Freebie of the week: Back in 2016, the opera world was set abuzz when Alma Deutscher, a British composer at the astonishingly young age of 11, had her opera “Cinderella” debut on stage in Vienna to glowing reviews. Opera San José gave the work its U.S. premiere in 2017 and then invited the former prodigy back last year for a revised production that included her own conducting debut.
That performance from the fall of 2022 is now being made available, thanks to the support of the Packard Humanities Institute, to see for free. Starring Natalia Santaliz as Cinderella and Joey Hammond-Lepek as her Prince, the opera depends not upon the perfect fit of a glass slipper for the successful matchup of its young lovers, but upon the completion of a melody of which the prince yearns to hear more. Beginning at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, the opera staged by Brad Dalton and performed in the opulent California Theatre with the 18-year-old composer on the podium will be available for live streaming. See operasj.org for more information. And check out a preliminary video excerpt here.
Palace intrigue, plus arias: That notorious Roman, Nero, has been fiddling around with Poppea, his scheming mistress, who has designs on uprooting his wife, Octavia, and taking her place as empress.
That’s the scenario as West Edge Opera kicks off its Festival 2023 this weekend, opening with a witty production of Claudio Monteverdi’s 1643 work “The Coronation of Poppea” at the Oakland Scottish Rite Center.
Soprano Shawnette Sulker takes the center stage, with Sarah Coit singing as Nero and Sara Couden filling the role of the luckless Octavia. Well-known Bay Area bass-baritone Philip Skinner is Seneca; music director Adam Pearl will conduct the 150-minute performance sung in Italian with English subtitles.
Performance time is 8 p.m. Saturday, with repeats at 3 p.m. July 30 and 8 p.m. Aug. 3. Find tickets, $10-$150, at westedgeopera.org.
Summer dances: Summer might not be the time of year most people associate with dance recitals, but ODC/Dance’s annual Summer Sampler is always something to look forward to. The event returns this week with a program that includes two world premieres and a repackaged version of an acclaimed site-specific work from last year.
The premieres are acclaimed Bay Area choreographer Sonya Delwaide’s “C’est frette!,” set to Mendelssohn’s String Quartet No. 6 in F minor, which she describes as a “playful nod to San Francisco’s famously cold summers” (this from a Quebec native!); and “Interconnected,” Dexandro Montalvo’s work about “the forces that bring people together or cause them to drift apart,” set to music by ambient composer Cliff Martinez.
Also on the bill is “May’s Letters,” by ODC/Dance associate choreographer Kimi Okada and company founding artistic director Brenda Way. The work premiered last year as a site-specific work in Alameda and is inspired by letters Okada’s mother wrote to her father while both were imprisoned with Japanese Americans during World War II.
Performances are 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday at ODC Theater, 3153 17th St., San Francisco. Tickets are $25-$100; go to odc.dance.
It’s a Mads world: If you’ve never seen the talented Denmark-born, Bay Area-based violinist and composer Mads Tolling at work, this week offers a chance that won’t cost you a dime.
Tolling, a two-time Grammy Award-winner, gained fame as part of jazz great Stanley Clarke’s band and as a member of the acclaimed Turtle Island String Quartet. He’s at home playing jazz, classical, Americana and pop music, or any mixture thereof, and has collaborated with artists ranging from Chick Corea to Leo Kotke to Bob Weir, among many others.
On Thursday, he brings his band Mads Tolling and the Mads Men to the Rudney Plaza at the Lesher Center in Walnut Creek as part of the venue’s Summer Sounds free outdoor concert series. Expect a lively and sharply delivered string of 1960s hits and theme songs, from “A Taste of Honey” to “Good Vibrations,” as the band showcases its latest release, “Playing the 60s.”
The free show runs 5:30-7 p.m. and no tickets are required. More information is at www.lesherartscenter.org.
Kinky and charismatic: As if the world needed another reason to love Cyndi Lauper. The singer-songwriter who makes a point of embracing all types of people and the quirkiest ruffles of society, and has a million-dollar voice to boot, also has a knack for writing fun musicals. We refer to “Kinky Boots,” the 2012 Broadway hit with music and lyrics by Lauper and a book by Harvey Fierstein (another noted worshiper of all things quirky) that celebrates the notion that profoundly different people—in this case, a factory owner, and a drag queen—can work together when the cause is important enough.
“Kinky Boots” was adapted from the 2005 film of the same name, which was inspired by the true story of a shoe factory that was headed for closure until the owner saved it by creating a line of fetish footwear for men. Rest assured, in the hardscrabble world of Britain’s blue collar factory workers, the phrase “fetish footwear for men” is rarely uttered. Despite some lackluster initial reviews, the musical struck box office gold and outperformed the favored “Matilda the Musical” at the 2013 Tony Awards.
Now it’s getting a production by City Lights Theater Company in San Jose, directed by Lisa Mallette and Mark Anderson Phillips. “Kinky Boots” is not meant to blow you away with brilliant plot twists or perfectly engineered precision; it’s intended to prompt smiles and toe-tapping with high-energy song-and-dance numbers and relentless good spirit. If you’re in the market for a good mood, “Kinky Boots” is a good fit.
The show runs through Aug. 20 at 529 S. Second St., San Jose. Tickets are $24-$58; go to cltc.org.