Bay Area arts: 9 great shows and concerts to catch

From popular folk-rockers Mumford Sons to giant forest trolls and classical music with a Spanish twist there is a lot to see and do in the Bay Area this weekend and beyond Here is a partial rundown Mumford s the word in this tour Mumford Sons have their eyes set on the Bay Area The London folk-rock outfit led by vocalist-guitarist Marcus Mumford and featuring bassist Ted Dwane and keyboardist Ben Lovett is set to perform a two-night stand June - at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley The band is touring in assistance of its long-awaited fifth studio album Rushmere which is the first full-length Mumford Sons outing since s Delta The group did however release the live EP Delta Tour in Both shows are sold out underscoring that the band hasn t lost any of its popularity during its time away from the studio Yet ducats can still be had on the secondary ticket industry think Stubhub Ticketmaster etc Formed in Mumford Sons wasted little time in hitting it big as the debut Sigh No More reached the No spot in both the band s native U K and the U S The follow-up Babel was a chart-topper in multiple countries including the U S and the U K and sold millions of copies It also won the Grammy for album of the year in Details Both shows start p m apeconcerts com Jim Harrington Staff Trolls take over Filoli They re huge and hairy have names like Ibbi Pip and Sofus Lotus and possibly eat humans They re Giant Trolls and they ll soon be coming to a forest near you On June the exhibit Trolls Save the Humans opens at the historic Filoli gardens in San Mateo County to run through early November A half-dozen humongous creatures made of recycled materials like construction wood will take up residence among the redwood groves and meadow blooms They re the work of Danish artist and dumpster diver Thomas Dambo who has hidden his trolls in at least countries including Ireland Australia and China there s even one skulking around in a nature museum in Solvang California called Lulu Hyggelig According to the artist s lore these sometimes -foot abominations sorry magical creatures are locked in an eternal debate on whether to save humans despite their polluting destructive solutions or chomp chomp just devour them When you take your kids to Filoli to meet the trolls ask them which they d prefer The outdoor exhibition will fuse fairytales whims and monumental scale write the Filoli folks to inspire visitors to explore themes such as recycling and reusing trash the importance of plants and gardens art and more Details Open a m - p m daily at Ca ada Road Woodside general admission filoli org John Metcalfe Staff Classical picks La Boheme Espana in San Jose Summer s here and the music is lovely These upcoming classical music events have much to offer from the brilliance of La Boh me now in performance at San Francisco Opera to a performance of an iconic Spanish work in San Jose Boh me bliss Opera lovers never get over the emotional impact of La Boh me Puccini s opera based on Henri Murger s novel never fails to thrill Now the opera about four young bohemians living for art in a chilly Paris apartment is back in the first of San Francisco Opera s summer productions Conducted by Ram n Tebar and starring Karen Chia-ling Ho Nicole Car Pene Pati and Evan LeRoy Johnson it s sure to warm your heart and leave you with beautiful memories Details Performances through June War Memorial Opera House San Francisco tickets and up sfopera com A Spanish Salute Symphony San Jose has a big season finale in store Titled Espa a and conducted by Jos Luis Gomez the operation features guitarist Rafael Aguirre in Joaquin Rodrigo s thrilling Concierto de Aranjuez Works by Ravel Rimsky-Korsakov and Gabriela Lena Frank complete the operation Arrive one hour early for pre-concert festivities Details p m June p m June California Theatre San Jose - symphonysanjose org From the Left Coast If it s new music you crave mark your calendars for the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble s upcoming concert Titled Spring Contrasts the activity spans music by Bart k Roberto Sierra Mel Bonis Kevin Day and Hannah Kendall Details p m June at Piedmont Center for the Arts p m June at Noe Valley Ministry San Francisco - leftcoastensemble org Georgia Rowe Correspondent Freebies of the week SFMOMA special days The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has two free offerings this week Let s start with Free First Thursdays which runs at the museum noon to p m on June and offers free admission to adults who live in the nine-county Bay Area region while it s not technically required it s highly recommended that you reserve your free admission at www sfmoma org free-days first-thursdays The admission does not include ticketed exhibits which means you will be charged to view the Ruth Asawa collection But there is still much to see for free including the photopainting works of Japanese artist Kunie Sugiura Singapore artist Samson Young s otherworldly collection of paintings and sculptures accompanied by a soundscape and famed painter sculptor installation and performance artist Yayoi Kusama s work Dreaming of Earth s Sphericity I Would Offer My Love And of particular