2016-2017 Season Previews

Fall Children's Performing Arts Preview 2016

Tf-fafner-2016* Notes *
My Fall guide of performing arts for children in the Bay Area is up on KQED Arts.

* Tattling *
My son (pictured with San Francisco Opera's Magic Flute shirt and Fafner stuffed animal, photograph by Scott Grieder) really won't stop listening to Cecilia Bartoli's Mozart Arias CD from 1991. It might be an improvement to his obsession with the second act of Philip Glass' Satyagraha. He really did hear seven Wagner operas in nine days at Bayreuth in utero. Plus Einstein on the Beach at Los Angeles Opera. Poor thing!


SF Symphony's 2016-2017 Season

September 7 2016: MTT conducts Steve Reich, Rossini; Renée Fleming, soprano and Susan Graham, mezzo-soprano
September 8 2016: MTT conducts Copland, Vivaldi, Rossini; Susanna Phillips, soprano and Alexander Barantschik, violin
September 9-10 2016: MTT conducts Copland, Reich; Susanna Phillips, soprano and eighth blackbird, chamber ensemble
September 11 2016: MTT conducts Steve Reich 80th Birthday Celebration
September 14-17 2016: MTT conducts Haydn, Sibelius, Beethoven
September 18 2016: MTT conducts Beethoven Discovery Concert
September 22-24 2016: MTT conducts Marcello, Berio, Verdi; Michael Fabiano, tenor; Swingle Singers, vocal ensemble; Eugene Izotov, oboe
September 28- October 1 2016: MTT conducts Bright Sheng, Shostakovich, Stravinsky; Yuja Wang, piano; Mark Inouye, trumpet
October 9 2016: Vincent Dubois, organ
October 13-15 2016: Brad Lubman conducts 2001: A Space Odyssey
October 16 2016: Chamber Music with members of SFS
October 19-22 2016: Pablo Heras-Casado conducts Mozart, Schumann, Dvořák; Alisa Weilerstein, cello
October 23 2016: Chamber Music with members of SFS
October 27-30 2016: MTT conducts Allegri, Mozart, Brahms; Rudolph Buchbinder, piano; Pacific Boychoir
October 31- November 1 2016: Gustavo Dudamel conducts Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra
November 2-4 2016: MTT conducts Chopin and Bruckner; Yuja Wang, piano
November 5 2016: Día de los Muertos Concert
November 6 2016: Jacek Kaspszyki conducts Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra; Yulianna Avdeevat, piano
November 9-22 2016: Asia Tour with Yuja Wang
November 20 2016: Christian Reif conducts SFS Youth Orchestra
November 22-23 2016: Simon Rattle conducts Berlin Philharmonic
December 3 2016: Edwin Outwater conducts Music for Families
December 4 2016: Chamber Music with members of SFS
December 4 2016: Yu Long conducts China Philharmonic Orchestra; Julian Rachlin, violin
December 9-10 2016: SoundBox
December 11 2016: Christian Reif conducts SFS Youth Orchestra in Peter and the Wolf
December 11 2016: A Merri-achi Christmas
December 15-17 2016: Patrick Dupré Quigley conducts Messiah
January 7-8 2017: David Newman conducts On the Waterfront
January 13-15 2017: MTT conducts Mahler
January 16 2017: Itzak Perlman, violin & Rohan De Silva, piano
January 21-24 2016: James Gaffigan conducts Musssorgsky, Prokofiev, Mozart, and R. Strauss; Simone Lamsma, violin
January 20-21 2017: SoundBox
January 26-28 2017: Lionel Bringuier conducts Kodály, Ravel, Beethoven; Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano
January 28 2017: Edwin Outwater conducts Music for Families
