The Opera Tattler

Víkingur Ólafsson Plays Goldberg Variations

* Notes *
Pianist Víkingur Ólafsson (pictured, photograph by Ari Magg) is playing Bach's Goldberg Variations all over the world in the 2023-2024 season and came to Cal Performances last Saturday afternoon. The recital he gave was potent and focused, getting all sorts of colors out of the instrument.

He started off very sedately with the aria and proceeded to explore the wide range the thirty variations have to offer. His playing is always crystal clear and yet not bland in the least, there were always nuance and a varied array emotions that were palpable. He was never needlessly flashy, which one always does appreciate.

It definitely took the listener on a journey though the world of this piece. There were times in which I was flooded with the purest joy and other moments when I was close to tears. The clarity of Bach's music was a near religious experience.

* Tattling *
As is often the case with a performance without an intermission, this recital started 12 minutes late. Someone's cellular phone rang during the aria and Ólafsson stopped playing until the ringing stopped, and started again at the beginning. Somehow we made it through the 80 minutes without more phones ringing, though I did hear a watch alarm chime at 3pm and some doors slamming shut. There were also a lot of weird feedback sounds in Zellerbach, lots of loud buzzing and humming.

Ólafsson declined to do an encore, since the piece is so complete in and of itself, finishing with the Aria again at the end. He spoke to us instead, forgiving the cellular phone owner and praising Bach as the greatest composer in history while excusing himself to John Adams, who was in attendance, and whose new piano concerto After the Fall will premiere next season at San Francisco Symphony with Ólafsson as the soloist.

Mark Padmore Sings Winterreise

* Notes *
Tenor Mark Padmore sang Schubert's Winterreise at Cal Performances yesterday afternoon. Accompanied by the pianist Mitsuko Uchida ( pictured with Padmore, photograph by Justin Pumfrey) we were taken on an intense journey with these 24 songs.

Padmore has a bright voice and clear German diction. He was able to convey the text not only through his enunciation but by coloring the notes, the meaning felt completely obvious. I liked how he could sound like a perfectly pretty bell but also get across the passion of the words. There were times when his intonation was inexact, but this heightened the drama of these lieder rather than detracting from the piece. Uchida's playing was clean and supportive.

Der Lindenbaum and Die Post were particularly strong. The former starts with such sweetness, and turns darker and more strident, and then back. It was sad that during this performance the song began with a cellular phone ringing and had so much rustling of programs before it ended that Uchida hushed the audience. It was maddening given how beautiful and engaging the performance was.

* Tattling *
The performance started 15 minutes late, as it had no intermission. The audience was embarrassing. The person next to me in Row D fell asleep three or four times, jerking awake and shaking not only her seat but the ones around her. There was so much electronic noise, throughout, the worst of which was a phone that rang five times during the last song.

The Joffrey Ballet's Anna Karenina at Cal Performances

* Notes *
The Joffrey Ballet's Anna Karenina was presented by Cal Performances last night at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley for the first of three performances. The 2019 ballet with music by Ilya Demutsky was played live by Berkeley Symphony and conducted by Scott Speck.

The music is eerie and busy, there is a lot going on with a full orchestra, piano, and vocalist Lindsay Metzger.

Choreographed by Yuri Possokhov, the story is condensed into two acts and runs just shy of two hours. Possokhov uses the floor quiet a bit, but judiciously, the movements are beautifully fluid. The racehorse scene (Act I, Scene 4) was particularly impressive as far as utilizing the many dancers all together, as was Act II, Scene 5, in Betsy Tverskaya's salon (pictured, photograph by Cheryl Mann). I was very much amused by the use of different colored tutus in this latter scene. There was also a lot of using furniture in the dancing, there's a couch that is featured in the love scene between Anna and Vronsky, a bed in Act II's prologue when Anna has a fever and the subsequent scene, and lots of chairs for the Parliament scene.

The production made good use of lighting, projections, and props, it moved through the many scenes effectively without falling flat or feeling too overdone with meticulous details.

The dancers were strong. From the very beginning, Hyuma Kiyosawa is an exuberant Levin, and Yumi Kanazawa is a sweet Kitty. Dylan Gutierrez is a lanky, almost gangly Karenin, but didn't have any trouble doing lifts with both Anna Karenina and their son Seryozha (played by Jimmy Gershenson). Alberto Velazquez is convincing as Vronsky, his duets were particularly good. Best of all was Victoria Jaiani as Anna Karenina. Her extension is incredible, and her utter brokenness at Obiralovka Train Station was haunting. The staging of her death, with the railroad tracks and light of the train, was artful.

