Features

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Feature

Comedy and Its Other

Stephanie Friedman - April 7, 2009
Being funny, it seems, is serious business. Many years ago, I prepared an audition piece for a critique by an acting coach. My tastes in selecting arias and songs ran to the lugubrious, and someone suggested Dinah’s aria from Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti. As I was singing it for my coach, I noticed she was laughing her head off.
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Music News: April 7, 2009

Janos Gereben - April 7, 2009

Carneiro's Debut Season in Berkeley

In her first season as music director of the Berkeley Symphony Joana Carneiro will not only uphold the Kent Nagano tradition of championing new music, she will go one better than the orchestra's former music director (who often featured music from Berlin and London), by providing mor

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Music News: March 31, 2009

Janos Gereben - March 31, 2009

They Came to Play

As luck would have it, the first four items of today's column share a fascinating subject: musical contests.

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Behind the Mystique: Kurt Weill and 1920s Berlin

Jessica Balik - March 31, 2009
The composer Kurt Weill and the city of Berlin are often mentioned in the same breath. Both the composer and the city are icons of the Weimar Republic, the name given to Germany’s government between 1919 and 1933.
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Raising Prodigies in Marin

Janos Gereben - March 24, 2009

San Domenico School’s Virtuoso Program, which will travel from its San Anselmo home to San Francisco for a showcase program here on March 29, goes back to Venetian girls’ orphanages in the 17th century. That, at least, is what the program’s founder, Faith France, told me many years ago.

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Music News: March 24, 2009

Janos Gereben - March 24, 2009

Gaffigan: Putting It Together

James Gaffigan

When James Gaffigan makes his last subscription-concert appearances with the

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Music News: March 17, 2009

Janos Gereben - March 17, 2009

West Bay Opera Marches On, 'Shooting Freely'

Understandably enough, even the more adventurous opera companies are cutting back on expenses ... and adventure.
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Music News: March 10, 2009

Janos Gereben - March 10, 2009

Where There Is a Will, There Is Festival del Sole

When IMG Artists owner/chairman Barrett Wissman — whose stable of artists includes Hilary Hahn, Joshua Bell, Julia Fischer, Renée Fleming, Thomas Hampson, Evgeny Kissin, Murray Perahia, Antonio Pappano, Vladimi

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Choral Singing: Chicken Soup for the Soul

Chelsea Nicole Spangler - March 10, 2009
What do an archaeologist, a lawyer, and a black belt in jujitsu have in common? They may sound like the beginning of a bad joke, but in reality they're a sampling of the Bay Area's choristers.
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The Interpretation of Tales

Lisa Houston - March 3, 2009

It is a season for anniversaries at Berkeley Opera. This year is the company’s 30th season, which will be celebrated at a star-studded gala on March 29, featuring soprano Ruth Ann Swenson.