Runnicles at San Francisco Symphony

Donald Runnicles

Courtesy of his website

Well, I was extremely happy with this week's SFS program, which featured Donald Runnicles conducting Berg's Seven Early Songs and Mahler's First Symphony. For the Berg, he had mezzo-soprano Irene Roberts as soloist, and...her performance was a revelation.

Roberts has sung at SF Opera five times since 2013, in these roles:

• Giulietta, Tales of Hoffman
• Carmen, Carmen
• Bao Chai, Dream of the Red Chamber
• Dorabella, Così fan tutte
• Offred, The Handmaid's Tale

Seeing her in these roles would not have prepared you for the vocal splendor she brought to the Berg, which was gorgeously, immaculately sung. Over in Europe, where she was a member of the ensemble at Deutsche Oper Berlin, she's been singing roles like the above, but also the great Wagner mezzo and Zwischenfach roles. I can imagine that they are magnificent, and I can only hope that she'll be in future Wagner productions at SFO, in roles that would be ideal for her.

As it happens, Deutsche Opera Berlin is where Runnicles headed after SFO, a position he'll be leaving at the end of the 2025-26 season. He's also, for that season, the chief conductor of the Dresden Philharmonic. I was wowed by his Mahler, and I've been a fan of his for years, so I consider the people of Dresden to be lucky indeed.

My review ran very long and I could not compliment every solo player, much as I wanted to. Yubeen Kim and the whole flute section were marvelous; Eugene Izotov was spectacular at many crucial moments and the double reeds were amazing in the Klezmer interjection in the third movement; Carey Bell, as ever, was wonderful and so was Matthew Griffith on E-flat clarinet. Joshua Elmore was right there in a number of critical moments. I loved the timpani / double bass duet at the beginning of the third movement, so kudos to Ed Stephan and Scott Pingel. Then there were the brass, with principal trumpet Mark Inouye fabulous in the last movement, and all of the horns and trombones, plus Jeff Anderson on tuba:

Horns – Michael Stevens (Principal), Jonathan Ring, Jack Bryant, Jessica Valeri, Roy Femenella, Amy Sanchez, Meredith Brown and Alicia Mastromanco

Trombones – Ben Smelser (Principal), Paul Welcomer, Chase Waterbury and Kyle Mendiguchia

Reviews:

• Lisa Hirsch, S.F. Chronicle / SFCV

Department of Speculation

Post, 2011 SFO Ring

San Francisco Opera hasn't announced when they're doing the Ring next, though since it's known that Eun Sun Kim will conduct, it'll be before her contract expires at the end of the 2030-31 season. Given the problematic financial environment for the arts just now, well, it could be a ways out.

Still, as I wrote in my Santa Fe Die Walküre review, we're at a moment of generational change in Wagner singing. Let's take some time to speculate as to who might be in the next SFO Ring. I have absolutely no inside information on casting; these are strictly my hallucinations. Also, my lists are in alphabetical order, not the order in which I'd like to see these roles cast.

Wotan

• Nicholas Brownlee
• Ryan Speedo Green (singing his first this year, in Santa Fe and LA; apparently signed for the next Met Ring)
• Brian Mulligan (sang it in Europe, in concert, with YNS)

Fricka / Waltraute / Norn

• Jamie Barton
• Tanja Ariane Baumgartner
• Raehann Bryce-Davis
• Irene Roberts
• Sarah Saturnino
• Annika Schlicht

Alberich

• Tomas Konieczny
• Falk Struckmann

Brünnhilde

• Lise Davidsen (can SFO pay her fees?)
• Christine Goerke
• Anja Kampe (an impressive Isolde last year in SF)
• Camilla Nylund (an impressive Kaiserin in 2023 in SF)
• Tamara Wilson

Sieglinde

• Vida Miknevičiūtė
• Irene Roberts (I know, I know, she's a mezzo, but believe me she has the vocal chops for this)
• Elisabeth Strid

Siegmund

• Clay Hilley
• Brian Jagde
• Brandon Jovanovich
• Jamez McCorkle
• Simon O'Neill
• Russell Thomas

Siegfried

• Daniel Brenna
• Clay Hilley
• Simon O'Neill?
• Andreas Schager
• Stefan Vinke

Loge / Mime

• Russell Thomas
• Brenton Ryan

Hunding / Hagen

• Peixin Chen
• Jongwon Han
• Soloman Howard

Who do you like?

