{"id":239927,"date":"2026-03-27T22:48:23","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T22:48:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/239927\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T22:48:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T22:48:23","slug":"best-bets-sf-ballets-don-quixote-organ-with-oakland-symphony-phillipe-jordan-at-sf-symphony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/239927\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Bets: SF Ballet\u2019s \u2018Don Quixote,\u2019 organ with Oakland Symphony, Phillipe Jordan at SF Symphony"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dazzling Don Q<\/p>\n

San Francisco Ballet is amid a run of \u201cDon Quixote,\u201d a show that dance lovers\u00a0won\u2019t\u00a0want to miss. The full-length work based on Miguel de Cervantes\u2019 classic 17th century novel about the adventures of a dreaming, bumbling\u00a0nobleman\u00a0(has anybody read it lately?) is a blast from start to finish. Based on original choreography by Alexander Gorsky and Marius Petipa with additions by Helgi Tomasson and Yuri\u00a0Possokhov,\u00a0and set to a bouncy score by Ludwig Minkus, this engaging \u201cDon Q\u201d has flying dancers and comic action, not to mention colorful swirling costumes, a set that captures sunny Spain and some real horses! <\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s performance featured Nathaniel Remez in the title role and Pascal Molat as his sidekick Sancho Panza, and, best yet,\u00a0Sasha De Sola and Joshua Jack Price, dazzling as lovers Kitri and Basilio,\u00a0making the technically demanding choreography look easy. Also notable on Tuesday: Fernando\u00a0Carratal\u00e1\u00a0Coloma as matador Espada; Jasmine Jimison as his partner Mercedes; and Jihyun Choi and\u00a0Seojeong\u00a0Yun as Kitri\u2019s\u00a0pals. Martin West leads the always excellent orchestra; performances continue at the War\u00a0Memorial\u00a0Opera House in San Francisco through Sunday. <\/p>\n

Tickets are $65 to $575; rush tickets, $35 to $99, also\u00a0may be\u00a0available. Visit\u00a0sfballet.org<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Freebies of the week<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s\u00a0clear up one thing now about the free monthly ocean-themed speaker series titled \u201cOcean\u00a0Hoptimism.\u201d\u00a0\u201cHoptimism\u201d does refer to the fact that locally brewed craft beers are quaffed during the presentations, but the working theme\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0\u201cHoly mackerel, the oceans are so messed up we have to drown ourselves in\u00a0brewskies\u00a0just to talk about it!\u201d\u00a0Audience members\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0even\u00a0have to\u00a0have\u00a0a beer,\u00a0though the event is held at a brewery. And furthermore, the theme of the gathering is\u00a0positive:\u00a0\u201cWhile it\u2019s easy to get lost in the doom and gloom of environmental challenges,\u201d the group says on its website, \u201cwe choose a different approach \u2014\u00a0resilient optimism<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Presentations are about\u00a0efforts being made to preserve the ocean environment,\u00a0or\u00a0people with\u00a0a particular, even\u00a0peculiar, attachment to the sea. On Thursday, the group welcomes Bay Area filmmaker, diver,\u00a0researcher\u00a0and storyteller Steve\u00a0Peletz, who will discuss his short film \u201cLands\u00a0End,\u201d a look at a diehard group of swimmers who take on the 51-degree waters off the scenic\u00a0Lands\u00a0End park in northwest San Francisco. <\/p>\n

The gathering is at 7 p.m. Thursday at Faction Brewing, 2501 Monarch St., Alameda.\u00a0We\u2019d\u00a0say the stunning scenery at the site is worth the price of admission, but there is no\u00a0admission.\u00a0More information is at\u00a0www.oceanhoptimism.org<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Charity Kahn and her band Charity and the JAMBand perform at a free Golden Gate Park kids concert on March 28 in San Francisco. (Charity Kahn via Bay City News)<\/p>\n

The Golden Gate Park Bandshell free concert season is up and running. The shows\u00a0boast a fun, laid-back vibe\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0generally family-friendly, even if the performers are delivering tunes aimed at adults. This weekend,\u00a0though, serves up\u00a0Bay Area performers who have made it their mission to make kids dance and smile.<\/p>\n

