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by
Nina Beckwith
1st appeared 9
November 1998
NINA'S ARTS NOTES
A Reminder: It's Beethoven this week at the
noontime Chancellor's Concert on Thursday, November 12. Jennifer Culp, cello, and
Betty Woo, piano, will play the Cello Sonata, Opus 102, No. 2 in D major by the
great master of both chamber and symphonic music.
Cole Hall doors open at noon; music starts at 12:15, ends at 12:45. Series is more and
more popular so try not to miss this concert: you're in for a real treat.
* * * * *
California Artist
The SF Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) has assembled the most complete retrospective ever of
the work of California painter Richard Diebenkorn (1922-93). MOMA's beautifully
illuminated large galleries offer ideal chances to become involved in the lights and
shadows of Diebenkorn's large cityscapes, landscapes, interiors, and abstract paintings.
The show includes early works from the painter's Sausalito period, several vibrant
canvases from his Albuquerque series, and a group of his best-known paintings, several
from the Berkeley period and particularly the Ocean Park works which he began in l967
after he moved to Santa Monica to teach at UCLA. About l50 drawings and paintings reveal
the artist's development from abstract expressionism to figurative images and then again
to the abstract over his forty-year career. Many of the works retain a transparency so
that one can see the layers the artist built up as the painting developed. As one of
MOMA's curators said, "Whatever the style, Diebenkorn's paintings are always complex
and enormously beautiful."
MOMA's Diebenkorn show runs until January 19, l999. The Museum is open daily
except Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and late on Thursdays when admission is
half-price from 6 to 9 p.m. The first Tuesday of each month admission is free.
MOMA, which has a very nice cafe and a terrific gift and book store, is at 151 Third
Street, between Mission and Howard. For information call 357-4000, or visit its website at
www.sfmoma.org
* * * * *
UCSF Orchestra with New Baton
More glorious music this weekend when Stephen Paulson makes his debut conducting our own
symphony orchestra made up of UCSF colleagues who are also very able musicians.
Paulson has selected a varied program from three centuries: music by Bach, Tchaikovsky,
and Samuel Barber to be played at the UCSF Orchestra's fall concerts on November 14 and
15.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) considered by many the greatest composer who ever lived,
wrote six concertos for the Margrave of Brandenburg that demonstrate the excellence of
instrumental playing at the time and are always challenges to modern musicians. The
Orchestra will play the first of these lilting, high-spirited works.
American composer Samuel Barber, born in l910, wrote symphonies, concertos, operas, and
many stunningly lovely songs but his music did not become widely popular until after his
death in l981. His Adagio for Strings, starting softly and soaring to heavenly
heights, as you will hear at this UCSF concert, has become one of his most beloved pieces.
Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) is considered Russia's first full-fledged professional
composer. He wrote the world's most famous ballet music, for Nutcracker and Swan
Lake, and two glorious operas, Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades,
as well as six symphonies. For these UCSF Orchestra concerts, Paulson has programmed
Tchaikowsky's Fourth Symphony in F minor, written in 1878, in which you'll enjoy his gift
for songlike melody and some of his richest orchestration.
You'll have two chances to hear these concerts: Saturday, November 14 at 8 p.m. in
St. Gregory's Nyssen Episcopal Church at 500 De Haro Street, between 17th and 18th
Streets, and on Sunday, November 15 at 2 p.m. in the Millberry Gymnasium on the Parnassus
campus. Admission is $3 for students, $5 for staff, and $7 for the public -- real
bargain prices for such a great experience.
* * * * *
Bellini's Priestess
The next SF Opera production this season is a bel canto opera par excellence. Bel
canto simply means beautiful singing and in this work the greatest composer of that style,
Vincenzo Bellini, reaches far back in history -- or legend -- to the Roman occupation of
Gaul for the tragic story of the Druid high priestess, Norma. The opera was first
performed in l831, four years before Bellini died at only 34.
The role of Norma was a favorite of Maria Callas, Joan Sutherland, and other exceptional
sopranos who have the range, flexibility, and bel canto style the role requires. Carol
Vaness, a much-beloved diva of today with strong ties to San Francisco where she was a
participant in SF Opera's Merola training program, returns as Norma. Vaness sang the title
role in Puccini's Tosca which reopened the War Memorial in September l997 after
its $28 million refurbishing.
Norma has a secret lover, by whom she has had two children: he is the Roman
proconsul Pollione, portrayed by tenor Michael Sylvester whose gleaming high notes have
been applauded in many major opera houses. She also has a rival priestess, Adalgisa, sung
by the fine Italian mezzo soprano Anna Caterina Antonacci. Conductor is the brilliant
Patrick Summers, associated for many years with the SF Opera Center and now music director
of Houston Grand Opera.
Norma also has stirring choruses of warlike Gauls, wonderful arias, among them
the famous "Casta Diva," and "Mira O Norma," and at the end a
sacrificial pyre, one of opera's great stage effects.
Norma opens November 11 and continues for six more performances through November 28.
All operas have English Supertitles.
For Opera tickets, call 864-3330; visit the Ticket Office at Grove and Van Ness
open from 10 to 6; fax 626-1729; internet www.sfopera.com
. Depending on availability, specially-priced Student and Senior Rush tickets may
be on sale at the War Memorial Box Office two hours before the performance, when Standing
Room also goes on sale for $10.
A San Francisco resident for 20 years, Nina
Beckwith is a longtime arts writer and music critic and a former Time magazine overseas
correspondent. She was founding editor of the UC Berkeley Library newsletter Bene Legere
and worked for six years with the late Dr. Peter Ostwald, Director of the UCSF Health
Program for Performing Artists. |
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