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From classic movies with live music to new tunes from Vampire Weekend and a Grateful Dead Celtic band, there’s a lot to see and hear this weekend in the Bay Area.
Here’s a partial rundown.
Classical picks: Hitchcock + orchestra; New Century
This week’s events light up the classical music scene with an iconic film score, a symphony at the opera, and a tribute to the seasons.
Halloween-appropriate: Scary enough? It has to be, when the San Francisco Symphony’s “Film with Live Orchestra” series presents Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo,” featuring composer Bernard Herrmann’s brilliantly spooky score. With the film on the big screen, conductor Conner Gray Covington will lead the orchestra in a live performance of the spine-tingling music. Come early to see the Symphony’s latest Art Installation, “Dia de los Muertos,” for a pre-show treat.
Details: 7:30 p.m. Oct. 30; Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco; $109-$249; sfsymphony.org.
Symphony at the Opera: Since the start of fall, San Francisco Opera has brought dazzling productions to the stage; now, with “Parsifal” up and running and “The Monkey King” still to come, the company is presenting a concert conducted by company Music Director Eun Sun Kim. This one-night-only event features mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack singing works by Manuel de Falla; Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony completes the 90-minute program.
Details: 7:30 p.m. Nov. 1; War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco; $29-$250; sfopera.com.
New Century, new “Seasons”: The New Century Chamber Orchestra starts the fall season with Vivaldi’s beloved “Four Seasons,” along with works by Dvorak and Bulgarian composer Dobrinka Tabakova; conducted by company music director Daniel Hope, four performances are on the schedule.
Details: 7:30 p.m. Oct. 30 at First Church UCC, Berkeley; 7:30 Oct. 31 at Empress Theatre, Vallejo; 7:30 p.m. Nov. 1 at Herbst Theatre, San Francisco; and 2 p.m. Nov. 2 at Osher Marin JCC, San Rafael; tickets $35-up; ncco.org.
— Georgia Rowe, Correspondent
More movies and music
Fans of classic silent films can catch two of them — “Phantom of the Opera” and “Nosferatu” — at Grace Cathedral this weekend. But the real star of the events won’t be on the screen but seated at Grace Cathedral’s famed 7,500-pipe Aeolian-Skinner organ, which has been a key facet of the church since it was installed in 1934. The organ will be played by musician Dorothy Papadakos, who started out as a jazz pianist in her native Reno and has evolved into a world-renowned organ player, thanks in part to her long stint as organist at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York as well as her Grammy-winning stint with the Paul Winter Consort (their live album “Silver Solstice” remains a New Age/ambient classic).
Papadakos is, among other things, considered a talented improviser, which will come in hand in these gigs. She’ll accompany the 1925 silent version of “Phantom of the Opera” starring Lon Chaney, at 8 p.m. Oct. 30, and the 1922 version of “Nosferatu” — a film that was once ordered destroyed because it was deemed to be an unauthorized adaptation (read: ripoff) of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” — at 8 p.m. Oct. 31. The church — which is a San Francisco landmark and always worth a visit — is at Taylor and California streets in San Francisco. Tickets are $34.50-$44.50; go to www.sfjazz.org.
— Bay City News Foundation
Cool shows, great album
In late October of last year, Vampire Weekend performed two memorable sold-out shows — an evening gig, followed the very next day by a matinee performance — at the legendary Madison Square Garden in New York City. The shows included many longtime Vampire Weekend fan favorites, of course, such as “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa,” “A-Punk” and “Oxford Comma.”
Yet, the NYC-born indie-pop act — led by vocalist-lyricist-guitarist Ezra Koenig — also performed a wonderful assortment of cover songs during those two shows. The list includes a number of Big Apple-appropriate tunes, such as the easily recognizable “Seinfeld Theme,” the Frank Sinatra favorite “Theme From New York, New York,” the Ramones’ blistering “Blitzkrieg Bop” and Billy Joel’s classic “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant,” the latter of which was reportedly performed with a candlelit table and waiter in a tux on the Garden stage.
Other cuts to make the Vampire Weekend setlist were The Killers’ “Mr. Brightside,” Talking Heads’ “Burning Down the House,” The Surfaris’ “Wipe Out,” Kate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights” and Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys Are Back in Town.”
Now all VW fans can experience the shows thanks to “Weekend at the Garden,” a limited edition double-LP recorded during that epic NYC stand. The offering, which includes portions of the two performances rather than the complete shows, is part of the band’s Frog on the Bass Drum vinyl series.
Details: Vinyl sets start at $40; frogonthebassdrum.com.
— Jim Harrington, Staff
Pop-up theater brings scares to Bay Area
This Halloween, you can see a scary movie in your local AMC theater. Or you can watch one as perhaps it was meant to be watched: In a dark warehouse full of horrific decor, where it feels like zombies could break down the door any minute.
The Shaker Theater is a new underground pop-up cinema in a residential part of northern Oakland. For its inaugural run, it’s been playing George Romero’s 1968 “Night of the Living Dead” during October, with final runs up until Halloween evening. It’s the uncensored, 96-minute original preserved on real celluloid. There will be popcorn and soda and, for more fun, before the movie the theater is playing clips from its “deep archives of rare and bizarre material.” Think Halloween safety films, forgotten trailers and classic monster-movie moments.
