The San Francisco Symphony wraps up their centennial season with Beethoven's 9th

The San Francisco Symphony wraps up their centennial season with a performance of Beethoven's 9th featuring soloists Erin Wall, Kendall Gladen, William Burden and Nathan Berg. Photo by Kristen Loken.

It seemed an inevitable and right choice for the San Francisco Symphony to close out their centennial season with a four-night run of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. A performance of it, despite its omnipresence, still has the air of an event, as was the case in 1995 when Michael Tilson Thomas began his tenure as Music Director with a program similar to this week's, conducting the Ninth, Schoenberg's A Survivor from Warsaw and three pieces for the chorus by Charles Ives. This time around Schoenberg is still on the bill, but Ives has been replaced by Gyorgy Ligeti, perhaps because of the prominence of Ives' work in the recent American Mavericks festival.

Then, as now, it's a nice bit of thematic programming. On their own, the two works seem radically different from Beethoven's, but when placed together they create a musical symmetry not only commenting and expanding upon Schiller's themes of the Ninth's fourth movement, but as performed here in reverse chronological order of composition, illustrate how these themes have evolved in Western Art music over the past 200 years or so. Or something like that.

The Ninth on its own would have been enough to get me in the door, but to me these concerts seemed designed to put a final exclamation point on a season which had an extraordinary amount of highlights. If it didn't quite feel that way after all was said and performed, that may be due to my heightened sense of expectation.

Chorus Director Ragnar Bohlin led his charges through a ghostly, mesmerizing account of Ligeti's Lux aeterna, five lines of text from a Roman Catholic mass, not a word of which is decipherable as the sixteen-part mixed chorus moves through polyphonic clouds of sound. Alternating between moments which sounded beautiful and frightening, and often both, the nine-minute performance showed off the Symphony Chorus at its finest- at times their voices sounded not human, but seemed to emanate from some great, reverberating otherworldly presence. At others their sound was like that of an organ being played in a vast, empty and echoing cathedral. There really is nothing like hearing a Ligeti choral work performed live and this was an excellent example of why.

Schoenberg's Survivor, lasting only seven minutes or so, goes by too fast for me to really be able to grasp beyond a superficial level. I found my attention focusing on either Shuler Hensley's narration or Schoenberg's spiky music, but experiencing both together as a coherent whole escaped me.

The first movement of the Ninth got off to a ruddy start- it unfolded with neither extreme force nor sleek delineation, with MTT seeming determined to hit a spot between the two extremes. During his tenure MTT's interpretations of Beethoven have proven to be fluid- I've heard him lead stripped-down, sprightly, lean-machine performances, only to revisit the same score a couple of years later and turn it inside-out, as if wanting to savor every morsel found within. Often one can tell where he's going from the beginning, but Wednesday night's first movement really didn't provide much of a clue as to what was going to follow.


The second movement scherzo featured Bill Bennett's oboe to lovely effect in a fleet, though not lean, rendering that never quite captured the score's dancing rhythms. The third movement seemed focused on rhythm over melody, with the pizzicato portions from the strings receiving more emphasis than the bowed. While it lulled my companion to sleep, I found it a curious and alluring choice.


The fourth movement didn't really take off until the orchestra hit the Turkish march with its sprightly rhythm. Nathan Berg's invocation rang with sincerity. Berg held the score in his hands but never once even glanced at it, which I found pleasing. The same was true for soprano Erin Wall, who was, as usual in excellent voice. Mezzo-soprano Kendall Gladen (SFO's Carmen last season) was also in good voice, though once she began singing I don't think she ever took her eyes off MTT, except for occasional glances to the score. Tenor William Burden shone toward the end. Musically, the chorus was simply on fire, delivering an emphatic, passionate performance which rivaled those of the recent Verdi Requiems for sheer power and precision. The orchestra itself didn't quite match these levels of intensity until the last couple of minutes- when everything finally gelled and the music burst from the stage. Had it been that way from the start it would have been phenomenal. As it was, in the end it proved to be a nice way to end a wonderful season, but fell short of being a triumphant culmination of the orchestra's major milestone.