* Tattling *
The audience was quiet, there was no talking or whispering, only a few rustles of programs or lozenge wrappers disturbed the music.

Erin Morley Recital

* Notes *
Soprano Erin Morley (pictured, photograph by Dario Acosta) sang a garden-inspired recital Cal Performances this afternoon. Accompanied by pianist Malcom Martineau, we heard a number of unusual pieces by famous composers.

Morley has a lucid toned soprano, she is very clear and precise without being boring. She began the performance with selections from Huit Chansons de Fleurs by Ricky Ian Gordon and then sang pieces by Bizet, Rachmaninoff, Rimsky-Korsakov, Saint-Saëns, and Debussy. I particularly liked her rendition of Rimsky-Korsakov's "The Rose Enslaves the Nightingale," her voice has such beautiful colors in it. Her "Le Rossignol et la rose" by Saint-Saëns was also lovely, she can sound quite bird-like.

The second half of the performance featured songs in German and English. It was good to hear Zemlinsky's "Vöglein Schwermut" and Berg's "Die Nachtigall." Near the end, Morley gave a beautiful version of the traditional Irish song "The Last Rose of Summer." I found it really telling that despite not knowing most of these songs, and not bothering to grab the program with printed lyrics and translations, I was very much engaged. Morley made every word count and I felt I understood her without effort.

* Tattling *
A cell phone rang in the middle of the first set of songs by Ricky Ian Gordon.

Pina Bausch's Rite of Spring

* Notes *
The Bay Area premiere of Pina Bausch's The Rite of Spring was presented by Cal Performances last weekend at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley. It was performed with common ground[s], a duet between Germaine Acogny and Malou Airaudo.

The duet, choreographed and performed by Acogny and Airaudo, was performed first. Both are septuagenarians. Acogny is the co-founder of École des Sables, a center for traditional and contemporary African dance in Toubab Dialao, Senegal and Airaudo was in Tanztheater Wuppertal from its founding in 1973. The piece is slow and sculptural, and has a meditative quality.

It was a contrast to The Rite of Spring, which featured 38 dancers (pictured, Maarten Vanden Abeele) chosen from across the African continent and has a relentlessness and intensity that is much more frenetic. The piece is done atop a pile of dirt, and the female dancers were white shift dresses that get stained over the course of the performance.

The dancers were clearly fully committed to the work, and the visceral, unprettiness of Stravinsky's music was manifested. It was startling to see all the dancers come together in a circle and throw themselves on the ground perfectly in unison, the sound of the bodies against the dirt was especially evocative. The soloists, Profit Lucky and Gloria Ugwarelojo Biachi both gave strong performances.

* Tattling *
The audience was mostly focused, many stayed in the hall as the stage was set. After the performance, someone came out with a hose to clean up afterward.

The recording used for Stravinsky's La Sacre Du Printemps was Pierre Boulez conducting the Cleveland Orchestra.

William Kentridge's SIBYL at Cal Performances

* Notes * 
William Kentridge's SIBYL (scene from Part 2 pictured, photograph by Stella Olivier) had a US premiere at Cal Performances this weekend. The music composed by performer Nhlanhla Mahlangu and pianist Kyle Shephard was nothing short of mesmerizing.

The presentation started with a short 22-minute film by Kentridge entitled The Moment Has Gone with a male chorus (four singers) lead by Mahlangu and Shephard playing the piano. The work showcases charcoal drawings of Kentridge's alter ego Soho Eckstein and has many images of an art museum and of a mining area. A meditation on time, everything eventually collapses and dissolves, the artworks in the museum, various items made from what came from the mines such as a metal coffee pot, and even the museum itself. The chorus sang syllables that were certainly not English or Afrikaans, but I was not sure if these were words in Zulu or another Southern Bantu language, as my skills beyond Indo-European or Sino-Tibetan languages are sadly lacking. There were sections that were entirely clicks, and there were some beautiful and startling harmonies along with the percussiveness of the aforementioned consonants.

