Isabel Leonard Sings Ravel's 'Shéhérazade' With the SF Symphony Nov. 6 and 8
Mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard and conductor Fabien Gabel bring a program of myths and legends, including Ravel's Shéhérazade and a Strauss SF Symphony first, to Davies Symphony Hall Nov. 6 and 8.
By the Bay Area Brief staff · Edited by Seamus McKenna · · 3 min read
San Francisco City Hall dome on a clear day. Photo: King of Hearts / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped, resized and color-graded). Archive photo of the area; not a photo of the events in this story.
Mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard joins the San Francisco Symphony and French conductor Fabien Gabel for two performances at Davies Symphony Hall: Friday, Nov. 6 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 8 at 2 p.m.
The program
Vincent d'Indy, Istar, symphonic variations drawn from the Babylonian myth of the goddess who descends to the underworld
Maurice Ravel, Shéhérazade, the song cycle Leonard sings
Claude Debussy, "Le jet d'eau" from Cinq poèmes de Charles Baudelaire, in orchestration
Richard Strauss, Symphonic Fantasy on Die Frau ohne Schatten, first SF Symphony performances. The single-movement piece collects what Strauss called "the best parts" of his opera about an empress with no shadow.
Before the concert
Horn player and musicologist Alicia Mastromonaco gives a free Inside Music talk on stage one hour before each performance.
Same weekend: San Francisco Opera's all-Strauss concert is across Van Ness at the War Memorial Opera House on Nov. 6.
Sources
This article is an original summary based on the following reporting. We encourage readers to visit the original sources for full coverage.
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