Month: January 2018

The world has certainly not moved on much in the past 70 years, it seems. Garson Kanin’s Born Yesterday, currently running at the San Francisco Playhouse, is set and written in the febrile political world of 1946, and clearly shows that money talked then, as we know it still does today. Corruption and politics notwithstanding,…

There’s a grand celebration taking place in San Francisco on Thursday, as SFJAZZ pays tribute to Preservation Hall with the presentation of the SFJAZZ Lifetime Achievement Award. Located on St Peter Street, in the heart of the French Quarter of New Orleans, the institution, regarded as ‘the cornerstone of New Orleans music and culture’, looks…

This weekend, in its Great Performers series, the San Francisco Symphony hosts conductor Thierry Fischer, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and two fabulous French guest artists – cellist Gautier Capuçon and pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet. Described by The Daily Californian as “one of the best and most prestigious symphonic orchestras in the world”, the Royal Philharmonic…

The Birthday Party “Delicious, impalpable and hair-raising” is how The Sunday Times describes Harold Pinter’s  somewhat surreal and sinister The Birthday Party, currently running at A.C.T.’s Geary Theater. This darkly comic play is set in a boarding house in a rather unremarkable English seaside town. The sole lodger in Meg and Petey Boles’ residence is…

There must be many lovers of ballet in the Bay Area who are delighted that San Francisco Ballet is reviving its production of The Sleeping Beauty this season – a work which embodies all that’s wonderful about ballet. With its sumptuous courtly setting, elegant choreography, gorgeous costumes, and what’s acknowledged to be some of the…

Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony certainly have form when it comes to presenting successful concert versions of stage productions – be they operas, such as  Britten’s Peter Grimes, or Broadway musicals like Bernstein’s West Side Story and On the Town – so in this centennial year of the remarkable Leonard Bernstein, what…

One of the joys of January in the city is the opening of the San Francisco Ballet season. This year, it promises to be particularly dazzling, and includes a production of The Sleeping Beauty, a celebration of the centennials of both Jerome Robbins and Leonard Bernstein, another opportunity to experience the drama of Liam Scarlett’s…

There’s an interesting concert at Davies Symphony Hall this week. Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony are joined by guest artist Emanuel Ax who plays not one, but two, piano concertos – and they really couldn’t be more different – Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 14  and Schoenberg’s Piano Concerto No 42. Ax, described…

Trumpeter extraordinaire Chris Botti makes a very welcome return visit to SFJAZZ this week, playing in the Miner Auditorium for nine performances – four of which are nearly sold out. This comes as no surprise, since the world’s biggest-selling jazz instrumentalist is as popular here as he is the world over, with sales of over…