A brief note on Nixon in China

I'll have a second helping of this, please.

You've probably read the unanimously positive reviews about SF Opera's "Nixon in China," and though I was only going to see it once at the end of the run, both Lisa Hirsch and Josh Kosman strongly recommended seeing it twice, so I went last night and I'm glad I did.

The praise is merited. In fact, if SFO's General Director David Gockley had a better record of putting productions of this caliber onstage with any kind of regularity instead of with maddening infrequency, I'd be an ardent supporter. While it's not going to be everyone's musical cup of tea (I observed numerous departures during both intermissions), no single composer is, of course- even Puccini has his (wrong-headed) detractors- anyone with an interest in opera as an art form needs to take advantage of its presence here and see what all the fuss is about.

While I was watching and listening to it last night, I revelled in its constant musical allusions to Wagner, but this morning I'm also pondering unexpected parallels with thematic aspects of the Ring Cycle. I also awoke to the "News" aria running through my mind. It's all too rare when something this memorable, thought-provoking and challenging shows up on the War Memorial stage, the last time was The Makropulos Affair a couple years ago, so don't miss it.

More than that I'll keep to myself until after I've seen it a second time.

The song remains the same

Discuss? Or is there really no point?

Duke Bluebeard's Castle

Michelle DeYoung, Alan Held, and the San Francisco Symphony inside Duke Bluebeard's Castle. Photo by  Kristen Loken

For the penultimate program of its centennial season, the San Francisco Symphony decided to go big with a semi-staged production of Bartók's Duke Bluebeard's Castle featuring two strong singers, Alan Held in the title role and mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung as Judith, his most recent wife. I had never heard it live before Thursday night- it's been more than thirty years since it was last performed by the Symphony, and San Francisco Opera hasn't staged it since 1965, making the opera a rarity I've been looking forward to all season long.

Jeremy Denk opened the show as the soloist in Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1, a piece which I've long considered somewhat vulgar, akin to watching elephants performing a line dance at a circus- one admires the work it takes to pull off, but it's too gross to appreciate as more than spectacle. However, Denk seemed happy to take a break from the challenges of the thornier works he's played during his recent visits and show off a bit. Still, the audience seemed to want to get on to the main event, and the response was somewhat tepid. Perhaps I'm not the only one in the house who thought it an odd thing to appear on this program. One of Bartók's piano concertos, especially the 2nd, would have made more sense.

After the intermission Duke Bluebeard's Castle began with Ken Ruta placed high above the stage in one of four turrets reading the prologue, setting the stage for an ambiguous interpretation of what was about to unfurl- the tale of Bluebeard's newest wife wanting to know what's behind the locked doors, and learning the truth one horror at a time. There are a few ways one can interpret the work- from Bluebeard's perspective, from Judith's, or from somewhere outside looking in, with each one offering multiple vantage points. With only two characters involved, and little "action," it becomes a psychological chess match. Is one of them crazy? Are both? Is it the story of a murderer or of a man letting his guard down. Is Judith a sympathetic, but insecure new bride, or is she just a loon? For the record, I side with the latter interpretation on both counts.

Somewhere between the third and fourth door I began to wonder if the staging was really adding all that much to the show. The stage was surrounded by grey castle walls with turrets leaning in to create a sense of the claustrophobic. Projections on walls and lighting effects sought to create atmosphere and illustrate the text. During the sequence depicting what lies behind the first door  (Bluebeard's torture chamber), the castle walls filled with "Hellraiser"-ish imagery of protruding bloody nails and short spikes in a fun, Grand Guignol way, but the after that the images and lighting began to feel somewhat rote- not taking away from anything, but containing few surprises. So I tried to wipe the staging from my mind and imagine how it would play without it and realized it really did add something to the whole. But I thought that it shouldn't- that this small drama between a couple played for high stakes would be best without the distraction of images and lights- just let the voices, the dramatic capabilities of the singers and the music do the work.