Friday Photo

City of Rocks State Park

Faywood, NM

July, 2025

 

Dead Man Walking

Dead Man Walking

Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera 

Rod Gilfry as Owen Hart, Caroline Corrales as Kitty Hart, Nikola Printz as Jad Boucher, Samuel White as Howard Boucher, and Jamie Barton as Sister Helen Prejean

Not long ago, I looked over the notes I had from the 2000 world premiere run of Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally's first opera together, Dead Man Walking. At the time, several years before I became a professional music writer, I didn't think all that much of it. I was therefore somewhat surprised by the opera's popularity (it has had 82 bring-ups to date, all over the United States and Europe), except for the obvious appeal of the story and the excellence of the singers who were in the premiere.

I saw the 25th anniversary production last Saturday, and boy, was I ever wrong. I did not have enough experience with new opera to adequately analyze the music and libretto. (I'm not the only one to have made this mistake; a friend said the same had been true of him back then.)

So I'll come down on the side of Joshua Kosman, whose review a couple of weeks ago mentioned that back in 2000 he'd called it a masterpiece. Dead Man Walking is a remarkable opera, for the strength and singability of the libretto, which is superbly structured, for the excellence of the text-setting, for the beautiful and imaginative orchestration. It's no wonder the opera has been produced so regularly over such a long period. It's an amazing record for a modern opera, and particularly amazing when you keep in mind that Dead Man Walking was Heggie's first opera.

The opera opens with a rape and double murder, and there is no doubt that Joe de Rocher and his brother are guilty. He's not going to be pardoned, his sentence isn't going to be commuted to life imprisonment. The opera isn't really focussed on him; the subjects are Sister Helen's journey to find true Christian forgiveness for the terrible crime he has committed and the terrible harm the crime and its aftermath have had on the families of the murdered teenagers. (Here I'll note that I am not a Christian and would feel no call to forgive a murderer for such a crime. Nonetheless, for many reasons I'm opposed to the death penalty and have been my entire adult life.)

Patrick Summers, who has lived with this opera since 2000, conducted the performance very beautifully. Jamie Barton sang with luminous beauty as Sister Helen, and acted with a kind of understated, plainspoken tartness. Brittany Renée, superb in Omar and La Bohème, was here terrific as Sister Rose, who teaches with Sister Helen. Susan Graham, who created the role of Sister Helen, has come full circle and was deeply moving as a fragile, frightened Mrs. de Roche. Ryan McKinney, one of the go-to baritones for new American opera, was an all-too-human Joe de Rocher. Rodney Gilfry was heart-rending as Owen Hart, father of one of the dead children. Caroline Corrales, Nikola Printz, and Samuel White were all excellent as the other parents of the children.

Susan Graham as Mrs. Patrick De Rocher in Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally's "Dead Man Walking."

Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

I liked Leonard Foglia's staging and the uncomplicated unit set that works for the convent, the schoolroom, the prison.

I came out of the 2000 performances mostly remembering Susan Graham singing "He Will Gather Us Around," a beautiful hymn that Heggie wrote for the opera, and Frederica von Stade's brilliance as Mrs. de Rocher, the other of the condemned man. I'll remember a lot more this time around.

Two performances remain; catch Dead Man Walking while you can.

• Joshua Kosman, On a Pacific Aisle
• Lily Janiak, S.F. Chronicle
• Nicholas Jones, SFCV
• Gabe Meline, KQED
• Matthew Travisano, Parterre Box. Interesting insights into the weaknesses of the opera.
• Charlise Tiee, Opera Tattler
• Michael Strickland, S.F. Civic Center. Again, interesting insights into weaknesses
• San Francisco Opera, Dead Man Walking at 25 website: oral history and lots more about the creation of the opera.

