Mid-August Miscellany

Tim Mangan, who is a real reporter, took a closer look at the Berlin Phil web offerings than I did. Saariaho fans, take note: their August 28, season-opening webcast includes the premier of a new Saariaho work, Lanterna Maijica. Watching it on the web is cheap, much cheaper, than a ticket to Berlin....San Francisco Symphony's new recording of the mighty Mahler 8th is now available on iTunes. I'm not going to try to link to the recording, because I don't have iTunes, so Apple is instead very kindly offering to let me download it.....Speaking of SF Symphony, they're giving a free performance at Justin Herman Plaza, in SF, on Friday, September 11, at 12 noon. Despite the date, they're playing a program of light classics: Mephisto Waltz, La Valse, Carousel Walz.....From September 16 to October 3, SFS is playing a whole lot of Mahler; Susan Graham and Thomas Hampson appear with the symphony....San Francisco Opera has a series of upcoming events too. Opera in Stern Grove on Sunday, August 23, at 2 p.m., featuring tenor Marco Berti....Opera in the Park, Golden Gate Park, on Sunday, September 13, at 1:30 p.m., featuring the great lineup of Sondra Radvanovsky, Ewa Podleś, Marco Berti, Brandon Jovanovich, and Quinn Kelsey....Opera at the Ballpark this fall has Il Trovatore (Radvanovky, Berti, Blythe, Hvorostovsky; Luisotti), on Saturday, September 19, at 8 p.m. Sign up for tickets here.....In conjunction with its 2009 Ring cycles, Seattle Opera has all sorts of fun stuff on its web site. The Road to Valhalla is videos about pre-production; great for theater and opera geeks....Confessions of a First-Time Operagoer follows newbie Cassidy Quinn Brettler as she dives into the operatic deep end. Looks like they even let her into the Rheinmaidens' flying outfits....The Seattle Opera Blog includes a running caption-the-photo contest.