Iron Tongue of Midnight
Lisa Hirsch's Classical Music Blog.
The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve. Lovers, to bed; 'tis almost fairy time.
Berce mollement sur ton sein sublime
Ô puissante mer, l’enfant de Dindyme!
Monday, February 17, 2025
Friday, February 14, 2025
Thursday, February 13, 2025
Bard Summerscape and Bard Music Festival 2025: MARTINŮ AND HIS WORLD
Fisher Center LAB Commission/World Premiere
Choreography by Pam Tanowitz
Décor by Sarah Crowner
Music by Caroline Shaw
Featuring Pam Tanowitz Dance
Inspired by Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, “Pastoral”
Friday, June 27 at 7 pm
Saturday, June 28 at 7 pm
Sunday, June 29 at 3 pm
Sosnoff Theater
Dalibor
by Bedřich Smetana
SummerScape Opera/New Production
Libretto by Josef Wenzig, Czech translation by Ervín Špindler
Directed by Jean-Romain Vesperini
American Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leon Botstein
Sung in Czech with English supertitles
Friday, July 25 at 6:30 pm
Sunday, July 27 at 2 pm
Wednesday, July 30 at 2 pm
Friday, August 1 at 4 pm
Sunday, August 3 at 2 pm
Sosnoff Theater
The 35th Bard Music Festival
Martinů and His World
Weekend One: A Musical Mirror of the 20th Century
August 8–10
Weekend Two: Against Uncertainty, Uniformity, Mechanization: Music in the Mid-20th Century
August 14–17
Weekend One: A Musical Mirror of the 20th Century
Program One: The Peripatetic Career
Friday, August 8
Sosnoff Theater
7 PM Performance with Commentary
Bohuslav Martinů (1890–1959)
Double Concerto, H271 (1938)
Piano Quartet No. 1, H287 (1942)
Symphony No. 2, H295 (1943)
Fantasia, H301 (1944)
Petrklíč / Primrose, H348 (1954)
Panel One
Why Martinů: Understanding Classical Music, Past and Future
Saturday, August 9
Olin Hall
10 AM – 12 noon
Free and open to the public.
Program Two: The Emigree in Paris
Saturday, August 9
Olin Hall
1 PM Preconcert Talk
1:30 PM Performance
Bohuslav Martinů (1890–1959)
String Trio No. 1, H136 (1923)
Flute Sonata, H306 (1945)
Duo No. 1 for Violin and Cello, H157 (1927)
Josef Suk (1874–1935)
Piano Quartet No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 1 (1891)
Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)
Violin Sonata No. 2 in G Major (1927)
Works by Jaroslav Řídký (1897–1956) and Alexandre Tansman (1897–1986)
Program Three: Music and Freedom
Saturday, August 9
Sosnoff Theater
6 PM Preconcert Talk
7 PM Orchestral Performance
Bohuslav Martinů (1890–1959)
Memorial to Lidice, H296 (1943)
Symphony No. 6 (Fantaisies symphoniques), H343 (1951–53)
Piano Concerto No. 4, “Incantation,” H358 (1956)
Erwin Schulhoff (1894–1942)
Symphony No. 2 (1932)
Rudolf Firkušný (1912–94)
Piano Concertino (1929)
Program Four: The Search for a Distinctive Voice
Sunday, August 10
Olin Hall
11 AM Performance with Commentary
Bohuslav Martinů (1890–1959)
Les Rondes, H200 (1930)
String Quartet No. 7, “Concerto da camera,” H314 (1947)
The Fifth Day of the Fifth Moon, for piano, H318 (1948)
Variations on a Slovak Theme, H378 (1959)
Vítězslava Kaprálová (1915–40)
String Quartet No. 1, Op. 8 (1935)
Program Five: New Shores: Influences and Contexts
Sunday, August 10
Sosnoff Theater
2 PM Preconcert Talk
3 PM Performance
Bohuslav Martinů (1890–1959)
La revue de cuisine, H161 (1927)
Harpsichord Concerto, H246 (1935)
Tre ricercari, H267 (1938)
Piano Sonata No. 1, H350 (1954)
Arthur Honegger (1892–1955)
Concerto da Camera, H196 (1948)
Aaron Copland (1900–90)
Sextet (1937)
Weekend Two: Against Uncertainty, Uniformity, Mechanization: Music in the Mid-20th Century
Program Six: The Spiritual Quest
Thursday, August 14, at 7 PM
Friday, August 15 at 3 PM
Church of the Messiah, Rhinebeck
Bohuslav Martinů (1890–1959)
The Mount of Three Lights, H349 (1954)
Vigilie, H382 (1959)
Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904)
From Mass in D Major, Op. 86 (1887)
Leoš Janáček (1854–1928)
Veni Sancte Spiritus (ca. 1903)
Constitues eos principes (1903)
Ave Maria (1904)
Postludium, from Glagolitic Mass (1926)
Petr Eben (1929–2007)
Finale, from Musica dominicalis (Sunday Music) (1958)
Program Seven: Myth, Faith, and Folklore
Friday, August 15
Sosnoff Theater
6 PM Preconcert Talk
7 PM Performance
Bohuslav Martinů (1890–1959)
Mariken de Nimègue, H236/2 I (1933–34)
Field Mass, H279 (1946)
Brigand Songs, H361 (1957)
Panel Two: Music and Politics: From the Habsburg Empire to Contemporary Populism and Autocracy
Saturday, August 16
Olin Hall
10 AM – 12 noon
Free and open to the public.