To get into the screening, visitors must first navigate a “Corridor of Horror” designed by local artist Rob Vertigo. Picture a classic haunted house, but turned into spooky-maze form. Did your group just lose a member? It’s probably nothing to worry about, they’re no doubt right behind you …. Wait, that’s not Chad! (Screams.)
Details: Preshow begins at 6:30 p.m. and movie starts at 8 p.m.; 950 54th St., Oakland; $18 online or $20 at the door; instagram.com/shakertheater.
— John Metcalfe, Staff
Freebie of the week
We tend to think of great film experiences as those that expose us to brilliant camerawork, incisive dialogue, or a poignant or hilarious reflection on the world at large. But let’s not forget the joys that await us at the other end of the spectrum. There is nothing quite like experiencing a truly terrible film with a room full of gleefully derisive bad-movie fans. There’s a reason why “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes” spawned three sequels and too many spoofs and homages to count, and it wasn’t John K. Culley’s nuanced cinematography. Halloween, it seems, is a favorite time to indulge in bad-movie bliss, probably because violent mutant vegetables and irritable aliens fit most comfortably in the horror genre.
And so it is that this week delivers the opportunity to view one of the most glorious and beloved bad movies of all time, “Robot Monster.” The film, in case the clever title doesn’t make it obvious, is about an alien robot sent to destroy Earth but who defies its orders when it saves an imperiled woman from certain death. The 1953 film took four days and $20,000 to make, $4,000 of which was spent on incorporating 3D technology. One of the stars was cast because he already owned a gorilla suit and therefore didn’t need to be costumed. So, yeah, this was not an extravagant production. Yet, it grossed $1 million in its first year and has gone on to be a favorite among those who revel in the wonders of wretched filmmaking. If such a buffet of bad moviemaking – in 3D!! – is your thing, “Robot Monster” will screen at 6 p.m. Oct. 30 at the Internet Archive, 300 Funston Ave., San Francisco. The screening is free but if you feel like making a donation to the Internet Archive or co-presenter the Golden Gate Stereoscopic Society — both of which are dedicated to preserving humankind’s digital history — certainly no one would hold it against you.
Details: More information is at ggstereo.org.
— Bay City News Foundation
A classic musical marriage
When you think about it, Wake the Dead would be a tremendous name for a screeching-loud punk band or maybe a Goth band. But the real Wake the Dead is neither of those things. It is a collection of very talented Bay Area musicians merging two of their musical passions – Grateful Dead classics and Irish/Celtic music. The name is certainly appropriate, as it references the Dead as well as Irish wakes, which are known to be deeply heartfelt and celebratory affairs. The moniker also mirrors the title of the Dead’s 1973 album “Wake of the Flood,” the first recording the band released acting as its own label. Adding to the plays on words, the band’s annual gig at the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley celebrates the Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos), the holiday widely observed in Mexico, in which family members and friends gather to honor loved ones who have passed away.
If all this is simply too much to ponder, just know that Wake the Dead will, per tradition, return to the Freight & Salvage on Nov. 1 to perform a Day of the Dead-themed show at which you are likely to hear high-energy Celtic takes on such Dead classics as “China Cat Sunflower” and “Eyes of the World.”
Details: The show begins at 8 p.m.; tickets are $26.50-$44; or you can livestream the show for $25; more information is at thefreight.org.
— Bay City News Foundation
Celebrating Día de los Muertos
The skeletons are dangling from the windows and looming merrily overhead the staircase in the festive lobby of Davies Hall, as the San Francisco Symphony gears up at 3 p.m. Nov. 1 to mount its 18th annual celebration of the Day of the Dead, the joyous Mexican tradition held to pay love and respect to ancestors who have passed on. The centerpiece of the festivities is a symphony concert, but multiple preconcert family-friendly activities are planned in the lobby and upper floors, including marigold flower making, offering-altar installations, a mariachi instrument petting zoo, sugar skull decorating and costumed dancers from Casa Círculo Cultural. The Symphony, conducted by Lina González-Granados, will perform traditional and contemporary Latin American music associated with the holiday, including Gabriela Ortiz’s “Kauyumari,” selections from Arturo Márquez’s “Espejos en la Arena,” the Intermezzo from Ricardo Castro’s “Atzimba” opera, Paul Desenne’s “Hipnosis Mariposa,” Jimmy Lopez’s “Loud,” Márquez’s popular Danzón No. 2 and Gabriela Lena Frank’s “The Mestizo Waltz.”
Details: Tickets, which are 50 percent off for those under 18, range from $27.50-$175; go to www.sfsymphony.org.
— Bay City News Foundation
An orchestral showcase
The San Francisco Opera takes a breather from its usual regimen of presenting full-fledged and lavish operatic productions to let Music Director Eun Sun Kim shine a solo spotlight on her instrumentalists in a single night concert of music by Ludwig van Beethoven and Manuel de Falla at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 1 in War Memorial Opera House. The program opens with “Siete Canciones Populares Españolas,” a set of songs inspired by de Falla’s home country of Spain, sung by mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack, and continues with the second orchestral suite from the same composer’s ballet “El Sombrero de Tres Picos” (“The Three-Cornered Hat”). Following the intermission, the concert will conclude with Beethoven’s mighty Fifth Symphony. Tickets, $29-$250, can be purchased through www.sfopera.com.
— Bay City News Foundation
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Randy McMullen
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