January 29 2017: Chamber Music with members of SFS
January 29 2017: Emmanuel Villaume conducts Prague Philharmonia; Gautier Capuçon, cello
February 1-3 2017: Herbert Blomstedi conducts Beethoven
February 4 2017: Chinese New Year Concert
February 5 2017: Chamber Music with members of SFS
February 7 2017: Lang Lang, piano
February 9-12 2017: Herbert Blomstedt conducts Beethoven and Brahms; Yefim Bronfman, piano
February 10-11 2017: SoundBox
February 16-18 2017: Joana Carneiro conducts John Adams' The Gospel According to the Other Mary
February 19 2017: Chamber Music with members of SFS
February 22-25 2017: MTT conducts John Adams, Prokofiev; Leila Josefowicz, violin
February 26 2017: James O'Donnell, organ
March 1-4 2017: MTT conducts Gnesin, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky; Gautier Capuçon, cello
March 5 2017: Christian Reif conducts SFS Youth Orchestra
March 9-12 2017: Marek Janowski conducts Beethoven, Hindemith, Brahms; Arabella Steinbacher, violin
March 10-11 2017: SoundBox
March 13 2017: András Schiff, piano
March 16-18 2017: Juraj Valčuha conducts Schreker, Barber, Beethoven; Gil Shaham, violin
March 18 2017: Christian Reif conducts Music for Families
March 19 2017: Chamber Music with members of SFS
March 19-20 2017: Yuri Temirkanov conducts St. Petersburg Philharmonic
March 23-24 2017: MTT conducts Cage, Robin Holloway, Bartók; Jeffrey Anderson, tuba
March 25-26 2017: MTT conducts Cage, Bruch, Bartók; Nicola Benedetti, violin
March 26 2017: Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin and Lambert Orkis, piano
March 30- April 2 2017: MTT conducts Mahler
April 2-3 2017: Fabio Luisi conducts Danish National Orchestra
April 5-8 2017: US Tour
April 7 2017: Ragnar Bohlin conducts San Francisco Symphony Chorus
April 14-15 2017: SoundBox
April 14-15 2017: Emil de Cou conducts Raiders of the Lost Ark
April 19-22 2017: Andrés Orozco-Estrada conducts Prokofiev and Rachmaninoff; Denis Kozhukhin, piano
April 27-29 2017: Fabio Luisi conducts Schumann and R. Strauss; Igor Levit, piano
April 30 2017: Chamber Music with members of SFS
May 4-6 2017: Charles Dutoit conducts Berlioz's Requiem; Paul Groves, tenor
May 7 2017: Chamber Music with members of SFS
May 10-13 2017: Charles Dutoit conducts Sibelius, Mozart, Falla, Debussy; Emanuel Ax, piano
May 14 2017: Christian Reif conducts SFS Youth Orchestra
May 17-21 2017: Roberto Abbado conducts Schumann and Mendelssohn; Veronika Eberle, violin
May 25-27 2017: Manfred Honeck conducts Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky; Matthias Goerne, baritone
May 28 2017: Chamber Music with members of SFS
May 31- June 1 2017: Alexander Barantschik, violin leads Vivaldi, Mozart, J.S. Bach
June 2-3 2017: Sarah Hicks conducts Casablanca
June 3 2017: Christian Reif conducts Music for Families
June 4 2017: Wayne Marshall, organ
June 9-11 2017: Susanna Mälkki conducts Debussy, Beethoven, Stravinsky; Garrick Ohlsson, piano
June 15-18 2017: Vasily Petrenko conducts Glinka, Lalo, Rachmaninoff; Joshua Bell, violin
June 23-25 2017: MTT conducts Ives, MTT, Harrison, Antheil; Measha Brueggergosman, mezzo-soprano
June 28- July 1 2017: MTT conducts Berlioz's Roméo et Juliette; Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano; Nicholas Phan, tenor; and Luca Pisaroni, bass-baritone


