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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

That Week with the Bachs

A rendering of the set for That Week with the Bachs.

Feb 16–18, 2023
1100 California Street San Francisco, CA 94108

It’s not easy having a genius for a father. Set in 1731, from November 19 to 25, William Kinsolving’s musical takes the audience inside the cramped Leipzig apartment of Johannes Sebastian Bach, who lives there with his second wife, Anna, and eight children. As Bach deals with problems with his employers, along with the emotions and illnesses of the kids and Anna, he is composing his legendary Cantata 140, a movement a day for seven days. This week of drama culminates in startling revelations. The opera singer Philip Skinner stars as Bach. —Jensen Davis

Photo: Eliot Curtis