Relocated Noise

Alex Ross's long-running blog, The Rest is Noise, has relocated from TypePad to WordPress. If your feed reader or other indicator (there's a Blogger function that acts like a feed reader...) fails to pick up new posts, that is why: the domain name has not changed, but its IP address has. So delete the old feed and search for the blog name, then add that feed. That is what I had to do on Inoreader, my current feed reader.

(If you don't have a feed reader, you should. Never –– well, almost never –– miss an article, which I say because Inoreader seems to occasional skip a Parterre Box article, and I don't know why.)

Shawnette Sulker and Sara Couden in Concert

Star singers Shawnette Sulker (soprano) and Sara Couden (contralto) are giving a 90-minute concert of arias and duets by Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, and Delibes this Sunday. Zachary Gordin is their collaborative pianist and the concert is under the auspices of Festival Opera, which has a fine ongoing series of recitals.

They are both terrific and I would go see this if I weren't reviewing La Traviata at Livermore Valley Opera.

Concert details:

4 p.m.

Sunday, September 28, 2025

Piedmont Center for the Arts

801 Magnolia Ave.

Piedmont, CA

$40

Museum Mondays

Eggplants

Watercolor

Ruth Asawa Retrospective

SFMOMA, August, 2025

 

Friday Photo

Cactus

City of Rocks State Park, New Mexico

July, 2025

 

So Do They All

Nicole Koh (Despina, as the Doctor), Ricardo José Rivera (Guglielmo), Jonghyun Park (Ferrando)

Opera San José Cosi fan tutte

Photo: David Allen

I had a fun time covering Opera San José's hilarious production of Così fan tutte, directed by Alek Shrader and conducted by Joseph Marcheso. The twist of this production is that the audience gets to vote on how the opera ends. It's a gimmick, but a fun one; I kept my eyes open during Act 1 for the setups for the various endings. I can report that the opening-performance audience went for the straight ending, where everyone winds up with their original lover. Personally, I'd favor everybody heading off on their own, preferably after heaping abuse on Don Alfonso, sadder but wiser.

• Lisa Hirsch, S.F. Chronicle (feature)
• Lisa Hirsch, SFCV (review)
• Related: Harvey Steiman, Seen & Heard, reviews Renée Fleming's production of Così, in which the soprano finds her own entertaining resolution for the plot.

I'm hoping to have further reviews to post later this week, but we'll see.

It's Official.

Screenshot from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra website

My SFCV article updating SF* orchestra personnel for 2025-26 noted that Timothy Higgins was "on leave" from San Francisco Symphony, because no announcement had been made by the CSO about his appointment.

Now there's a press release and, as you can see from the above, he's on their website. With Christopher Bassett on leave and back in the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, and Nick Platoff's resignation (he's now the principal at Houston), the SFS trombone section is currently down to Paul Welcomer.

Higgins might return to SFS at the end of the season. The labor settlement undoubtedly make SFS more attractive than it was, say a week ago, and the weather is better here. But the cost of living is higher than in Chicago and they've got a new music director coming in, one who has a reputation for working very respectfully with musicians, while who knows who will get the appointment in SF.

 

Museum Mondays

Yayoi Kusama

Aspiring to Pumpkin's Love, the Love in My Heart

SF MOMA

August, 2025

 

Breaking News

Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

It's not often that a music review also contains breaking news, but my review of last night's SFS gala concert concludes with more good news for the orchestra: the orchestra has a new artistic administrator, a position that has been open since last fall, when Phillippa Cole left. Michael Gandlmayr joins the orchestra next, from the same position at the Cleveland Orchestra. Before Cleveland, he was artistic administrator of the Seattle Symphony. (Seattle experienced the departure of a number of good people during the tenure of Krishna Thiagarajan, who left the orchestra earlier this year.)

