Cal Performances sets 2018-19 lineup
A commissioned world premiere by Berkeley composer Jimmy López and librettist Nilo Cruz titled “Dreamer,” the West Coast debut of conductor Daniel Barenboim’s West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, a musical program by Jordi Savall tracing the routes of slavery, and politically charged theatrical productions from Germany and Britain are among the thematically linked offerings in Cal Performances’ 2018-19 season.
The season, which will run from Sept. 23 through June 2, 2019, is the last one to be overseen by Executive Director and Artistic Director Matías Tarnopolsky before he leaves the Bay Area this summer to become president and CEO of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
The season is arranged around two thematic rubrics, part of the 4-year-old programming initiative called Berkeley Radical.
“Citizenship” will include director Thomas Ostmeier’s production of Ibsen’s “An Enemy of the People” from Berlin’s Schaubühne theater and “Barber Shop Chronicles” by the Nigerian-British poet and playwright Inua Ellams. A collection of programs titled “Women’s Work” will throw the spotlight on such female artists as choreographer Sasha Waltz, theater artists Annie-B Parson and the Quote Unquote Collective (Amy Nostbakken and Norah Sadava), vocalist Aida Cuevas, and violinist Nicola Benedetti.
Among the other season offerings are “Pepperland,” choreographer Mark Morris’ 50thanniversary tribute to the Beatles’ landmark “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”; a weekend residency by conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen and London’s Philharmonia Orchestra; a duo recital by pianists Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Tamara Stefanovich; and two complete traversals of Bach’s Cello Suites, by Yo-Yo Ma (Sept. 30) and Alisa Weilerstein (May 1).
Peter Sellars’ staged production of Orlando di Lasso’s “Lagrime di San Pietro” (“Tears of Saint Peter”), performed by the Los Angeles Master Chorale, will have its West Coast premiere. Wynton Marsalis will lead the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in a celebration of Duke Ellington with special guest Jon Batiste. Eifman Ballet will unveil a new production of “Pygmalion.”
Full details of the 2018-19 season are at www.calperformances.org. Joshua Kosman is The San Francisco Chronicle’s music critic. Email: jkosman@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JoshuaKosman