Pianist Jeffrey Biegel's latest recording for Steinway and Sons, A Grand Romance, is a treasure of sixteen keyboard gems from the Romantic era. The selections are rare and virtuosic, the musical shocks and sentiments gliding between fervent longing and eye-popping wonderment to the frenetic congestion of a Friday...

At 24, Philippe Sly is an extremely gifted classical vocal artist. Currently a member of the prestigious Adler Fellows, the French Canadian bass-baritone makes both his role debut and main stage debut this summer as Guglielmo in San Francisco Opera's Cosi fan tutte. The production opens...

There is nothing better than a live recording which captures the shine and pizzazz of a performer in real time. Jazz diva Nicole Henry's latest CD, So Good, So Right, produced by Matt Pierson, rings true and vibrant in this intimate encounter with a spectacular artist. The album takes us...

Tenor Noah Stewart, an alumnus of San Francisco's Merola Opera Program and the prestigious Adler Fellows, joins the Berkeley Symphony on March 28 in the world premiere of Steven Stucky's The Stars and the Roses. A song cycle in three parts, the score by the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer is set...

The recent Opening Night performance of John Neumeier's Nijinsky at San Francisco's War Memorial Opera House proved to be a climactic experience. It marked the Northern California Premiere of the work which had its World Premiere in 2000 with the Hamburg Ballet -- where John has been the Artistic Director...

Conductor Pablo Heras-Casado returns to San Francisco Symphony this week for four performances beginning Thursday, Feb. 14 through Sunday, Feb. 17. The program begins with the West Coast premiere of Magnus Lindberg's EXPO, a piece that was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic and which opened the orchestra's...

San Francisco's most enticing and provocative film festival, NOIR CITY opened its 11th season on Friday night at the city's celebrated movie palace, the Castro Theatre. First on the roster of the festival's 27 films was Gun Crazy (1950), which stands alone among classic Noir. Following the screening, the film's...

Opera fans love real-time drama, too -- a favorite episode being The Last-Minute Replacement. San Francisco Opera is presenting Puccini's Tosca as the final offering in what has been an artistically dazzling season. The production has been double-cast and features two beloved sopranos in the title role -- Angela Gheorghiu...

Grammy Award-winning operatic superstar Joyce DiDonato is caught up in a fiery 18th-century whirlwind since the November release of her CD, Drama Queens. With Alan Curtis directing the ensemble of Il Complesso Barocco, the thirteen tracks include the white-hot arias of over-the-top femme fatales, sorceresses and really angry Queens. The...

Luis Valdez -- film director, writer, playwright and founder of El Teatro Campesino -- will be appearing at Davies Hall in San Francisco on Saturday, November 3rd in the annual concert celebrating Día de los Muertos. Conductor Donato Cabrera will lead the SF Symphony Youth Orchestra...

On Sunday afternoon, October 21st, world renowned pianist András Schiff returns to San Francisco's Davies Symphony Hall to play Book II of Johann Sebastian Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier. The concert is part of Mr. Schiff's 2012/13 residency as a Project San Francisco Artist and in conjunction with his...

Moby-Dick, by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer, opens at San Francisco Opera on Wednesday, October 10th and runs for eight performances through Friday, November 2nd. The production is directed by Leonard Foglia, a member of the original team since the opera's 2010 debut in Dallas, and...

San Francisco Opera opened its 2012-13 season this month with Verdi's Rigoletto. Conducted by Music Director Nicola Luisotti, the final performances on Tuesday, Sept. 25 and Sunday, Sept. 30 will feature Marco Vratogna in the title role, Albina Shagimuratova as Gilda, and Arturo Chacón-Cruz as the Duke of...

The San Francisco Symphony's Centennial Gala Opening happens on Wednesday, September 19. Featuring Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas, the SF Symphony and special guest violinist Joshua Bell, the celebration honors Marcia Goldman and SFS President John Goldman. A native San Franciscan, Mr. Goldman has served as president of...

The 2012 San Francisco Opera Season opened this past Friday night with Giuseppi Verdi's Rigoletto. In the title role was Serbian baritone Željko Lučić and making their SF Opera debuts were Polish soprano Aleksandra Kurzak as "Gilda" and Serbian tenor Francesco Demuro as "The Duke of Mantua." This...

For jazz vocalist Nicole Henry, the story has indeed been written. She is the genuine article, the dream at last come true, the pretty girl in the melody that haunts you -- night and day. Since her 2004 debut CD, The Nearness of You, Nicole Henry has been...

"WIFE K.O'S LOVE THIEF" reads the headlines of the New York Dispatch. "Society Matron Mauls Girl from the Wrong Side of Park Avenue".

The story was a scorcher. Until now, some women living outside the elite boundaries of Park and 5th believed the well-situated Mary Haines to be nothing more...

This month marks the 90th anniversary of the Castro Theatre, San Francisco's last fully functioning movie palace. With its towering and pulsating neon sign, the theatre is in the heart of one of the easiest recognized and most visited neighborhoods in the world. To honor the occasion, film...

The San Francisco Symphony is about to go way over the rainbow this Thursday and Friday as it accompanies a screening of the 1939 M.G.M. classic, The Wizard of Oz. Conductor Michael Francis will lead the orchestra throughout the entire film -- a technological and artistic challenge that included removing...

The morning after the marriage of the Dauphin of France to 14-and-a-half-year-old Marie Antoinette, the tongues began wagging about the sex life of the future Queen of France. Her job was to provide France with an heir. The topmost attendant to the Royal Sheets was the first to lay eyes...