Friday Photo 2023/17

 

ivy inside & outside

Another Opening, Another Show: May 2023

 Theatrical

42nd Street Moon presents the Kander-Ebb musical (with book by David Thompson) The Scottsboro Boys from 4 to 21 May.

SF Playhouse gives us David Henry Hwang's Chinglish, directed by Jeffrey Lo, about an American businessman in China discovering the differing & difficult levels of translation, from 4 May to 10 June.

Cal Performances presents Parable of the Sower, created by Toshi Reagon & Bernice Johnson Reagon, based on the novels Parable of the Sower & Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler, co-directed by Eric Ting & Signe V Harriday, at Zellerbach Hall on 5 - 6 May.

The New Conservatory Theater Center presents The Confession of Lily Dare, by the great Charles Busch, directed by Allen Sawyer, from 12 May to 11 June.

The African-American Shakespeare Company presents Romeo & Juliet, adapted & directed by L Peter Callender, at the Marines Memorial Theater from 12 to 26 May.

Berkeley Rep presents Let the Right One In, a stage adaptation by Jack Thorne of the Swedish film, a combination vampire & coming-of-age story, directed by John Tiffany (associate director/movement by Steven Hoggett), from 20 May to 25 June.

From 20 May to 18 June, Shotgun Players presents Yerma, which is apparently not Lorca's play but something "based on" Lorca's play, adapted & translated by Melinda Lopez (& directed by Katja Rivera), & though I will of course go in with an open mind, I wish I had known before subscribing that this wasn't going to be, you know, Lorca's play.

BroadwaySF brings the Tony-award winning musical The Book of Mormon to the Orpheum from 23 May to 18 June.

Theater Rhinoceros presents an adaptation of Shakespeare's Pericles by John Fisher outdoors at Yerba Buena Gardens in downtown San Francisco on 26 - 27 May.

Berkeley Playhouse gives us Becoming Robin Hood, an origin story with music & lyrics by Phil Gorman & book by Laura Marlin, from 26 May to 25 June.

The Oakland Theater Project presents Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, directed by Michael Socrates Moran, from 26 May to 18 June.

Talking

Film-maker/writer/provocateur John Waters will be interviewed by Aubrey Plaza for City Arts & Lectures on 9 May; all tickets include a copy of Waters's book Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance.

On 17 May at the Italian Cultural Institute in San Francisco, Michael F. Moore will be discussing his new translation of the great 19th century Italian novel, Manzoni's The Betrothed (I promessi sposi).

BroadwaySF presents philosopher & animal-rights activist Peter Singer at the Curran Theater on 30 May.

Operatic

The Lamplighters offer the world premiere of a work they commissioned, By Georges!: A Day in the Life of the Legendary Chevalier de Saint-Georges, with book & lyrics by James D Sasser & music & lyrics by Charles Vincent Burwell (music direction by Earplay's Mary Chun, stage direction by Ars Minerva's Céline Ricci), & that's 5 - 7 May at the Presidio Theatre Performing Arts Center in San Francisco & 20 - 21 May at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts.

The San Francisco Conservatory of Music presents the Ravel/Colette opera L'enfant et les sortilèges on 4 & 5 May.

On 24 May at the Presidio Theater, Music of Remembrance presents a Jake Heggie/Gene Scheer double-bill: Another Sunrise, with soprano Caitlin Lynch, a portrait of an Auschwitz survivor, & For a Look or a Touch, with bass-baritone Ryan McKinny & actor Curt Branom as two gay men sent to a camp by the Nazis; both operas are directed by Erich Parce & conducted by Joseph Mechavich.

Choral

The Golden Gate Men's Chorus celebrates its 40th anniversary on 6 - 7 May at Mission Dolores Basilica with "timeless classics and beloved favorites from across the decades", including Vaughn Williams's Five Mystical Songs, featuring guest soloist Timothy Murray.

Volti gives us a world premiere from their resident composer, Mark Winges, along with pieces by Trevor Weston, Žibuoklė Martinaitytė (an American premiere), Caroline Shaw, & Eric Tuan, on 13 May at Saint Paul's Episcopal in Walnut Creek & 14 May at the Kanbar Performing Arts Center in San Francisco.

