October 2009

October 22, 2009

Finnish duo at Davies

A concert of  John Adams, Tchaikovsky and Dvořák had intriguing parallels. Finnish-born Osmo Vänskä, currently music director of the Minnesota Orchestra, guest conducted the San...

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Categories: music

‘Salome’ at San Francisco Opera

Worlds ruled by the moon . . . When the scrim, which is like a sheer veil before the audience’s gaze, rises what is thrown into sharp relief is a severe world of bronze-colored walls at the center of which is a huge black disc. Behind that new moon disc is the cistern in which the prophet Jokanaan is held prisoner. The mouth of the cistern opens and closes like the lens of an eye. To the audience’s left...

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Categories: opera

October 18, 2009

Suzanne Farrell Ballet at Cal Performances

Preserving the Legacy It’s hard to believe that all the works of choreographer George Balanchine are not graven in stone somewhere, that some exist merely in the memory of dancers who are now beginning to forget them. But no suitable notation exists in the world of dance; almost all written recording systems are flawed or awkward at best. Film and videography grew up while Balanchine was coming into his own, and the problems of recording that exist within the film industry...

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Categories: dance