Amusingly, the news came from SFS in the form of a correction: I had the wrong time frame for Cole's departure, and, oh, there's a new artistic admin starting next week! 

Oh, right, the gala was fun! It wasn't a deep program and it seemed to exemplify this year's...uh...weak programming, but Jaap van Zweden led a zippy and fun program; the orchestra sounded great; Yuja Wang is always fun.

• Lisa Hirsch, S.F. Chronicle (review)
• Tony Bravo, S.F. Chronicle (reporting)
• Steven Winn, SFCV (review)
• Joshua Kosman, On a Pacific Aisle 

 

Contract!

Davies Symphony Hall

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

Well, now. Yesterday afternoon, I heard that SFS and its musicians had reached a contract agreement. A couple of hours later, a press release arrived. It's good news, even thought the tentative contract still needs formal ratification by the parties. The musicians' salaries will rise by a remarkable amount, 15% over the three-year term of the contract, which is retroactive to last November and runs through November, 2027. (I nearly fell off my chair when I saw the numbers.)

I'm very pleased with this news. While I think that such a good orchestra has never really been in much danger of failing to attract top musicians, because there is so much talent out there, it's certainly a concern that some openings went unfilled for so long and that several musicians have left or are in the process of leaving for other orchestras.

Some questions remain, at least in my mind: why did the orchestra seem so intransigent for so long? And where did the money come from, given the confusing statements of problem finances by the orchestra? What finally allowed this settlement to happen?

Anyway, here's the press release:

San Francisco Symphony and American Federation of Musicians (AFM) Local 6 members of the Orchestra reach tentative three-year contract agreement The three-year agreement provides a wage increase beginning September 1, 2025, with biannual increases rising by 15% over the contract; an increase to the defined benefit pension plan, making it the second-highest in the industry; exceptional health benefits and 10 weeks of paid vacation annually

San Francisco, CA—The San Francisco Symphony Board of Governors and the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) Local 6 members of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra have reached a tentative three-year collective bargaining agreement subject to ratification by both parties. The new contract will be applied retroactively to November 24, 2024, continues through November 20, 2027, and keeps the Orchestra in the top five highest-paid orchestras in the country. The new agreement guarantees regular increases to minimum weekly scale, maintaining the starting weekly base salary of $3,450 from November 24 through August 31, 2025, followed by biannual increases, rising over time by 15% to $3,960 (a starting minimum annualized salary of $205,920) in the last six months of the contract.  The musicians will also receive a one-time additional payment of $3,450 upon ratification of the contract, in addition to an increase to the defined benefit pension, bringing the maximum annual benefit to $89,000—the industry’s second-highest pension benefit among orchestras in the U.S. The tentative agreement continues to provide generous medical plans with low cost to musicians and 10 weeks of paid vacation.  Joint statement from the Board, Musicians, and Administration: “The Board of Governors, Musicians of the Orchestra, and Administrative Staff of the San Francisco Symphony share a united vision for the artistic greatness and endless creativity of this organization and will endeavor to work together to sustain and build upon that vision. We collectively recognize that the artistic impact of this organization is fueled both by the artistry of our Musicians and by the support of our community. We are all committed to working together to support and grow our connections with patrons, audiences, and our city.”  Statement from San Francisco Symphony Chief Executive Officer Matthew Spivey: “We are pleased that we were able to work together with our Orchestra and the AFM to reach an agreement that provides highly competitive compensation while also acknowledging the importance of our organization’s long-term financial stability. This tentative agreement is a demonstration of the Administration’s faith in the future of the Symphony and the organization’s deep commitment to its musicians and the Bay Area community. It also requires the Symphony to stretch financially with the support and generosity of our community to meet the new contract terms in the years to come. Our artists are the lifeblood of our work and mission, and, without them, our organization would not be what it is today. We are grateful that we can all continue to deliver exceptional classical music performances to our Bay Area community. I also want to thank both the staff and musicians who have been involved in the negotiations, as well as the board, staff, and entire Orchestra for their commitment to a bright future for this organization.”  Statement from David Gaudry, Chair of the Musicians’ Negotiating Committee: “The Musicians of the San Francisco Symphony are grateful for the renewed commitment and support for the Orchestra and the artistic future of this great institution demonstrated by our coming together on the terms of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. We continue to acknowledge the economic challenges facing the organization, the importance of long-term fiscal health, and the commitment demonstrated by the Board. We are confident that working together to support this organization will allow us to continue to be able to present the type of innovative programming and world-class symphonic music for which we have become known.”