The second part of the performance was the chamber opera Waiting for the Sibyl, which premiered at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma in 2019. Again, the music pulled everything together, Shephard played piano and nine other performers either sang or danced or both in the case of Mahlangu and Xolisile Bongwana. The six scenes reveal the story of the Cumaean Sibyl, who I remeber best from Ovid's Metamorphoses and T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, but also shows up in Virgil's Aeneid where she writes her prophecies on oak leaves and in Raphael's fresco in Santa Maria della Pace.

The action never stops, the music continues throughout the scene changes as the front curtain drops and projections continue. The work with shadows, whether made by the bodies of the dancers, by props, or by the videos, are all artful. Sometimes the shadows seemed to take on a solid quality and be three-dimensional.

It was unclear if the vocalizations were in Zulu or were based on the sounds of that language, and there were no translations, but there were plenty of English words written on leaves of books. There was much leaf imagery, books and trees. The some of the sayings were more serious than whimsical. "But no place will resist destruction," "Tie every guilt to your ankle," and "I no longer believe what I once believed" all were dark, though "Resist the third cup of coffee/ the third martini" and the like definitely garnered laughs. The vibrancy of this work that deals with mortality and futility is both very jarring and beautiful.

* Tattling * 
There was not much electronic noise, perhaps it was drowned out by the performance, but it was really nice to be able to focus in on this music. There was some light talking, which I totally did not understand as the performance clock in just over an hour total plus the 20-minute intermission, and there was always so much going on whether it was visual or aural.

William Kentridge's Ursonate at Cal Performances

* Notes * 
William Kentridge performed the Dadaist sound poem Ursonate (ovation pictured) at Cal Performances last Friday in Berkeley as part of his UC Berkeley residency this school year. The piece involves Kentridge intoning Kurt Schwitters' nonsense words at a podium as images flash in the background on a large piece of paper. The effect is almost meditative, at least until Kentridge was joined by soprano Ariadne Greif, trombone player Danny Lubin-Laden, and musical saw player David Coulter toward the end of the performance.

Ursonate or "Primeval Sonata" is a poem written by the German artist Kurt Schwitter from 1922 to 1932. It has movements, as with a piece of music, and there are recurrent sound patterns such as "fümmsböwö" or "rakete." As the parent of small children, it reminded me of the insectile language in the 2016 picture book Du Iz Tak? by Carson Ellis. 

Kentridge's version, which premiered at the Performa 17 festival at the Harlem Parish, features his art, there are images of dancers, soldiers, and even Kentridge himself walking over a chair. There are the words of the piece projected and also the odd sayings that often appear in Kentridge's work. Most of these seem to be projected over various book pages, sometimes we see the pages of a book flipped through from cover to cover.

In the finale soprano Greif and trombonist Lubin-Laden enter from the audience, Greif seems to converse or even argue with Kentridge using the same syllables from Schwitters' libretto. The saw player Coulter enters later, from upstage, it was fun to see him play the saw with a drum stick and a bow.

* Tattling * 
The audience did not talk, but there were two ringtones noted from unsilenced mobile phones, one in the middle of the 45 minute piece that seemed based on "Bad to the Bone" and one closer to the end.

The performance was sold-out and was performed in the intimate Zellerbach Playhouse, which only has 400 seats.

The English Concert's Alcina

* Notes * 
The English Concert, conducted by Maestro Harry Bicket, has been touring Händel's Alcina with a first-rate cast. Yesterday afternoon the group came to Cal Performances in Berkeley with the splendid soprano Karina Gauvin (pictured, photograph by Julien Faugere) in the title role.

The singing was uniformly wonderful, from bass Wojtek Gierlach's grave, authoritative Melisso to tenor Alek Shrader's pretty and appealing sound as Oronte. Shrader made the most of the concert version presented, and was able to convey humor without being over the top. The two mezzos, Paula Murrihy as Ruggiero and Elizabeth DeShong as Bradamante were nicely distinct. Murrihy has a light, sparkly tone, while DeShong's is almost baritonal, very dark and hardy. It was pretty amusing, given that Bradamante is a lady pretending to be a man and written for a contralto, and Ruggiero was originally played by castrato Giovanni Carestini. Murrihy sang "Verdi prati" in Act II particularly well.

Best of all were the sopranos, also sharply different from one another. Lucy Crowe made for an utterly charming Morgana, hapless sister of witch Alcina. Crowe's voice is truly brilliant, very pleasant on the ears, and her acting is endearing as well. Gauvin has a delicacy that works nicely for Baroque music, her pianissimi were exquisite. She doesn't have much vibrato and managed to fire things up when necessary, as with her Act III aria "Mi restano le lagrime."

