The Monkey shines: In what looks certain to be San Francisco Opera’s most eye-popping and resplendent production of the season, Huang Ruo and David Henry Hwang’s “The Monkey King” makes its world premiere on the War Memorial Opera House stage at 7:30 p.m. Friday for an eight- performance run that will end with a 2 p.m. matinee on Nov. 30. It’s based on “Journey to the West,” an epic Ming Dynasty Chinese novel that has become all-pervasive over the four centuries, having sparked innumerable artworks, plays, movies, TV shows, comics and graphic literature, music, dance and even video games. At its center is the irrepressible Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, an iconic character who carries every bit as much cultural weight as Western superheroes such as Batman and Superman, who does battle with deities on heaven and earth in his quest for immortality. Composer Huang and librettist Hwang, whose previous collaborations include the operatic version of Hwang’s 1988 play “M. Butterfly,” blend Eastern and Western traditions in the opera, sung in Mandarin and English and enhanced with puppetry, projections, dance and gorgeous costuming. Singing the title role in his San Francisco debut is Australian tenor Kang Wang, with South Korean tenor Konu Kim performing as the Jade Emperor and soprano Mei Gui Zhang as the Chinese goddess of compassion Guanyin. The conductor is Hartford Symphony music director Carolyn Kuan, who led the world premiere of “M. Butterfly” in Santa Fe in 2022. Tickets for the production are $29-$447, but only $25 for the livestream of the Nov. 18 performance. Find them at sfopera.com.
Bring the ‘Burnout’: We’ve all witnessed it: the inability to keep from spilling too much information, embarrassing everyone in the vicinity. Four performers from Australia touch on the topic in their latest show this week at Stanford University. “Burnout Paradise,” the frenetic creation by Pony Cam, is an exploration of the notion of personal boundaries and how difficult it can be to protect them. The story line is deliberately kept a little vague; suffice to say the “Burnout” begins with four people on treadmills. What follows is ostensibly a friendly wager with the audience over the quartet’s attempt to complete certain tasks but develops into a full-blown and desperate campaign to conquer challenges that bring them to the limits of their physical and mental abilities. No, this is not a comedy. Or maybe it is. You have to see the performance to find out for sure. As the organizers say, “This is not an endurance feat. Nor is it performance art. It is an unraveling realization that the system we participate in is not designed for us.” It likely will be unlike anything you’ve seen before. Performances are at 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday at The Studio at Stanford University. Tickets are $47.52-$59.40 at live.stanford.edu.
Awesome Americana: This weekend in Livermore, Americana music fans can revel in a tribute to two monumental American songwriters, Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson. Those who saw the terrific film “A Complete Unknown” last year (now widely available on streaming services) will remember how Dylan’s “going electric” and plugging a more contemporary edge into traditional folk music changed music forever. And the sheer depth, breath and quality of Nelson’s incredibly deep song catalogue is in a league all its own. On Sunday, two top-flight bands present the iconic songs of the two legends (as well as their own originals). The Western Swing band Hot Club of Cowtown, which has toured with Dylan, headlines. The opening act is the revered “Americana soul” band from Los Angeles, the Dustbowl Revival, whose sound also incorporates New Orleans R&B, traditional roots and much more. Dustbowl Revival & Hot Club of Cowtown: A Celebration of Bob & Willie” is at 7 p.m. Sunday at Livermore’s Bankhead Theater. Tickets are $55-$85 at livermorearts.org.
Freebie of the week: The Clift Royal Sonesta Hotel, a key landmark in San Francisco’s downtown since the early 20th century, is a marvelous spot to kick off a free new speaker series highlighting chapters of the city’s past. Titled “Making History Fun Again,” it highlights lesser-known chapters of San Francisco’s colorful past as well as brings various generations together over our shared heritage. The 300-room Beaux Arts-style hotel was commissioned in 1913 by Frederick C. Clift and designed by the same architectural team that created the iconic Palace of Fine Arts building. The hotel added a swank drinking spot, the Redwood Room, in 1933. True to its name, the interior was reportedly fashioned from a single redwood tree. Check it out and learn a few interesting things about San Francisco history by attending the series’ debut sessions at 6 p.m. Friday or 5 p.m. Saturday. The speakers include Bill Baker, the last living ex-con from Alcatraz; travel writer and author Ruth Carlson, known for her popular guide “Secret San Francisco,” Maria Lenhart, author of “Lost Treasures of San Francisco,” and Alec Scott, author of “Oldest San Francisco.” The events are free, but an RSVP is recommended, go to Eventbrite.
Three musical world travelers: They only formed six years ago in Budapest, Hungary, but the now Prague-based Trio Bohémo from the Czech Republic (Jan Vojtek, piano; Matouš Pěruška, violin; Kristina Vocetková, cello) have garnered so much praise and won so many awards that they are in demand far and wide. Canada, Denmark, Australia, England, Austria and Hawaii are recent or near future bookings. The Kohl Mansion in Burlingame has snagged them for their local debut at 7 p.m. Sunday, and their program consists of Haydn’s Piano Trio in A Major, Bohuslav Martinů’s Piano Trio No. 2 in D minor, a cycle of folk songs from Jan Vičar’s “From Moravia” and Bedřich Smetana’s Piano Trio in G minor. A pre-performance talk by Stanford’s Christopher Costanza and a post-performance reception with the artists are included in the ticket prices, which range from $30 to $62. Find them at musicatkohl.org.
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