NCCO and the Marcus Roberts Trio

After the dismal celebration of the United States 250th anniversary in Washington, D.C. earlier this year, most people have forgotten the occasion entirely, but the New Century Chamber Orchestra began their new musical season with an all-American tribute last week in its honor. The program started with a piece of juvenalia by George Gerswin, the 1920 Lullaby for string quartet arranged for a string orchestra by Jeff Manookian in 2011. Music Director Daniel Hope led the short, sweet, rather dull piece fluidly.

This was followed by the more substantial Entr'acte by Caroline Shaw, written in 2011 for the Brentano String Quartet and expanded into a string orchestra version in 2014. Even though her music seems to pop up everywhere these days, this was the first piece of Shaw's that I have heard, and it was a strange delight, with elements of minimalism, ghost noises created by "light finger pressure," and lots of plucking of the strings. The finale is a soft cello solo, played beautifully by Isaac Melamed at Saturday's performance in Herbst Theatre.

The first half of the program finished with At the Purchaser's Option, a mordant 2017 song about slavery by Rhiannon Giddens. The string orchestra arrangement was stirring, but the piece really called for a vocalist. A member of the orchestra read the lyrics onstage ahead of the performance but much of the song's power was lost with the disassociation of words and music. (Click here for a video of Rhiannon Giddens singing the song herself.)

After intermission, musical guests Marcus Roberts on piano, Reginald Veal on bass, and Herlin Riley on drums joined the string orchestra for a jazz/classical mash-up, starting with the trio alone playing Duke Ellington's I Let A Song Go Out of My Heart. The orchestra then joined them for Come Sunday and It Don't Mean a Thing in arrangements by Roberts. The blind pianist was spectacular, and Riley on drums was doing amazing, off-beat rhythms throughout, but the mixture of semi-improvised jazz and note-perfect string orchestra was uneasy and tended to work best when one element went silent and allowed the jazz players to groove or the string players to swoon away on their own.

The concert ended with Gershwin's Song Suite for Violin, Jazz Trio, and Strings, arranged by Paul Bateman. The five songs are Fascinating Rhythm, Summertime, 'S Wonderful, The Man I Love, and I Got Rhythm, which Daniel Hope and the Marcus Roberts Trio has recorded with the Zürcher Kammerorchester (click here). Hope was obviously having a blast playing jazz violin and the rest of the orchestra was grinning from ear to ear backing up the fabulous trio and soloist. The pleasure was infectious.

Beaver Bauer Retrospective at the Main Library

A new vinyl mural has appeared in the basement of the San Francisco Public Library's Main Branch.

It was created by the legendary local costume designer Debra "Beaver" Bauer, where a retrospective of her work has opened for a six-month stay.

She started her career in the 1970s with the Angels of Light Free Theater, a breakaway offshoot of The Cockettes, which founding member Hibiscus thought was too commercial.

I arrived in San Francisco in 1974 and actually saw one of their shows, Paris Sites Under the Bourgeois Sea, at the fancy Herbst Theater in the Veterans Building. I remember being intrigued by the young, sexy countercultural audience, bored by the play itself, and astonished by the elaborate costumes designed by Beaver Bauer.

She then became a freelance costume designer for A.C.T. and Berkeley Rep, smaller experimental theaters, and the odd celebrity like ice skater Brian Boitano and singer Joan Baez. She recently retired after outfitting Teatro ZinZanni for years, the circus dinner shows set in Seattle and San Francisco tents. Whenever her name appeared on a program, you could be assured that even if the show wasn't all that interesting, the costumes certainly would be.

At Thursday evening's opening at the Main Branch library, surprisingly good wine from Santa Cruz's Stirm Wine Company was being poured for free...

...while upstairs there was a large crowd assembled for a performance/fashion show in the lobby.

A longtime veteran of Teatro ZinZanni, Frank Ferrante was the emcee, and he picked a pair of men from the audience to don "Caesar" coats and do silly dancing.

One of them was an acquaintance of mine, Dusty Porn (in the gold), and he did himself proud.

Hovering everywhere was the maestra herself, Beaver Bauer (above left), who radiated joy the entire evening.