interest to Bay Area photography lovers will be the exhibit devoted to Group f a collective of Bay Area photographers including Ansel Adams Imogen Cunningham and Edward Weston who banded together in the early th century to counter the burgeoning practice of pictorialism which favored artistic compositions including manipulated photographs over works strictly rendered by a camera The f artists concluded that their pure photographs could rival anything that pictorialists could manufacture and they set out to prove it The artists works history and ties to the Bay Area are covered in the exhibit And on Thursday there is a p m panel discussion in the Wattis Theatre devoted to f and its artists Meanwhile from a m to p m Sunday there are free Family Day events and exercises as well as access to various exhibits again excluding Ruth Asawa More information is at www sfmoma org event free-family-day-hometown-heroes And for general info on the museum go to www sfmoma org Killer sex farce lands in Lesher In incident you missed it the only musical comedy in the Bay Area to concern itself with frisky seniors murder and a curious influencer has changed houses We re talking of module about Min Kahng s world premiere production Happy Pleasant Valley A Senior Sex Embarrassment Murder Mystery Musical The show is a co-production by Palo Alto s TheatreWorks Silicon Valley where it ran earlier this year and Center Repertory Company where it is playing through June If the title itself makes you chuckle then this is presumably the production for you To describe Pleasant Valley as having broad humor would likely be an understatement But this is by no means a criticism there is nothing quite like a comedy be it on stage or on screen that tromps all over its subject matter like an inebriated elephant especially when the performers are in on the joke Pleasant Valley pokes fun at pretty much every hot topic there is these days sex cancel society our strange worship of influencers ageism and more And it does so with a talented cast of comic actors and the acclaimed and well-traveled director Jeffrey Lo Performances are at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek tickets are - Go to www centerrep org Bay City News Foundaton Neil Diamond s Beautiful Noise A Broadway touring show opening this week at the Golden Gate Theatre in San Francisco bills itself as the untold story of Neil Diamond s rise from a shy sensitive Brooklyn singer-songwriter to an international superstar This of unit is absolute poppycock Diamond s story is well-known around the world and has been for particular time But that doesn t mean that Diamond and his story and music aren t tailor-made for the kind of jukebox musical that we ve seen for the likes of Frankie Valley and the Four Seasons Carole King and countless others He has a well-known and very popular song catalogue that includes such singles as I am I Noted Sweet Caroline Cracklin Rosie Song Sung Blue and numerous numerous more It s compelling that the show s title A Beautiful Noise comes from Diamond s th album which was known as an attempt helmed by the Band s Robbie Robertson to restore particular critical acclaim to a music career that had been growing more commercially oriented read cheesy But Diamond s career kind of like Phil Collins has long been a mix of true talent and schmaltz The man has written and sung specific of the biggest hits in contemporary pop music history and has been heralded as a lyricist who captures the gamut of human emotion in phrases everyone can connect with Then again one of his biggest hits literally includes the line I am I mentioned to no one there And no one heard at all Not even the chair And let s not even get into the fact that he starred in a remake of The Jazz Singer movie that retained the original title even though it CONTAINS ABSOLUTELY NO JAZZ MUSIC But that doesn t mean we Neil Diamond fans love him any less or aren t beyond stoked to see the Beautiful Noise which is playing in S F through June Details Tickets are - subject to change www broadwaysf com Bay City News Foundation An S F Symphony packed plan Two richly orchestrated tone poems by Richard Strauss about reprobate characters one a mischievous miscreant and the other a total cad a highly distinctive final symphony by the great Finnish composer Jean Sibelius and the San Francisco Symphony s first commission from Berkeley-born composer Gabriella Smith comprise the venture for the penultimate series of concerts Esa-Pekka Salonen will lead before his much-bemoaned departure as music director from the podium Taking place at p m June - and p m June in Davies Hall the concert opens with Don Juan Strauss description of the amorous pursuits and ultimate death of the infamous libertine and ends appropriately enough with Till Eulenspiegel s Merry Pranks which follows the titular prankster through a series of capers leading to his vividly orchestrated death by hanging Sibelius Symphony No intervenes singular for reasons that include the fact that it is played through as a single movement followed by Smith s Rewilding a work that is inspired by the young composer s commitment to ecological restoration Details Tickets - are available at sfsymphony org Bay City News Foundation