Wednesday night: Dandeline at the Hemlock Tavern. I found Dan lying on stage, not asleep as it first appeared, merely staring up at an amber light. He confessed to being a bit tired, and when Sheila arrived (ever more beautifully pregnant) she confessed to being a bit sick. The obligatory sick and tired joke was made from onstage, but not before Dan played the Ink Spots' "We Three (My Echo, My Shadow and Me)" while he was waiting for Sheila to get a glass of water. The sound at the Tavern was atrocious (Sheila's fiddle was often lost entirely and her cello was far too boomy), but Dandeline just keep getting better every time I see them. Tonight they threw in a lovely Irish fiddle piece as well as the cover of the Who's "Tattoo" that I heard them play at Du Nord a couple weeks ago. It would have been great to stay to hear Loretta Lynch, but Aimee and I bowed our sleepy heads in shame and snuck on out.

Thursday night: Meeting Messiaen. An audio-visual introduction to the world of Olivier Messaien, moderated by Dr. Charles Barber, at SFMOMA. The SF Opera is currently staging the American premiere of Messiaen's Saint François d'Assise, and this evening was ostensibly a way to get to know Messiaen, his music, and those influenced by his work. It turned out to be an amazing show all by itself. I marvelled at the sounds of Australia's lyrebird, captured by artist Kurt Brereton, and I was nearly moved to tears by the sounds of an Ondes Martenot as played by Mary Chun. Morton Subotnick allowed his music to get thrillingly loud, and John Zorn kicked Barber off the stage in the middle of his introduction before setting his gorgeous "Duras" in motion.

Sunday afternoon: Ariadne auf Naxos at the Opera House. If I omit from my memory the parts where I got stuck in Folsom Street Fair traffic both coming and going, this was a pleasant afternoon at the opera, my first full-length performance since I saw Il Trovatore in high school. I thoroughly enjoyed the first half, where Strauss reveals the machinations taking place behind the scenes of the performance of Ariadne, complete with fussy stars, a composer with a decidedly artistic temperament, and a fickle patron. The opera itself in the second half did not impress me as much, though Deborah Voigt sang a lovely Ariadne and Laura Claycomb did incredible things with her voice as Zerbinetta (and neatly caught her flowers with one hand during her bow). I enjoyed the stage design throughout, especially how they made no attempt to hide the prop and set work being done during the opera-within-the-opera, giving the whole thing a "behind-the-scenes" feel. More than anything the opera made me think of how often women get screwed over in mythology. Ariadne saved Theseus's life and then he just left her on that desert island when he got tired of her. That jerk.

Hemlock Tavern
San Francisco Opera