Arts Listings

Red means War,” said Harriet March Page of Goat Hall’s San Francisco Cabaret Opera to explain “The Red Horse,” the title of the second concert in the series Horsewomen of the Apocalypse, featuring all female vocalists Saturday at St. Gregory’s Church in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill.  

“Red also means domestic strife, battles with depression—and the Red Horse District, where the fillies of the night hang out!” she added. “Come and enjoy.” 

Page talked about the evolution of the series concept. “I had the initial idea myself. I wanted something with women, a little strong ... I stretched the theme a little bit further than I intended!” 

This production is not at Goat Hall, which is undergoing renovations, but further up the Potrero slope. 

“The Red Horse” follows, naturally, “The White Horse,” which was performed in February, and will in turn be followed by “The Black Horse with a Touch of Gray” on May 9.  

“Since they are only three performances for Four Horsewomen, we have to include Death, The Gray Horse,” Page said. “First is Pestilence, Plague, Famine, which are fun, but Strife and Death are more fun.” 

“The Red Horse” features Judith Weir’s just under 10-minute solo a capella opera “King Harald’s Saga,” (from Snorri Sturluson’s Helmskringla Saga, about the first invasion of Britain in 1066, ending 19 days before the Battle of Hastings, with soprano Marilyn Pratt “playing eight roles, as well as the Norwegian Army”).  

It also features “A Set of Songs,” from Susannah by Carlysle Floyd, “More Songs of Woe” by Zachary Watkins and from Kander & Ebb’s Cabaret, “Three Questions” from Mark Alburger’s opera Antigone, as well as “Fire!” from The Bald Soprano, arias from Saga—Portrait of a 21st Century Child by Sheli Nan (of Berkeley), who will also accompany on piano, selections from Oakland’s Allan Crossman’s “The Log of the Skipper’s Wife,” Benjamin Britten’s “The Trees They Grow So High” (with Crossman on piano) and “The Red Horse District,” songs from Brecht and Weill’s Threepenny Opera and Happy End.  

“The Brecht and Weill material is tinged with horrible wars about to happen,” commented Page. 

Singers are Erin (Kat) Cornelius, Sarah Hutchinson, Kristen Jones, Janet Lohr, Eliza O’Malley and Marilyn Pratt, sopranos, and mezzo-sopranos Meghan Dibble, Elizabeth Henry and Harriet March Page. Besides Crossman and Nan, John Partridge will accompany on piano. 

“The Black Horse with a Touch of Gray” will include, among other pieces, more of Nan’s Saga, songs from poetry by Mary Holmes with music by Peter Josheff of El Cerrito and a potato famine song by Cynthia Weyuker (from Alameda) who will perform it with electric saw and loops. 

San Francisco Cabaret Opera will present more opera selections at St. Gregory’s, including scenes from on May 25, and this fall their Fresh Voices VII Festival of New Music: Opera Apocalypse! will premiere Nov. 14 and 16 at Oakland’s Chapel of the Chimes, with Alburger’s Antigone in full, Amy Beth Kirsten’s Ophelia Forever, and, by John G. Bilotta and John F. McGrew, both of Contra Costa County, Quantum Mechanic, paying homage to Aesop, backed up by the Quark Sisters. 

HORSEWOMEN OF THE  

APOCALYPSE 

8 p.m. Saturday at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church, 500 De Haro St., San Francisco. $20-$25, $15 seniors. (415) 255-8100. www.saintgregorys.org.