This week on Open Air, KALW’s radio magazine for the Bay Area performing arts, guest host JoAnn Mar talks with San Francisco Opera’s Gregory Henkel about their new production, opening this week, of Beethoven’s only opera Fidelio, set in a modern-day detention center instead of the story’s original 18thcentury prison (pic 1). Also, conversations about the world premiere of Meet Us Quickly With Your Mercy from Flyaway Productions (Oct 14-17); and about the 18th Annual San Francisco Trolley Dances, by Epiphany Dance Theater (Oct 17-18). Plus, Peter Robinson discusses No Time to Die, the final James Bond movie with Daniel Craig.
From the San Francisco Opera, we talk with Gregory Henkel (managing director: artistic), about the Company’s live performances at the War Memorial Opera House, of Ludwig van Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio.
With six performances through October 30, music director Eun Sun Kim conducts the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, Chorus and cast in this monumental work in which love and courage overcome tyranny. Director Matthew Ozawa’s interpretation of the work and Alexander V. Nichols’ set design update the opera’s original eighteenth-century prison setting to a modern government detention center.
We talk with San Francisco-based choreographer Jo Kreiter about the world premiere of Meet Us Quickly With Your Mercy, second in a trilogy of outdoor aerial public art performances addressing the devastating effects of mass incarceration.
Meet Us Quickly is presented in partnership with the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD), taking place on the exterior facades of CounterPulse on Turk Street, as well as on the Dahlia Hotel next door, with eight performances October 14 - 17, all free.
We talk with executive artistic director Kim Epifano from Epiphany Dance Theater about the 18th Annual San Francisco Trolley Dances, October 17-18.
This year’s iteration of Trolley Dances spans San Francisco’s East Cut / Rincon Hill and Castro districts, pairing artists and ensembles with specific sites along a historic MUNI route for 6 to 10-minute performances in response to the physical environment, architecture, and history of the city.
Plus, Peter Robinson, Open Air’s regular contributor and critic at large, discusses No Time to Die, the final James Bond movie with Daniel Craig. He also shines a light on Ian Fleming, the creator of Bond, covering Fleming's days in wartime intelligence, and the back story to this fascinating cult spy genre.
Open Air with guest host JoAnn Mar, heard live on Thursday, October 14 at 1pm, to be archived thereafter at this very location until the Internet dies. Listen now or anytime…