Today's the opening day of the new SF Symphony season, with a Gala at Davies Symphony Hall and a performance of Stravinsky's violin concerto with Christian Tetzlaff soloing, and Dvorak's Symphony No. 8, with of course MTT at the helm. Then, the orchestra abandons us to woo the European crowds in the neutral countries of Luxembourg and Switzerland. They come back in time for a free noon-time concert in the Yerba Buena Gardens on Sept. 22nd, with a re-run of the gala program: Glinka's Overture to Ruslan and Ludmila and some excerpts of Dvorak's 8th. If you work downtown, you must pack your lunch and eat it on the lawn while enjoying the sun and MTT and the orchestra and a Beard Papa puff for dessert.

You want to go below to see movie clips of Deborah Voigt and our running commentary on the SF Symphony's and SF Opera's season. Picture of MTT -Hi, Mike, good to see you back!- by Terrence McCarthy.

Highlights of the upcoming season include Diane Upshaw singing Lukas Foss's Time Cycle (Sept. 27th-30th), Joshua Bell in Beethoven's Violin Concerto (Oct. 4th-7th); Vladimir Ashkenazy conducting pianist Helen Grimaud and the NHK orchestra (Oct. 15th) or the SF symphony in Tchaikovsky 3rd Symphony (Nov. 29th-Dec. 2nd); Semyon Bychkov conducting the French and nonetheless excellent pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet (Oct. 18th-21st); MTT conducting more Mahler (the 4th symphony in November and the 7th in June), or the world premiere of Kevin Volans Atlantic Crossing for piano and orchestra, with Canadian pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin, or another world premiere, Robin Holloway's Fourth Concerto for Orchestra.

Kurt Masur will team with violinist Sarah Chang, for Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1. We last saw that piece with Vadim Repim and the SF Symphony, and it rocks. The leading pair of the Marriage of Figaro, Camilla Tilling and John Relyea come back in Mozart's Mass in C minor. Our personal favorite, Radu Lupu, also celebrates the anniversary of Wolfgang in the piano concerto No. 20. Susan Graham, who also will visit the Opera stage as a torrid Iphigénie, will sing a night of music that is French, just like us. Susan, you make us feel special.

The biggest splash should happen in March, with the US premiere of John Adams's A Flowering Tree, conducted by the composer himself. The piece is a semi-staged one act opera following the success of Dr. Atomic. We can't wait to hear that one. World premiere is in Vienna in November, so you'll hear the buzz long ahead of time.

Other big names visiting Davis, to list a few: Murray Perahia, Emanuel Ax, Charles Dutoit, Thomas Hampson, Christoph Eschenbach and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Full schedule and box office at SF Symphony web site.

Across Grove Street, the Opera kicks off the season this weekend with two fun operas: un ballo en maschera on Friday with a slimmed down Deborah Voigt, die Fledermaus on Saturday, an operetta by the guy who gave you the Blue Danube waltz. And don't forget the free Opera in the Park concert in Sharron Meadows in Golden Gate park this Sunday, 1:30pm. Be there early, or you won't find the good spots, and more importantly, you'll miss the stand up comedy routine of Chronicle editor Phil Bronstein, aka. the guy who watches too much Jerry Seinfeld. We admit we don't understand: he's the boss, why doesn't he ask Scott Ostler or Tim Goodman to write the jokes for him? Well, he gets a brownie point for trying.

Anyway, here is Deborah --still full size-- with the larger-than-life-too Luciano Pavarotti in a 1994 performance of Verdi's Un Ballo. This is absolutely magnificent, and we sure hope she'll sound as good on Friday.

You have heard the overture of the Fledermaus a million time, as you can confirm below by playing that catchy tune. We saw Gerald Thompson sing Orlofsky's "Chacun à son goût" in the Yerba Buena garden concert of the Adler fellows last season, and he was a hoot. We are giddy with anticipation already.

For the rest of the season, we'll run a play-by-play as we go along, but check out the SF Opera web site for more info.