That wouldn't have worked however, at least here, because of one real problem- the placing of the singers behind the orchestra instead of in front, which created a sense of distance too hard to penetrate despite the best efforts of Held and DeYoung, whose performances were invested with as much attention to the physical as they were to the vocal, but even singers as skilled as these two had a hard time connecting from the back of the stage. The placing of the surtitles on the sides rather than above the stage also hindered the whole, causing those of us who don't know the libretto by heart or speak Hungarian to look away to follow the lines.

Still, the singing and music were splendid, and when the fifth door opened to reveal Bluebeard's treasure, the Davies organ kicked in (it's the largest in the country) with the brass blaring behind it, creating a sensationally loud and thrilling effect, though the blinding lights shining into the audience were a bit obnoxious. The percussion section especially shone, but the entire orchestra under Michael Tilson Thomas seemed committed to bring everything to the performance.

The final program of the centennial season, featuring MTT leading the orchestra in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Ligeti's Lux Aeterna and Schoenberg's A Survivor from Warsaw has a few tickets left and you'd be foolish not to get one before the entire four-night run sells out.

Yuja Wang Rachs a little red dress

Of course I am going to start with the dress because it would be impolite to do otherwise.  After all, if you don’t think that, yes, she does want us to notice, discuss, and think about what she’s wearing, you’re missing the point of why she’s wearing it.  It was again red (she does look great in red), but a deeper, warmer shade than last year’s model, with horizontal pleats similar to those of a cummerbund running its length, the hemline stopping well above the knee but further south on her thigh than the one which caused last year’s ruckus.

It fit like a glove- an expensive, perfectly tailored, hand-sewn glove made of the finest calfskin and it ravished her curves. Ravished them, I tell you! But the most alluring part was the back, which had a wide, vertical seam running down her spine, cinching everything together so the contours of her body were always presented in perfect, high relief. I kid you not, and during the moments when she would lift her right hip slightly off the bench, leaning into the keys, physically giving herself to the performance, carried away by its rhythmic thrust, a most wondrous curved silhouette would take appear. I sat there spellbound, awed, convinced there was no better seat in the entire house.

This is the dress, seen in a photo taken somewhere in Europe in October 2011. The picture doesn't do it justice, but I thought it would be cruel not to provide one. Source: Getty Images/Getty Images Europe.

Yeah, Yuja Wang looked fantastic on Friday night as she slayed Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto with the San Francisco Symphony, turning in a performance that probably cemented her status as one of the most talented musicians currently playing. So what if she missed some notes and doesn’t burn as intensely as Argerich. What of it?

Wang brought speed, clarity and precision to the extraordinarily difficult passages of the first movement, her fingers and then her hands soon becoming a blur above the keys as she articulated each note. The second movement was gorgeous, so much so that I noticed the orchestra’s musicians craning their necks to watch her- something I’ve never seen them do before. As the second movement flowed into the third, it became obvious she was on a tear, breaking loose from Michael Tilson Thomas’ lead to the extent he glanced over his shoulder as if say, “Whoa.”

But it was too late, Wang was on her way, out there on her own, and though the orchestra sounded wonderful, playing with her in equal volume, instead of behind her, as this score rightfully demands, it was still her show all the way, and even during the sections of the last movement when the soloist and orchestra combine to create those huge waves of Rachmaninoff’s unique romanticism, she could still be heard clearly through it all. If the rolling conclusion didn’t quite deliver on the promise of all that led up to it, it still felt like the final five notes were dispatched with triumphant verve. The applause was huge, as were the smiles onstage and off. She returned for a clever, charming encore of “Tea for Two,” in an arrangement by Art Tatum, which pleased everyone, including MTT, who sat onstage with a look of extreme delight on his face. If she’s this good at this still-early stage of her career, it somewhat mind-boggling to ponder what she’s going to be like ten years from now.

