This week on Open Air, KALW’s radio magazine for the Bay Area Performing Arts, guest host Kevin Vance talks with cast members of the musical Hamilton, which is in town for a limited engagement. Also, a conversation with composer Jake Heggie, about Triptych, three of his song cycles, reimagined as fully staged chamber operas, this weekend in Walnut Creek; and we broadcast episode six of the San Francisco Mime Troupe’s summer series Tales of the Resistance - Volume 2: Persistence, as part of our Corona Radio Theater Initiative.
For a limited 4-week engagement only (through September 5), the North American tour of Hamilton, the highly successful musical, with book, music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, will play at the Orpheum Theatre (1192 Market St.) in San Francisco.
Hamilton is, of course, the story of America's Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, an immigrant from the West Indies who became George Washington's right-hand man during the Revolutionary War and was the new nation’s first Treasury Secretary. Featuring a score that blends hip-hop, jazz, blues, rap, R&B, and Broadway, Hamilton is the story of America then, as told by America now.
Festival Opera in Walnut Creek celebrates its return to the Lesher Center stage with a world premiere event featuring three song cycles by composer Jake Heggie, reimagined as fully staged chamber operas. The song cycles, At the Statue of Venus; Camille Claudel: Into the Fire; and For a Look or a Touch, share one common theme: a deep human desire for love and acceptance.
Festival Opera has assembled an excellent cast of West Coast artists with strong ties to Heggie’s operas and song repertoire: Carrie Hennessey; Diana Tash; Curt Branom; and Zachary Gordin, with Jake Heggie himself as pianist, and members of the Festival Opera Orchestra conducted by Bryan Nies. Performances are Friday August 13 (7:30pm) and Sunday August 15 (2pm) at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek.
Plus, Open Air broadcasts episode six of the Mime Troupe’s summer series Tales of the Resistance - Volume 2: Persistence. In this episode: "What Were You Thinking?" & Eyeball on History! 1790 - Life is a series of choices, and finding the right answers to those questions is the challenge we put to three contestants in this episode of America's favorite game show, the game that all of us play every day whether we want to or not: "What Were You Thinking?".
Open Air with guest host Kevin Vance, heard live on Thursday, August 12 at 1pm, to be archived at this very location until the Internet dies. Listen now or anytime…