From popular folk-rockers Mumford & Sons to giant forest trolls and classical music with a Spanish twist, there is a lot to see and do in the Bay Area this weekend and beyond.
Here is a partial rundown.
Mumford’s the word in this tour
Mumford & Sons have their eyes set on the Bay Area.
The London folk-rock outfit — led by vocalist-guitarist Marcus Mumford and featuring bassist Ted Dwane and keyboardist Ben Lovett — is set to perform a two-night stand, June 9-10, at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley.
The band is touring in support of its long-awaited fifth studio album, “Rushmere,” which is the first full-length Mumford & Sons outing since 2018’s “Delta.” (The group did, however, release the live EP, “Delta Tour,” in 2020.)
Both shows are sold out, underscoring that the band hasn’t lost any of its popularity during its time away from the studio. Yet, ducats can still be had on the secondary ticket market (think Stubhub, Ticketmaster, etc.)
Formed in 2007, Mumford & Sons wasted little time in hitting it big, as the 2009 debut “Sigh No More” reached the No. 2 spot in both the band’s native U.K. and the U.S.
The 2012 follow-up “Babel” was a chart-topper in multiple countries (including the U.S. and the U.K.) and sold millions of copies. It also won the Grammy for album of the year in 2013.
Details: Both shows start 7 p.m.; apeconcerts.com.
— Jim Harrington, Staff
Trolls take over Filoli
They’re huge and hairy, have names like Ibbi Pip and Sofus Lotus and possibly eat humans. They’re Giant Trolls, and they’ll soon be coming to a forest near you.
On June 7, the exhibit “Trolls: Save the Humans” opens at the historic Filoli gardens in San Mateo County to run through early November. A half-dozen humongous creatures made of recycled materials like construction wood will take up residence among the redwood groves and meadow blooms. They’re the work of Danish artist and dumpster diver Thomas Dambo, who has “hidden” his trolls in at least 17 countries including Ireland, Australia and China — there’s even one skulking around in a nature museum in Solvang, California, called Lulu Hyggelig.
According to the artist’s lore, these sometimes 15-foot abominations – sorry, magical creatures – are locked in an eternal debate on whether to save humans despite their polluting, destructive ways, or (chomp chomp!) just devour them. When you take your kids to Filoli to meet the trolls, ask them which they’d prefer.
“The outdoor exhibition will fuse fairytales, whims and monumental scale,” write the Filoli folks, “to inspire visitors to explore themes such as recycling and reusing trash, the importance of plants and gardens, art and more.”
Details: Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily at 86 Cañada Road, Woodside; general admission $36; filoli.org.
— John Metcalfe, Staff
Classical picks: La Boheme; ‘Espana’ in San Jose
Summer’s here, and the music is lovely. These upcoming classical music events have much to offer, from the brilliance of “La Bohème,” now in performance at San Francisco Opera, to a performance of an iconic Spanish work in San Jose.
“Bohéme” bliss: Opera lovers never get over the emotional impact of “La Bohème”; Puccini’s opera based on Henri Murger’s 1851 novel, never fails to thrill. Now the opera about four young bohemians living for art in a chilly Paris apartment is back in the first of San Francisco Opera’s summer productions. Conducted by Ramón Tebar and starring Karen Chia-ling Ho, Nicole Car, Pene Pati, and Evan LeRoy Johnson, it’s sure to warm your heart and leave you with beautiful memories.
Details: Performances through June 21, War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco; tickets $28 and up; sfopera.com.
A Spanish Salute: Symphony San Jose has a big season finale in store. Titled “España” and conducted by José Luis Gomez, the program features guitarist Rafael Aguirre in Joaquin Rodrigo’s thrilling “Concierto de Aranjuez.” Works by Ravel, Rimsky-Korsakov and Gabriela Lena Frank complete the program. Arrive one hour early for pre-concert festivities.
Details: 7:30 p.m. June 7, 2:30 p.m. June 8; California Theatre, San Jose; $24-$121.50; symphonysanjose.org.
From the Left Coast: If it’s new music you crave, mark your calendars for the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble’s upcoming concert. Titled “Spring Contrasts,” the program spans music by Bartók, Roberto Sierra, Mel Bonis, Kevin Day, and Hannah Kendall.
Details: 7:30 p.m. June 7 at Piedmont Center for the Arts; 7:30 p.m. June 9 at Noe Valley Ministry, San Francisco; $5-$35; leftcoastensemble.org.
— Georgia Rowe, Correspondent
Freebies of the week: SFMOMA special days
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has two free offerings this week. Let’s start with Free First Thursdays, which runs at the museum noon to 8 p.m. on June 5 and offers free admission to adults who live in the nine-county Bay Area region (while it’s not technically required, it’s highly recommended that you reserve your free admission at www.sfmoma.org/free-days/#first-thursdays). The admission does not include ticketed exhibits, which means you will be charged to view the Ruth Asawa collection. But there is still much to see for free, including the “photopainting” works of Japanese artist Kunie Sugiura; Singapore artist Samson Young’s otherworldly collection of paintings and sculptures, accompanied by a soundscape; and famed painter/sculptor/installation and performance artist Yayoi Kusama’s 2023 work “Dreaming of Earth’s Sphericity, I Would Offer My Love.”