The ensemble played neatly under Maestro Bicket's direction. The soli were all very strong, violinist Nadja Zwiener was excellent, as was cellist Joseph Crouch. The horns did were pretty darned good, only a tiny bit of fuzziness once, and I very much enjoyed how much Ursula Paludan Monberg danced to the music as she played. Also impressive was therobo Sergio Bucheli, who broke a string in Act III but managed to discreetly and calmly replace the string on stage.

* Tattling * 
Perhaps people have forgotten how to turn off their devices during the pandemic. There was ringing near me in the mezzanine twice in Act II from two different patrons. Mask compliance was high, there are no concessions at Cal Performances right now, so any refreshments one partook of during the 3 hour 45 minute performance had to be snuck in.

Apollo's Fire L'Orfeo

* Notes * 
Apollo's Fire (pictured left, photograph by Roger Mastroianni), an idiosyncratic Baroque orchestra from Cleveland, is touring Monteverdi's L'Orfeo with a reconstruction of the lost Bacchanale ending, and made a stop at Cal Performances last night.

The orchestra, lead by Jeannette Sorrell, sounded quite cheery. In particular, the wind band of various sackbuts, cornetti, trumpets, and such were impressively together and tuneful.

The singers, most of whom sang multiple roles, were uniformly great and very clear. Soprano Erica Schuller sounded utterly pure and beautiful as Musica and Euridice. Soprano Amanda Powell had a tender warmth as the Messagiera (she seemed near tears but sounded lovely) and Proserpina, and was more fiery as a Bacchante.

The two tenors singing shepherds, Owen McIntosh and Jacob Perry, had a gorgeous duet that ended Act II, their voices blended wonderfully. They did not upstage, however, the lead tenor, Karim Sulayman, who sang Orfeo with such light prettiness.

The semi-staged production from Sophie Daneman, who also directed Les Arts Florissants' double-bill last year, is droll and neat. Many of the entrances came through the audience. The dancing from choreographer and principal dancer Carlos Fittante seemed unnecessary. Otherwise, I enjoyed the simple costumes which seemed to be gowns with lots of draping and shirts suitable for Renaissance re-enactment.

I was bemused by the reconstructed ending, the music is from René Schiffer, who is also a cellist in the ensemble. The scene is a very odd one, and it was a relief that the depiction of violence was stylized rather than graphic.

* Tattling * 
There were a few comments from the couple next to us in Row FF Seats 109 and 110. My date noted that our friend in the first row had his opera glasses at the ready, and I pointed out that much of the staging happens behind the orchestra, and thus magnification could be useful.

