From Opera San Jose’s latest take on a classic show to a hip-hop dance festival and an Elvis/drag queen-themed play, there is a lot to see and do this weekend in the Bay Area.
Note that if you are headed into San Francisco, the massive APEC international conference running Nov. 11-19 is going to pose traffic issues. More about that is here. And here is a map detailing the more heavily affected areas.
Here’s our partial roundup.
Classical picks: California Feast; ‘Barber of Seville’
The Bay Area’s classical music scene extends its reach this week, as the San Francisco and California Symphonies perform as part of the California Festival, and Opera San Jose opens its new production of a treasured opera.
Statewide works: The California Festival is celebrating the new. Led by three conductors — San Francisco Symphony music director Esa-Pekka Salonen, San Diego Symphony’s Rafael Payare, and L.A. Philharmonic’s Gustavo Dudamel — the two-week statewide festival continues through Nov. 19 in venues from San Diego to Fort Bragg. This week in Davies Hall, Salonen leads the San Francisco Symphony in his own “Kinēma” for chamber orchestra and clarinet, with Carey Bell as soloist; the program also includes Jens Ibsen’s rock-inspired “Drowned in Light,” and Stravinsky’s “Symphony in Three Movements.” Details: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday; Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco; $25-$75; www.sfsymphony.org.
Finding “Inspiration”: The California Symphony also has a role in the California Festival; under Donato Cabrera, the orchestra opens its 2023-24 season in Walnut Creek with the world premiere of “Chance of Rain” by composer-in-residence Viet Cuong. Completing the program: Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 3, “Rhenish,” and Suites One and Two from Handel’s “Water Music.” Details: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 4 p.m. Sunday; Lesher Center, Walnut Creek; $20-$90; californiasymphony.org.
That crafty “Barber”: Audiences never get tired of “The Barber of Seville,” and Opera San Jose’s new production of Rossini’s beloved opera buffa promises something special. It’s helmed by British director Stephen Lawless, making his company debut at the helm of this new production featuring Ricardo José Rivera as Figaro, Joshua Sanders as the Count Almaviva, and Nikola Adele Printz as Rosina. Joseph Marcheso conducts. Details: Saturday through Nov. 26; California Theater, San Jose; $55-$195, www.operasj.org.
— Georgia Rowe, Correspondent
Hip-hop dance X 2
Hip-hop dance plays a central role in two big performances this weekend.
First, the International Hip Hop DanceFest returns for its 25th year this weekend in San Francisco. And they’re not kidding about the international part – the event draws artists from Paris, Brussels, London, Detroit, San Mateo, Santa Rosa, and Philadelphia. They’ll be performing a wide variety of hip-hop and its sub-genres, including breaking, popping, locking, waacking, house, jit, as well as such styles such as modern, salsa, cumbia, merengue, bachata, swing, and even Charleston. There will also be several events to commemorate the milestone anniversary. “It’s a new vibe this year as we celebrate 25 years of unparalleled virtuosity,” says founder and organizer Micaya in a press release. “We’re not just celebrating our 25 years; we’re also celebrating the 50 years of hip hop culture that have paved the way for us. It’s a testament to the enduring power of this art form.”
Among the performers are London-based Flawless, House of Jit, Selasi Dogbatse, Versa-Style Dance Company, Wanted Posse and many more.
Details: 1 and 7 p.m. Nov. 11, noon Nov. 12, Palace of Fine Arts, 3301 Lyon St., San Francisco; $53-$67; www.sfhiphopdancefest.com.
Meanwhile – and if you’re insisting it’s too early to think about winter holidays, you might be fighting a losing battle – the popular annual “Hip Hop Nutcracker” is touring America and stops at the Paramount Theatre, 2025 Broadway, in Oakland, on Saturday.
Directed by Tony Award winning director Jennifer Weber, this family-friendly show sets New York City-style break and hip-hop dances to the traditional “Nutcracker” score and story line.
Details: 7 p.m.; $51.50-$88.50; www.hiphopnutcracker.com.
— Bay City News Service
From King to queen
This might come as a shock to some of you but sometimes being an Elvis impersonator does not represent the world’s most stable career option.
