Freebie of the week: It’s summer, and free concerts are happening all over the Bay Area. But not all free concerts are the same. At some, there’s no admission cost, but you need a ticket to get in. Those who go to San Francisco’s Parkside District on Sunday to catch the groovy Los Angeles band Chicano Batman as part of the Stern Grove Festival, will find they need a ticket to get in, and that none are available (unless they buy a seat at one the pricey picnic tables). We’ve said this before and we’ll say it again: Always check an event’s website before going to the event. Sites should have information on how to get there, what you can bring in, what the parking and public transportation deals are and what kind of band is playing. There’s no point in catching a Van Halen cover band if you can’t stand Van Halen. That said, there’s a free show on Friday worth looking into. At the Point Richmond Music Summer Festival, the East Bay’s own Fantastic Negrito brings his high-octane and emotional brand of blues, R&B and soul to the stage. The artist has been on roll since reviving his stalled career in 2014, capturing NPR’s initial Tiny Desk Concert Contest and winning Grammy Awards for three consecutive albums. Fantastic Negrito performs at 5:30 p.m. Friday at Washington Avenue and Park Place in downtown Point Richmond. More information is at pointrichmondmusic.org.
Don’t rebuke the uke! The ukulele might not carry the musical stature of, say, Jimmy Page’s doubled-necked Gibson guitar, but some awfully talented people are playing it nowadays. At the free Yerba Buena Gardens Festival on Saturday, the popular SF Uke Jam returns, featuring renowned players including Hawaii’s Cynthia Lin and the Bay Area musician known as Ukulenny. The jam will dabble in an array of musical styles, from jazz to pop to reggae and, of course, Hawaiian. There’s also a sing- and strum-along, so uke players of all types can take part in the fun. The show runs from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Great Lawn at the Yerba Buena Center on Mission Street, between Third and Fourth streets in San Francisco. Admission is free; go to ybgfestival.org. Meanwhile, all-world ukulele talent Jake Shimabukuro brings his Tradewinds and Rainbows tour to two shows this weekend: 8 p.m. Friday at the Bankhead Theater in Livermore ($25-$120; livermorearts.org) and 7 p.m. Saturday at Meritage Resort, Napa, part of Blue Note Summer Sessions concert series ($49-$99, subject to change; www.bluenotejazz.com/napa).
Don’t cry for this musical: “Evita” is not a musical that needs much of an introduction. It was created by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice to be a big hit and got to that status directly. Webber and Rice followed the same path with “Evita” as they did with “Jesus Christ Superstar”; the music was released as a rock concept album and then brought to the stage. It debuted in London’s West End in 1978 and captured the Olivier Award for best musical, then opened on Broadway a year later and captured the Tony Award in the same category. The film adaptation endured years of delays and setbacks and opened to mixed reviews, but overall, the show based on the life of Eva Peron, the iconic second wife of Argentine president Juan Peron, remains a classic. The stage show was revived in 2006 and 2012 and has seen numerous tours and productions, thanks to its superior soundtrack and made-for-the-stage rags-to-riches story. San Francisco Playhouse presents the musical beginning this weekend. Directed by company artistic director and co-founder Bill English and starring Sophia Alawi in the title role, “Evita” previews Thursday through Tuesday, and the main run is July 3 through Sept. 7 at 450 Post St., San Francisco. Tickets are $30-$125 at www.sfplayhouse.org.
A season swan song: With this weekend’s concerts, San Francisco Symphony music director Esa-Pekka Salonen winds up the orchestra’s current subscription series season, which, if nothing changes, will be his penultimate appearance. The mid-March announcement that he will end his five-year tenure next season due to profound differences with the direction the Symphony Board has brought protests from both the musicians and the audience members. So it’s safe to presume there will again be flyers passed out and wild rounds of supportive applause as he conducts the orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, the Pacific Boychoir and mezzo-soprano soloist Kelley O’Connor through performances of the Mahler Symphony No. 3 Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. in Davies Hall. It’s an especially poignant conclusion for Salonen, who notes that it was this piece that boosted his career in 1983, when at age 25, he filled in at the last minute for Michael Tilson Thomas with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London. “And (the) following day, I woke up and realized that I was a conductor, which was kind of bewildering because I really was the same guy as I was five days earlier,” Salonen said. Tickets (hurry, they’re going fast), $39-$169, are available at www.sfsymphony.org or by calling (415) 864-6000.
Another last chance: The San Francisco Opera is also bringing an intriguing series to a close with this Saturday’s final performance of “Bohème Out of the Box” a scaled-down, 75-minute free staging of Puccini’s “La Bohème outdoors, on a stage mounted on a mobile shipping container that has played to picnicking families and opera fans all over the Bay Area since April. Saturday’s 1 p.m. performance at the Kennedy Park Amphitheater in Union City (walkable from the Union City BART station!) will be followed at 3:30 p.m. by “S.F. Opera Out of the Box: Adler Fellows in Concert” – also free – a one-hour presentation of popular arias and duets featuring enrollees in the company’s prestigious apprenticeship program. A “First Act Workshop” geared to families with young children precedes the Puccini performance, which will be sung in Italian with English narration, with English supertitles available on audience members’ personal devices. Find more at sfopera.com.
The post Best Bets: Fantastic Negrito, ukulele greats, ‘Evita,’ Salonen and SF Symphony, ‘Bohème Out of the Box’ appeared first on Local News Matters.