There was more. The first half of the concert began with Faure’s “Pavane”- a bit of pretty-sounding French fluffery which featured principal flute Tim Day quite nicely, and was followed by Sibelius’ Third Symphony, the allegro of which MTT led with a gallant loping, rendering it highly reminiscent of the 2^nd movement scherzo of Beethoven’s 9^th.

This was the first of the final three programs of the Symphony’s Centennial season, and if you missed Wang, there are still two more must-see programs in the next two weeks. The first is a semi-staged performance of Bartok’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle featuring the fantastic mezzo Michelle DeYoung and the versatile Alan Held in the title role, and those concerts open with Jeremy Denk performing Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1. I can’t believe there are tickets available for these performances on Goldstar, but as of today there are, so get yourself one. The final program of the season, for which there are likely few tickets left, has MTT conducting Beethoven’s 9^th, with works by Ligeti and Schoenberg also scheduled. If you can find a ticket, get one. It should be a memorable conclusion to what’s been a marvelous 100^th anniversary season.

The pleasures of Ojai North!

Having never been to the home version, when the Ojai North! festival was announced last year as a multi-year residency at Cal Performances, for some reason, perhaps the presence of Dawn Upshaw as the Music Director (an artist who alternately annoys and enthralls me, and that year she had annoyed), it really didn't register on my radar, and because of that, it took me awhile me to really take a look at the line-up for this year's version, despite the prominent presence of two extraordinary pianists (Leif Ove Andsnes and Marc-André Hamelin) and the rare appearance on the schedule of a piece I've been keen to hear for a few years now (John Luther Adams' Inksuit).

However, once I really looked it over I was pretty impressed by what Andsnes, assuming the role of Music Director for this year, had put together- seven concerts over four nights, all with intriguing, often compelling programming including Janacek, Beethoven, Berg, Schnittke, Shostakovich, Ives, Debussy as well as composers about whom I knew virtually nothing (Reinbert de Leeuw, Bent Sørensen,  Haflidi Hallgrímsson). While I knew I wouldn't be able to make the opening performance of Inuksuit due to the 5:00 PM start time (not conducive to pretty much anyone with a job which isn't arts-related or on the Berkeley campus), I planned to see the other six concerts. It didn't work out that way, but I did see four of them and came away extremely impressed not only with the caliber of the performances, but also with the extremely thoughtful programming of each concert. Andsnes did an amazing job and with Mark Morris on deck as Music Director for next year's festival, who'll be followed in 2014 by Jeremy Denk, this newly annual visit by the festival looms as a major musical event for the Bay Area. While ticket availability for this year's concerts was easy, I expect that won't be the case in coming years as word gets out about how good this year's event really was, so you may want to make a note to block out the nights of June 13-15 next summer on your calendar.

On Tuesday, the early concert began with Andsnes accompanying soprano Christianne Stotijn in Dmitri Shostakovich’s late song cycle Six Poems of Marina Tsvetaeva, Op. 143. I arrived late, missing the first half of these, but as I settled in upstairs with the other late arrivals, it became apparent within moments that Stotijn was in the midst of delivering something strong and compelling, delivered with force. Andsnes then joined four members of the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra for Alfred Schnittke's Piano Quintet- a work I've never heard before and the beauty of which floored me. It was one of the most arresting performances I've seen this year. After the intermission Andsnes and Marc-André Hamelin squared off on grand pianos for a restructured four-hand version for piano of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring for two pianos. In a word, this was awesome. Rite was one of the first classical pieces that really grabbed me as a child, no doubt due to my music appreciation teacher's description of the riot which occurred on its opening night and the more importantly, the music depicted human sacrifices, which was pretty exciting to my ten-year old brain. Over the years, what enthralled me as a child got lost among so many other things and it's been a long time since the prospect of hearing a live performance of The Rite of Spring excited me. Not anymore. Deconstructed and then rebuilt across 176 keys, Hamelin and Andsnes made what I had come to view as a war horse sound not only captivating, but it was like hearing it again for the very first time, complete with human sacrifices in IMAX 3D.

