Yes, you can still enjoy the arts.
Yes, you can get an arts fix at home
Theaters, concert halls and museums throughout the Bay Area and around the globe have gone dark, as efforts to slow down the spread of the coronavirus intensify. But that doesn’t mean you can’t get an arts fix while you shelter at home. Music and theater performances, virtual museum tours and more are available for streaming online. The options are almost endless. We’re offering a roundup here, and of course, you can do your own fishing. Many artists, especially musicians releasing new songs and albums, are finding ways to showcase their material. Like Neil Young, who’s performing concerts from his home at neilyoungarchives.com, many artists are streaming live performances. Check out your favorite artist on their website, Instagram or Facebook page or YouTube account to find out what they’re up to. Note that software/internet demands for streaming content varies by site, and the results you get on your platform — desktop, laptop, smartphone or tablet — may not be to your satisfaction. Nothing replaces a live performance. Lastly, on behalf of all the arts companies that have brought us so much joy and excitement over the years: With venues closed for the time being, arts companies are taking a big financial hit. If you want to help, go to your favorite company’s website and make a donation.
Music SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY >>
The orchestra is offering two of its popular programs online. “Keeping Score,” a top-notch TV/video documentary series exploring various classical composers and genres, features narration from Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas and lots of symphony performance footage. San Francisco Symphony is making all the episodes available for free in a series of YouTube releases. The orchestra is also posting an assortment of its concert footage as part of its “Join the Season” program. Go to www.sfsymphony.org, click on the “Discover the Music” section, then drag down to “SFS Media.”
METROPOLITAN OPERA >>
There might be something incongruous about the idea of watching something as big, opulent and, well, operatic as an opera on your phone. But it can be done. You can also watch opera performances on a variety of other devices, and New York City’s preeminent opera company has just added to your options in a big way. The Met is serving up — for free — a different performance from its Live in HD series every day. A new production is posted on the opera’s website, www.metopera.org, daily at 7:30 p.m. EDT and remains there for 23 hours until the next selection appears. This week, for example, is serving up a whole lot of Wagner, including portions of the famed Ring cycle.
MORE OPERA >>
Operavision offers an extensive collection of opera performances for free online at operavision.eu.
BERLIN PHILHARMONIC >>
The orchestra is offering concert selections and livestreams from its extensive collection, and if you register by Tuesday (use the code BERLINPHIL) all the content will be free for 30 days. Go to www.digitalconcerthall.com.
FRED HERSCH >>
The sublime New York jazz pianist has started performing daily miniconcerts from his living room and says he intends to continue as long as New York’s home-sheltering situation lasts. You can catch the shows live at 1 p.m. EDT daily at www.facebook.com/fredherschmusic. If you can’t tune in then, he leaves a video of that day’s performance on his Facebook page.
TINY DESK >>
If you’re not familiar with the wonderful NPR series — which finds artists ranging from Harry Styles to Jenny Lewis, Coldplay and Tom Jones and many more performing in a tiny office with a minimum of accoutrements — it is entirely worth checking out. This is the same series where Oakland’s Fantastic Negrito got a huge career boost with his winning performance. The surprises here are many and the rewards are plenty. NPR makes an extensive library of the roughly 18- to 20-minute performances available on its website. (Yes, Fantastic Negrito’s performance is there; search for it under his name.) Go to www.npr.org/series/tiny-desk-concerts.
Theater THEATREWORKS SILICON VALLEY >>
The Tony Award-winning Palo Alto-based theater company is offering a streaming version of its recently coronavirus-canceled production, “They Promised Her the Moon,” available on its website, www.theatreworks.org. Ticket holders can access the production for free (they will be contacted by the company with instructions) through April 12. Online ticket sales for the production ended this week at www. theatreworks.org. The show details the life and career of Jerrie Cobb, a groundbreaking 20th-century aviator.
AMERICAN CONSERVATORY THEATER >>
The San Francisco company is offering online versions of its two recently canceled productions — the baseball bioplay “Toni Stone” and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ shocking and provocative “Gloria” — for streaming through April 5. Each show costs $15$100 to stream (those who purchased tickets before the cancellations get free access). Details and links to the streaming shows are at www.act-sf.org. “Toni Stone’ is Lydia R. Diamond’s world premiere play about the titular trailblazing athlete, who was one of the first women to play professional baseball. “Gloria” is a dark (as in really dark) comedy about what happens to a group of malcontent office workers when something really terrible happens in the office.
BROADWAY HD >>
The theater streaming service (with which both American Conservatory Theater and Berkeley Repertory Theatre contracted for its recent streaming offers) features scores of Broadway productions of plays and musicals for $8.99 a month or $99.99 (you can take the service for a free one-week trial spin). Go to www.broadwayhd.com.
Museums SFMOMA >>
San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art is, like other fine arts institutions, closed for the time being but is offering photos and videos on its website as well as its Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. It’s also part of a global drive by museums to keep art lovers interested in and looking at a wide variety of works. Go to Google and follow the hashtag #MuseumFromHome.
GOOGLE >>
Check out Google Arts & Culture and you’ll find a staggering array of museum tours, presentations on famous works, architecture tours and much more. You can lose a whole day just scrolling through this stuff. Also, lots of famous museums, from the British Museum in London and the Guggenheim in New York to the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh museums in Amsterdam, offer virtual tours on their own sites.
Books
Amazon’s Audible books branch has made scores of its audible book offerings available for free streaming, including “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” (narrated by Scarlett Johansson), “Jane Eyre” (narrated by Thandie Newton) and “MobyDick” (narrated by Anthony Heald). Go to stories.audible.com.