Sacred & Profane offers Shalom: Music of the Jewish Tradition, featuring works by Italian Renaissance composer Salamone Rossi as well as current composers, including Karen Siegel, Stacy Garrop, Jacob Mühlrad, & David Ludwig, & that's 13 May at Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco & 14 May at the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life in Berkeley.

Slavyanka Russian Chorus will present the American premiere of Konstantin Shvedoff’s Liturgy on 19 May at Saint Mark's in Berkeley, 20 May at First Lutheran in Palo Alto, & 21 May at Star of the Sea in San Francisco.

Chora Nova presents an all-Brahms program – Begräbnisgesang & Ein Deutsches Requiem – on 27 May at First Church in Berkeley.

Vocalists

Cécile McLorin Salvant & her Quintet visit the SF Jazz Center from 5 to 7 May with music from her new album, Mélusine.

On 7 May in Zellerbach Hall, Cal Performances presents soprano Nina Stemme with pianist Magnus Svensson in a program of Wagner (the Wesendonck Lieder), Wagner arranged by Liszt, Sigurd von Koch, Mahler (the Kindertotenlieder), & Kurt Weill.

San Francisco Performances presents baritone Benjamin Appl with pianist James Baillieu on 10 May at Herbst Theater, where they will perform works by Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Richard Strauss, Reynaldo Hahn, Arthur Somervell, Vaughan-Williams, Schumann, William Bolcom, Roger Quilter, Ivor Gurney, Brahms, Schoenberg, Hugo Wolf, Grieg, Ilse Weber, & James MacMillan.

Orchestral

Kyle J Dickson conducts the Oakland Symphony music by John Williams as a 90th-birthday tribute to the composer on 4 May at the Paramount Theater.

Thomas Wilkins leads the San Francisco Symphony in a jazzy program on 4 - 6 May, featuring Bernstein's Three Dance Episodes from On the Town, Erwin Schulhoff's Hot-Sonate (with saxophone soloist Branford Marsalis), John Williams's Escapades (the latter two pieces are SFS premieres), & Duke Ellington's Harlem.

Rafael Payare leads the San Francisco Symphony on 11 - 13 May in William Grant Still's Darker America (an SFS premiere), the Brahms Violin Concerto (with soloist Hilary Hahn), & Richard Strauss's Ein Heldenleben.

Daniel Hope leads the New Century Chamber Orchestra in Points of Origin, featuring Jessie Montgomery’s Banner, Nico Muhly’s song cycle Stranger (with tenor soloist Nicholas Phan), Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, Britten’s Variations on a Theme by Frank Bridge, & the world premiere of Hannah Kendall’s …I may turn to salt, & all that can be heard 11 May at First Congregational in Berkeley, 13 May at the Presidio Theater in San Francisco, & 14 May at the Osher Marin JCC in San Rafael.

Omid Zoufonoun leads the Oakland Symphony Youth Orchestra in Jessie Montgomery's Starburst, Josef Suk's Scherzo Fantastique, the third movement of the Sibelius Violin Concerto, & selections from Prokofiev's Romeo & Juliet, & that's at the San Leandro Performing Arts Center on 14 May.

On 18 - 20 May, Philippe Jordan conducts Britten's War Requiem with the San Francisco Symphony, the Symphony Chorus (joined by Ragazzi Boys Chorus, led by Kent Jue), & soloists Jennifer Holloway (soprano), Ian Bostridge (tenor), & Iain Paterson (baritone).

Music Director Donato Cabrera leads the California Symphony in Berlioz's Roman Carnival, the William Walton Symphony 1, & the world premiere of a new piano concerto by Composer-in-Residence Viet Cuong (with soloist Sarah Cahill) at the Lesher Center on 20 - 21 May.

The San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, led by Daniel Stewart, plays a 40th anniversary concert on 21 May, when they will perform Huan-zhi Li's Spring Festival Overture, Gershwin's An American in Paris, & Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring.