The late concert featured Janáček's String Quartet No. 1, The Kreutzer Sonata, orchestrated for Chamber Orchestra (a good idea), with actor Theodore Jansen reading excerpts from Tolstoy's novella (a bad idea- very bad). It began with Andsnes and violinist Terje Tønneson performing the opening of Beethoven's "original" as an extended, dramatic quote, which was actually a really nice touch, and then Jensen began his prologue, humorously starting off by emphatically declaiming "Disgusting!...." before the orchestra came in sounding absolutely gorgeous. And then, well, then it went south quickly, as the orchestra would play a passage and gather some momentum only to have the music stop on a dime and at no particular place to allow Jensen to tell us more of the story from Tolstoy's perspective. Look, I love all the Kreutzers- Tolstoy's, Janáček's and yes, especially Beethoven's. I also like different kinds of bourbon, but that doesn't mean they should be blended together. In fact, that should never happen, and this shouldn't have either, and even though everyone  involved in it, especially Jensen, did a first-rate job, the whole thing just bothered me.

Sadly, I missed Wednesday night's concerts, which I heard were quite good, but on Thursday night I was back for more. The early concert began Icelandic composer Haflidi Hallgrímsson’s Poemi, Op. 7, featuring Terje Tønneson as the soloist in front of the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra. The increasingly ascending crescendos of the work were dazzling in his hands and the other players created bright hues of sound. I enjoyed it while it lasted, but the effects of the work were short-lived because what followed, the Bay Area premiere of Norwegian composer Bent Sørensen’s Piano Concerto No. 2, “La Mattina,” with Andsnes as soloist backed by the Norwegians again, was like listening to Wagner on acid. The Lento misterioso of the third movement was a beautiful homage to the Tristan chord, containing moments which sounded like humans humming it, and the cellists worked so hard I had this mental movie invade my mind where Bones says, "Dammit Jim, I'm a cellist, not a percussionist." Weird, but that's what I thought. The presto of the last movement swung like Gershwin's jazziest moments. It's a strikingly original, engaging music and I look forward to encountering it again. Andsnes was superb with it, providing a delicate opening Lento lugubre, and then more than willing to let the orchestra shine with him through the entire piece. This reminds me of something- Andnes, who was almost omnipresent throughout the two nights I was there, was one of the most gracious performers I've ever witnessed, seemingly determined to make everyone else onstage look good- and they did. A sense of camaraderie permeated every performance in which he took part.

After the intermission Hamelin accompanied Stotjin in Berg's Four Songs, Op. 2, revealing her commanding display of rich tone and power in the Shostakovich on Tuesday night was no fluke. Here again, she was compelling. Andsnes closed the concert with a brisk, fluid performance of the "Waldstein" Sonata, making Beethoven sound integral and linked to everything heard before (which is of course, true).

The late concert began with György Kurtag’s Játékok (“Games”), which left me slightly puzzled, though I admit to being distracted by some clowns who brought a dog to the performance. The dog obviously didn't care for the  Kurtag at all, because with almost every pause in the music it whimpered loudly. These young people weren't blind or disabled in any obvious way and there were three of them, so why they found it necessary to bring a whining dog to the concert is beyond me, not to mention plain rude to the performers and others in the audience. When the  Kurtag was over one of the clowns escorted the crying dog out of the hall and the concert resumed in peace with a beautiful, golden-tinged performance led by harpist Ida Aubert Bang of Debussy's Danses Sacre et Profane. Stotjin and Hamelin returned for William Bolcom's Cabaret Songs with mixed results that resulted more from the material than the performers, made plain by a fantastic rendering of Ives' "Memories" for an encore. The Norwegians then returned in their summer sportswear (I forgot to mention how good-looking this orchestra is, with the women in black sporting red accessories, the younger ones unafraid to sex it up a bit), many of them barefoot, to perform Grieg's "Holberg" Suite, with much vigor and a well-executed, joyous leap into the air on the final note.

Kudos to all involved: this was seriously great music, intelligently programmed and wonderfully performed.