Program Eight: Martinů and the Craft of Composition
Saturday, August 16
Olin Hall
1 PM Preconcert Talk
1:30 PM Performance
Bohuslav Martinů (1890–1959)
Duo No. 1, “Three Madrigals,” H313 (1947)
Cello Sonata No. 3, H340 (1952)
Nonet No. 2, H374 (1959)
David Diamond (1915–2005)
Quintet (1937)
Karel Husa (1921–2016)
Evocations de Slovaquie (1951)
Program Nine: Renewing the Public Power of Tradition
Saturday, August 16
Sosnoff Theater
6 PM Preconcert Talk
7 PM Orchestral Performance
Bohuslav Martinů (1890–1959)
Violin Concerto No. 2, H293 (1943)
The Epic of Gilgamesh, H351 (1955)
Jan Novák (1921–84)
Ignis pro Ioanne Palach (1969)
Program Ten: Martinů’s Legacy
Sunday, August 17
Olin Hall
11 AM Preconcert Talk
11:30 AM Performance
Bohuslav Martinů (1890–1959)
Three Czech Dances, H154 (1926)
Songs on One Page, H294 (1943)
Songs on Two Pages, H302 (1944)
Joan Tower (b. 1938)
Petroushskates (1980)
Kryštof Mařatka (b. 1972)
Báchorky, fables pastorales (2016)
Works by Jaroslav Ježek (1906–42), Frank Zappa (1940–93), and Iva Bittová (b. 1958)
Program Eleven: The Opera of Dreams: Martinů’s Julietta
Sunday, August 17
Sosnoff Theater
2 PM Preconcert Talk
3 PM Semi-Staged Opera Performance
Bohuslav Martinů (1890–1959)
Julietta, H253 (1937) (Martinů, after Georges Neveux)
Seattle Opera 2025-26
Oakland Symphony 2025-26
Season announcement season is in full swing, and here's next year's schedule for the Oakland Symphony, under its new music director Kedrick Armstrong. As is typical of this orchestra and its music directors, there's a nice balance of standards and new/unusual music. Note that if you're still smoldering from the cancellation of the Verdi Requiem at the San Francisco Symphony, you can hear it in Oakland. For more details, see the Oakland Symphony web site.
Season Opening:
DAVE RAGLAND PREMIERE plus THE FIREBIRD!
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2025 | 8:00PM
Paramount Theatre, Oakland
Kedrick Armstrong, conductor
Sara Davis Buechner, piano
ANNA CLYNE This Midnight Hour
MAURICE RAVEL Piano Concerto in G
DAVE RAGLAND Harmony of the Unheard
Oakland Symphony Commission World Premiere
IGOR STRAVINSKY The Firebird Suite (1919)
VERDI’S REQUIEM
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2025 | 8:00PM
Paramount Theatre, Oakland
Kedrick Armstrong, conductor
Tiffany Townsend, soprano
Raehann Bryce-Davis, mezzo-soprano
Robert Stahley, tenor
Reginald Smith Jr., baritone
Oakland Symphony Chorus
CAVA MENZIES Oakland Symphony Commission World Premiere
GIUSEPPE VERDI Requiem
LET US BREAK BREAD TOGETHER
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2025 | 4:00PM
Paramount Theatre, Oakland
Kedrick Armstrong, conductor
An “inspired, multifarious, musical bash!” raves San Francisco Classical Voice of the Oakland Symphony’s Let Us Break Bread Together. Kedrick Armstrong and the Orchestra are joined by the region’s top talent for this annual celebration, this year paying a special tribute to Whitney Houston.