On 25 & 27 May, Giancarlo Guerrero leads the San Francisco Symphony in Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade & then, joined by the Lorelei Ensemble, the west coast premiere of an SFS co-commission, Her Story by Julia Wolfe.

The San Francisco Chamber Orchestra's new Music Director, Cosette Justo Valdés, makes her debut with the group leading performances of Frank Martin's Concerto for Seven Winds, Timpani, Percussion and Strings, Sumi Tonooka's Sketch at Seven (world premiere for chamber orchestra, co-commissioned by SFCO with the NEA & the Emerging Black Composers Project), the Mendelssohn 4, the Italian, & Evelin Ramón's Petite Toccata, & you can hear all that on 26 May at Saint Mark's Lutheran in San Francisco, 27 May at First United Methodist in Palo Alto, & 28 May at First Congregational in Berkeley.

Chamber Music

Violinist Daniel Dastoor & pianist Jonathan Lee play violin sonatas by Beethoven, Ravel, & Brahms for Noontime Concerts at Old Saint Mary's on 2 May.

The San Francisco Symphony presents Alexander Barantschik (violing), Peter Wyrick (cello), & Anton Nel (piano) at the Gunn Theater at the Legion of Honor on 7 May, performing works by Mozart, Grieg, & Brahms.

Ben Simon leads a small group of players from the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra in their fourth annual program of viola quintets (including works by Mozart & Brahms) at Classical at the Freight (that would be Freight & Salvage in Berkeley) on 8 May.

On 14 May at Davies Hall, a small ensemble of players from the San Francisco Symphony will perform chamber works by Morton Gould, Heinrich von Herzogenberg, & Brahms.

Chamber Music San Francisco presents cellist Alisa Weilerstein & pianist Inon Barnatan playing works by Beethoven, Britten, de Falla, & Rachmaninoff on 14 May at Herbst Theater.

Berkeley Chamber Performances presents Ensemble SF at the Berkeley City Club on 16 May, performing works by Mozart, Polina Nazaykinskaya, Shelley Washington, & Dvořák.

Members of the Berkeley Symphony perform chamber pieces by Carlos Simon, Amy Beach, & Borodin at the Piedmont Center for the Arts on 21 May.

On 28 May at Noe Valley Ministry, Lieder Alive! presents cellist Oliver Herbert, pianist Carlos Ágreda, & special guest soprano Esther Rayo performing songs by Hector Villa-Lobos & other South Americans, arranged by Ágreda for cello & piano (& soprano).

Instrumental

San Francisco Performances presents pianist Víkingur Ólafsson performing music by Galuppi, Mozart, CPE Bach, Cimarosa (arranged by Ólafsson), & Haydn on 9 May at Herbst Theater.

The San Francisco Symphony presents violinist Bomsori with pianist Thomas Hoppe in concert at Davies Hall on 10 May, where they will perform music by Henryk Wieniawski, Debussy, Szymanowski, & Sibelius.

On 12 May at Old First Concerts, violinist Patrick Galvin with piainist Connor Buckley will play music by Prokofiev, Korine Fujiwara, Grażyna Bacewicz, Pablo de Sarasate, Amy Beach, & Schumann.

Early / Baroque Music

American Bach Soloists, led by Jeffrey Thomas, presents Harmonious Love, a program made up of Handel's Apollo & Dafne & Rameau's Pygmalion, featuring sopranos Mary Wilson, Amy Broadbent, & Morgan Balfour, tenor Matthew Hill, & bass-baritone Mischa Bouvier, & that's 5 May at Saint Stephen's in Belvedere, 6 May at Saint Mark's Episcopal in Berkeley, 7 May at Saint Mark's Lutheran in San Francisco, & 8 May at David Community Church in Davis.

Paul Flight leads the California Bach Society in Heinrich Biber's Requiem & Agostino Steffani's Stabat Mater on 5 May at Saint Mark's Lutheran in San Francisco, 6 May at All Saints' Episcopal in Palo Alto, & 7 May at Saint Mark's Episcopal in Berkeley.

