Philip Glass tackled the challenge of re-inventing Antonio Vivaldi's Four Seasons in an American way with his violin concerto No. 2, "American seasons," presented last night at Herbst Theater by SF Performances with violinist Robert McDuffie and the Venice Baroque Orchestra. Vivaldi succeeded beyond expectations in depicting a light airy spring, a forceful winter blizzard, storms thundering and birds chirping. But for the American version, which four seasons? An Arizona summer with a Maine fall and a Utah winter? Glass' answer to the riddle seemed to pick all four seasons from ... San Diego: where no one can tell spring from summer from fall because it's all the same, balmy and steady. more ›

Philip Glass's Music in Twelve Parts has never been performed live in SF, despite its iconic status as one of the milestones of contemporary music. We find it strange, considering the embracing welcome of Glass's latest performances here. Then again, it's four hours of music which is built on repeating some very primitive motives over long periods of time: it's rewarding if you go through, but pretty challenging nonetheless. We chatted with vocalist, composer and SF-native Lisa Bielawa, who has been part of the Philip Glass Ensemble for seventeen years, who recorded this piece shortly thereafter, and who will be part of the first performance ever on the West Coast this Monday. SF Performances is hosting the piece at Davies Symphony Hall, at 5pm, with two intermissions and a dinner break, thank goodness. Pace your psychotropics accordingly. more ›

We made much about Philip Glass turning 70, and not of a single peep when John Adams turned 60 this past February. Aw. We feel bad, since the contemporary composer lives in Berkeley, and he is ours, so to speak. (Gothamist can claim Glass. If they want.) more ›

More bad puns on Philip Glass’ name! Appomattox, which we rose our Glass to, was not the end of our wall-to-wall Glass coverage. The Glass is not full, we haven’t hit the Glass ceiling yet, ha. more ›

Who better to compose an opera on the repetitive forces which govern human nature than Philip Glass! There is no better match to write about the immutability of the human soul, as the theme begs for an insistent ostinato in a minor key, of course. His score is one of the strong points of Appomattox, which had its premiere on Friday night: it is distinctly Glass-ian, but integrates elements and influence contemporary to the civil war. There is a substrate of minor third pedals and a restrained palette of rhythmic motifs in the orchestra, but this is the scaffolding which sustains a surprising variety of colors and sounds. The leading men have singing patterns which are close to speech, but Glass lets his hair down with the women, providing superb arias to moments of intimacy, or pettiness, or even, in the case of Mary Custis Lee, ugliness. more ›

We had an interview lined up, and were instructed to call his hotel at the agreed time, and ask to be transferred to Christopher Hampton. What? The guy won an Academy Award for writing the screenplay for Dangerous Liaisons, won a Tony award for the libretto of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical adaptation of Sunset Boulevard, wrote the script for, and directed tons of movies involving Leonardo di Caprio, Richard Gere or Gérard Depardieu, and he checks in the hotel under his real name? We're glad to be of help, so we put his name into the Ron Mexico name generator: Christopher, you'll be Fausto Tobaggo on your next trip. more ›

As a prelude to the big event, the world premiere of Appomattox next Friday at the opera house, composer Philip Glass was hosting a night of chamber music at Herbst Theater last night. It was also the opening concert for SF Performances's 28th season (the official Dolce Vita-themed kick-off Gala happens October 12th). We are as excited as anyone about the upcoming opera, so we were pleased to see Glass not only introduce the music and chit-chat genially from the stage, but also perform some of his pieces. So he turned 70 and here comes this guy on the stage who looks like he's in his 50s, fit, spry. We want to be like that when we're that age. We read that he does pilates and we're so taking that up. more ›

We got word that 27,000 people made a reservation to attend this Friday's Opera at the Ballpark. 27,000! And there are still tickets left! Tonight is the last day to see Barry at AT&T park, but plenty of other divas, plenty of other big guys with supernatural powers will be on stage in the stadium this Friday, as the SF Opera presents Samson and Delilah on a giant High Def video screen with a live simulcast of the performance from inside the opera house. more ›

San Francisco and the Bay Area are getting ready to throw a big (albeit somewhat belated) celebration for Philip Glass’ 70th birthday with concerts all over the place and, of course, the premier of Glass’ new opera Appomattox. And the kick-off is this Friday night with a very special and rare intimate recital courtesy of San Francisco Performances. Mr. Glass will be playing several of his pieces with cellist Wendy Sutter and percussionist Mick Rossi at Herbst Theater. more ›

Last week's winner, the San Jose Metro: Gary Singh wants the San Jose flea market to move to City Hall. Folks moving from city to city to run for office -- hey, at least they actually move into the city they want to represent down in the South Bay. Ed Jew, take a note! Cover: yay the environment, reduce your carbon footprint by buying a Prius. There's a gymnastics meet on the Olympics circuit this weekend. Stick the landing! Judd Apatow continues to have problems writing good female characters. A local guy's short films are really good. They screen Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes in a movie theater in Campbell? The new Philip Glass symphony sounded really good in Santa Cruz. Central Vietnamese food in a new Vietnam Town Santana Row-ish setting, And mmmm, stone fruit. more ›

More giveaways! San Francisco's own Kronos Quartet has a new album out, of their acclaimed September 2003 live performance with Tom Waits of four of Waits's songs, for the Concert for Peace and Reconciliation by Richard Gere's Buddhist humanitarian organization Healing The Divide with the Dalai Lama in attendance. There's also performances by Norah Jones's sister Anoushka Shankar, Philip Glass, and the Guyto Tantric Choir. We've got a copy to give away! more ›

