Tickets are still available for the S.F. Opera’s The Flying Dutchman, which is performed on November 3, 7, 12 and 15. This is a new production of Richard Wagner’s libretto and composition sung in German with English supertitles.
Renowned maestro Semyon Bychkov joins the San Francisco Symphony and San Francisco Symphony Chorus for a rare performance of Benjamin Britten’s epic War Requiem. Photo by Sheila Rock
By Paul Duclos
Published: November, 2013
Tickets are still available for the S.F. Opera’s The Flying Dutchman, which is performed on November 3, 7, 12 and 15. This is a new production of Richard Wagner’s libretto and composition sung in German with English supertitles.
In Wagner’s first masterpiece, a ship’s captain is condemned to endlessly travel the seas in search of true love. The masterful Patrick Summers conducts a cast of outstanding Wagnerians led by Greer Grimsley, who thrilled San Francisco Opera audiences as a thunderous and dramatically compelling Jokanaan in 2009’s Salome. Making her San Francisco Opera debut as Senta is Lise Lindstrom, regarded as a fast-rising star of the dramatic soprano repertory and absolutely one to watch—she appeared as Turandot at the Royal Opera House. Petrika Ionesco, who brought a handsome combination of grandeur and expressive intimacy to Cyrano de Bergerac in 2010, directs a production he also designed.
The approximate running time is three hours including one intermission. Pre-Opera Talks are free to ticketholders and take place in the main theater in the orchestra section 55 minutes prior to curtain. http://sfopera.com
Renowned maestro Semyon Bychkov and a marvelous cast of soloists join the San Francisco Symphony and San Francisco Symphony Chorus to mark the Benjamin Britten centenary with one of Western music’s foremost masterpieces. Britten’s War Requiem, considered by many to be the composer’s greatest work, juxtaposes the Latin Requiem Mass with verses by the World War I poet Wilfred Owen, offering one of the canon’s greatest artistic responses to war and its victims. It’s a rare performance of an epic work not to be missed. http://www.sfsymphony.org/
The $100,000 Pike Place Dancer and the $100,000 Berkeley Handicap highlight the stakes schedule for the 2013 fall racing season at Golden Gate Fields. The 36-day meeting runs through Sunday, December 15. Racing will be conducted on a Thursday-through-Sunday schedule and post time is 12:45 p.m. with three exceptions.
There will be early post times on Friday, November 1 (12:05 p.m.), and Saturday, November 2 (11:40 a.m.) to facilitate the simulcast of the Breeders’ Cup World Championships from Santa Anita. Fans will get their first Breeders’ Cup bets "on the house" as Golden Gate Fields will give customers a cash voucher both Friday and Saturday.
Racing will also get started early, at 11:15 a.m., on Thanksgiving Day, November 28. Golden Gate Fields offers an outstanding Thanksgiving Day buffet in the Turf Club and fans can make reservations by calling (510) 559-7390.
Fans attending Golden Gate Fields on Black Friday will have the chance to win a 42-inch HD television. A television will be raffled off after each of the nine races on November 29, with the winning jockey from each race reaching into the contest bin and pulling out the name of the lucky winner.
The promotion schedule also features a Halloween Family Day party on Sunday, October 27, and a Toys for Tots toy drive on Sunday, November 3. The Halloween Family Day celebration will feature fun activities for kids, who are admitted to the track free. The Toys for Tots toy drive, conducted in partnership with the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, gives fans the opportunity for free clubhouse admission by donating a new, unwrapped toy.
Golden Gate Fields’ signature promotion and the best bargain in Bay Area sports, Dollar Day Sundays, will be offered throughout the meeting. General parking, general admission, programs, beers, hot dogs, and sodas cost just a buck each on Sundays.
The Pike Place Dancer, a one-mile turf race for two-year-old fillies, and the Grade 3 Berkeley, a 1 1/16-mile test for three-year-olds and up, head a roster of seven stakes. The Pike Place Dancer will be run on Saturday, October 26; the Berkeley on Friday, November 29.
The fall stakes slate also includes the $50,000-added Golden Nugget, a six-furlong dash for two-year-olds that will be run Saturday, Nov. 9; the $50,000-added Oakland, a six-furlong sprint for three-year-olds and up on Saturday, November 16; the $50,000-added Golden Gate Debutante, a six-furlong race for two-year-old fillies on Saturday, November 30; and the $75,000 Gold Rush, a one-mile race for two-year-olds on Saturday, December 7.
There will be one Monday racing program during the fall meeting—a special Veterans Day card on Nov. 11.
