Dreams of spring come to life with Debussy on stage
Go in depth of L’Après-midi d’un faune before taking in the performance at SF Symphony, Eddie Izzard comes to A.C.T., and an interview with the creative team at Berkeley Rep.
Claude Debussy achieved musical maturity in the final decade of the 19th century, a magical moment in France when aficionados of the visual arts fully embraced the gentle luster of impressionism, composers struggled with the pluses and minuses of Richard Wagner, poets navigated the indirect locutions of symbolism, and the City of Light blazed with the pleasures of the Belle Époque. Symbolism enveloped itself in vagueness. A manifesto for the movement, published in 1886, declared that symbolist poetry was the “enemy of education, declamation, wrong feelings, [and] objective description.” And, deeper in: “The essential character of Symbolic art consists of never approaching the concentrated kernel of the Idea in itself. So, in this art movement, representations of nature, the actions of human beings, all concrete phenomena do not stand on their own; instead, they are veiled reflections of the senses pointing to archetypal meanings through their esoteric connections.”
A highpoint of symbolist poetry was L’Après-midi d’un faune (The Afternoon of a Faun), by Stéphane Mallarmé. It first appeared in 1865 under the title Monologue d’un faune and then kept evolving until it reached a definitive version in 1876. At that point Mallarmé published it, under its new title, in a slim volume embellished with a drawing by Édouard Manet. Vintage symbolism it is: a faun (a rural deity that is half man, half goat) spends a languorous afternoon observing, recalling, or fantasizing about—it’s not always clear which—some alluring nymphs who clearly affect him in an erotic way. The poem was iconic in its time (though it was merely a point of departure for Mallarmé’s further, even more revolutionary poetry) and Debussy fell beneath its spell by the early 1890s, when he seems to have discussed with Mallarmé the idea of creating a musical parallel.
On the Stage
This week Strauss is center stage at SF Symphony, a play about love in the modern age in San Jose, and a famed taiko troupe returns to Cal Performances.
Also sprach Zarathustra
Classical | San Francisco Symphony
Now – January 25 | Tickets
Decades after his death, Richard Strauss enjoyed a posthumous comeback thanks to his searing and cerebral tone poem Also sprach Zarathustra. The indelible opening trumpet fanfare is instantly recognizable from its use in films like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Barbie.
More Events
- In Love and Warcraft | City Lights Theater Company | Now – February 9
- Kodo | Cal Performances | January 25 – 26
- Chamber Music | San Francisco Symphony | January 26 | View the Program
Next Line
A new limited engagement comes to American Conservatory Theater, an interview with the cast and creative of Berkeley Rep’s new show, and enter to win SF Symphony tickets.
- A.C.T. announces that Eddie Izzard will bring her acclaimed solo performance of Hamlet to San Francisco. Following a triple-extended New York run, a box office record-breaking two-week run at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, and a six-week London run, Tony nominated Izzard will embody 23 characters at A.C.T.’s Strand Theater this April.
- Director Tyne Rafaeli and the cast delve into the vivid imagination, stunning design, and heartfelt storytelling that bring The Thing About Jellyfish to life. This world premiere takes the stage at Berkeley Rep on January 31.
- As a subscriber to Encore+, you are eligible to enter to win two tickets to an upcoming performance of San Francisco Symphony’s Chan Conducts All-Tchaikovsky. Share this newsletter with your friends and family, ask them to subscribe, and they’ll be entered to win as well!