Cal Performances' 2018-2019 Season

September 23 2018: Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis and special guest Jon Batiste
September 28-30 2018: Mark Morris Dance Group; Pepperland
September 30 2018: Yo-Yo Ma, cello; Bach Suites
October 5 2018: Max Richter with the American Contemporary Music Ensemble
October 6 2018: Aida Cuevas with Mariachi Juvenil Tecalitlán; A Tribute to Juan Gabriel
October 7 2018: Sandeep Das and the HUM Ensemble; Delhi to Damascus
October 12-13 2018: Schaubühne; An Enemy of the People
October 13 2018: Jerusalem Quartet with Pinchas Zukerman and Amanda Forsyth
October 13 2018: Soweto Gospel Choir; Songs of the Free
October 20-21 2018: Sasha Waltz & Guests; Körper
October 25 2018: An Evening with Pat Metheny
October 26-28 2018: Barber Shop Chronicles
November 1 2018: Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Tamara Stefanovich, pianos
November 3 2018: Jordi Savall; The Routes of Slavery (1444 –1888)
November 10 2018: Daniel Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra
November 16-17 2018: Compagnie Käfig; Pixel
December 2 2018: Shai Wosner, piano
December 7-9 2018: Pavel Zuštiak and Palissimo Company; Custodians of Beauty
December 8 2018: Charles Lloyd & The Marvels, and Lucinda Williams
December 13-16 2018: Big Dance Theater; 17c
January 18-20 2019: Hubbard Street Dance Chicago
January 20 2019: David Finckel, cello; Wu Han, piano
January 25 2019: Kronos Quartet; Fifty for the Future
January 27 2019: Nicola Benedetti, violin; Alexei Grynyuk, piano
February 1 2019: Yefim Bronfman, piano
February 2-3 2019: Kodo; One Earth Tour: Evolution
February 8 2019: Cantus; Alone Together
February 17 2019: Danish String Quartet
February 20 2019: Joyce DiDonato; SONGPLAY
February 22-24 2019: The 7 Fingers; Reversible
February 24 2019: Takács Quartet
March 2-3 2019: Akram Khan; XENOS
March 3 2019: Takács Quartet
March 10 2019: Nicolas Hodges, piano; Jennifer Koh, violin; Anssi Karttunen, cello
March 15-17 2019: Philharmonia Orchestra, London; Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor
March 22-24 2019: Quote Unquote Collective; Mouthpiece
March 23 2019: An Evening with Ira Glass; Seven Things I’ve Learned
March 31 2019: Zakir Hussain and the Masters of Percussion
April 3 2019: Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour; 60th Anniversary Celebration Starring Cécile McLorin Salvant
April 4 2019: The Tallis Scholars; Music Inspired by the Sistine Chapel
April 7 2019: So Percussion; Mallet Quartets and the Keyboard Reimagined
April 9-14 2019: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
April 13 2019: Havana Cuba All-Stars
April 15 2019: Murray Perahia, piano
April 26-28 2019: Théâtre National de Bretagne; Julius Caesar
April 29 2019: Gil Shaham, violin; Akira Eguchi, piano
May 1 2019: Alisa Weilerstein, cello; The Complete Bach Suites
May 3 2019: Silkroad Ensemble; Heroes Take Their Stands
May 5 2019: Michael Barenboim, violin
May 11-12 2019: Song of the Goat Theatre; Songs of Lear and Hamlet: A CommentaryMay 17 2019: Los Angeles Master Chorale; Lagrime di San PietroMay 31-June 2 2019: Eifman Ballet; Pygmalion

Cal Performances announced the 2018-2019 season on today, the final season curated by Tarnopolsky before he departs to become CEO and president of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Of greatest interest is Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia Orchestra, London, performing the world premiere of Dreamer, composed by Jimmy López (pictured above), next March.

Press Release | Official Site

Circa's Il Ritorno

* Notes * 
Following a decades long tradition, Cal Performances presented yet another fascinating hybrid work, this time a combination of contemporary circus arts and Baroque opera last weekend from the Australian troupe Circa.

Those expecting to hear Monteverdi's Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in patria might have been taken aback to hear Quincy Grant's 75 minute arrangement, which included arias from the opera along side electronic stylings composed by Grant himself.

The spare ensemble only had four musicians: cellist Pal Banda, violinist/violist Nicholas Bootiman, harpist Cecilia de Santa Maria, and music director/keyboardist Natalie Murray-Beale, who really did seem to have everything perfectly in hand as she moved seamlessly from one genre to another. The two singers, mezzo-soprano Kate Howden and baritone Benedict Nelson, were amplified, heightening the sense we were hearing something rather different than Monteverdi's work.

The performance was much more about theatrics of the body than of music and tellingly, the audience often clapped over the music. The seven acrobats featured were hard to look away from, and seemed to push the very boundaries of the body to disturbing and devastating effect. Bodies were flung against the floor or against an upstage wall, balanced upon one another or on ropes, loops, and a swing. Bridie Hooper had a segment in which she seemed to be fighting her own arm, she seemed almost possessed, yet this was somehow engrossing and even beautiful.

* Tattling * 
In the second row, I was right behind a fellow blogger, who was of course very quiet. The woman next to me (FF 107) talked a little at the outset but was silent for the rest. The man next to my date (FF 110) had his phone out for much of the performance.

Les Arts Florissants' Actéon/Dido and Aeneas

* Notes * 
This year a second obscure French Baroque opera was seen at Cal Performances last Thursday, this time from Les Arts Florissants (pictured).

Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Actéon, only rediscovered in 1945, is the first half of a show being toured by the French based Baroque ensemble whose name comes from a chamber opera by the very same composer. The piece is perfectly elegant and was played adroitly by a small, tight group of seven instrumentalists including conductor William Christie on harpsichord. I particularly liked the oboist, Pier Luigi Fabretti, whose notes sparkled like those of a woodland bird.