Met Opera's 2016-17 Season

Metropolitan_Opera_House_At_Lincoln_Center_2September 26- October 27 2016 : Tristan und Isolde
September 27 2016- May 11 2017: Don Giovanni
September 28 2016- January 14 2017: La Bohème
October 4-29 2016: L'Italiana in Algeri
October 18- November 12 2016: Guillaume Tell
October 28- November 17 2016: Jenufa
November 5 2016- April 20 2017: Aida
November 14- December 10 2016: Manon Lescaut
December 1-29 2016: L'Amour de Loin
December 5-28 2016: Salome
December 12 2016- January 7 2017: Nabucco
December 20 2016- January 5 2017: The Magic Flute
December 31 2016- March 18 2017: Roméo et Juliette
January 9-February 11 2017: Il Barbiere di Siviglia
January 20-April 27 2017: Rigoletto
February 2- March 2 2017: Rusalka
February 10-28 2017: Il Puritani
February 16- March 9 2017: Werther
February 24- April 14 2017: La Traviata
March 6-25 2017: Idomeneo
March 16- April 8 2017: Fidelio
March 30- April 22 2017: Eugene Onegin
April 13- May 13 2017: Der Rosenkavalier
April 25- May 12 2017: Der Fliegende Holländer
May 2-13 2017: Cyrano de Bergerac

The Met announced the 2016-2017 season today. There will be 225 performances of 26 operas, including six new productions. The new productions are Tristan und Isolde, Guillaume Tell, L'Amour de Loin, Roméo et Juliette, Rusalka, and Der Rosenkavalier.

Online 2016-2017 Brochure | Official Site


LA Opera's 2016-2017 Season

F1_1_Dorothy-Chandler-PavilionSeptember 17- October 16 2016: Macbeth
October 19-23 2016: Ted Hearne's The Source
October 29-31 2016: Nosferatu with score from Matthew Aucoin
November 5-27 2016: Akhnaten
December 2-5 2016 Bernstein's Wonderful Town (semi-staged)
January 28- February 19 2017: The Abduction from the Seraglio
February 18- March 19 2017: Salome
March 25- April 8 2017: The Tales of Hoffmann
April 22- May 13 2017: Tosca
June 15-18 2017: Kamala Sankaram's Thumbprint

Official Site


SF Opera's 2016-2017 Season

Open-house-david-wakelySeptember 9-30 2016: Andrea Chénier
September 10-29 2016: Dream of the Red Chamber
September 28- October 15 2016: Don Pasquale
October 14-29 2016: The Makropulos Case
November 5- December 6 2016: Aida
November 6- December 4 2016: Madama Butterfly
May 31- July 1 2017: Rigoletto
June 4-30 2017: Don Giovanni
June 10-July 2 2017: La Bohème

David Gockley announced the next season at San Francisco Opera today. Lawrence Brownlee has an SF Opera debut in Don Pasquale. Nadja Michael stars in Makropulos. Ildebrando D'Arcangelo sings the title role of Don Giovanni next year and Marc Minkowski conducts.

Ted Hearne's The Source and Poulenc's La Voix Humane will be performed at the Dianne and Tad Taube Atrium Theater next year in February and March.

Press Release | Official Site


Steve Jobs Opera Q&A

Santa-fe-operaMy Q&A with composer Mason Bates about his forthcoming Steve Jobs opera commissioned by Santa Fe Opera is on KQED Arts.

The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs has a world premiere in 2017. The opera will be workshopped next month in San Francisco in collaboration with Cal Performances and additional support from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.


Lyric Opera of Chicago's The Passenger and New Ring Cycle

Christine-goerkeLyric Opera of Chicago's 2014-2015 season includes The Passenger, which will be performed from February 24 to March 15, 2015. The company will also present a new Ring production, directed by David Pountney, starting on October 1, 2016 and continuing in consecutive seasons, followed by three complete cycles in April 2020. The conductor is Sir Andrew Davis, and the cast includes Christine Goerke (pictured left) as Brünnhilde and Eric Owens as Wotan.

Press Release | Official Site