Previews

The choral director, one of the best in the business, is busy with a brand-new organization, one with plenty of support that seems likely to become a strong artistic presence in the Bay Area community.

Up-and-coming Chinese baritone Ao Li, enjoying a success at S.F. Opera, readies for his salon performance.

Margaret Jenkins, whose troupe and work has been part of San Francisco’s DNA since the 1970s, presents four performances at the San Francisco JCC’s Kanbar Hall, Oct. 18–21, with dances from the company repertory as well as a preview of the new Time Bones, which she created with her eight dancers. Set to a score by Paul Dresher, it premieres in 2013 as part of the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company’s 40th anniversary season.

Many are familiar with Serge Prokofiev’s strikingly descriptive music for Serge Eisentstein’s film Alexander Nevsky. He also wrote equally expansive music, with vocal soloists and chorus, for another Eisenstein film extravaganza, Ivan the Terrible (1944)

The current revival tour, which began this year in France, heads to Italy, London, Toronto, and Brooklyn before reaching Berkeley. Catch this radical work while you can — you may not get another chance.

Given the fabulous reviews that composer Jake Heggie’s and librettist Gene Scheer’s latest opera has received in Dallas and San Diego, why wouldn’t you want to see the SFO premiere of this heralded work by our local-boy-made-good?

The Takacs String Quartet has long been among the elite of the elite, consistently cited as one of the top quartets in the world.

Bach's B-Minor Mass is for choral groups a little like a full marathon — you have to build up to it. And when you finally have mastered all the necessities for a successful presentation of the piece, you still need five good soloists and a strong orchestra.

Canadian soprano Karina Gauvin has made her mark in two contrasting art forms: Baroque repertoire, in which she excels in rapid-fire coloratura, and song, in which her gift for lyric expression comes to the fore.

British choreographer Russell Maliphant's evening-length After Light, a meditation on the artistry and influence of Vaslav Nijinsky, touches on Nijinsky’s role as one of classical ballet’s greatest dancers, as well as the breakaway invention of his hotly controversial Afternoon of a Faun.