The seven singers were equally exquisite, and I was impressed that baritone Renato Dolcini (Chasseur) managed a convincing tambourine. The dusky, sensuous sound of mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre as Junon is completely at odds with her spare frame and a beautiful contrast with tenor Reinoud Van Mechelen's pure clarity in the title role of Actéon. Soprano Elodie Fonnard was bright and light as Diane.

The second half of the performance was Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. Both the leads, Desandre as Dido and Dolcini as Aeneas, sang beautifully. The baritone, being the only one, also had to sing with the chorus and would take off his jacket to do so and perhaps overdid it with the acting to distinguish his characters. Desandre, on the other hand, was more understated. Her "When I am laid in Earth" was nothing short of gorgeous.

Most of the singers are French or Italian, and not native English speakers, but this was only noticeable in a few cases. Unsurprisingly, Scottish soprano Rachel Redmond (Belinda) was the most easily understood. Her voice gleams but has a rich and mellow tones to it.

Sophie Daneman's direction for both operas was uncluttered and simple, but effective. The scene in the sorceress' cave was certainly the funniest as the naughty spirits teased the instrumentalists, especially William Christie himself.

* Tattling * 
My Cal Performances subscription for the three Baroque opera performances this season has me in the second row, which I did not realize until I found my seat on Thursday evening. I was able to see the singers almost a little bit too well since there was no one in front of me.

Temple of Glory at Cal Performances

* Notes *
It is a shame that Rameau's Le Temple de la Gloire at Cal Performances (Prologue pictured left with Aaron Sheehan as Apollo and his muses from New York Baroque Dance Company, photograph by Frank Wing) only has three performances this weekend. The music is delightful, and I could have happily gone again today after hearing the first two on Friday and Saturday nights.

The pretty production is historically informed, lead by Artistic Director of the New York Baroque Dance Company, Catherine Turocy. It is a nice contrast between the usual contemporary versions of Baroque operas I've seen from Mark Morris or Pina Bausch, but it becomes very clear very quickly why traditional stagings aren't the norm. It is a lot of ballet music, and Turocy's dancers are tame compared to the acrobatics and antics we've grown accustomed to.

The movements are understated, lots of swaying and swishing, and what I'm guessing is the precursor to petit battement. For myself, I liked that the dancing didn't compete with the playing, I would rather listen to PBO play Rameau's beautiful music without any elaborate distractions.

Nonetheless, there was a lot to look at, the costumes are eye-poppingly bright and feature lots of feathers. A dancer dressed as an ostrich in Act III was a hit. The set uses tasteful projections of painted scenes within a painted proscenium. I enjoyed very much that the UC Berkeley mascot, Ursus arctos californicus, was painted on the shield at the top.

Nicholas McGegan conducted with his characteristic bouncy cheer, the orchestra sounded clean but lively. Even the horns were mostly in tune. The flutes had some gorgeous, exposed moments. The chorus was off to the side, stage left, but sounded robust. There were a few brief moment of asynchrony, but mostly on the first night rather than the second.

The soloists, mostly from the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles, have lovely voices, very light and flexible. Of the two haute-contres, I preferred Aaron Sheehan (Apollon, Trajan) to Artavazd Sargsyan (Un Berger, Bacchus, Premier Roi) though both were nice, the latter did sound more fragile. The standout was definitely soprano Chantal Santon Jeffery who sang Lydie, Une Bacchante, and La Glorie herself. Her sound is absolutely clarion.

* Tattling * 
On Friday night, my date had me sit on the aisle of Row S so that I didn't have to hear the two chatty Germans in Row T Seats 104 and 105. He did giggle a lot at the dancing though. Also, someone near us wore a watch that was 10 minutes fast and chimed on the hour.

For the second performance, the first half was fine but during the second, a woman in Row J Seat 4 could not stop fidgeting (she also briefly talked to her companion on the aisle). She tapped her fingers to parts that did not have percussion and repeatedly rustled the paper in her Altoid box. Many pointed glances were shot her way but she seemed mostly oblivious to this. At least she did keep quiet for the last five minutes of the show. I felt badly for the man directly in front of her, he was obviously bothered and trying hard to focus on the performance instead.

Either she or her neighbor pressed and kicked my seat more than once as well, but it was easy to ignore since I'm being pressed and kicked internally by a 37 week old fetus. I expected the woman behind me to be infirm or elderly, but she was simply a slim middle-aged person with a blond bob and fringe.