ROUMAIN, MAHLER, ESMAIL & CHEN YI
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2026 | 8:00PM
Kedrick Armstrong, conductor
Tracy Silverman, violin
Oakland Symphony Chorus
CHEN YI Introduction, Andante, and Allegro
GUSTAV MAHLER Symphony No. 10, Adagio
REENA ESMAIL She Will Transform You
DANIEL BERNARD ROUMAIN (Artist-In-Residence)
America, To Us
HAMMOND ORGAN CONCERTO plus
SAINT-SAËNS THUNDERING ORGAN SYMPHONY
FRIDAY, MARCH 27, 2026 | 8:00PM
Paramount theatre, Oakland
Kedrick Armstrong, conductor
Brian Nabors, organ
CLARICE ASSAD Baião N’ Blues
BRIAN RAPHAEL NABORS Hammond Organ Concerto
CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS Symphony No. 3, “Organ”
Season Finale: SCHEHERAZADE!
FRIDAY, MAY 15, 2026 | 8:00PM
Paramount Theatre, Oakland
Kedrick Armstrong, conductor
Oakland Symphony Chorus
JASMINE BARNES Oakland Symphony Commission World Premiere
NICOLAI RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Scheherazade
Wednesday, February 12, 2025
Lise Davidsen in Recital
Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen's first Bay Area appearance was last week. She was awesome. I don't just mean her gigantic voice, about which you've probably read. She is an artist and the recital was really something. As both Opera Tattler and Michael Anthonio note, she is warm and funny on stage.
Oh, yeah, she is really tall.
And pregnant, with twins. You couldn't tell in the flowing flowered dress she wore in the first half of the recital, but you could in the tubelike number in the second half. She will sing Leonore in the Met's Fidelio next month before taking a break until sometime next year. She is apparently still planning to be in the Met's Tristan und Isolde. Between her role debut and Yuval Sharon's direction, you bet I'm planning a trip to NYC in March, 2026.
- Lisa Hirsch, SF Chronicle and SFCV. Yes, I burst into tears a measure or two into "Es gibt ein Reich," from Ariadne auf Naxos. It's time for SFO to revive this great and funny opera. Weirdly, I have a casting suggestion for them.
- Joshua Kosman, On a Pacific Aisle. "...the artistic results never really quicken the pulse the way one would wish — or at any rate, they don’t quicken my pulse."
- Opera Tattler. "Davidsen has a powerful voice, with beautiful low notes and pristine, completely effortless high ones." A person commenting anonymously on the post mentions bursting into tears elsewhere on the program.
- Michael Anthonio, Parterre Box. "...her take on “Tu che le vanità” completely blew my mind." (I haven't heard it sung better myself, just a stupendous vocal display.)
Monday, February 10, 2025
Saturday, February 08, 2025
Adriana Mater
Diversity in Opera
It's a common stance among U.S. classical music and opera lovers to wish that state and federal support for the arts reached the levels of such support in Europe. I've thought for a while that this would be a double-edged sword: a government that gives money can take away that money. We're seeing the depredations of Arts Council England in the UK, where subsidies for many important organizations has been cut back and the English National Opera is being forced to decamp from London, where they've been performing for the last 80 years, first as Sadler's Wells Opera, then as the ENO.
Not that private philanthropists can't do the same, plus there's generational change about what the rich give to: these days, what's popular is donating huge sums to medical research or hospitals rather than the arts.
Regardless, one good thing about lack of government support means that there's not much to take away and an organization that's dedicated to expanding their repertory past dead white European men and to casting people of color in leading roles can't be pressured by the government to stop doing these things. (Here I'll note that San Francisco Opera's excellent productions of Omar and El ultimo sueño de Frida y Diego sold very well, and making your audiences happy is good.)
I was thinking about how racism manifests itself in the performing arts. There are all sorts of ways: thinking you can't cast Black men as romantic heroes, assigning fewer solos in concerts to singers of color, failing to admit singers of color to important training programs, the economic inequality that makes it easier for people with money than people without money to pay for music or voice lessons and buy good instruments, treating students of color differently, and on and on.
