Down but not out, the Bay Area classical music scene is gearing up for the fall season.
While in-person performances are off the calendar, presenters are coming up with creative alternatives: a wide array of virtual concerts featuring new works, revivals and more.
Some Bay Area classical groups have yet to make announcements, so check your favorites for updates; in the meantime, the fall season begins this weekend with some events. Many are free, although donations go a long way to keeping the music alive.
Former S.F. Opera Adler Fellow mezzo-soprano Ashley Dixon is among Opera San Jose’s new team of resident artists. (Opera San Jose)
An operatic “Showcase”: Under general director Khori Dastoor, Opera San Jose introduces its 2020-21 Resident Artist company this weekend with a live-stream showcase concert featuring performances by the season’s incoming singers. They’re a starry lot, including soprano Maya Kherani, baritones Eugene Brancoveanu and Efrain Solis, and mezzo-soprano Ashley Dixon, a former San Francisco Opera Adler fellow who made her S.F. Opera mainstage debut in Jake Heggie’s “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
Details: 1 p.m. August 30; free; RSVP at www.operasj.org/2020-21-resident-artist-company.
Concerts from afar: Throughout the pandemic, New York’s Metropolitan Opera has been offering an engaging lineup of archival productions. Now the company is presenting concerts by top artists around the world. This weekend, live from Oslo, brings Lise Davidsen (Aug. 29), often hailed as this generation’s most promising Wagnerian soprano. Additional programs feature mezzo-soprano Joyce diDonato, live from Barcelona (Sept. 12), and soprano Anna Netrebko, from Vienna (Oct. 10).
Details: Programs begin at 10 a.m. PST, and remain accessible via On Demand for 12 days; $20; www.metopera.org.
California style: The California Symphony starts its first-ever virtual season on 7 p.m. Sept. 12 with “Bravo for #Beethoven250,” featuring pianist Adam Golka performing Beethoven sonatas including the magisterial No. 21, “Waldstein.” Subsequent concerts promise works by American and contemporary composers as well as composers of color, including music by Paquito D’Rivera (Oct. 10), and the return of “rock-star cellist” Joshua Roman (Nov. 14).
Details: All concerts begin 7 p.m. PST; free; www.californiasymphony.org.
Flutist Stacey Pelinka performs a world premiere with Left Coast Chamber Ensemble on Sept. 21 (Courtesy of Stacey Pelinka)
Spanning the centuries: The ever-adventurous Left Coast Chamber Ensemble has an appealing program for September: flutist Stacey Pelinka gives the world premiere of David Dominique’s “Soft-Spoken,” and joins violist Kurt Rohde and cellist Leighton Fong in Albert Roussel’s Trio for Flute, Viola, and Cello. Also on the program: Rohde’s remixes of works by Hildegard von Bingen and Joni Mitchell; and music by Beethoven and Laurie San Martin.
Details: 7:30 Sept. 21, suggested donation $25; www.leftcoastensemble.org.
Mercurial fusion: Grammy Award-winning composer Mason Bates, whose opera, “The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs,” was to be the centerpiece of San Francisco Opera’s summer season, is staying creative during the shutdown. With his alt-classical group Mercury Soul, he’s produced a four-part concert mini-series, filmed in the atmospheric San Francisco home of St. Joseph’s Society for the Arts. Episodes open with an original piece by Bates, aka DJ Masonic, and include music by composers from Bach and Debussy to Anna Clyne. Episodes 1 and 2 are already online; still to come are Episode 3 (Aug. 30), featuring Bates’s “Sideman,” “Glitchy” and “The Caged Bird Sings,” and Episode 4 (Sept. 6), with Bates’s “Tectonic Plates” and “Ingessana Blues.”
Details: Content accessible for free on Mercury Soul’s YouTube channel.
London calling: Chanticleer is launching its fall season by joining the “Live from London” series, a festival featuring top a cappella ensembles such as The Swingles and The Sixteen. The 12-man Bay Area vocal group’s concert caps the festival on Oct. 3; fans can purchase season or single tickets, with performances watchable until Oct. 31.
Details: $15 single concerts; $100 for 10-concert series; www.chanticleer.org/live-from-london.
A lively look back: Under general director Erie Mills, Livermore Valley Opera’s LVOpera channel on YouTube has been a hit since March, with archived performances getting more than 15,000 views. Check out this season’s outstanding double bill of Zemlinsky’s “A Florentine Tragedy” and Puccini’s “Gianni Schicchi,” along with earlier company productions of “The Flying Dutchman” and “The Italian Girl in Algiers.”
Details: Content is free; www.livermorevalleyopera.com.
Contact Georgia Rowe at [email protected].