On 14 May at Saint Mary Magdalen in Berkeley, the Cantata Collective performs Bach's Am Abend aber desselbigen Sabbats BWV 42 & Wer sich selbst erhöhet, der soll erniedriget werden BWV 47 with soprano Morgan Balfour, alto Sara Couden, tenor Brian Thorsett, & bass Paul Max Tipton.

Old First Concerts presents Simone Vallerotonda on baroque lute on 21 May, playing works by Charles Mouton, Robert de Visée, Jacques Gallot, Pierre Dubut le fils & le pére, Germain Pinel, Jean-Philippe Rameau, & Valentin Strobel.

Modern / Contemporary Music

On 5 May at Old First Concerts, the Friction Quartet (with mezzo-soprano Melinda Martinez Becker as guest) will give us world premiere music from Nicolás Lell Benavides, Gilberto Parra, & Raymundo Pérez y Soto (the latter two arranged by Martinez Becker), as well as several works by Caroline Shaw.

Pianist/composer Gabriel Zucker & drummer Aaron Edgcomb will create soundscapes for you on 6 May at the Center for New Music.

On 11 May at Herbst Theater, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players close their season with a concert featuring music by Miya Masaoka, Aiyana Braun, George Lewis, Anthony Braxton, & Tyondai Braxton.

Other Minds presents Ghost Ensemble on 18 May at Saint John the Evangelist Episcopal in San Francisco.

On 15 May at Old First Concerts, Mary Chun leads Earplay in world premieres by Wyatt Cannon & Byron Au Yong as well as recent works by Andrea Portera, Jihyun Kim, & Brian Banks; the concert is preceded by a composer dialogue.

On 19 May Old First Concerts along with New Arts Collaboration presents pianist Ting Luo in Cosmic Cliffs – Multimedia Piano Concert, featuring world premiere pieces by Aries Mond, Cole Reyes, Xuesi Xi, Sarah Wald, & Dylan Findley, a west coast premiere from Emily Koh, a recent piece by Juhi Bansal, & audio programming by Joo Won Park; the concert combines projections & electronic sounds with the piano.

Jazz

Violinist Mads Tolling & his Trio will be at the SF Jazz Center on 27 - 28 May.

The SF Jazz Center presents The Music of Miles Davis: A Celebration from 25 to 28 May: on 25 May you can hear the early years of hard bop with Kind of Blue: The Acoustic Quintets, featuring Patrice Rushen, Javon Jackson, Donald Harrison, Eddie Henderson, & Lenny White; on 26 May you can hear the orchestral jazz he made with Gil Evans in Sketches of Miles, featuring Keyon Harrold, Robert Sheppard, Carol Robbins, Gil Goldstein, Ryo Takanega, Lenny White, & a string quartet to be named later; on 27 May you can hear Miles from India, an exploration of the subcontinent's musical influence on Davis, featuring Javon Jackson, Tim Hagans, Raman Kalyan, Rez Abbasi, Adam Holzman, Alphonso Johnson, Lenny White, Taku Hirano, & Salar Nader; & on 28 May you can hear his later fusion jazz with Miles Electric Band, featuring Keyon Harrold, Antoine Roney, Robert Irving Ill, Darryl Jones, Alexis Lombre, Vince Wilburn, Munyungo Jackson, Abbos Kosimov, Marco Villareal, & DJ Logic.

Art Means Painting

Frank Bowling: The New York Years 1966–1975 opens at SFMOMA on 20 May & runs through 10 September.

Cinematic

Terms like "iconic" get tossed around too easily these days, but here it applies: the iconic Louise Brooks as Lulu in GW Pabst's Pandora's Box may be seen in full-screen splendor at the Paramount Theater in Oakland on 6 May, accompanied by the Club Foot Orchestra with students from the SF Conservatory of Music, presented by the invaluable San Francisco Silent Film Festival.

The CAAM (Center for Asian-American Media) Fest 2023 runs at the Castro Theater from 11 to 14 May & continues at the Roxie from 13 to 20 May.