Opening the Kids Festival concert at 10 a.m. Saturday is Charity and the\u00a0JAMband, led by Charity Kahn, who\u00a0says of her\u00a0music:\u00a0\u201cJAM is about making sounds and songs and hooting and hollering and belly laughing and shimmying and swaying and running and jumping and jiving and bouncing and breathing with people you love!\u201d <\/p>\n

The bill also features\u00a0Teacher Barb and Friends, fronted by Barbara Murphy, who grew up listening to her mother play classical piano and decided at an early age she wanted to perform music that makes people feel better. She\u00a0honed\u00a0her style\u00a0during a trip to Ireland when she was 19,\u00a0and a later stint at the Blue Bear School of Music in San Francisco.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The free show runs 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.\u00a0Saturday\u00a0at the bandshell; more information is at\u00a0sfrecpark.org\/1570\/Golden-Gate-Bandshell-Concerts<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

An organ extravaganza<\/p>\n

\"\"Brian Raphael Nabors (Damion Haines via Bay City News)<\/p>\n

Both the Hammond B-3 organ, beloved by jazz and blues musicians everywhere, and the Paramount Theatre\u2019s vintage 1931 \u201cMighty Wurlitzer,\u201d designed to replicate the thunderous sounds of a full orchestra, will be rolled out for the Oakland Symphony\u2019s penultimate season concert at 8 p.m. Friday in the theater on Broadway. <\/p>\n

Brian\u00a0Raphael\u00a0Nabors\u2019 Hammond Concerto, which Oakland Symphony conductor Kedrick Armstrong, himself a B-3 musician, sought out specifically for this concert, will be performed by the composer. It\u2019s a three-movement piece which begins with \u201cRhapsody,\u201d\u00a0which\u00a0Nabors describes as a history of the many forms of American music; then\u00a0moves on to\u00a0\u201cThrenody,\u201d which\u00a0mourns the senseless violence and racial hatred that has afflicted our country;\u00a0and concludes with\u00a0\u201cFinale,\u201d which\u00a0he calls \u201cone large gospel break between the organ and the orchestra.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Also,\u00a0Jeremy Lenk, music director and organist at the Mission Dolores Basilica in San Francisco, steps up to the Wurlitzer to perform Camille Saint-Saens\u2019 1886 Symphony No. 3, \u201cOrgan.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The concert\u00a0opens with Clarice Assad\u2019s \u201cBai\u00e3o N\u2019 Blues\u201d from 2023. Find tickets, $25-$92, at\u00a0oaklandsymphony.org<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A fantastic symphonic program<\/p>\n

\"\"Philippe Jordan is guest conductor for the San Francisco Symphony\u2019s weekend series of performances of music by Debussy, Saint-Sa\u00ebns and Hector Berlioz. (Peter Mayr via Bay City News)<\/p>\n

San Francisco Symphony\u00a0patrons\u00a0can decide\u00a0this week\u00a0which part of composer Hector Berlioz\u2019s dramatic and groundbreaking \u201cSymphonie fantastique\u201d is more compelling: the concluding \u201cDream of a Witches\u2019 Sabbath\u201d fifth movement, with its shrieking E-flat clarinet playing a grotesque dance tune and its parody of the \u201cDies irae\u201d funereal chant, or the preceding \u201cMarch to the Scaffold\u201d movement, a terrifying, relentless drive to the death that ends with the sound of a head rolling from the guillotine. <\/p>\n

Guest conductor Phillipe Jordan, music director of the Vienna State Opera, brings\u00a0all that\u00a0to life in concerts that open with\u00a0the\u00a0much more soothing \u201cPrelude to the afternoon of a faun\u201d by Claude Debussy, and continue with\u00a0Camille Saint-Sa\u00ebns\u2019 Piano Concerto No. 5,\u00a0played by\u00a0the brilliant French artist Jean-Yves\u00a0Thibaudet\u00a0as soloist. <\/p>\n

Performance times in San Francisco\u2019s Davies Hall are Thursday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Tickets, $30-$199, can be found at\u00a0sfsymphony.org.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

The post Best Bets: SF Ballet\u2019s \u2018Don Quixote,\u2019 \u2018Ocean Hoptimism,\u2019 GG Park kids\u2019 concert, organ with Oakland Symphony, Phillipe Jordan at SF Symphony<\/a> appeared first on Local News Matters<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dazzling Don Q San Francisco Ballet is amid a run of \u201cDon Quixote,\u201d a show that dance lovers\u00a0won\u2019t\u00a0want…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-239927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}