San Francisco's fervent fetishization of the city's historical past, which is barely more than 150 years old, has always seemed strange. Maybe it is in reaction to the ahistorical attitude of the rest of California and the Western United States, which are mostly a collection of suburbs, freeways and shopping centers.
As part of the San Francisco Symphony's centenary year, the organization presented a concert this weekend called Barbary Coast and Beyond: Music from the Gold Rush to the Panama-Pacific Exposition, which turned out to be a mixture of musical concert, historical lecture, and slide show in an attempt to evoke another time.
The show was well written by J.D. McClatchy, well staged by James Robinson, and well narrated by Beach Blanket Babylon diva Val Diamond. Guest artists included Vadim Gluzman playing Wieniawski, Bull and Kreisler along with soprano Laura Claycomb above singing a Delibes' ditty, Les Filles de Cadix, an aria from Bellini's La Sonnambula, and Caro nome from Rigoletto. Though she didn't sound as perfect as last time I heard her at the San Francisco Opera singing Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, she was still great to see.
Pianist Anton Nel above played Gottschalk, while Caroline McCaskey below played Offenbach on the musical saw.
From the evidence, Old San Francisco was a place with more money than sense, which would go bonkers for any world famous virtuoso or infamous female stage performer. Las Vegas would probably be the most contemporary equivalent. The evening made me realize that I had absolutely no nostalgic longing for that time over the present. Even though there are way too many people here now, we also have penicillin and better music.
Fairy tale horses appeared next to the San Francisco Opera House late Thursday afternoon, and they had nothing to do with a performance inside.
They were there to transport Charlotte and George Schultz, San Francisco's ancient "power couple," to the carriage entrance of the opera house, where the adjoining horseshoe drive was being renamed for them in a public ceremony.
Mayor Ed Lee above gave a speech, and as usual he looked and sounded like a miscast extra player, particularly with former Mayor Willie Brown, Jr. and Stephen D. Bechtel, Jr behind him.
Brown was the emcee of the event, and he made sure to call out notables in the small crowd, including Supervisor Mar, Police Chief Suhr, and Sheriff Hennessey.
The latter name confused me completely before I realized he was referring to Vicky Hennessy, appointed recently by Lee after he ousted the newly elected Sheriff Mirkarimi, not to the previous Sheriff, Mike Hennessey with the extra "e."
A newly installed plaque was unveiled on the side of the San Francisco Opera House...
...while a military band played a congratulatory ditty.
The 78-year-old Charlotte Smith Mailliard Swig Shultz above, Chief of Protocol for San Francisco, the State of California, and possibly the rest of the world, started with a few awkward jokes. "They'd never name a street for Willie Brown or me where we come from in Texas. That's because there's only one street in each of our hometowns, and they're both already called Main Street." Charlotte came to San Francisco after studying fashion design in Arkansas, and married John Ward Mailliard III. After his death in 1986, she married Fairmont hotel owner Mel Swig, and after his death five years later, she married George Schultz in 1997, growing progressively wealthier with each sad passing.
The 91-year-old Schultz above has had a remarkable career in the realms of money and power, jumping between economics academia, appointed government positions, and a stint with Bechtel engineering. Stephen Bechtel, Jr., seated above, was celebrating his 87th birthday at the ceremony, and had donated much of the money for the plaque.
Schultz was Secretary of State under Reagan for two administrations, and he started his remarks with a shout-out to Ronnie, "As the President said to me, in a nonpartisan way, politics is not a spectator sport." Schultz's career is a mixed bag of successes and abject failures. On the plus side, he forced unions in Philadelphia to finally racially integrate, and helped nurture the Reagan-Gorbachev detente which hastened the end of the Cold War. On the other hand, he was also directly responsible for creating and guiding the George W. Bush administration through its bloody follies, and for that disaster there really is no excuse.
