World Travel Guide

City Guide  - San Francisco  - Culture
Culture

The cultural life of San Francisco is as diverse as the different cultures that are born here and springs out of them with an energy that sometimes startles. In the Mission, the art is on the walls; in the Civic Center, it streams melodically from purpose-built buildings dedicated to the pursuit of music; SoMa is home to important museums and some of the most exciting visual art in the world; while Union Square is theatreland. Acid rock was born in the LSD days of the 1960s and played to the hippie generation by bands like Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead, while, in 1967, the Summer of Love crystallised this new cultural consciousness.

Guitarist Carlos Santana, recently back in vogue, settled here and continues to speak of the creativity that came out of LSD. Today, the city still provides a home to artists of all descriptions, reflecting the breadth of cultural diversity. Its status as a pioneer has settled down as many of the ideas that earlier generations fought for, such as gay rights in the 1970s, are now more accepted. But there remains a rich tradition of alternative theatre, as well as successful mainstream offerings. There is always something to stimulate the mind and the senses - from street performers, who are licensed by the Arts Commission, to the city's symphony orchestra.

Tix Bay Area
, 251 Stockton Street (tel: (415) 433 7827), provides full-price advance tickets (phone and person), as well as half-price, day-of-performance tickets (person only) for a range of events. There is a website that provides good theatre information (website: www.theatre.com/san francisco).

Music: The San Francisco Symphony, led by acclaimed conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, won three Grammy Awards this year. Last year, most concerts were sold out - thanks to a deserved reputation and the accomplishments of some of the world's best musicians. Concerts are held at the ultra-modern Davies Symphony Hall, 201 Van Ness Avenue (tel: (415) 864 6000; website: www.sfsymphony.org), one of the city's most exciting buildings.

The San Francisco Opera (tel: (415) 864 3330; website: www.sfopera.com) is currently in its 78th season and, under the direction of Lotfi Mansouri, has climbed great heights to become one of the world's great opera companies. Its home is the War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness Avenue, reckoned to be one of the most attractive buildings in America and conceived as a tribute to the county's World War I veterans.

Theatre: Shows range from Broadway productions on Geary Street to smaller, more alternative shows throughout the city. The Geary Theatre, 415 Geary Street (tel: (415) 749 2228; website: www.act-sfbay.org), opened in 1996 and is home to the American Conservatory Theatre (ACT), one of the nation's largest resident companies and a Tony Award winner. The cast revisits classics and explores modern masterpieces between September and July. The Curran Theatre, 445 Geary Street (tel: (415) 551 2000), hosts touring Broadway musicals. Teatro Zinzanni, at Pier 27-29, The Embarcadero (tel: (415) 438 2668; website: www.teatrozinzanni.org), blends cabaret, spectacle, music and dinner to conjure up a night to remember. Audiences who like to get in on the action should attend 'Tony and Tina's Wedding' at the Cable Car Theatre, 430 Mason Street (tel (415) 434 3832; website: www.tonyandtina.com).

Dance: Ballet has been part of life here longer than in any other city in America. San Francisco Ballet (tel: (415) 865 2000; website: www.sfballet.org) is not only the oldest, starting life in 1933, it is also reputedly among the best, performing an eclectic repertoire of classical and contemporary works. Performances take place at the War Memorial Opera House (see Music above) between February and May. There are a number of innovative dance troupes dotted around town. The Ethnic Dance Festival takes place at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre in Lyon Street (tel: (415) 392 4400) over three weekends in June.

Film: San Francisco has been the setting for numerous films over the years, directors and producers attracted by its varied locations and laid-back lifestyle. Its steep hills are favoured for car chases and the Bay, with the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz in the distance, provides an unrivalled backdrop. Most famously, Steve McQueen starred in the 1960s classic Bullitt (1968). More recently, Chris Columbus filmed local resident Robin Williams in Mrs Doubtfire (1993), and Sean Connery appeared in The Rock (1996). Copycat (1995), the story of a serial killer, featured Sigourney Weaver and Holly Hunter.

The San Francisco International Film Festival is held in April and shows a wide range of cinema. Two of the best new film venues are the Yerba Buena Centre for the Arts, Third Street (tel: (415) 978 2787; website: www.yerbabuenaarts.org), and the adjacent Metreon Centre (tel: (415) 369 6000; website: www.metreon.com), a Sony IMAX theatre, with 15 screens.

Cultural Events: Festivals and parades of every kind seem in constant flux in a city that never stops. June sees the Gay Freedom Day Parade march from The Embarcadero on the waterfront down to the Civic Center. It also launches the Stern Grove Midsummer Music Festival that provides two months of varied performing arts. The last weekend in July is time for the San Francisco Jazz & Wine Festival at The Embarcadero Centre. Things really get moving in September with the annual Blues Festival and Opera in the Park. The San Francisco Jazz Festival, one of the biggest and best around with stars from around the world, gets underway at the end of October for two weeks at various venues.

Literary Notes
San Francisco has inspired literary comment almost since its inception. However, until the 1950s, it was mostly the odd epigram from wits like Mark Twain, who reckoned his coldest winter was a summer here, or Rudyard Kipling, who once called San Francisco 'a mad city - inhabited for the most part by perfectly insane people', or John Steinbeck, who described the city as a 'golden handcuff' without a key. Although William Saroyan did have this to say during the Great Depression: 'If you're alive, you can't be bored in San Francisco. If you're not alive, San Francisco will bring you to life.'

Frisco has been at the vanguard of American consciousness ever since, peaking in the 1950s thanks to the Beat Generation writers - Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Gary Snyder. Lawrence Ferlinghetti, poet and publisher, was declared innocent of obscenity for publishing Allen Ginsberg's Howl (1956), paving the way for an open and liberal cultural life in the city. For Snyder, a Pullitzer prize winner, it was the cultural diversity and natural beauty that inspired him - but for many it was the drugs and the political climate. Most famous of them all is Jack Kerouac, whose On The Road (1957) spoke for a generation and challenged the status quo. The only survivor of the Beat Generation is Lawrence Ferlinghetti whose City Lights Bookstore, 261 Columbus Avenue, holds a reputation as one of the best places for buying literature in the US.

Ken Kesey, author of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1962), continued the outraging of American society a decade later, fuelled by LSD. For Dylan Thomas it was a city out of this world: 'You wouldn't think such a place as San Francisco could exist,' he proclaimed. Gay writer Armistead Maupin's success was founded on that of his newspaper column, which started in the San Francisco Chronicle on 24 May 1976, and his understanding of his city's large and powerful homosexual population. He went on to become a major modern storyteller quirkily reflecting city life in a series of novels that began with Tales of the City (1978), followed by More Tales of the City (1980) and Further Tales of the City (1982). He has written a number of other books including the latest The Night Listener (2000), and continues to enjoy popular appeal.



Copyright © 2001 Columbus Publishing
    
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