A quick take on Tuesday's Ojai North! concerts

Tuesday night's earlier Ojai North! concert, the second night of four currently underway on the Berkeley campus courtesy of Cal Performances, featured two absolutely stunning performances: Schnittke's Piano Quintet, featuring Leif Ove Andsnes and members of the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, was one of the best things I've heard all year; following this was an incredible performance of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring performed on two pianos by Andsnes and Marc-Andre Hamelin that was as fascinating as it was riveting.

The later concert featured Janacek's First String Quartet, "The Kreutzer Sonata," arranged for string orchestra and featuring readings from Tolstoy's novella of the same name by actor Theodore Jansen. This didn't work for me, probably because as Lisa would say, this kind of thing "gives me the fear." Jansen's reading was well-done, but I would rather they just let the music do the talking. I'll have more to say about the performances later, but if last night was indicative of what's to come during tonight and tomorrow's concerts, get a ticket- they're inexpensive and available at the door, online, or on the phone at 510-642-9988. You can see the remaining schedule in this post, and check out Brian's reviews of the performances by the same musicians last week in Ojai proper.

Player? Performer? Does it matter?

Gonzalo Rubalcaba

If one looks in a dictionary to discern the difference between the verbs "to play" and "to perform" the distinction is vague to the extent it may be interpreted to not even exist. However, and perhaps this is a peculiar peccadillo of mine, I believe there is one. That is to say that to "play" something is not quite the same thing as it is to "perform" it. Thus, in my own crowded mind, a "player" is not the same thing as a "performer." I journeyed down this mental dead-end somewhat involuntarily as I was watching and listening to Gonzalo Rubalcaba's solo recital at Herbst Theater on Saturday night. Rubalcaba can play- there is no doubt about that. Whether it was much of a performance is a determination largely in the eyes and ears of the beholder I suppose, and from where I was seated the show really wasn't much of one.

This has been a banner year in the Bay Area for seeing top-tier pianists in concert: Keith Jarrett, Yefim Bronfman, Herbie Hancock, Brad Mehldau, Andras Schiff, Leif Ove Andsnes, Jeremy Denk, Marc-Andre Hamelin, Alexander Melnikov and Jean-Yves Thibaudet are just some of the artists who have appeared in recent months. Dr. John and Yuja Wang are coming to town this week. The presence of so many great players has raised the expectations bar pretty high for what constitutes real musical virtuosity and what make for a satisfying performance. Rubalcaba delivered the former, but the latter went missing. Without both, one must wonder about the value of the admission ticket.

Striding onstage of the Herbst Theater on Saturday night in an immaculate white suit looking every bit the suave Cubano, Rubalcaba sat down to the bench and playfully ruffled through some sheet music before beginning to play. He didn't say a word, preferring to acknowledge the audience with a warm smile and slight bow. He remained mute for the entire performance. The first two pieces of the set explored highly lyrical territory with dissonant interjections via a unexpected minor chords wisely placed. A promising beginning, to be sure, but as the set evolved, Rubalcaba moved away from these contrasts into more traditional territory, playing a number of standards without making breaking any new ground with them or offering much insight, though most were played with finesse and a consistent lyric flavor offering no hint of his Cuban heritage and little of his classical training. Perhaps this is his musical metier, but the set failed to gather momentum, and after an hour and a half, with one encore, it was over. I had the odd sensation of leaving the performance without having any musical insight or impression of who this artist is or what he wants to convey to an audience. It was akin to watching a musician (a well-dressed one, certainly) rehearse, ignorant of the presence of an audience in the room, except while that scenario sounds like it may be revelatory, this performance wasn't. After that promising beginning, the set did little more than meander to its conclusion.

Perhaps the oddness was also felt by other members of the audience- I have never seen an SFJazz audience move about so much between numbers and there were a number of walk-outs. There was also an adulatory standing ovation at the show's conclusion, which frankly puzzled me. A set list was not made available.

Ray of Light goes the Full Monty

Six guys from Buffalo preparing to go "The Full Monty." Photo by Claire Rice. 