Museum Monday 2023/17

 

detail of Mrs Robert S Cassatt, the Artist's Mother by Mary Cassatt, now in the de Young Museum of San Francisco

Friday Photo 2023/16

 

urban abstraction

Museum Monday 2023/16

 

detail of The Annunciation by the Master of the Retable of the Reyes Católicos, now in the Legion of Honor, San Francisco

Friday Photo 2023/15

 

shadows

SF Conservatory of Music: Handel's Flavio

The San Francisco Conservatory of Music's Historical Performance Department presented Handel's opera Flavio, rè de’ Longobardi this past weekend; I heard it on Saturday. There were different student casts for each performance but both were led by Department Chair Corey Jamason, & the ensemble was directed by Jamason, Elisabeth Reed, & Marcie Stapp.

The staging was minimal but effective: there were two stone benches on either side of the stage, in front of the orchestra, & surtitle screens let us know what the setting was. Unlike my René Jacobs recording, or the more recent one (which I haven't heard), this performance used female singers instead of counter-tenors; the women playing men were dressed in suits, & the directors had astutely advised them on how to sit in a masculine way, but there was no ungainly effort to hide the their essential femininity, which was not a problem. The women playing women wore stylish gowns.

The opera begins where many end, with two couples singing together about how complete & perfect their happiness is. Complications, of course, ensue, due to political rivalries, social tensions, & the wayward eye of the randy titular monarch. Sometimes the tone is lightly ironic, but there are also moments of genuine anguish & surprising violence – there's a duel that I thought would end in injury but instead (OK, spoiler alert for a 300-year-old opera!) ends in death. (In case you're wondering how I can have listened to a recording & not know this: I have a bad habit, due to limited time, of listening to things without necessarily reading along in the libretto; hence one of the revelations given to me by a live performance is often the plot.) Harmony is restored at the end, thanks to the benevolent monarch, who not only causes most of the problems but acts almost as a Deus ex Machina to resolve them.

The whole performance was a delight, from beginning to the end, almost three hours later: dazzling, moving arias followed one after another, all splendidly delivered by the young cast: mezzo Jaimie Langner as the arbitrary & self-amused Flavio; tenor Seth Hanson as the elderly counselor Ugone; bass-baritone Joseph Calzada as his seething rival counselor, Lotario; & then the four lovers, mezzo MonaLisa Pomarleanu as Ugone's son Guido, mezzo Cambria Metzinger as Ugone's charmingly flirtatious daughter Teodata, soprano Alissa Goretsky as Lotario's daughter Emilia, & soprano Hyesoo Kim as the courtier Vitige, in love with Teodata – all were excellent but I was particularly impressed with the two sopranos, Goretsky & Kim, who delivered their more emotionally wide-ranging roles with great depth & beauty.

The orchestra was also excellent (& I recognized some of the players, such as Yunyi Ji on harpsichord, from the Baroque Ensemble Concerto Competition concert in February). Like that concert, the opera was free to the public; all you needed was a reservation – it was a useful reminder that the Conservatory has lots of great offerings, freely available; if BART were running better, I would definitely be there more often.

SF Jazz: Vijay Iyer, solo & Trio

Pianist & composer Vijay Iyer came to town last week, specifically to SF Jazz, currently celebrating its 10th anniversary. He gave a solo piano concert on Thursday & performed with his Trio (Linda May Han Oh on double bass & Tyshawn Sorey on drums) on Friday, Saturday, & Sunday. I was at the Thursday & Friday concerts, & would happily have gone to Saturday & Sunday as well if life had allowed.

