Hong Kong Film Festival Brings Classics and New Works to San Francisco
Janos GerebenFilmSan Francisco,
Ruan Ling-yu was among the biggest Chinese silent-film stars, acclaimed, adored, and compared to Greta Garbo. Her brief life - ending in suicide before turning 25 - seems just as mysterious as that of the great "I vant to ...
Emily S. MendelTheaterSan Francisco,
“You Never Can Tell” is an early work of Shaw’s, written in 1896, while he was still honing his craft. He wanted to both entertain and educate his audience, and mainly he accomplished this, for the play as written is ...
Emily S. MendelArt & ArchitectureSan Francisco,
The fresh and creative Ed Ruscha retrospective at San Francisco’s de Young Museum celebrates the artist’s spare and inventive artwork, which simultaneously memorializes and satirizes the American West. The artist’s attraction to popular culture, Pop-commercial graphics and use ...
Janos GerebenFeaturesSan Francisco,
San Francisco's Merola Opera Program does a world of good for super-talented young singers about to launch their careers, but this time an event might have given them an incorrect impression about what to expect from music directors.
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"Some people build fences to keep people out and other people build fences to keep people in.”
Emily S. MendelTheaterSan Francisco,
Cal Shakes’ revival of the great 1987 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama “Fences” by the illustrious August Wilson (1945-2005) is still vigorous and vital. With the passage of time, and under the direction of Raelle Myrick-Hodges, the two-act play becomes ...
Renata PoltFilmSan Francisco,
Some Bay Area movie-goers have called the annual Jewish Film Festival their favorite Jewish holiday, and you'd have to witness the excited queue outside San Francisco's Castro Theater on opening night to understand why. This year's 36th edition, running ...
Toba SingerTheaterSan Francisco,
An only child privy to adult conversations, I have a memory of the film, “I Am a Camera,” playing at Provincetown’s Art Cinema Theater when I was, say, seven, and overhearing my mother telling friends, “See that film!” The penetrating ...
With Finnish soprano Karita Mattila leading a magnificent cast, this production of Janáček's folk opera makes for an immersive experience.
Suzanne WeissMusicSan Francisco,
The last time I saw Karita Mattila in “Jenůfa” she played the title role, a young village girl madly in love with the town ne’er-do-well and secretly carrying his child to boot. Now, her gleaming voice burnished with maturity, the ...
Emily S. MendelArt & ArchitectureSan Francisco,
A splendid exhibition of almost 150 of the finest art from Taiwan’s National Palace Museum in Taipei, half of which have never before been seen in the U.S., now graces San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum and will travel to the ...
Fine (often spectacular) singing saves this overlong, drab, and static production.
Suzanne WeissMusicSan Francisco,
The trouble with Verdi’s “Don Carlo” always has been — like much of Wagner — too much of a good thing. Requiring no fewer than six stellar singers in the leads, making it very costly to mount, it clocks in ...