There are some things, I think, that are just plain wrong. Then there are some things I think that are just plain wrong. For an example of the first, I think it's always a bad idea to adapt a non-musical film into a work of musical theater (or opera). It seems so facile, such an obvious example of how our culture has become lazy, using a popular movie as the basis for a stage work. Built-in audience and all of that, creating a new work which seems to exist for no other reason that its can exploit the financial success of its ancestor to sell tickets. The notion of creating "art" seems wholly absent to me in such adaptations. However, in one of the myriad ways in which my thinking is riddled with prejudices which don't hold up to scrutiny, for some reason the reverse, turning a play into a film, doesn't bother me very much, even though in many ways it's probably a worse exploitation and likely to yield an equally offensive, it not worse, result (Doubt, for example).

I'm obviously wrong for thinking this, which I was reminded of as I sat in my seat enjoying Ray of Light Theatre Company's new production of "The Full Monty" immensely- in fact much more than I thought I would. Much more than I wanted to, truth be told, because as I said, turning a film into a musical is a bad idea. But if it's such a bad idea than why was the play so much fun?

Credit Ray of Light for once again gathering a great cast in a wisely-chosen show and making it work really well. Make no mistake- "The Full Monty" isn't a great play- with the exception of a couple of tunes (the opening "Scrap" and the James Brown-influenced-to-point-of-homage "Big Black Man") the music by David Yazbek isn't all that memorable and Terrence McNally's book utilizes stock characters rather than creates interesting new ones, but this matters little in the end because if there's one thing "The Full Monty" does have going for it, it's heart, and this production fully capitalizes on that.

The plot is pretty much the same as the film's- a group of men's identities and lives are deteriorating under the withering toll of unemployment and in a last-ditch, desperate effort to raise some much-needed cash and their own self-esteem, decide to become male strippers for a night. The only difference from the film is that the guys are now from Buffalo instead of somewhere in England, allowing the jokes and references to be more culturally relevant to American audiences. Except for their also laid-off boss, these man live in a blue-collar world, paycheck-to-paycheck, and now without one, with their only prospect being low-paid gigs as security guards. Though the characters are working-class, their crushed self-esteem, anxiety about the future, self-doubt and diminished futures are now issues for everyone and these laid-off mill workers from Buffalo are pretty much today's everyman. The cast does an excellent job at bringing out the impact  of these circumstances through nuances which aren't in the script- the use of expressions, body language and intonation all add depth to characters which in the hands of less-talented actors could easily be little more than stereotypes or caricatures.

Of special note among thoroughly solid cast are the acting chops of Joshua Fryvecind as schlumpy ringleader Jerry Lukowski, the singing chops of Cami Thompson as Jeanette Burmeister, Derek Travis Collard as Harold Nichols has perhaps the most difficult role and really shines, as does Wendell Wilson as Horse. The women have less thankful roles, but Helen Laroche and  Sophia Campobasso leave lasting impressions in this funny, entertaining show.

And yes, in case you were wondering, they do go all they way, delivering "the full monty."

The sets by Maya Linke are unusually dark and gritty, but allow the cast to move about freely. Mary Kalita's choreography works for the ensemble numbers and Scarlett Kellum's costumes are spot on. The musicians under Ben Prince are too loud for the Eureka Theater- a problem in last season's Assassins as well- turn the amplification down, please, way down. But these are minor quibbles- the show is well-worth seeing.

The Full Monty runs through June 30th at the Eureka Theater (215 Jackson Street, at Battery, SF). The company brings Sondheim's Sweeney Todd to the same space beginning July 13th for a month-long run. You can get tickets here, and the company is offering a discount if you buy tickets to both shows. See their website for the deal.

Ojai comes "North!" next week with some pretty impressive-looking programs. So impressive, I decided to change the night I'm seeing Yuja Wang.

