San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Classical
There won’t be any live opera performances or orchestral concerts this summer, and chamber music will be scarce at best. The reasons are all too wellknown by this point.
But the Bay Area’s classical organizations aren’t falling silent; they’re just moving to the internet. The familiar summer festivals are largely occupying their traditional calendar slots, and a few have found innovative ways to keep the music alive during the pandemic.
In the absence of actual musical performances, we can at least soak up the wisdom of experienced artistic hands — the same wisdom that the young artists of the Merola Opera Program would be benefiting from if they were here.
Merola is offering a weekly series of online enrichment programs featuring conversations between director Sheri Greenawald and mezzosoprano Susan Graham (July 8), director Francesca Zambello (July 16), actordirector David Garrison (July 23), and music director designate Eun Sun Kim and artistic managing director Gregory Henkel (July 30).
4 p.m. July 830. Free. www.merola.org
“Celebrating the Summer Season” features solo performances and conversations with the artists associated with the company’s planned offerings. Guests include sopranos Michelle Bradley and Louise Alder, mezzosoprano Sasha Cooke, countertenor Jakub Józef Orlinski, tenor Russell Thomas, and composer Mason Bates, with general director Matthew Shilvock as host.
7:30 p.m.July 10. Free. www.sfopera.com
The company is responding to the pandemic by building a new performance and film space that will allow it to stream highquality musical events from its own headquarters. The inaugural event is a recital of Schumann’s song cycle “Dichterliebe,” featuring baritone Eugene Brancoveanu, a resident artist, accompanied by pianist Christopher Ray.
July 11. $15$50 (pay what you choose). www.operasj.org
The venerable Peninsula chamber festival is shifting its focus online with “Intermezzo,” a selection of livestreamed musical events, conversations and educational offerings.
Among the featured artists are pianist Gilles Vonsattel, baritone Nikolay Borchev and cellist Nicholas Canellakis.
July 17Aug. 18. Free. www.musicat menlo.org
For live music during a shutdown, you can hardly do better than chamber music. The North Bay festival is forging ahead with a full program of livestreamed performances featuring no more than two or three musicians at a time, cannily distanced as necessary.
The program, available at 4 p.m. each Saturday and Sunday, celebrates the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth.
July 18Aug. 2. Free. www.valleyofthe moonmusicfestival.org
The online incarnation of this year’s festival with music director Cristian Macelaru includes the world premiere of “The Battle for the Ballot,” composer Stacy Garrop’s centennial celebration of women’s suffrage in America.
The twoweek festival also features livestreamed performances by mezzosoprano Sasha Cooke, composerpianist Jake Heggie and Quartet San Francisco, as well as recordings of music by Kristin Kuster, Lou Harrison, Anna Clyne and David T. Little.
July 25Aug. 9. Free. www.cabrillo music.org
A collaboration between the San Francisco International Piano Festival and Lieder Alive promises to probe the possibilities of live performance on a managed scale.
Mezzosoprano Kindra Scharich and pianist Jeffrey LaDeur collaborate on a program of music by Schubert; the event will be livestreamed and also performed for a small ticketed audience, if that’s feasible.
7:30 p.m. Aug. 20. Noe Valley Ministry, 1021 Sanchez St., S.F. www.sfpiano.org
Joshua Kosman is The San Francisco Chronicle’s music critic. Email: jkosman@ sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JoshuaKosman
for series. sffilm.org/yearroundprogram ming/2020hongkongcinema
Two years ago, the Cine+Más SF / San Francisco Latino Film Festival and RoxCine screened a wonderful shorts program made up entirely of films documenting the changes in the vibrant and historic Mission District during a 20year period, from the dotcom boom to the present. All of the films were made by filmmakers who were either born in the Mission or live in the San Francisco neighborhood.
The program was among their most popular, so the Roxie Theater — the morethancenturyold Mission District treasure — is bringing back the shorts program for at least a week through its virtual cinema, with a live Q&A with filmmakers on July 15.
Begins streaming Friday, July 10. Suggested donation $5$20. www.roxie.com/ haveyouseenherlamision
Q&A with curators Sergio de la Mora and Vero Majano with selected filmmakers at 6 p.m. July 15 via the Roxie’s YouTube channel
In 2009, filmmaker Christopher Felver documented the rich life, cultural impact and legacy of beloved San Francisco poet, writer and bookstore owner Lawrence Ferlinghetti as he neared his 90th birthday. He’s now 101, living comfortably in North Beach, and the Smith Rafael Film Center is bringing back “Ferlinghetti: A Rebirth of Wonder” for streaming and a Q&A.
Begins streaming Friday, July 10. $11. Q&A with Felver in conversation with filmmaker Haydn Reiss at 7 p.m. next Sunday, July 12. rafaelfilm.cafilm.org/ ferlinghettirebirthofwonder
PBS has long been a supporter of independent and diverse filmmaking, and with its annual shortfilm festival, the American public broadcaster and television program distributor culls together 25 shorts in five categories: culture, environment, family, humanity and race.
This year, “How Turfing Became Synonymous with Oakland” is an entry in the culture category. Viewers are invited to vote for their favorite films for the Most Popular award, while a panel of seven industry members will select the Juried Prize.
July 1324. Free. Streams on PBS and station digital platforms, including PBS.org, KQED.org, YouTube and Facebook.
With the 40th San Francisco Jewish Film Festival canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, the folks at the Jewish Film Institute have programmed a fourday event unspooling online and at a drivein theater.
The openingnight film, Abby Ginzberg’s “Truth to Power: Barbara Lee Speaks to Me,” is scheduled to be screened July 16 at the West Wind DriveIn Theater, Concord. After that, it will all be online with not only films — such as San Francisco filmmaker Tiffany Shlain’s #ZoomChallahBake shorts; the 1919 landmark silent, “Broken Barriers” (a.k.a. “Khavah”); and the documentary “Unruly Women: Jewish Female Characters on Television” — but also interactive conversations, a filmmakerinresidence showcase and awards presentations.
July 1624. Schedule and pricing at jfi.org/summerdays
“Robert Bly: A Thousand Years of Joy” (2015) traced the poet’s life from Minnesota farm boy to antiVietnam War activist to spokesman for the Mythopoetic men’s movement. The Smith Rafael Film Center brings back the documentary on the now 93yearold icon for an extended online run, with a Q&A with director Haydn Reiss on July 19.
Begins streaming July 17. $11. Q&A with Haydn Reiss at 7 p.m. July 19. rafaelfilm. cafilm.org/robertblyhome
Here’s a fun little shortfilm festival. The Roxie Theater put out a call for Bay Area filmmakers (or wannabe auteurs) for their threeminuteorless takes on shelterinplace and received more than 100 submissions. The result is this mix curated by Rafael Casal (“Blindspotting”) and Jennifer Kroot that will stream online, followed by a Q&A with select filmmakers.
Festival and Q&A streams 6 p.m. July 23. Sliding scale; suggested donation $10. www.roxie.com/mixtapeinplace
Can’t say Rabbi Chaim Bruk doesn’t have a vision. The Brooklyn rabbi moves to Bozeman, Mont., to bring ChabadLubavitch, a brand of evangelical Hasidic Judaism, to the American West. Directors Amy Geller and Gerald Peary tell his story in the new documentary “The Rabbi Goes West,” which opens virtually on July 24. A Q&A with the rabbi himself is July 26.
Begins streaming July 24. $11. Q&A with Rabbi Chaim Bruk and directors Gerald Peary and Amy Geller at 5 p.m. July 26. rafaelfilm.cafilm.org/rabbigoeswest
G. Allen Johnson is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ajohnson@