Steven Winn

San Francisco

Freelance Writer at Freelance

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Articles

At SF Ballet, Death and Passion Collide in Mesmerizing Double Bill “Broken Love”

2 weeks ago | sfcv.org | Steven Winn

The specter of death arrives early for both heroines in San Francisco Ballet’s two-part program “Broken Love.” But don’t let this cast a pall. Mortality’s long shadow heightens and intensifies the evening’s drama in strikingly different ways.
SF Ballet Captures Hans van Manen’s Many Moods

2 weeks ago | sfcv.org | Steven Winn

You can certainly say this much about San Francisco Ballet’s new program devoted to choreographer Hans van Manen: In an evening that begins with the calculated geometries of his Grosse Fuge and ends with the flowing sinuosities of 5 Tango’s, variety is the defining spice. “Van Manen: Dutch Grandmaster” opened on Friday, April 5, at the War Memorial Opera House and runs through April 19.
SFCV Presents: The Virtual Greenroom With Marin Alsop

3 weeks ago | sfcv.org | Steven Winn

November 16, 2024 On Nov. 13, 2024, clarinetist Anthony McGill joined music writer Emily Wilson via Zoom in SFCV’s interview series. The conversation touched on his career, his current interests and concerns, and his upcoming projects. July 29, 2024 On July 24, 2024, cellist Dmitri Atapine and pianist Hyeyeon Park joined music writer Steven Winn via Zoom in SFCV’s interview series.
Frankenstein Is Resurrected at SF Ballet

1 month ago | sfcv.org | Steven Winn

As story ballets go, Frankenstein has a lot of it — story, that is. San Francisco Ballet’s production, which opened on Thursday, March 20, and runs through March 26 (with encore dates to follow), has an abundance of other things as well, including set changes, flashbacks, pirouette-driven corps dances, a cinematically supercharged score, and special effects. Whether or how it all comes together in a coherent and compelling way is the telling, problematic issue.
Interactive 'Mrs. Krishnan's Party' serves up a good time in close quarters

1 month ago | sfchronicle.com | Steven Winn

All are welcome at "Mrs. Krishnan's Party," except at first the hostess, who knows nothing about it until she arrives at her convenience store and finds the back room packed with strangers. It's the fond wish of this amiable but thin comedy at Marin Theatre that those strangers - the audience - will feel a little more warmly toward each other and the world after spending a short evening in the close quarters of the small, repurposed Boyer Theatre.
Poetry and Passion in Latest Schwabacher Recital

1 month ago | sfcv.org | Steven Winn

I could have sworn that midway through his gripping performance of Robert Schumann’s Dichterliebe, tenor Michael John Butler locked eyes with mine. Safe to say I wasn’t the only one who felt that intense and intimate connection on Wednesday, March 19, at the Barbro Osher Recital Hall, perched on the 11th floor of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Bowes Center.
An Urgent Alternate History Unfolds in William Kentridge’s The Great Yes, The Great No

1 month ago | sfcv.org | Steven Winn

“There’s your story, there’s my story, there’s the truth,” says a character in The Great Yes, The Great No. “And then there’s actually what happened.” The man who poses that teasingly philosophical conundrum in William Kentridge’s multi-valenced theatrical and musical astonishment at Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall is the Captain (a bighearted Hamilton Dhlamini) of a ship that actually did set sail in 1941.
SF Ballet Stuns With Lavish Raymonda

1 month ago | sfcv.org | Steven Winn

The prevailing sense memory many audience members may take away from San Francisco Ballet’s Raymonda is that of propulsive ensemble dancing combine with more than 600 eye-popping costumes that explode like fireworks across the War Memorial Opera House stage. This happens over and over in both the folk-inflected character dances that invoke Hungary, Spain, and the Ottoman Empire as well as other crowd and smaller numbers in this production of an 1898 rarity.
SF Ballet Surveys British Dance With Mixed Success

2 months ago | sfcv.org | Steven Winn

Don’t let the title of Cool Britannia — San Francisco Ballet’s current program, playing at the War Memorial Opera House through Feb. 19 — lead you to expect anything laid back and loose. From the hot-wired partnering in Wayne McGregor’s Chroma, which opens the three-panel bill of dances by British choreographers, to the starkly relentless war threnody of Akram Khan’s Dust, the audience feels the heat.
Yuja Wang Doubles the Concerto Demands With Esa-Pekka Salonen and SF Symphony

2 months ago | sfcv.org | Steven Winn

For Yuja Wang’s legion of fans, the pianist’s prodigious, seemingly inexhaustible gifts are a settled matter. The sound and fury, range and finesse, drama and delicacy she summons from a Steinway grand are a renewable marvel. Her flashy costumes, too, have become a reliable feature of her performances. Two years ago, the Chinese pianist extended her brand with a marathon feat.