Courtesy of Cal Performances, the Ojai Music Festival comes to Berkeley next week for four nights of what promise to be interesting and unique concerts. It begins on Monday, June 11 at 5:00 PM with a free, outdoor performance of John Luther Adam's Inuksuit in the Faculty Glade up near Hertz Hall. Inuksuit was written for Steven Schick, who will lead 24 percussionists and piccolo players in a work I've wanted to hear ever since I read Alex Ross' comments on it awhile back, but alas, that early start time won't work for me. Brian just posted a review of the performance from Ojai here. For the rest of us, there are concerts taking place at 7:00 and 9:30 PM Tuesday through Thursday nights at Hertz Hall. The 9:30 concerts are schedule to run about an hour, so they still end at a reasonable time. I love the idea of concerts beginning at 9:30 PM- it feels so decadent and dark.

Leif Ove Andsnes

This year's music director, pianist Leif Ove Andsnes will be chatting with Cal Performances' General Director Matias Tarnopolsky and some of the other artists appearing each night at 6:00 PM- these conversation are free and open to all ticket holders. By the way, the tickets are only $10 or $20 per concert, making this festival a steal.

Christianne Stotijn

Here's the schedule:

Tuesday, June 12, at 7:00 PM:

Leif Ove Andsnes performs Alfred Schnittke’s Piano Quintet with members of the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra. Andsnes will then accompany mezzo-soprano Christianne Stotijn in Dmitri Shostakovich’s late song cycle Six Poems of Marina Tsvetaeva, Op. 143. The concert concludes with longtime collaborator Marc-André Hamelin joining Andsnes for Igor Stravinsky’s own four hands arrangement of his prodigious Le Sacre du Printemps.

Tuesday, June 12, at 9:30 PM:

The Norwegian Chamber Orchestra will perform Leoš Janáček’s String Quartet No. 1, “The Kreutzer Sonata,” featuring actor Theodore Jansen in readings from Tolstoy arranged for string orchestra and narrator. Usually the inclusion of an "actor" "enhancing" a performance with "readings" drives fear into my heart, but I'm going to remain optimistic hear, because one, I love Tolstoy's novella, and two, for once this idea may actually bear some fruit.

Wednesday, June 13, at 7:00 PM
The concert begins with the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra’s arrangement of Janáček’s Quartet No. 2, “Intimate Letters," and is then followed by the Bay Area premiere of Reinbert de Leeuw’s cycle of 21 songs, Im wunderschönen Monat Mai (“In the Merry Month of May”), inspired by works of Schumann and Schubert. Barbara Sukowa, for whom the work was written, has bowed out due an emergency, so Tony-nominated American soprano/actress/contemporary music specialist Lucy Shelton will perform the role which calls for singing, screaming and whispering. The composer will be at the piano, leading fifteen of the Norwegians.

Wednesday, June 13, at 9:30 PM
Marc-André Hamelin will perform Charles Ives’ Concord Sonata. What more do you need to know? Thursday, June 14, at 7:00 PM
I changed my Yuja Wang tickets for this ridiculous bounty: the Bay Area premiere of Norwegian composer Bent Sørensen’s Piano Concerto No. 2, “La Mattina,” with Andsnes as soloist with the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra; Icelandic composer Haflidi Hallgrímsson’s Poemi, Op. 7, with the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra and violinist Terje Tønneson; Berg’s early Four Songs, Op. 2, sung by Stotijn with Hamelin at the piano; and seriously, if that wasn't enough, the concert concludes with Andsnes performing Beethoven's "Waldstein" sonata.

Thursday, June 14, at 9:30 PM
The last late show begins with: selections from György Kurtag’s Játékok (“Games”), a work inspired by children spontaneously playing the piano and is followed by Debussy’s Danses Sacre et Profane for strings and solo harp; a selection of cabaret songs by William Bolcom sung by Stotijn with Hamelin accompanying, and then it all ends with the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra’s interpretation of fellow countryman Grieg’s Holberg Suite.

For tickets and more information go to Cal Performances, or get them at the door.

Not for the faint of heart, and not to be missed. Yuja and Attila can wait. See you there.

Marc-André Hamelin