Tuesday Miscellany

Local to Me (San Francisco Bay Area)

Magnificat Baroque opens its 2010-11 season with John Blow's Venus and Adonis, with performances on October 8 in Menlo Park at St. Patrick's Seminary, October 9 in Berkeley at St. Mark's Episcopal, and October 10 in San Francisco at St. Mark's Lutheran.... San Francisco Opera's Ring Festival starts early, with classes taught at SF Conservatory by composer Conrad Susa; $165 for five two-hour classes taught on Saturdays starting September 24. Phone the conservatory at 415-503-6283 or register online....San Francisco Performances will have $20 Salons at the Rex again; performers include the sensational young soprano Leah Crocetto, the equally sensational soprano Heidi Melton, and killer pianist Sarah Cahill playing Scriabin, Rudhyar, and Crawford Seeger....Speaking of Rudhyar, Other Minds has a two-program Rudhyar in Retrospect celebration on September 27 (Swedenborgian Church, SF) and 29 (Valley Presbyterian Church, Portola Valley).

Out of Town

Want to try out the Met Player, which gives you access to a couple of hundred historic Metropolitan Opera radio and TV broadcasts going back as far as the 1930s? You can sign up for a free 7-day trial (or rent an opera for 30 days or subscribe on a monthly or yearly basis)....LA Opera will be having an Opera of the Day discount price from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Pacific time, for a specific production, performance, and seating section. To find out today's special offering, visit the company's web site or follow them on Twitter or Facebook....Seiji Ozawa turns 75; you can wish him a happy birthday at the BSO's Facebook page or listen to a selection from his 1999 recording of Carmina Burana.  The BSO has also posted a PDF listing all of his recordings with the BSO....Metropolitan Opera Live in HD tickets go on sale to the general public next week. Be there or be square, especially if it's the only way you'll get a look at the upcoming Lepage Ring, Le Comte Ory (Florez, Damrau, DiDonato), and a few other operas worth seeing. (That link goes to the priority ordering page because I ponied up for advance ticketing.)

Waaaaay Out of Town

But I wish I could go anyway: Dancer in the Dark, a new opera by Poul Ruders, based on a screenplay by Lars von Trier, premiers at the Royal (Danish) Opera on September 5. There's a trailer at the opera's web site (Danish and English). The work will be performed in Germany, Sweden, and New York (one of these things is not like the others) in 2011.