This week on Open Air, KALW’s radio magazine for the Bay Area performing arts, host David Latulippe talks with San Francisco Opera’s general director Matthew Shilvock about The Ring, the Company’s production of Wagner’s epic opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, which opened this week with Das Rheingold and Die Walküre.
SF Opera’s complete Ring-cycle, which also includes Siegfried and Götterdämmerung, is a co-production with Washington National Opera, featuring a stellar international cast, directed by Francesca Zambello. Performances run through July 1 at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco.
Also, a conversation with director James Darrah, who leads the semi-staged production of Mussorgsky's opera Boris Godunov by the San Francisco Symphony, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas. Also participating are the Pacific Boychoir, the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, and a large cast of singers, actors and dancers. Performances are on June 14, 15 and 17 at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco.
From TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, we meet with actor Leo Ash Evens who plays Bobby in the regional premiere of Finks. This comic drama by playwright Joe Gilford is based on the true story of his father, comedian/actor Jack Gilford, and his experience with the House Committee on Un-American Activities, which targeted individuals in the entertainment industry, making them lose their careers, branding them as ‘finks’. The production runs through July 1 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts (500 Castro Street) in Mountain View.
Plus, we talk with Amy Draizen, associate producer of the 14th Annual CubaCaribe Festival, which features two weeks of Caribbean dance, music and theater at three different venues around the Bay Area.
CubaCaribe presents popular, contemporary and folkloric cultural expression, religion, history, and politics of the Afro-Caribbean Diaspora. This year’s theme is Movements of Migration. The festival not only includes performances, but also special events such as a discussion and a lecture. The festival runs June 15 through 28 at Laney College in Oakland, the Brava Theater in San Francisco, and the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco.
Open Air with host David Latulippe; heard live on Thursday, June 14 at 1pm. Listen now or anytime…