That’s what Casey, the protagonist in “The Legend of Georgia McBride,” learns — the hard way. He’s a guy with a bunch of issues in his life: he’s near-broke, behind on his rent, his wife is pregnant, and he’s just been fired from his Elvis job (talk about a “Heartbreak Hotel”).
Things start to turn around when a drag show comes to town and Casey joins the cast. Thanks to his new job, Casey’s financial fortunes improve and he gains a bunch of new friends and a new outlook on life to boot. The 2014 play with music by Matthew Lopez (“The Inheritance”) comes to Walnut Creek in a new production by Center Repertory Company, with Elizabeth Carter directing. The show marks Carter’s return to Center Rep after directing Lynn Nottage’s “Sweat” for the company last season.
Details: Through Nov. 26; Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek; $45-$70; lesherartscenter.org.
— Randy McMullen, Staff
Walking the walk
The San Francisco Art Walk is kind of like a huge buffet line for people who like, well, art … and music and dance. Back for its 10th year, Art Walk unfolds along San Francisco’s Market Street, between 5th and 8th streets, on Saturday and Sunday. Along the three-block stretch you’ll find 25 sites hosting art works, dance performances and live music.
At the Orpheum Theatre, for example, musicians Michelle Lambert and Austin Waz will perform on Saturday, and Marku and Andre Thierry perform Sunday. The U.N. Plaza will host a hip-hop dance performance on Nov. 11 and Alonzo King LINES Ballet on Nov. 12. The Warfield Theatre will feature a mural by Clare Rojas as well as live music by Baycoin Beats (Nov. 11) and the Rudy Colombini Band (Nov. 12). The American Conservatory Theater’s Strand stage will host live drag performances and a concert by members of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (both on Nov. 12).
All the art displays and performances are free. Art Walk, presented by the Mid Market Community Benefit District, runs 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. The easiest way to access the event (and with the APEC Conference going on, you do not want to drive into the city) is to take BART to the Civic Center station and head East along Market Street. The attractions run through Fifth and Mason streets, and the Powell Street BART station is a block away.
Details: More information and a handy map of the arts attractions is at www.2blocksofart.org.
Art that asks questions
Duane Linklater has become a renowned figure in the arts world by questioning almost everything about it, from the limiting nature of museum exhibits to the relative lack of works by Indigenous offered in mainstream venues. The Canadian Omaskêko Ininiwak artist is known for works that explore the contradictions between traditional and contemporary Indigenous life and how it is presented in art and the media, as well as what he calls “the physical and theoretical structures of the museum.”
Now the 47-year-old artist is getting his first major survey exhibition at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Archive. “Duane Linklater: mymothersside” includes more than 30 of his works, ranging from paintings and sculptures to performance videos and installations. Many of the works incorporate teepee poles, representing a powerful symbol of Indigenous life and representation. The pieces also feature a wide mix of cultural references, from current and ancestral traditions of the Moose Cree First Nation in Northern Ontario to The Cure and Taj Mahal, two of the artist’s favorite music acts.
Details: Through Feb. 24; hours at BAMPFA are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday; $12-$14, free to BAMPFA members, UC students and those 18 and under; bampfa.org.
— Bay City News Service
A world premiere from TQ
Entering, astoundingly enough, its 49th season, the sublimely talented Takács Quartet makes its first of two visits this season to Cal Performances Nov. 12 to give California composer and prize-winning violist Nokuthula Ngwenyama’s “Flow” its first performance. Commissioned by the quartet, which wanted a work that expresses the themes of the natural world and climate change, “Flow” is partially explained by its composer in these words: “Systems layered upon other systems revealed a common flow to existence tying us to the initial outburst of energy and matter at the birth of our universe. We, as biological creatures, flow through life. Conversely, the flow of existence is temporarily housed in all living creatures of each generation.”
Also on Sunday’s program, which takes place at 3 p.m. in Hertz Hall on the UC Berkeley campus, are Haydn’s String Quartet No. 63 in B-flat Major, the “Sunrise,” and Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 8 in E minor.
Details: $98; calperformances.org.
— Bay City News Foundation