It's time for our second SFIFF movie giveaway! more ›

We hadn’t really opened last year’s Christmas gift yet: when David Gockley became general director of the San Francisco opera a year ago, we did not really know what was in the box. The second half of the 2006 season, and the 2006-2007 season operas were already booked by his predecessor. He was not the one who chose this rather uninspired selection of yet another Carmen, yet another Barber of Seville, yet another Rigoletto. more ›

Is it wrong that when we saw the movie Koyaanisqatsi, about not despoiling the earth, we left the theater thinking, "wow, San Francisco would be a great city to live in!" Well, San Francisco is a great city to live in, not the least of which being that we're hosting a live performance of the Qatsi Trilogy this weekend. SF Performances is screening all three Qatsi movies -- Koyaanisqatsi (Life Out Of Balance) tonight, Powaqatsi (Life In Transformation) on Saturday and Naqoyqatsi (Life As War) on Sunday -- with live accompaniment of the famous Philip Glass score by the eponymously-named Philip Glass Ensemble. Phillip Glass himself is also in town, and will be speaking on Saturday afternoon at Herbst Theater. The screenings all take place in Symphony Hall -- buy tickets here. Or save yourself some money and buy a Glass Pass, all three movies plus Glass speaking. Glass Pass, ha. more ›

We went to the opera yesterday for the introduction of new SF Opera general director David Gockley, who officially succeeded Pamela Rosenberg on January 1st. Pamela Rosenberg was the director for the last five years, commissioned Dr Atomic and generally tried to shake things up a bit, so we were curious to see were Gockley stands. more ›

I pronounce thee carjacked (ha!) -- a newlywed couple successfully fended off a carjacker in the parking lot of a Taco Bell in San Mateo last Saturday. The groom, still in his tux, left the car running and his new bride in the front seat as he went to pick up a snack on his way to their honeymoon suite -- at which point someone jumped into the car and put it in reverse. The bride opened the door and fell out of the car, as her husband came running, at which point the carjacker rammed the car into the Taco Bell sign and was caught by cops as he attempted to flee on foot. Moral is: make sure you eat something at your wedding reception. A three-year-old has been reunited with his parents after being discovered wandering the streets of Twin Peaks early Thursday morning. A nurse returning home from work saw the little boy, wearing Blue's Clues pajamas, in the middle of the street on Burnett Avenue and called 911. When the police came by, the little boy sang some Barney songs with them but would not tell them where he lived. They ended up waiting up with him until about 5 a.m., when his frantic mother called the station. Apparently the boy had gotten up in the middle of the night and let himself out of the house. Moral is: I love you, you love me, we're a happy family. And did you hear all those cars honking downtown yesterday afternoon, like a Philip Glass piece? Taxicab drivers, protesting limos stealing their business. Unexpectedly melodious! more ›

Covering your entertainment scene for the rest of the work week! Tonight, Go check out Neil Strauss reading from his new book on picking up women, "The Game," and learn how you too can have Courtney Love crash on your couch for an indefinite period of time! 7:30 p.m. at the Marina Books Inc. (of course). Thursday, it's tiki night at the Make-Out Room! Hula dancing, tiki carving, tiki movies, and tiki art for sale. Polynesian merriment will abound! and Friday: fans of contemporary opera can whet their Doctor Atomic appetite and check out the premiere of the Oakland Opera's performance of La Belle et la Bete by Philip Glass. The opera's based on the Cocteau film, and the Oakland Opera is staging it as a circus performance. Grab some chicken and waffles after the show! more ›

Put a brimful of Asha on your iPod ride! The Asha Bhosle who's name-checked by the Brit band Cornershop and is renown as the voice of Bollywood, has released a CD with San Francisco's best arbiters of new music tastes, the Kronos Quartet. Kronos has always sought to redefine classical chamber music from Viennese ladies doing the minuet to encompass all types of sonic sensation -- from contemporary pieces by Philip Glass and John Adams to Hendrix covers, Latin jazz, Argentinean tangoes, and African world music. Their latest record, You've Stolen My Heart: Songs from R.D. Burman's Bollywood, features string quartet arrangements of songs from Bollywood films. Bollywood films are famous for their extended musical numbers, many of which were written by Asha Bhosle's late husband, R.D. Burman and performed by Ms. Bhosle, to be lip-synched by famous actresses in the actual movie. Burman and Bhosle are said to have sold more records than Elvis and the Beatles combined. And the album's a lot of fun! It's basically a Burman/Bhosle greatest hits collection -- Kronos and their posse of world musicians basically fade into the background and Bhosle lets it fly (check out the audio samples). The tunes are insanely catchy and -- well, we don't approve of listening to world music to feel exotic, but we did find ourselves hankering for something cardamom-flavored as we listened through. Kronos will be performing with Asha Bhosle on September 22 and 23 at the Yerba Buena Center. We hope they'll synch up some movies with the songs! more ›

While we've been known to swill Pabst like there’s no tomorrow, SFist does indeed have a cultured and classy side. That’s why tonight we’re rolling over to the Davies Symphony Hall to check out an exclusive joint performance between Phillip Glass and the Bang On a Can All-Stars. more ›

So what are you doing this weekend? SFist is going to catch the Oakland Opera's performance ofAkhnaten with The Standing Room. more ›