• Aidin Vazini and Tony Bravo, Chronicle
• Janos Gereben, SFCV (link to follow)
• Janos Gereben, SFCV (strike authorization)

 

Friday Photo

Spider Man Costume

Oakland, CA

September, 2025

 

Political Violence

I'm generally opposed to political violence, with some exceptions, like the overthrow of an oppressive government by the people (the American Revolution). Last year I wrote a blog post shaking my head at the number of people saying that political violence "isn't who [Americans] are." Gosh, political violence has been with us for centuries, practiced by individuals and the government. Right now, we've basically got secret police rounding people up based on skin color and their ability to speak Spanish. That's government-sponsored political violence and the Supreme Court is letting the government get away with it.

Today, Charlie Kirk, a right-wing political figure, was assassinated during an appearance in Utah. I wanted to take note of a few things he said in the last few years.

In October, 2022, Rolling Stone quoted him as follows:

Republicans usually tout a “tough on crime” stance, but right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk thinks a man who is set to be charged with attempted homicide should be allowed out on bail.

“Why has he not been bailed out?” Kirk said Monday on his podcast of the man who allegedly beat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi‘s husband Paul with a hammer last Friday. “By the way, if some amazing patriot out there in San Francisco or the Bay Area wants to really be a midterm hero, someone should go and bail this guy out, I bet his bail’s like thirty or forty thousand bucks.” With a smirk, he added: “Bail him out and then go ask him some questions.”

It sounds like he was okay with violence against Paul Pelosi. 

This past June, when Melissa Hortman, a Democratic politician, was assassinated in her home, along with her husband and their dog, the BBC noted the following:

In the wake of the attacks, several of Trump's top supporters and allies - including Utah Senator Mike Lee, Elon Musk, conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer and activist Charlie Kirk - attempted without evidence to link Walz and Democratic lawmakers to the killings.

Lastly, Kirk believed that some gun deaths were inevitable and the price you pay for having the Second Amendment:

"You will never live in a society when you have an armed citizenry and you won't have a single gun death," Kirk said at a Turning Point USA Faith event on Wednesday, as reported by Media Matters for America. "That is nonsense. It's drivel. But I am—I think it's worth it.

"I think it's worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal. It is rational. Nobody talks like this. They live in a complete alternate universe."

We have the First Amendment, giving people basically the right to say whatever drivel they want. Kirk certainly took advantage of it, and now he's a victim of political violence himself.

Democrats almost uniformly condemn political violence, regardless of the political beliefs of the target. Charlie Kirk did not.

Ojai Festival Appoints Teddy Abrams

Teddy Abrams

Photo: Lauren Desberg, courtesy of 21C Media Group

Teddy Abrams, composer and music director of the Louisville Orchestra, will succeed Ara Guzelimian as artistic and executive director of the Ojai Music Festival, effective September 1, 2026. The first festival for which he'll appoint the music director is the 2027 festival. Esa-Pekka Salonen is the music director for the 2026 festival.

Ojai's press release is after the jump.

Belated Museum Monday

Ruth Asawa

From the magnificent retrospective of her work at SF MOMA

August, 2025

This show is traveling to NY MOMA and you can see it there if you missed it here.

 

Belated Friday Photo

Purple Carrots

Berkeley Bowl West, Berkeley, CA

September, 2025

 

Meanwhile, at San Francisco Opera

War Memorial Opera House

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

San Francisco Opera has a new, two-year agreement with its AGMA members, which include the chorus, principal artists, dancers, and production staff. The press release is brief, the news good:

The American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA) and San Francisco Opera (SFO) announce a new two-year collective bargaining agreement, ratified by AGMA’s Board of Governors on August 25, 2025.

