Month: January 2017

Never discuss politics or religion with friends, they say – but if Lucas Hnath’s play, The Christians, is anything to go by, you should avoid discussing the fundamentals of religion in church as well, particularly beliefs and how they’re interpreted! You have to hand it to Playhouse Directors, Bill English and Susi Damilano, they’re not…

San Francisco Ballet’s second program of the new season is every bit as diverse as the first. Another triple bill, it features two works which were seen in the 2016 season – Alexei Ratmansky’s Seven Sonatas and William Forsythe’s Pas/Parts. Completing the triptych is Optimistic Tragedy, a world premiere by Choreographer in Residence, Yuri Possokhov.…

San Francisco Ballet opened its 2017 season in celebratory style this week, with a program entitled The Joy of Dance.  A triple bill, it features three diverse works – by Artistic Director and Principal Choreographer Helgi Tomasson, by Czech choreographer Jiří Bubeníček and by New York City Ballet’s Justin Peck. The program opener is Tomasson’s…

The San Francisco Symphony hosts two widely acclaimed and very welcome French artists to Davies Symphony Hall this week – pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet and conductor Lionel Bringuier, each in his own right a star turn – with a program of music by Kodály, Ravel and Beethoven. Jean-Yves Thibaudet is well known to San Francisco audiences,…

SFJAZZ is pulling out all stops this week as it launches its 5th Anniversary Season with a series of star-studded concerts.  The celebrations open with a Gala Concert honoring Zakir Hussain, followed by four concerts with the theme ‘traditions in transition’ – each curated by a different jazz celebrity, and each paying tribute to an…

Michael Tilson Thomas, Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony  © San Francisco Symphony It’s well known how dear to the heart of Michael Tilson Thomas is the work of Gustav Mahler, and this week MTT and the San Francisco Symphony delight in presenting to their audiences a program in which the main work is…

https://youtu.be/M51UqyWpYko Chris Botti performs ‘My Funny Valentine’ on the PBS LEGENDS OF JAZZ, Golden Horns, episode © PBS Direct from his regular holiday season residency at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York, Chris Botti arrives in San Francisco this week to take over the Miner Auditorium at SFJAZZ, with a repertoire which is…

Photograph courtesy San Francisco Symphony The San Francisco Symphony, under guest conductor David Newman, continues its 2016-17 Film Series this week with a production which the American Film Institute declared to be “one of the greatest films of all time” – Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront. Produced by Sam Spiegel, with a screenplay by Budd…

Nice Opera heralds the new year with one of the world’s best loved operatic works – Giacomo Puccini’s tragic melodrama, Tosca.  A production by Marseille Opera, it stars Bulgarian soprano Svetla Vassileva in the role of Floria Tosca, Asturian tenor Alejandro Roy as her lover Mario Cavaradossi, and Mexican baritone Carlos Almaguer sings Barone Scarpia,…