There is some urgency to attending classical music concerts this fall. Who knows what will happen after November? Many upcoming Bay Area offerings present choices that might even help maintain our sanity through a communal love of music.
San Francisco Opera
SFO's second century proceeds sensibly as General Director Matthew Shilvock's administration has tightened the fall season to four operas. A one night only concert of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony (Oct. 26), marks the work's 200th anniversary. Music Director Eun Sun Kim conducts. The Company remains focused on quality.
September 6-27: The season opens with Verdi's marvelously melodic "Un Ballo in Maschera." Eun Sun Kim is keeping her yearly commitment to exploring the composer's genius. Director Leo Muscato's new to SFO production, pairs sexy out tenor Michael Fabiano with Lianna Haroutounian's lustrous soprano.
September 14-October 1: The West Coast premiere of composer Poul Ruders and librettist Paul Bentley's "The Handmaid's Tale," based on Margaret Atwood's chilling dystopian novel. Talk about timeliness. The opera may preach to the choir in San Francisco, but it is good to know we are not alone. Karen Kamensek conducts the co-production with The Royal Danish Theatre directed by John Fulljames. Sets are by Chloe Lamford, whose designs for "Innocence" last June made a powerful impact.
October 19-November 5: Richard Wagner's towering masterpiece "Tristan und Isolde" returns to SFO after almost two decades. Gay composer Benjamin Britten wrote in 1933, it dwarfs every other creation save perhaps Beethoven's Ninth. The opera changed the course of Western music forever. Eun Sun Kim conducts director Paul Curran's production from Venice's Teatro La Fenice. Wagnerian stars Simon O'Neill and Anja Kampe sing the title roles.
November 13-December 1: Director Francesca Zambello's production of "Carmen" returns and English designer Tanya McCallin joins her in the bullring to re-stage their memorably fluid take on Bizet's passionate classic. Mezzo-soprano Eve-Maud Hubeaux is Carmen and soprano Louise Alder is Micaëla. Tenor Jonathan Tetelman portrays scorned Don José and dashing bass-baritone Christian Van Horn is the matador Escamillo. www.sfopera.com
San Francisco Symphony
The SFS features maestro Esa-Pekka Salonen in his last year as Music Director. The Orchestra's board seems to be throwing the baby out with the bath water in its attempt at economic belt-tightening, but the final decision is Salonen's. Catch him while you can.
Sep 19-21: Salonen conducts Verdi's furiously operatic "Requiem." Bass Peixin Chen makes his SFS debut. Soprano Leah Hawkins, mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill, tenor Mario Chang, and the SFS Chorus complete the vocal ensemble.
Sep 27-28: Salonen leads the world premiere of out composer Nico Muhly's Piano Concerto. Muhly is a collaborator with the SFS and Salonen. He has also worked with Sufjan Stevens and conducted for Philip Glass. The Piano Concerto, inspired by French Baroque composers Couperin and Rameau, is an SF Symphony commission for pianist Alexandre Tharaud.
Oct 25-26: Guest Thomas Wilkins conducts 20th-century American music in a program featuring George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" and music from "Porgy and Bess." Leonard Bernstein's rollicking suite from "Candide" is also on the bill.
The 'dean of African American composers' William Grant Still's orchestral suite "Wood Notes," receives its first SF Symphony performances.
Oct 5-6: Salonen conducts the Brahms Fourth and Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No.1, with violinist Sayaka Shoji
Oct 18-20: Salonen interprets Beethoven's Sixth 'Pastoral' and SFS Principal Cello Rainer Eudeikis plays Esa-Pekka's own Cello Concerto (first SFS performances).
Oct 31: A great fit for Halloween, Hitchcock's "Psycho" screens with a live orchestra.
Nov 2: Curated by longtime collaborator Martha Rodríguez-Salazar, the annual Día de los Muertos concert continues a great SFS tradition.
Nov 15-17: Gifted pianist Hélène Grimaud joins conductor Kazuki Yamada for Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major. Soprano Liv Redpath and Baritone Michael Sumuel are soloists with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, Jenny Wong, director in Gabriel Fauré's exquisite Requiem.
Nov 21-23: Canadian early-music specialist Bernard Labadie leads an all-Mozart program. There is still an audience for Mozart sans light shows, isn't there?
Nov 29-30: Perhaps Mozart does need visual aid. Miloš Forman's entertaining "Amadeus" film is screened with conductor Constantine Kitsopoulos and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and Chorus performing live. www.sfsymphony.org
Cal Performances
An American Modern Opera Company production of Olivier Messiaen's "Harawi" is Cal Performances' season opener. Featuring company members soprano Julia Bullock, pianist Conor Hanick, and choreographer/dancers Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber, with direction by Zack Winokur, "Harawi" is part of Cal Performances' Illuminations: "Fractured History" programming for the 2024—25 season. www.calperformances.org
New Century Chamber Orchestra
November 14-17: New Century Chamber Orchestra begins its 2024-25 season with Max Richter's delightful "Vivaldi: Recomposed-The Four Seasons," a reimagining of a timeless favorite. NCCO Artistic Director Daniel Hope recorded the piece in 2012 playing solo violin. Richter was on "a personal salvage mission," to freshen a classic suffering from overexposure. The collaboration was a runaway hit. The program opens with another festive work, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's "Allegro Moderato from Four Novelletten for String Orchestra."
November 14: First Congregational Church, Berkeley; November 15: Empress Theatre, Vallejo; November 16: Herbst Theatre, San Francisco; November 17: St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Belvedere/Tiburon. www.ncco.org
Opera Parallèle
Nov 8-17: Opera Parallèle just keeps getting cooler. The Company's dedication to diversity and inclusion, not to mention recognition of LGBT artists is exemplary. Programming is eclectic, innovative and wildly entertaining.
Composer Joby Talbot and librettist Gene Scheer's "Everest: Opera in the Planetarium" is an immersive film experience; cast and conductor are not appearing live. Graphic novel imagery fuses with the power of voice to tell the true story of an ill-fated 1996 expedition to the great mountain. www.operaparallele.org
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