Alexander String Quartet teams up with Robert Greenberg

School may have been in session last Saturday morning at Berkeley’s St. John’s Presbyterian Church, but the students clapped long and hard, something rarely heard just a few blocks north at UC Berkeley. The lecturer, musicologist and composer Robert Greenberg, was assisted by the formidable Alexander String Quartet, which sat onstage to give musical illustrations throughout the lecture before playing their concert. And the “returning students” were an...

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Visually stunning Xerxes opens at SF Opera

  George Frideric Handel caused a stir in 1738 London with his opera, Xerxes, one of 46 operas he wrote in a long and productive career, but to captivate a modern audience—one glutted on action thrillers—requires a creative approach to the Baroque. ...

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Oakland East Bay Symphony opens stylish new season

Flash-bangs at the Paramount  A program of brilliance and bling fired up a full house Friday night at the Paramount Theatre, Oakland’s refurbished Art Deco masterpiece, and that was a perfect setting for the on-stage sizzle.  Michael Morgan led the Oakland East Bay Symphony in their Opening Night concert, “New world A-Comin’,” titled after Duke Ellington’s hopeful work for orchestra and improvised piano. After a...

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Don Giovanni at San Francisco Opera

Seduction and Power at SF Opera Insanely clever, funny, and a political thriller: not something from the new release shelf, but rather Mozart’s Don Giovanni at San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House. Excellent stage direction and minimal sets put the spotlight on great singing, strong acting, sublime music and one of the best yarns in over two hundred years. ...

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