents of the University
of California. All rights reserved. |
|||