And of particular interest to Bay Area photography lovers will be the exhibit devoted to Group f.64, a collective of Bay Area photographers (including Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, and Edward Weston) who banded together in the early 20th century to counter the burgeoning practice of “pictorialism,” which favored artistic compositions (including manipulated photographs) over works strictly rendered by a camera. The f.64 artists believed that their pure photographs could rival anything that pictorialists could manufacture — and they set out to prove it.
The artists’ works, history and ties to the Bay Area are covered in the exhibit. And on Thursday, there is a 6 p.m. panel discussion in the Wattis Theatre devoted to f.64 and its artists. Meanwhile, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, there are free Family Day events and activities as well as access to various exhibits (again, excluding Ruth Asawa). More information is at www.sfmoma.org/event/free-family-day-hometown-heroes. And for general info on the museum, go to www.sfmoma.org.
Killer sex farce 2.0 lands in Lesher
In case you missed it, the only musical comedy in the Bay Area to concern itself with frisky seniors, murder and a curious influencer has changed houses. We’re talking, of course, about Min Kahng’s world premiere production “Happy Pleasant Valley: A Senior Sex Scandal Murder Mystery Musical.” The show is a co-production by Palo Alto’s TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, where it ran earlier this year, and Center Repertory Company, where it is playing through June 29.
If the title itself makes you chuckle, then this is probably the production for you. To describe “Pleasant Valley” as having broad humor would likely be an understatement. But this is by no means a criticism; there is nothing quite like a comedy – be it on stage or on screen – that tromps all over its subject matter like an inebriated elephant, especially when the performers are in on the joke. “Pleasant Valley” pokes fun at pretty much every hot topic there is, these days – sex, cancel culture, our strange worship of influencers, ageism and more. And it does so with a talented cast of comic actors and the acclaimed and well-traveled director Jeffrey Lo. Performances are at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek; tickets are $66-$95. Go to www.centerrep.org.
— Bay City News Foundaton
Neil Diamond’s ‘Beautiful Noise’
A Broadway touring show opening this week at the Golden Gate Theatre in San Francisco bills itself as “the untold story” of Neil Diamond’s rise from a shy sensitive Brooklyn singer-songwriter to an international superstar. This, of course, is absolute poppycock — Diamond’s story is well-known around the world and has been for some time. But that doesn’t mean that Diamond and his story and music aren’t tailor-made for the kind of jukebox musical that we’ve seen for the likes of Frankie Valley and the Four Seasons, Carole King, and countless others. He has a well-known and very popular song catalogue that includes such singles as “I am … I Said,” “Sweet Caroline,” “Cracklin’ Rosie,” “Song Sung Blue” and many, many more. It’s interesting that the show’s title, “A Beautiful Noise,” comes from Diamond’s 10th album, which was known as an attempt, helmed by the Band’s Robbie Robertson, to restore some critical acclaim to a music career that had been growing more commercially oriented (read: cheesy).
But Diamond’s career — kind of like Phil Collins’ — has long been a mix of true talent and schmaltz. The man has written and sung some of the biggest hits in contemporary pop music history and has been heralded as a lyricist who captures the gamut of human emotion in phrases everyone can connect with. Then again, one of his biggest hits actually includes the line “I am I said/to no one there/And no one heard at all/Not even the chair.” (And let’s not even get into the fact that he starred in a remake of “The Jazz Singer” movie that retained the original title even though it CONTAINS ABSOLUTELY NO JAZZ MUSIC!!).
But that doesn’t mean we Neil Diamond fans love him any less or aren’t beyond stoked to see the “Beautiful Noise,” which is playing in S.F. through June 22.
Details: Tickets are $75.47-$236.93 (subject to change); www.broadwaysf.com.
— Bay City News Foundation
An S.F. Symphony packed program
Two richly orchestrated tone poems by Richard Strauss about reprobate characters — one a mischievous miscreant and the other a total cad — a highly unusual final symphony by the great Finnish composer Jean Sibelius and the San Francisco Symphony’s first commission from Berkeley-born composer Gabriella Smith comprise the program for the penultimate series of concerts Esa-Pekka Salonen will lead before his much-bemoaned departure as music director from the podium.
Taking place at 7:30 p.m. June 6-7 and 2 p.m. June 8 in Davies Hall, the concert opens with “Don Juan,” Strauss’ description of the amorous pursuits and ultimate death of the infamous libertine, and ends, appropriately enough, with “Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks,” which follows the titular prankster through a series of capers leading to his vividly orchestrated death by hanging. Sibelius’ Symphony No. 7 intervenes, singular for reasons that include the fact that it is played through as a single movement, followed by Smith’s “Rewilding,” a work that is inspired by the young composer’s commitment to ecological restoration.
Details: Tickets, $49-$179, are available at sfsymphony.org.
— Bay City News Foundation
