Freebie of the week: Arias al fresco all afternoon, anyone? Opera in the Bay Area is alive and thriving, as an event coming up Sunday at the Transamerica Redwood Park in San Francisco will amply demonstrate. Beginning at 1 p.m. on the rustic stage set among a half-acre of towering coastal redwoods on the eastern side of the iconic Transamerica Pyramid, a parade of practitioners of the high art of singing will perform music by Giacomo Puccini, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Giuseppe Verdi, Georges Bizet, W.S. Gilbert & Arthur Sullivan and more at a concert called “Opera Day in the Bay.” Produced by Céline Ricci, founder of Ars Minerva and program director of 836M, the afternoon is emceed by Bay Area composer Carla Lucero. The show is dedicated to the memory of the late Erie Mills, the soprano who was the artistic director of Livermore Valley Opera, or LVO. Participating companies include LVO, Walnut Creek’s Festival Opera, San Francisco’s Pocket Opera and Opera Parallèle, Palo Alto’s West Bay Opera, Opera San Jose, Ars Minerva, Upspark Productions, Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera, Lamplighters Music Theatre and more. The event is free, but audience members are requested to reserve advance tickets online at http:/tinyurl.com/OperaDay2026. Entry to the park is at 545 Sansome St. between Washington and Clay streets.
Drag him to hell: That devious, debonair but utterly dastardly dude Don Giovanni is among the most intriguing characters in all of opera. The leading character in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s tragicomedy by that name has the proverbial little black book bulging with the names of the damsels he has seduced. But he gets his just comeuppance by agreeing to a dinner invitation that turns out to be a dance with the devil. Opera San Jose has just opened its 43rd season with a production of this magnificent work, helmed by the internationally recognized tenor Alek Shrader. There are four performances remaining. American bass Wm. Clay Thompson stars in the title role of the swaggering libertine, with bass-baritone Phillip Lopez serving as his long-suffering manservant Leporello, whose famous “Catalogue” aria is the comic highlight of the opera. Bass Kenneth Kellogg is the Commendatore, whose death by the don’s hand in the opening scene sets all the action in overdrive. Sopranos Yulan Piao and Maria Brea star as Donna Anna and Donna Elvira. Soprano Nicole Koh is Zerlina, the young peasant bride tempted by Don Giovanni with the famous “Là ci darem la mano” aria. Performances at the California Theatre in downtown San Jose are at 7:30 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Next week’s performances are on Friday, Sept. 25 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 27. at 2 p.m. Tickets ranging from $58-$215 can be purchased at operasj.org.
Creature features: Such is the human fondness for animals, as well as cleverly titled events, that it was almost certain that “CritterFest” would lasso an audience’s attention. The event is one of several film series created under the San Francisco IndieFest banner, highlighting animal-themed films. According to the festival’s own words, CritterFest focuses on “the profound resonance and interaction between humans and the animal kingdom.” The festival, running Thursday through Sunday at the 4-Star Theater, 2200 Clement St., San Francisco, serves up close to a dozen feature-length films and shorts spotlighting a wide variety of animal tales. The opening-night screening features “Second Nature,” a look at some of the same-sex reproductive practices in the animal kingdom. The family friendly “The Secret Lives of Pets 2” will be screened Friday. Other titles in the mix include “Flamingos: Life After the Meteorite,” screening Saturday, about how the site of a dinosaur-killing meteor crash is now a favorite meeting ground for some frisky flamingos. Sunday’s screening is “Unspoken Bond,” which looks at the powerful and healing connections that form between animals and their owners. Screenings are $15 apiece and a full festival pass costs $60. Many of the films will be available online Sept. 17-20 for $10 apiece. More information is at sfcritterfest.eventive.org/welcome
Lost in thought: My’Kal Stromile has a lot on his plate. Less than a decade ago, the in-demand, Boston-based choreographer graduated from The Julliard School where he received the prestigious Hector Zaraspe Prize. He’s already moved on from an acclaimed six-year stint as a performer – largely with the Boston Ballet – and settled full-time into choreography while still in his early 30s. He’s debuted one world premiere this year with “The Leisurely Installation of a New Window” and has another new work as the centerpiece of Smuin Contemporary Ballet’s fall program. The work has already drawn a good deal of attention with its mouthful of a title: “I-SCRIT-AH-SCREE-TAH-SKRATT,” which Stromile has described as “a completely preposterous, made-up phonetic phrase I made when I was trying to organize my thinking.” The piece, which incorporates a variety of dance styles, is set to Symphony in F major by Wilhelm Friedemann Bach. The world premiere work is the highlight of a program that also includes Smuin Artistic Director Amy Seiwert’s provocatively titled “French Kiss” and a revival of company founder Michael Smuin’s mournful “Stabat Mater.” Smuin brings the program to Walnut Creek’s Lesher Center this weekend for performances at 7:30 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday. Tickets ranging from $25-$100 can be purchased at smuinballet.org. The fall program also comes to the Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture in San Francisco from Oct. 9-18.
Catching fire: Florida-born comedian Kam Patterson came close to taking on a career as a firefighter. It’s a noble profession, but his career as a standup comedian is pretty much on fire these days. It’s unknown why he passed on life as a firefighter, but his biography points out he instead took a job at a Foot Locker store, where his winning personality convinced customers as well as his father that a career in entertainment was the way to go. He had already demonstrated a taste for standup; during his early years in grade school, he was known as a class clown. In the early 2020s, he moved to Austin, Texas, to pursue the standup trade and scored a career boost appearing on a comedy/variety podcast named “Kill Tony.” Last year, he nailed his biggest career milestone yet, landing a spot on “Saturday Night Live” as a featured player, a role he still has today. He’s also broken into movies with roles in such comedies as “Busboys,” “72 Hours” (with Kevin Hart) and the upcoming tennis-themed Amazon comedy “Love Love.” But Patterson, known for his enthusiastic storytelling style and stage manner, is keeping a foot in the standup field. He brings his latest tour to San Jose Improv this week for performances at 8 p.m. Thursday and 7:30 p.m. Friday. Tickets ranging from around $34-$104 can be found at improv.com/sanjose/.