The vagaries of love: She is a young ingenue – pretty, charming and unschooled in the ways of the world. Entranced by the handsome Chevalier, she runs away with him, but later abandons him when wealth and power become, for a time, more attractive propositions. Ah, but then there’s that dramatic reunion in the church when she comes to her senses and wants to win him back before he consigns himself to life in a monastery! That’s what unfolds in Jules Massenet’s “Manon,” now playing on stage at War Memorial in San Francisco Opera’s production of the composer’s most popular work. And if soprano Amina Edris as Manon and tenor Pene Pati as the Chevalier des Grieux seem utterly convincing as a romantic pair, offstage they are in fact husband and wife. Four performances of the classic French opera’s run remain: 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Oct. 27 and Oct. 30, and 2 p.m. Nov. 1. Find tickets, $30-$447, at sfopera.com or by calling 415-864-3330.
Freebie of the week: San Francisco’s War Memorial and Performing Arts Center, with its three separate venues on three separate floors, plays host this Sunday to an eclectic, intriguing parade of musicians playing for free throughout the afternoon. Beginning at noon, what organizers are calling SF Music Day 2026 presents entertainment in genres as diverse as jazz, classical, traditional, contemporary and world music. The lineup in the ground floor Herbst Theatre kicks off at noon with drummer Jordan Glenn’s BEAK ensemble bringing its blend of improvisational percussion pizzazz to listeners’ ears. One floor up in the lovely Green Room, the flute and percussion combo Nippon Kobo plays contemporary music from Japan at 12:30 p.m. The third-floor Taube Atrium Theater gets things rolling at 12:15 p.m. with a performance by The Sampaguitas, an effervescent girl trio well-versed in Filipino folk music, delivered in three-part harmony. The San Francisco Chamber Orchestra is booked to play, as are the well-known Rova Saxophone Quartet, Quinteto Latino and an ensemble with the curious name Ian Carey and Wood Metal Plastic. The final acts in all three performance spaces begin at 5 p.m. Find more information, including links to RSVP at sfmusicday.com.
Another freebie: Opera San Jose is turning a section of its home city into a “Tunnel of Terror” on Saturday. No, that doesn’t mean opera company members are going to gather and bellow out “Muskat Love” or anything – although that would be pretty darned terrifying. What Opera San Jose, in tandem with the City of San Jose, has planned is a family-friendly Halloween celebration running 5 to 9 p.m. at the city’s Sonic Runway – an iconic light/art installation that looks like someone stretched a Slinky across San Jose’s City Hall Plaza. Opera San Jose resident artists Nicole Koh, Courtney Miller and Micah Perry, along with emeritus artist-in-residence Eugene Brancoveanu, will join members of Children’s Musical Theater San Jose and other entertainers to perform a wide range of classical and popular numbers including selections of “Phantom of the Opera,” Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” the Bobby “Boris” Pickett hit “Monster Mash,” and Tame Impala’s “Dracula.” Community trick-or-treating, an interactive light show, street performers, arts and crafts vendors, lowrider culture displays, a light show and a costume contest with prizes are also part of the festivities. The event is free; more information is at sjdowntown.com.
Mariachi middle ground: Contemporary performers of art, music, theater or any other art form rooted in tradition face a common dilemma these days: stick to the traditional styles and get accused of simply regurgitating what has come before, or stray far from the norm and risk losing support of the art form’s most fervent and loyal fans. But the 13-member band Mariachi Herencia de Mexico, performing Friday through Cal Performances, is one of the outfits credited with getting it right. The group was founded in 2016 in Chicago by César Maldonado, a successful entrepreneur who loved mariachi but was concerned that too few young people in America were being exposed to it. He founded the Mariachi Heritage Foundation in 2016, and Mariachi Herencia de Mexico was an outgrowth of that. Blending traditional mariachi with a modern sound informed by salsa, bolero, bossa nova, cumbia and more styles, the band has known success from the start. Its first album, “Nuestra Herencia” topped the Latin music streaming charts and earned the outfit its first Grammy nomination. The band’s 2025 release, “Viva La Musica” was heralded as a groundbreaking effort that maximized the band’s reputation for merging genres and traditions to create a thoroughly modern sound that was still unmistakably mariachi. Mariachi Herencia de Mexico performs a Dia de los Muertos-themed concert at 7:30 p.m. Friday at University of California, Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall. Tickets are $23-$54; go to calperformances.org.
SFJAZZ’S in-house stars: The SFJAZZ Center is best known for its packed schedule of first-rate touring jazz musicians and bands that never fail to amaze in an age where some markets struggle to sustain a functioning jazz scene at all. The center also has its own band, the SFJAZZ Collective, with an impressive lineup that includes saxophonists Chris Potter and David Sanchez, trumpeter Mike Rodriguez, vibraphonist Warren Wolf, pianist Edward Simon, bassist Matt Brewer and drummer Kendrick Scott. SFJAZZ launches a series of concerts this week focusing on its collective, with members headlining their own shows. First up is the Venezuela-born Simon, a first-rate pianist, who will be performing with a quintet featuring vocalist Magos Herrera on Friday. The show spotlights Simon’s 2023 album “Femeninas,” which, as he describes, “spotlights the contributions of Latin American women songwriters, living and past, well-known and unknown, such as Violeta Parra (Chile), Marta Valdes (Cuba), Chabuca Granda (Peru), Elizabeth Morris (Argentina), and Joyce [Moreno] (Brazil). These incredible songwriters have created beautiful songs that should be internationally known.” Simon and his band perform at 7:30 p.m. Friday at SFJAZZ Center’s Miner Auditorium. Tickets are $35-$85; go to www.sfjazz.org.