Iyer came out, elegantly attired in a black suit & open-collared black shirt, & didn't speak much either evening, preferring, as he noted, to let the music do the talking. For the solo performance it wasn't until about halfway through that he said anything, in a somewhat hesitant, slightly gravelly voice. (Both performances I heard were over 90 minutes, maybe even closer to the 2-hour mark, with no intermission.) I am fine with the lack of stage patter, as I always feel if you're a musician, the music is, as Iyer noted, your way of communicating, & listeners can take from it what they take. (My heart always sinks at the Symphony when conductors put down the baton & pick up the microphone.) He did, of course, on Friday introduce the other members of the Trio. He noted there was "merch in the lobby"; before the concert I bought all four CDs that were offered, & some of those around me, obviously hipper than I, had bought the vinyl being offered (he did note that Universal Music had lost about a 100 of his vinyl recordings, but some of them made it through). He also noted that the Trio (&, separately, both Han Oh & Sorey) had recordings coming out in the next few months; the Trio's is titled Compassion, which, as he noted, is something our society is sorely in need of, which led him to interject "Trans rights are human rights" & in the face of the frightening & cynical attempts by the Republican Party to demonize trans people, it was nice to hear that simple acknowledgement. Most of the tunes went unnamed & there was no play list that I saw, but one number he did name was Children of Flint; social awareness & consciousness are woven into this artist's work.

Iyer did also mention how glad he was that SF Jazz was around, & provided a space for "this music", & then added, "When I say 'this music' I don't know what I'm talking about . . . " he stopped there, but of course jazz has always had a fluid & undefinable element to it, & that's its essence; as with the river that is never the same twice, even another performance of the same tunes by the same artists will have a different sound & effect on different nights (another reason I was sorry I didn't get to hear the Trio more than once on this visit). Of course for most audience members the one performance they go to "becomes" the music, & the artist, in the sense of defining them, in a way that, at least temporarily, pauses the fluid, transitory nature of the art, & this is even truer of recordings, which, through repeated listening, can become engraved on our minds as something definitive. 

The numbers often opened with a single, poetic piano line, which then developed into something alternately meditative, driven, coruscating . . . the sets, solo & Trio, never lagged; there was an astute sense of pacing, as the quieter, more reflective passages gave way to rowdier moments, often punctuated, in the Trio, by a sharp, even startling, drum thwack, as the bass danced up & down. . . . there were occasional projections during the music, random colored blobs & the occasional geometric shape wafting over stage & audience; I think this was not something that Iyer brought with him, as he looked at one & said, "What planet is that?" & someone shouted, whether authoritatively or speculatively I do not know, "It's a map of the brain", though perhaps Iyer's remark was metaphorical. . . . anyway: a wonderful two nights at the Jazz Center, & I will be on the lookout for Compassion, as well as compassion. . . .

The Triumph of Love at Shotgun Players

Marivaux, with his mixture of commedia-style tomfoolery, French philisophe musing, & subtle psychological/erotic annalysis, can be tricky to bring off, but Shotgun Players have succeeded splendidly with their current production of The Triumph of Love (in the Stephen Wadsworth translation, directed by company Founding Artistic Director Patrick Dooley).

The single set is the garden of Hermocrates, a philosopher living in the country who advocates capital-R Reason & vociferously opposes the whimsical vagaries of Love. It is a French-style garden, which means it is formal, ordered, & regular: Nature brought under control. But there are hints that Nature is not so easily controlled: the lovely fountain in the middle has a few tufts of grass growing up in the cracks, & the water is cloudy. Some of the hedges look, upon closer examination, as if they are starting to grow out of their trimming. You can see where this is going, but of course there are complications on the way to getting there.

There's no need to recite the whole plot; for one thing, there's a lot of it, & as is the case with baroque opera, it makes perfect sense as it unfolds in front of you but if you read a synopsis the story collapses into a confusing set of disguises, plots, & counter-plots. The basic story is a bit of a fairy-tale, & has some (I assume coincidental) similarities to As You Like It, which also involves usurpers, gender-swapping, & a restoration of order guided by Nature: the young Princess Leonide, heir to an usurped throne, disguises herself as a man so she can infiltrate the society of Hermocrates & his equally unmarried sister, Leontine, with the purpose of meeting & forming an alliance with the rightful heir, Agis, whom they have raised in secret, teaching him to hate both Love & the usurping Leonide. Achieving this end means Leonide, going under several different male pseudonyms as the occasions require, must verbally seduce both the spinster Leontine, who thinks she is speaking to a handsome young man, & the pompous Hermocrates, who recognizes that s/he is actually a young woman in disguise (it's surprising & refreshing to see the "no one will recognize me in these trousers" convention blithely upended like this, though throughout there are also teasing implications of confused same-sex attraction). In addition, Leonide has her maid, Corine, also disguised as a man, & there is a greedy & somewhat dim gardener, Dimas, & Harlequin, doing his Harlequin thing. That's a lot to keep spinning effortlessly in the air, in an elegant Watteau-style, but the cast beautifully keeps it all aloft.

