November 2009 – Repeat Performances

November 21, 2009

Berlin Philharmonic at Davies Hall

Expanding virtues Starting a concert with the ecstatically triumphant notes of Wagner’s Prelude to Die Meistersinger promises an exciting evening for any concertgoer, and on Saturday that’s what Music Director Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic delivered in San Francisco’s Davies Hall. The Berlin Phil has been a standard for orchestral excellence from the early 20th century and has been shaped by some of the world's great conductors, including Hans...

Categories: music

November 20, 2009

Druid Theater presents ‘The Walworth Farce’ at Cal Performances

Tragedy and farce go head on ... Galway’s Druid Theater is taking it on the road. Currently, “it” is The Walworth Farce, the madcap play that makes so much sense by playwright Enda Walsh, brought to the Zellerbach Playhouse Nov. 18–23, as part of Cal Performances’ Theater series. Our first impression of the play is the stage, sets by Sabine Dargent: divided into three shabby rooms, a central living room flanked by a bedroom and a kitchen. The ragged...

Categories: theater

November 19, 2009

‘Dark River’ at the Oakland Metro Theater

New opera Since moving to its new digs on 3rd Street near Jack London Square, the Oakland Opera Theater has produced opera less frequently than before, which is a shame, because the company does something very few do: produce new opera by...

Categories: opera

November 13, 2009

Oakland Symphony scores knockout with “Night at the Opera”

Michael Morgan got to blow out his candles and share the cake last Friday at the Paramount Theatre, in a program he designed as a treat to himself for his 20th year anniversary with the Oakland East Bay Symphony. Before lifting his baton he turned to the audience and spoke on the “Night at the Opera” program. ...

Categories: opera

November 8, 2009

‘Otello’ at San Francisco Opera

Good singing v. good acting As the closing production of its season, the San Francisco Opera presents Verdi’s penultimate opera, Otello, which opened this past Sunday at the War Memorial Opera House. If this production is representative of the...

Categories: opera

November 7, 2009

The Globe Theater’s ‘Love’s Labours Lost’ at Cal Performances

Finding Love's Labours This past week brought the consummately skilled young actors of the Globe Theater to Cal Performances’ Zellerbach Hall stage in Shakespeare’s Love’s Labours Lost—not one of Will’s most satisfying plays. Nevertheless, the production brought to it everything that was possible, gilding its edges with superlative acting and a charming traditional theatrical production. Everything was in place, so that the play’s lapses—its...

Categories: theater