Mezzo-soprano Vivica Genaux will headline a series of concerts with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra led by Maestro Nicholas McGegan starting tonight in Atherton, tomorrow in San Francisco, and Saturday and Sunday in Berkeley. The Alaskan-born singer burst on the opera scene in the bel canto repertoire. She was last heard on the stage of the SF Opera leading Rossini's The Italian Girl in Algiers, where she vowed critics. And we quote: more ›

It's quite shocking that, on an all-Mozart program, there could be not one, but two works never before performed in the US. Yet that's the gift that the Philharmonia Baroque orchestra unveiled for the start of its 30th anniversary season. Now, no one found a missing symphony in a trunk in a Salzburg attic. The "new" piece is a re-creation of a concerto movement that the young Mozart, age seven, composed and whose piano part, and only the piano part, his dad confined to a music book for Wolfgang Amadeus's sister Nannerl. more ›

A few exciting classical music events for this weekend, with some Christmas liturgy ahead of us. Liturgical music during the holiday season is like giving to charity: you have to assuage your guilt of ignoring it too much during the rest of the year by attending at least one sung mass. Or write a check. Or kill two birds with one stone, since all orchestras below are non-profit. more ›

Grammy-award winning mezzo-soprano Susan Graham just headlined a concert series six weeks ago with the San Francisco Symphony, which will be released on a CD as part of the SFS Mahler project. Obviously, we can't get enough of her: she returns this week to star in a concert version of Purcell's opera Dido and Aenas, with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. She chats about her upcoming Dido and looks back at her Mahler performance here. more ›

The Fall music season has been launched in orbit with a glitzy gala at the Symphony. This week continues with classical music galore: the other heavy hitter, the SF Opera introduces his new music director, Nicola Luisotti, in Verdi's Il Trovatore, tonight. The all-star cast includes Dmitri Hvorostovksy, Sondra Radvanovsky and the comparatively simple to spell Stephanie Blythe in a story that makes Harry Potter look realistic. We don't go to the opera to watch reality tv, and the arias are sublime. You can check for yourself, for free, at a live simulcast of the War Memorial Opera House performance on a giant screen at the AT&T ballpark on Saturday, September 19th. Also, you can get the pupu platter sampler of the upcoming season, also for free, zilch, zero, nada, with the traditional Opera in the Park concert. Please arrive early, it gets really crowded on the Sharon Meadows lawn, and you don't want to miss SF Chronicle's editor-at-large Phil Bronstein's unintentionally hilarious attempts at a stand up comedy routine, if he's MCing again this year. more ›