Through Sunday, Aug. 14: West Edge Opera presents Cunning Little Vixen, Powder Her Face and Agrippina at 16th Street Station, Oakland
This year’s West Edge Opera festival brings together three brilliantly-produced, contrasting works united in their focus on female protagonists. In Handel’s early 18th century masterpiece Agrippina, a queen plots the downfall of an Emperor; Leos Janacek’s playful yet dangerous tragicomedy of the 1920s, Cunning Little Vixen, follows the story of a super-smart female fox with activist leanings; and Powder Her Face, a hard-hitting, R-rated opera composed in the mid 1990s by Thomas Ades. It depicts the exploits of cruel way in which society ostracizes a wealthy, sexually promiscuous woman. (Ades made history with this work when he included the first depiction of fellatio in an opera.)
Through Saturday, Aug.13: Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music at Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, Santa Cruz
Marin Alsop is retiring as the artistic director and chief conductor of this important international contemporary music festival after 25 years at its helm. Alsop is a key figure in classical music for blazing a trail for women conductors. To pay tribute to her greatness on the podium, this year’s festival includes world premieres from major composers like John Adams and James MacMillan.
Saturday, Aug 13 – Tuesday, Sep. 30: American Civics at San Francisco Art Exchange, San Francisco
In this small but mighty exhibition, acclaimed contemporary graphic artist Shepard Fairey riffs on iconic images from the 1960s by the late, great photographer Jim Marshall. The show includes Fairey’s reworkings of photos of Johnny Cash, Cesar Chavez, and others while exploring some of our country’s enduring social justice issues like voting rights, gun control, and mass incarceration.
Through Sunday, Oct. 16: 20/20 Vision: Celebrating the Next Generation of Book Artists, Center for the Book, San Francisco
The San Francisco Center for the Book celebrates its first 20 years with a show that’s all about the future of the ancient art of letterpress and bookbinding. This exhibition features the work of 20 emerging book artists from around the country and abroad, whose output provides a sense of where book art is heading as a field.