Following over nine months of negotiations, the new contract, retroactively effective from March 1, 2025 and in effect through February 28, 2027, brings pay increases including equitable pay adjustments, enhanced work-life protections, and new benefits, as well as enhancements to scheduling and audition processes, while also recognizing the challenges being faced across the arts at the moment. San Francisco Opera’s AGMA members include the Chorus, Principal Artists, Dancers, and Production Staff.

"This agreement reflects the dedication of every AGMA member at San Francisco Opera; we really came together. Solidarity works,” said Sally Mouzon, AGMA's Western Region Vice President, SFO Chorister, and member of the Negotiating Committee. “It’s about respect for the job we do, a healthy balance between life and work, and ensuring that artists have a real seat at the table as our beloved San Francisco Opera plans for the future.”

“I am deeply grateful to all those on both negotiating committees who gave so deeply of their time and wisdom to craft a new agreement. The new contract will ensure that San Francisco Opera continues to produce opera at the highest levels of excellence, while reflecting the need for long-term sustainability in the arts,” said Matthew Shilvock, General Director of San Francisco Opera. “Our AGMA Artists are extraordinary professionals and partners in the creative vitality of the company and I’m very excited for the thrilling artistry that this contract will make possible in the years ahead.”

This agreement underscores the shared commitment of San Francisco Opera and AGMA to honor the artistry and contributions of the AGMA Artists of SFO, fostering a workplace culture that supports excellence and creativity, and building a long-term pathway to a sustainable future for opera in San Francisco.

 

Salary Negotiations at San Francisco Symphony

Davies Symphony Hall

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

If you're reading this, you're probably aware that the musicians and administration of San Francisco Symphony have been at loggerheads over the contract for, well, roughly a year. There were protests over Esa-Pekka Salonen's departure (sigh) and the most recent contract expired in November, 2024. There have been formal extensions of that contract, though I think the last one expired in the spring.

I dug up some historical information about SFS musician pay. The first two items are from Janos Gereben's reporting in San Francisco Classical Voice. The last is from email sent by SFS last week about their last, best, and final offer. 

2018 Contract

 

"The new agreement runs through Nov. 26, 2022. It provides for a new weekly base minimum salary of $3,263, increasing to $3,570 in the final six months of the contract. The current amount is $3,200."

 

[LRH: 2018 is the contract that got cancelled during the pandemic, with musician salaries rolled back substantially to save money, with the possibility of SFS invoking force majeure to force even more extreme cuts.]

 

 2023 Contract

 

“The new agreement will be applied retroactively from Nov. 27, 2022 [when the previous agreement expired] and runs through Nov. 18, 2024. The agreement provides for a new weekly base minimum salary of $3,313 upon ratification and increasing to $3,450 in the 2023–24 contract year, in addition to a retroactive lump sum payment to full-time musicians.”

[LRH: When the musician says their pay hasn't yet been restored to pre-pandemic levels, I believe they mean that the contract that expired last year didn't get to the planned $3,570 of the 2018 contract.]

 

 

2025 Offer from SFS ("Last, Best, and Final Offer")

 

A starting minimum annual salary of $189,332, rising to $196,976 by the end of the contract.

The three-year proposal starts at $3,641 minimum weekly scale (MWS) in the first year (retroactive to November 24, 2024)—representing a 5.5% increase above the current MWS. Each subsequent year provides 2% increases: $3,714 in contract year 2025–26 and $3,788 in 2026–27.

• Aidin Vaziri covered this story in the Chronicle.
• SFS musicians website

 

Christoph von Dohnányi

Die Frau ohne Schatten

Final scene, San Francisco Opera, 1989

Ron Scherl/San Francisco Opera

 Christoph von Dohnányi died yesterday in. Munich, two days before his 96th birthday. He was the music director of the Cleveland Orchestra from 1984 to 2002 and a revered conductor all over.

