The Classical Girl

San Francisco Ballet’s “Mere Mortals” — love it or hate it?

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Am I allowed to say that back in 2024, I didn’t love the buzzy world premiere of Aszure Barton’s Mere Mortals? I’m still not sure if I’m brave enough to say “I hated it” because it brought such wide acclaim from critics and audience members alike with only a minority of naysayers. It seemed very clear … Read more

Celebrating the life of Michael Tilson Thomas

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I hate deaths. At the risk of stating the obvious, they hurt. They leave a giant gap. You walk around with an ache that can’t be assuaged. Those are precisely the reasons I love “celebration of life” events for the recently deceased. Sure, you’re still going to grieve. Cry. Feel that emptiness. But the word … Read more

“Don Quixote” sizzles on the SF Ballet stage

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Sizzles isn’t the right word. Or maybe it’s the perfect word. Don Quixote opened at San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House on March 19th on the waning end of a massive California heat wave — meaning, still too hot. But there was a silver lining. San Francisco, normally cool-to-chilly most months of the year, had … Read more

Clara Wieck, the “other” Schumann

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The only reason I chanced upon Clara Schumann’s compositions was a recent YouTube playlist suggestion, which sent my thoughts in two directions. First, I thought, “Shouldn’t I have heard her music live in my twenty-plus years as a San Francisco Symphony subscriber? What’s up with that? Why do her works continue to be unappreciated and … Read more

Fun with poison oak!

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I know what you’re thinking. “It’s winter. It’s the dead of winter. We’re in the grips of the coldest of cold winter this week, and The Classical Girl is talking about … poison oak? She’s in the Northern Hemisphere, right?” Turns out poison oak is a thing, any time of the year. Even in long-dead … Read more