The commedia elements were, to me, surprisingly successful: I love the look of commedia, & I love the thought that I'm watching something that I could have seen in 18th-century Naples, but honestly, as theater, it doesn't quite work anymore: scheming servants getting beaten, attempts to swindle "old" people out of their money so young people can get married . . . they may have worked when the theater audience was made up of frivolous young people while the old people stayed home counting their money, but nowadays the theater audience has reversed, & is mostly made up of the prosperous & aged – don't they see where they fall in this schemata? OK, bit of a digression there on my commedia issues, so let me bring it back to the Ashby stage by saying that Jamin Jollo as Harlequin (complete with facial half-mask, the only one in the cast, & the traditional diamond-patterned outfit) is, unlike most Harlequins, genuinely funny, both in his actions & his line readings, & Dimas the somewhat dim gardener (Wayne Wong) also goes beyond the stereotypical low-comic countryman to achieve a genuine personality. Susannah Martin as Corine the maid mostly gets to provide exposition & otherwise move the plot along with Harlequin & Dimas but she manages all that so that it seems effortless & natural, rather than mere plot scaffolding.

The central quartet is also strong. As Hermocrates, David Boyll brings humanity to the overly self-certain philosopher, a role that could easily become too much of a caricature. Mary Ann Rodgers as his sister brings off a difficult role with aplomb: there's a touching longing (or longing to touch) in her slowly opening to the unexpected love she thinks is being offered to her by the handsome young stranger. Both of these roles, but particularly that of the sister, could come dangerously close (in the commedia manner) to callously mocking an "older" (read: middle-aged) person for daring to think that Love might still be a possibility for them. As the end of the play approaches, it becomes clear that there isn't going to be an overly neat solution: too many people are in love with one person. There is just the right amount of bittersweet at the end: Hermocrates has been embarrassed, as is to be expected from the Enemy of Love in a play called The Triumph of Love, but his situation is not irreparable, & perhaps his philosophy will be broadened by the chastisement. The last moments of the play are Leonide apologizing for misleading the sister, realizing that her necessary plot has upset the sister's quiet life, but also acknowledging that perhaps Leontine will not be entirely unhappy to have her life upset. It's a poignant, ambiguous finale.

But I've leapt ahead to the ending without mentioning the other two members of the central quartet! Veronica Renner, looking dashing & convincingly androgynous in her masculine attire, keeps the whole thing running with clarity & warmth, switching seamlessly from one persona to another. By the end, she too has learned something about the power of Love, as we can see in her final remarks to Leontine. Edward Im as Agis, the isolated, therefore socially awkward, rightful heir, is both funny & ultimately deeply touching as a lonely young man desperately trying to find friendship & then love.

The set is by Malcolm Rodgers, & I wished I had booked one of the seats on stage, in the garden, even over my front-row seat. Ashley Renee designed the handsome costumes, basically 18th-century in style with modern touches. Spense Matubang designed the lighting & Michael Kelly the sound. The show runs through April & is well worth seeing (even more than once), though Shotgun often extends their shows so it's worth keeping an eye out for that.

(The mural outside the Ashby Stage is by graphic artist R Black; the painting right above is a detail of Watteau's The Foursome at the Legion of Honor.)

Museum Monday 2023/15

 

detail of Ceylon, a cyanotype by Anna Atkins from around 1850, now in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Friday Photo 2023/14

 

a doorway in Berkeley

Museum Monday 2023/14

 

detail of The Crucifixion by the Le Nain Brothers, as seen in the special exhibit The Brothers Le Nain: Painters of 17th-Century France at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco