Fountain of blues: San Jose will be bathing in the blues this weekend at the San Jose Fountain Blues and Brews Festival. It’s one of the region’s best and perhaps more under-appreciated music events, and it returns to the Plaza de Cesar Chavez in downtown San Jose on Saturday and Sunday. The packed lineup includes blues stars and emerging artists. The headliners are a pair of incendiary blues guitarists: Christone “Kingfish” Ingram (6:30 p.m. Saturday), who appears in the recently released Ryan Coogler film “Sinners,” and Walter Trout (6:30 p.m. Sunday), known for his explosive licks and passionate vocals. Another favorite in the lineup is San Jose’s own Aki Kumar, aka “The King of Bollywood Blues.” True to his moniker, the singer and harmonica player, who performs at noon on Sunday, serves up a potent mix of traditional blues and Bollywood music. And another South Bay regular, blues/jazz/soul/rock singer Lauren Halliwell, brings her band The Dirty Sound, to the fest at 1:15 p.m. on Sunday. The music runs from 11:15 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day. Single tickets are $31.50-$121.50; two-day general admission passes are $51.50. Go to fountainblues.com.
Mozart’s first operatic grand slam: It’s high anxiety and anguish for the lead character and others in “Idomeneo,” the 1781 work that 25-year-old Mozart churned out to firmly establish his chops as a master of the operatic genre. Idomeneo, king of Crete and captain of his ship, is returning from the Trojan Wars when he encounters a life-threatening storm. To ensure their survival, he makes an ill-fated vow to the god Neptune to slay the first person he sees when he lands safely ashore. It turns out to be none other than his beloved son Idamante, who is enamored of Ilia, daughter of the defeated King Priam of Troy, who has been captured by Idomeneo’s forces and sent into slavery in Crete and, of course, despises her would-be lover’s father. Also desperately unhappy is the villainess, the Greek princess Elettra, rival for Idamante’s love whose scheming comes to naught. She gets to deliver a powerhouse aria in Act 3, venting her rage. The music is glorious, and the cast San Francisco Opera has assembled for a new production it introduces at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the War Memorial Opera House is bursting with talent. Tenor Matthew Polenzani, a veteran of the role, stars as Idomeneo, and acclaimed mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack steps into a trouser role as Idamante. Chinese soprano Ying Fang, popular on stages in London, New York, Paris, Vienna and Munich, makes her San Francisco debut as Ilia, and soprano Elza van den Heever, a known and welcome presence here, is the fiery Elettra. Five performances run through June 25, with a livestream offered on June 20. Tickets, $28-$438 ($27.50 for the livestream), are available at sfopera.com.
The boys are back: As phenomenally popular as they are throughout the U.S. and abroad, it seems like a woefully rare occasion when the Bay Area-based a cappella ensemble Chanticleer appears at home. There are two more chances to hear the group this season: at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Mount Tamalpais United Methodist Church in Mill Valley and 6:30 p.m. Friday at the First Congregational Church in Berkeley. The 12 polished singers conclude their Bay Area Series with a program called “Chanticleer and the Fox.” They invoke their wily namesake, that clever rooster we first heard about from Chaucer, who has to outwit a fox to save his animal friends, to present a theatrical program of Renaissance madrigals and motets designed for the whole family to enjoy. To that end, children 12 and under who are accompanied by a paying adult will be admitted free. Tickets are $30-$71, through chanticleer.org or cityboxoffice.com.
Freebie of the week: The fair and festival season in the Bay Area is up and running. This weekend, for example, serves up the 11th annual Montclair Beer, Wine & Musical Festival, from noon to 6 p.m. Saturday in Montclair Village near Mountain Boulevard and La Salle Avenue in Oakland. More than 50 different brands of craft beer and ales, a wide array of artisan wines, and other alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, as well as a variety of street-food trucks and vendors will be available. As for activities, the Play-Palooza Fun Zone offers crafts and artisan booths, bracelet-making and other artistic pursuits, lawn games, and a variety of retail stores and booths to peruse. The famed Oakland Fire Department Parade Fire Engine also will be on hand. Live performances all day feature actors from Oakland’s Woodminster Summer Musicals theater series; the Khalil Abdullah Quartet and Namoradas Da Lua. Dos Four, the Bay Area Latin band led by Cuban native and onetime pro basketball player Leyder Chapman, headlines. Also, the new Flair Travel & Adventure Zone showcases offerings from purveyors of world travel, from cruises to biking and hiking tours to safaris. While admission to the festival is free, drink tasting packages start at $55. More information is available at montclairvillage.com.
Return to roots: When the SFJazz Center opened in San Francisco in 2013 it was a marvel, and a risk: A state of the art, multi-theater music venue in the heart of the entertainment district devoted to (gulp!) just jazz? Well, the center, with its top-notch year-round programming, has emerged as a big winner and proved that even a so-called dying art form can thrive if it’s in a desirable venue and the right kind of artists. Thanks to the savvy leadership of Executive Artistic Director Terence Blanchard and others, SFJazz regularly delivers concerts worthy of its digs. But with A-list year-round programming, the annual San Francisco International Jazz Festival has gotten a bit lost in the mix. Until now. This weekend, Blanchard and SFJazz are bringing back the Jazz Festival as a real, honest-to-gosh festival (Blanchard is a New Orleans native, so he knows a music festival when he sees one.) From Friday through Sunday, the SFJazz Center and the surrounding neighborhood will host 35 shows multiple stages. Performers include the SFJazz Collective (natch!) with Kurt Elling, Don Was, legendary sax man Charles Lloyd, trumpeter Nicholas Payton, bass ace Stanley Clarke with pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba, revered bassist Dave Holland, African vocalist Somi, and many more. Performances are 2 to 9 p.m. Friday, 1-10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; single tickets and packages run from $50-$650. Go to www.sfjazz.org.
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