Manon at San Francisco Opera

The 1731 novel Manon Lescaut by Abbé Prévost depicting the rise and fall of a pleasure-seeking young woman in Paris has spawned adaptations galore over the centuries, from French films to a full-length ballet by Kenneth MacMillan and two major operas, one by Puccini and an earlier 1884 version by Jules Massenet. The San Francisco Opera is currently presenting the Massenet version in a revival of Vincent Boussard's stylish, minimalist production from 2017 with soprano Amina Edris as the title character and Music Director Eun Sun Kim leading the orchestra in an exquisite, colorful rendition of the musical score. (All production photos by Cory Weaver.)

The story begins with the teenage Manon being sent off by her family to be shut away in a convent. She is met at an inn by her cousin Lescaut, a neglectful young guardian who is more interested in drinking and gambling than looking after her. Meanwhile, the rich old Epstein Class of the time, depicted by Stephen Gaertner as De Breigny and Steven Cole as Guillot de Morfrontaine, take notice of the beautiful teenager and offer her enticements to join them and their entertaining harem trio consisting of Sofia Gotch as Poussette, Laura Krumm as Javotte, and Taylor Raven as Rosette.

Coming to the rescue is a young student, the Chevalier des Grieux, who is outraged that Manon's family is cruelly shutting her away, and the pair impulsively escape to Paris together where they cohabitate in a barely furnished garret while apparently making love day and night.

It is here in Act Two that Pene Pati sings a famous aria, En fermant les yeux (Le rêve), where he relates his daydream of living in a cottage in a forest with his beloved. Pati's rendition was so achingly beautiful, singing softly over the simple, wave-like accompaniment of the orchestra, that I burst into tears, especially knowing how the rest of the tale plays out. He is kidnapped soon after by a group hired by his father, the Comte des Grieux, sung powerfully by bass-baritone James Creswell, and Manon goes off with De Bretigny to be a rich man's courtesan.

Act Three begins with Lescaut, sung by the handsome Brazilian baritone Vitor Bispo, leading fellow bon vivants at Paris's boulevard Le Cours-la-Reine, where Manon makes a spectacular entrance involving a high wall and balloons. It was at this point that Amina Edris seemed to falter vocally and dramatically. The role requires a high, sparkling soprano voice (think Beverly Sills or Ruth Ann Swenson) and a surfeit of charm. Edris is beautiful and an accomplished singer, who was totally believable a few years ago as Cleopatra in John Adams's Antony and Cleopatra opera, but she didn't convince as Manon at all for me, even though she's sung the role in France to acclaim a few times.

The performer who stole every scene in which he appeared was the 77-year-old character tenor Steven Cole as the rich, lecherous Guillot de Morfontaine, who's had his eye on Manon since the beginning of the opera. He was by turns funny, creepy, charming, and authoritative, and it's amazing that he's still performing at such a high level.

Meanwhile, des Grieux has taken vows to become an abbé, musing that his only misgiving is his still smoldering love for Manon. Usually, the character of des Grieux comes across as a sap while Manon, for all her flaws, is the vital center. However, in this production, Pati is so sympathetic as an actor and singer that you end up caring more about him than his gold digging ex-lover.

During the St. Sulpice scene, with its Flying Jesus overhead, Manon seduces des Grieux and comes across as a greedy person who wants it all, both riches and true love.

When Manon urges a reluctant des Grieux to gamble so they can live in the style to which she has become accustomed, the scene just feels nasty, and her final death scene as a prisoner marching to Le Havre had me muttering, "Well, she deserves it," which is not the intended emotional response. The production is definitely worth seeing, though. Besides the glorious orchestra, there are dozens of small roles capably filled, and Broussard's direction of the chorus was brilliant. Instead of clunkily moving on and off the stage, they were used abstractly and with wit. Above all, the Pene Pati performance is instantly legendary.

Vote Fascists Out to End the Nightmare

During last weekend's very warm Saturday afternoon, I made my way to the top of Dolores Park to see about joining yet another No Kings march to Civic Center.

There were a number of delightful people who showed up for the same purpose, but compared to the tens of thousands at previous marches, the crowd was small.

Dolores Beach, however, was quite crowded...

...with sun worshipers showing off their beautiful young bodies.

Having too many skin cancers over the years after growing up on Southern California beaches, I decided to get out of the sun.

Besides, the fun protest looked like the concurrent human signage at Ocean Beach imploring us to VOTE! TO END THE NIGHTMARE.