Temple of Glory Preview

* Notes *
My preview of Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra's The Temple of Glory up on KQED Arts. The opera, with music by Rameau and libretto by Voltaire, has a modern premiere of original 1745 version this Friday.

* Tattling *
I got to interview Maestro Nic McGegan for this piece, which was both exciting, because I love PBO, and embarrassing, because I'm particularly awkward on the phone. McGegan talked for nearly an hour and was as charming and jaunty as he seems on stage. It was adorable when he cheekily explained that The Temple of Glory is "A wonderful opera, but not in the sense of sopranos dying in garrets."

Cal Performances' 2017-2018 Season

August 5 2017: Asian Youth Orchestra with Sarah Chang, violin
September 21 2017: Gustavo Dudamel and the National Youth Orchestra of Venezuela
September 23-24 2017: Reggie Wilson/Fist and Heel Performance Group; Moses(es)
September 30 2017: Lila Downs
October 7 2017: Matt Groening and Lynda Barry
October 11 2017: ODC/Dance; boulders and bones
October 13-15 2017: Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Riccardo Muti
October 21-22 2017: Théâtre de la Ville, Paris; State of SiegeOctober 22 2017: Olli Mustonen, piano
October 23 2017: Garrison Keillor
October 27 2017: Dorrance Dance
October 28 2017: Korean National Gugak Center Traditional Orchestra
October 29 2017: Anssi Karttunen, cello; Nicolas Hodges, piano
November 4-5 2017: Mariinsky Orchestra and Valery Gergiev
November 9 2017: Les Arts Florisssants and William Christie
November 10 2017: Ian Bostridge, tenor and Wenwen Du, piano
November 11 2017: Tango Buenos Aires; The Spirit of Argentina
November 12 2017 Tetzlaff Quartet
November 12 2017: Festival of South African Dance
November 17-19 2017: The Joffrey Ballet
November 24-26 2017: Imago Theatre; La Belle
December 2 2017: Claire Chase, flute
December 2-3 2017: Ragamala Dance Company; Written in Water
December 2-3 2017: Simon O'Neill, tenor
December 8-10 2017: Camille A. Brown & Dancers; BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play
December 10 2017: Takács Quartet; Garrick Ohlsson, piano
December 15-24 2017: The Hard Nut; Mark Morris Dance Group
January 27-28 2018: Peking Acrobats
January 28 2018: Musicians from Marlboro
February 3-4 2018: Circa; Il Ritorno
February 9-11 2018: St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Joshua Weilerstein with Jonathan Biss, violin
February 16 2018: Dorothea Röschmann, soprano and Malcolm Martineau, piano
February 18 2018: St. Lawerence String Quartet
February 21 2018: Tony Kushner and Sarah Vowell
February 24-25 2018: Company Wang Ramirez; Borderline
February 25 2018: Sérgio & Odair Assad and Avi Avital
February 28 2018: Emanuel Ax, piano; Leonidas Kavakos, violin, Yo-Yo Ma, cello
March 4 2018: Kronos Quartet; Rinde Eckert; Vân-Ánh Võ; My Lai
March 7 2018: Eva Yerbabuena Company; ¡Ay!
March 11 2018: Wu Man and the Huayin Shadow Puppet Band
March 16-18 2018: Manuel Cinema; Ada/Ava
March 18 2018: David Finckel, cello and Wu Han, piano
March 22 2018: Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Chick Corea
March 25 2018: Julia Bullock, soprano and John Arida, piano
April 6-7 2018: Spectrum Dance Theater; A Rap on Race
April 7-8 2018: Seattle Symphony and Ludovic Morlot
April 10-15 2018: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
April 14 2018: Armenian State Chamber Choir
April 20 2018: Apollo's Fire; Monteverdi's L'Orfeo
April 21 2018: Gala at the Greek III
April 22 2018: Richard Goode, piano
May 4-5 2018: Ex Machina; 887
April 4 2018: Leif Ove Andsnes, piano
May 6 2018: TAO; Drum Heart

Cal Performances announced the 2017-2018 season on today. Lots of Baroque opera in the season including Purcell's Dido and Aeneas and Charpentier's Actéon from Les Arts Florissants; Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria from the circus arts group Circa; and a semi-staged L'Orfeo by Monteverdi played by Apollo's Fire. The Koret Recital Series includes Ian Bostridge, Simon O'Neill, and Dorothea Röschmann.

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