I heard him conduct only twice, both time in operas of Richard Strauss: Die Frau ohne Schatten at San Francisco Opera in 1989 and Arabella at the Royal Opera. Frau was utterly overwhelming; I had never heard a note of the score before that performance, and, well. (Also Gwyneth Jones was very, very loud.) {Looking at the page in the archive, I can't believe they started such a long opera at 7:30 p.m. in those days. Also, I stood through it, in Dress Circle standing room. This was before the renovations that removed Dress Circle standing room to add accessible seating.) 

That Arabella was the only time I've liked the opera out of the three productions (three casts, three productions, three conductors). The combination of a superb cast, a slightly fantastical production, and Dohnányi's marvelous conducting worked absolute magic. This production, from the Theatre du Chatelet, used be available on DVD; watch for used copies for sale.

Dohnányi came from a distinguished family. The composer Ernst von Dohnányi was his grandfather; Dietrich Bonhoeffer was his uncle. His father, Hans von Dohnányi, was executed in 1945 for his role in the July 20 plot to assassinate Hitler.

Ave atque vale, Christoph von Dohnányi.

Elsewhere:

• Tim Page, Washington Post
• Margalit Fox, NY Times

Brandeis Was Ahead of Its Time

Slosberg Music Center

Courtesy of Brandeis University

As a Brandeis undergrad, I spent countless hours attending classes, practicing, and rehearsing at Slosberg.

Two years ago, Brandeis announced that it was suspending admissions to its graduate music programs, in music history, music theory, and composition. For a while, it looked as if it might reverse this decision, since the music graduate programs cost about $300,000/year, a rounding error in its $100 million annual budget. But then they went ahead, ending Brandeis's long history of excellence in training music scholars and composers.

Since then, we've seen many other schools suspend various programs in the humanities, including unique programs in certain Eastern European languages, graduates of which have served in the U.S. Foreign Service and at U.S. intelligence agencies. The University of Wisconsin is eliminating such programs. Indiana University is discontinuing up to 100 different programs. 

Brandeis is overhauling its liberal arts programs to make them more career-oriented. (They're calling this a bold initiative, well....) I'm so glad that I went to college when there was respect for the arts and humanities.

The University of Chicago is the latest to join in this ongoing attack on the humanities.

• UChicago Reducing, Freezing Ph.D. Admissions for Multiple Humanities Programs
  
• More UChicago Ph.D. Programs Pause Admissions in Humanities, Social Sciences
  

Chicago's musicology program has a legendary history. When I mentioned this to my colleague Michael Zwiebach at SFCV –– himself a holder of a UC Berkeley doctorate in musicology –– he cited a wide range of scholarship that's come out of Chicago in the last fifty years. 

These changes are truly tragic, inflicting major damage on the intellectual life of the United States. Once you eliminate these programs and possibly lay off scholars in those areas, it's at best extremely difficult to reconstruct them. Institutional memory is lost along with teachers and students. What happens to specialized libraries and archives in those areas? Are they dispersed to less shortsighted institutions?

What's happening here is not so different from the Trump regime's ongoing attacks on science, with their attempts to eliminate important medical and scientific research and institutions, for no discernible reason other than to be destructive. The country is being set back decades with the destruction of ongoing and anticipated research. The elimination of funding for mRNA research means abandoning productive research into things like cancer cures. The attack on vaccines means people will die. The elimination of smallpox and the near-elimination of infectious diseases like polio and measles is one of the great triumphs of medical science and public health, and a few crackpots are being allowed to throw all of this away.

Making the San Francisco Symphony Look Even Smaller

Photo: Minna Hatinen

Esa-Pekka Salonen writes on his Facebook page:

I am happy to announce that I will begin three new positions in coming seasons: Creative Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Creativity and Innovation Chair of the Philharmonie de Paris, and Principal Conductor of the Orchestre de Paris. 

