Arts & Events

New: A Controversial CARMEN at SF Opera

Reviewed by James Roy MacBean
Sunday May 29, 2016 - 04:28:00 PM

On Friday evening, May 27, SF Opera opened its summer season with a new production of Bizet’s immensely popular opera Carmen. This Carmen was directed by the daring and controversial Catalan director Calixto Bieito, dubbed “the bad-boy of opera,” in his U.S. opera debut. This production, which premiered in Catalonia back in 1999 and has been performed on several continents since, is here staged by Bieito’s longtime collaborator, Joan Anton Rechi. A San Francisco Opera press release noted that “this production contains violence, nudity and suggestive behavior. Parent discretion advised.”

Well, let’s see about that. There was no nudity I detected on opening night, although Carmen, played in exquisitely sultry fashion by mezzo-soprano Irene Roberts, at one point hiked up her skirt and removed her panties before mounting a supine but fully clothed Don José. On the other hand, there was considerable violence, usually inflicted by men, (especially the Spanish soldiers of the Gaurdia Civil), against women, although some violence was directed against men, as in the savage beating of Lieutenant Zuniga, Don José’s superior officer, by Carmen’s gypsy men in Act II. Ultimately, what struck me as most controversial about this pro-vocative production was its initial premise, which situates the drama, at least in the opening two acts, in Ceuta, a Spanish enclave on the Mediterranean coast of Morocco. -more-


Around & About--Theater: Theater Explorations Summer Classes

Ken Bullock
Friday May 27, 2016 - 05:13:00 PM

Marion Fay's starting up her convivial and very interactive Theater Explorations adult ed class for the summer, running Mondays from 1-3 p. m., June 13 through July 25 (no class Monday, July 4) at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda, near the top of Solano Avenue and the tunnel. -more-


Another Lost Venetian Opera Returns Thanks to Ars Minerva

Reviewed by James Roy MacBean
Friday May 27, 2016 - 04:56:00 PM

Ars Minerva ‘s Founder and Artistic Director Céline Ricci has done it again. Last year she brought us La Cleopatra, an opera by Daniele da Castrovillari that premiered in Venice in 1662 and was never performed since till Ricci revived it in San Francisco. This year she brings us Le Amazone nelle Isole Fortunate (The Amazons in the Fortunate Isles), an opera by Carlo Pallavicino that premiered at the Villa Contarini outside Venice in 1679 and was never performed since till Ricci staged it Saturday, May 21, and Sunday, May 22, at Marines Memorial Theater. Ricci discovered the existence of the scores for these long-forgotten operas in the Contarini Bequest collection in Venice’s Marciana Library. -more-


San Francisco Silent Film Festival Is Next Weekend

Justin DeFreitas
Thursday May 26, 2016 - 02:16:00 PM
Laurel and Hardy’s Battle of the Century (1927)

Take a break from the Bernie vs. Hillary battle and step back in time 100 years to an era when the idea of a woman governor, much less a woman president, was the subject of futuristic fiction. -more-


What's Up, Docs? 15th SF Documentary Film Festival—June 2-16, 2016

Gar Smith
Thursday May 26, 2016 - 02:11:00 PM

The 15th San Francisco Documentary Film Festival (aka SF DocFest) is revving up its traditional rambunctious roster of party-nights and screenings DocFest with run for two weeks, from June 2-16. This year's line-up includes 32 premieres—including seven world premieres. Screenings are set for the Roxie Theater (16th & Valencia), Vogue Theater (Sacramento & Presidio) and Chinatown's newly restored Great Star Theater (Jackson & Kearny). -more-


50 Years of Bringing Music to the People
June 3, 4 & 5 at UC Berkeley
Berkeley Community Chorus & Orchestra Performs Anti-War Masterpiece

Sally Douglas Arce
Thursday May 26, 2016 - 02:06:00 PM
Mary Borders (left) has sung with the Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra for 39 years.  She and  Joanne Ricketts (right), who has been with BCCO for 9 years, will join some 220 fellow chorus members in performances of an anti-war classical masterpiece on June 3, 4 and 5 at Hertz Hall on the U.C. Berkeley campus.   For the past five decades, BCCO has operated on the principle that great music should be available to all.  BCCO’s concerts are always free.

The Berkeley Community Chorus & Orchestra (BCCO) marks its 50th anniversary with performances of an anti-war classical masterpiece concerts on June 3, 4 and 5 at Hertz Hall on the U.C. Berkeley campus. For the past five decades, BCCO has operated on the principle that great music should be available to all. BCCO’s concerts are always free. -more-


Hidden Life in Berkeley Subject of Talk on May 28, 2016 at the Berkeley Public Library, Central Branch

Thursday May 26, 2016 - 02:49:00 PM

Richard Schwartz will give an illustrated talk on the hidden Indian Life in Berkeley and the evidence surrounding it. He will demonstrate how the discovery and protection of artifacts and history combine as a powerful tool to begin to understand the extent Native Americans lived within what became the city of Berkeley. He will demonstrate how a culture can be learned or lost by the efforts and actions of current residents and how this history might exist in your own back yard. Community Room, Berkeley Main Library, 2090 Kittredge St., Berkeley, 94704. 1pm. tel 981-6100. -more-