lies like truth

Carey Perloff's surprisingly astute production of Samuel Beckett's Endgame (or Fin De Partie in the original French) at the American Conservatory Theater ended with a game-like coda last night at San Francisco's Geary Theatre. Killing My Lobster, a local sketch comedy troupe, came on stage at about 10.30pm and performed a bunch of skits inspired by the great Irish playwright and his dramas. The image above captures the crowd gathering drinks and taking their seats before the Lobsters took to the stage. It was quite a party. This postlude … [Read more...]

A visit to the Brick and Mortar Music Hall in San Francisco a couple of nights ago provided some hints at the sorts of things that concertgoers will and will not tolerate. I  asked a bunch of friends to join me for an appearance by the Seattle-based band Hey Marseilles (pictured.) I had heard the group at the SXSW festival in Austin, TX in March and was rather taken by its loose, fluid melodic style and gypsy-jazz tinged instrumentation as well as the lead singer's husky-wholesome, folksy voice. I personally had a great time. Hey … [Read more...]

A weekend of musical adventures in the Bay Area. Some quick thoughts about a few things I came across... 1) Berkeley Symphony Gala: The best one I've attended yet. The reason? The Symphony featured short chamber pieces by a bunch of great composers such as Gabriela Lena Frank and Paul Dresher. In between courses of the dinner, Berkeley Symphony players as well as guest soloists like pianist Sarah Cahill performed the pieces in alcoves around the room. Sometimes the musicians were just a couple of feet away from the audience members. These … [Read more...]

Wednesday night saw the inauguration of VoiceBox's live event series. I am choosing to call it the inauguration of a series because it came off stupendously well and I am gagging to this again. And again. The basic premise for the series was to find a way to create truly immersive, interactive live experiences for VoiceBox listeners as a way to create a more engaged sense of community around the weekly, syndicated public radio and podcast series that I host and produce, as well as potentially forge a revenue stream. I believe … [Read more...]

One of the things that the a cappella world prides itself on is how stylistically all-encompassing its remit is. In a cappella concerts and competitions, anything (supposedly) goes, from barbershop and jazz to instrumental rock music imitations and quasi-choral art pieces. At least, that was how the articulate a cappella performer, arranger and producer Deke Sharon put it in an interview I did with him and a few other a cappella mavens for VoiceBox the other day. So it was interesting on Saturday night when I served as a judge for the 2012 … [Read more...]

The Kronos Quartet rounded out its year-long residency at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts this weekend with a concert featuring the music of a bunch of incredible women composers and vocalists. From the hushed, sepulchral creepings of Laurie Anderson's "Flow," sensitively arranged by Jacob Garchik, to the strident, mystical incantations of Van-Anh Vanessa Vo's "All Clear," the music was consistently inventive and emotionally panoramic. It was also visually stunning. One thing you rarely want to do during a Kronos … [Read more...]

It was few months ago that I first heard about The Frost Amphitheatre. If I hadn't been told about this outdoor concert venue smack bang in the middle of the Stanford campus, I would have never suspected that the site, with its grassy seating tiers shrouded in redwood and oak trees, existed. That's crazy when you think about the fact that the venue can accommodate some 6,000 people. Many members of the Stanford community are unaware of the venue's presence even though they cycle, walk and drive by it every day. But for many years, the Frost … [Read more...]

Douglas von Blumenthal, a radiologist who listens to VoiceBox, my weekly public radio and podcast series about the human voice, was inspired to share his interesting ideas about simultaneous opera translation having recently listened to a show I aired on the subject of translating operas into English.  I asked Dr. von Blumenthal if I could publish his thoughts on my blog as a guest blog post and he sweetly agreed. Here they are... In an ideal world, a translation system for the audience would be optional for each person, unobtrusive, … [Read more...]

A work of art that evokes a sense of place can be a powerful thing. It brings up all kinds of memories and yearnings. Dickens was good at it and JMW Turner, but its' not an easy goal to achieve. One of the biggest pitfalls facing The Cutting Ball Theater Company with its world premiere production of Tenderloin, a play about the neighborhood that surrounds the company's theatre on Taylor Street in downtown San Francisco, is creating a lasting impression of The Tenderloin without falling into cliche. The first ten minutes of the show, … [Read more...]

No arts organization can or should live forever, no matter how revered and well-funded it might be. Stil, the possible demise of an amateur wind ensemble (which used to give public performances but is now a reading oriented pickup group) that's been around in the Bay Area since the 1970s and with which I've been loosely associated over the last few years has made me pause with some regret and think about the various reasons why this is happening and if anything might be done to prevent it from ceasing to exist. The main problem is one of … [Read more...]