Over the course of my career, I am lucky to have found myself in many situations where the right parts have been in the right place to create genuine magic. More often than not, that place happened to be Los Angeles or Paris. 

We aspire to invent the musical worlds in which we want to live, and the LA Phil and Orchestre de Paris have done just that with Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Philharmonie de Paris. These are top-notch orchestras and the coolest halls, embedded within cities with the most curious and adventurous audiences. Most important, they are institutions who understand that the behind-the-scenes creative work is just as important as waving the stick.

I cannot wait to start creating together.

Chief/principal conductor of the Orchestre de Paris make him the successor to Klaus Mäkelä. Lucky Paris! Lucky L.A.!

• Press release, L.A. Phil
• Joshua Kosman, SF Chronicle, fulminating
• Michael Zwiebach, SFCV
• Joshua Barone, NY Times (gift link)
• Mark Swed, LA Times
• Aidin Vaziri, SF Chronicle (gift link)

 

Museum Mondays

Watermelons

Ruth Asawa Retrospective

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

August, 2025

 

Bohème Out of the Box

The first San Francisco Opera production after being shuttered for 18 months was 2021's Barber of Seville, performed outdoors in Marin County under what sounded like somewhat trying conditions. Neverless, for audiences hungry for live performances, I expect it was a balm for the soul.

I'll take a wild guess that some combination of that success and the desire to meet potential audience members where they are resulted in the creation of Bohème Out of the Box, a pocket version of Puccini's La Bohème. The physical production unfolds from a container on a flatbed truck; there's not that much in the way of props or scenery; the performers look like they're wearing whatever they please.

The opera itself is trimmed to roughly an hour, but –– as I discovered when I saw Bohème Out of the Box in Hayward on June 29 –– La Bohème is put together so well that even cutting it to half its length, what's left is dramatically and musically coherent. Thank you, Giacomo Puccini, Luigi Illica, and Giuseppe Giacosa! You knew what you were doing.

I'd been curious about Bohème Out of the Box since it first started touring the Bay Area in 2023. It hasn't made it to Oakland yet and I hope it will, but I'm sure there are pretty exacting requirements: a big enough park for the stage, canopies for a technical crew and SF Opera representatives, canopies for community organizations, etc., room for the audience to spread out, preferably shaded in case it's a hot day, and near public transport and parking. Plus a cooperative local government, and dealing with the City of Oakland is Not Fun.

Anyway, the Hayward site was awfully nice, a couple of blocks from BART and a free (!) parking garage. I wish there had been more shade, and probably I should have brought a folder chair, but whatever.

The crowd. Spot the general director! I promise you that he's in this photo.

Here's the stage, right after the performance, but you can pretend it's before the performance, right?

Side view, with canopies for dressing rooms, etc. visible behind the stage and the truck.

Tenor/director Alek Shrader introduces the show.

The cast was pretty great. Caroline Corrales sang Mimì gorgeously. Her Rodolfo was Samuel White, and he was fine, though I think I hear a budding spinto or dramatic tenor there. His voice was, perhaps, overkill for Rodolfo. Georgiana Adams was a very funny Musetta and Samuel Kidd, a great Schaunard on the main stage in June, was an equally great Marcello. I don't have photos of the latter two, alas.

Samuel White (Rodolfo) and Caroline Corrales (Mimi)

Jongwon Han as Colline singing "Vecchia zimmara," as Mimì is on her deathbed. 

Han was fantastic. There's a good view of pianist Ji Youn Li in this photo, too; the little blue umbrella was over her keyboard, presumably keeping it, rather than her, from overheating. She was a total champ, playing in the hot sun and doing a marvelous job of keeping the singers together, with each other and with her. I gotta say, performing in these less-than-perfect conditions is great training for everyone.

There was a kiosk where audience members could get on SFO's mailing list, get information about the upcoming season, and collect SF Opera schwag. 

General Director Matthew Shilvock chatting with people at the SFO kiosk.

The audience seemed to have a great time; I certainly did.