Other than in Porgy and Bess, I did not see a production with more than one Black singer on stage until 2017! I've now seen enough productions with one to many Black or Asian singers to know that it's absolutely not for lack of good singers of color. And there are some outstanding Black singers I've seen in the last few years who didn't have careers at major U.S. opera houses until they were approaching or past 50. I expect that most people reading this are aware that star singers are usually established by age 35, so that's a lot of prime earning years lost.
DEI works the same way in the arts as anywhere else: expanding the pool of talent means you have more choices about who to hire, and generally results in quality going up. Having fewer mediocre white people in the corner suite or on stage benefits us all.
Friday, February 07, 2025
Wednesday, February 05, 2025
Ojai 2026
Tuesday, February 04, 2025
San Francisco Opera, 2025-26
- Rigoletto, Verdi. Sept. 5-27. Eun Sun Kim/Amartuvshin Enkhbat (Rigoletto), Giovanni Sala (Duke), Adela Zaharia (Gilda), J’Nai Bridges (Maddalena), Peixin Chen (Sparafucile)
- Dead Man Walking, Heggie. Sept. 14-28. Patrick Summers/Jamie Barton (Sister Helen Prejean), Ryan McKinny (Joseph De Rocher), Susan Graham (Mrs. De Rocher), Brittany Renee (Sister Rose). Graham, who created the role of Sister Helen Prejean, returns as Mrs. De Rocher, the mother of the condemned man.
- Parsifal, Wagner. Oct. 25-Nov.13. New SFO production. Eun Sun Kim/Brandon Jovanovich (Parisfal), Kwangchul Youn (Gurnemanz), Brian Mulligan (Amfortas), Tanja Ariane Baumgartner (Kundry), Falk Struckmann (Klingsor). Matthew Ozawa directs.
- The Monkey King, Huang Ruo/Libretto by David Henry Hwang. Nov. 14-30. Carolyn Kuan/Kang Wang (Monkey King), Mei Gui Zhang (Guanyin), Konu Kim (Jade Emperor), Jusung Gabriel Park (Subhuti/Buddha), Peixin Chen (Supereme Lord Laozi), Joo Won Kang (Lord Erland/Ao Guang), Hongni Wu (Crab General/Venus Star). World premiere, SFO commission; Basil Twist directs.
- The Barber of Seville, Rossini. May 28-June 21, 2026. Benjamin Manis/Joshua Hopkins & Justin Austin (Figaro), Maria Kataeva & Hongni Wu (Rosina), Levy Sekgapane & Jack Swanson (Count Almaviva), Renato Girolami & Patrick Carfizzi (Dr. Bartolo).
- Elektra, R. Strauss. June 7-27. Eun Sun Kim/Elena Pankratova (Elektra), Elza van den Heever (Chrysothemis), Michaela Schuster (Klytämnestra). Keith Warner production seen here in 2017.
- Lisa Hirsch, S.F. Chronicle
- Janos Gereben, SFCV
- Joshua Kosman, On a Pacific Aisle. Note that SFO had up to 12 operas/year as recently as the 90s and the first few years of this century.
- Opera Tattler
- Parterre Box
Monday, February 03, 2025
Friday, January 31, 2025
Words That Should Not Have Been Spoken
Heard on KDFC, said by different announcers:
- ".....the McGill boys," following a performance featuring the distinguished musicians Anthony McGill, principal clarinet of the New York Philharmonic, and his brother Demarre McGill, principal flute of the Seattle Symphony. They are both great players, if I haven't already made that clear. If you're not aware of it, the McGills are Black men. Apply the word "boy" to adult Black men was something done by white people to dehumanize and disrespect Black men during the period of slavery, during the Jim Crow/segregation period, and at other times. Don't do this, ever. And remember, it would have been easy to refer to "the McGill brothers," which is factual and neutral.
- "Celebrate Esa-Pekka Salonen's last season as music director of the San Francisco Symphony." COME ON. Somebody at KDFC should be paying attention enough to know that Salonen's last season is nothing to celebrate. It's an institutional disaster and a huge mistake. We should have been celebrating the extension of his contract, but no. I mean...maybe this was part of a paid ad. Maybe KDFC should have refused the money.
Tuesday, January 28, 2025
Where Has Mark Elder Been All Our Lives?
- Berlioz, Overture to Les francs-juges
- Debussy, Prélude à L’Après-midi d’un faune
- Berlioz, Overture to Le Roi Lear
- R. Strauss, Also sprach Zarathustra
- Adams, Short Ride in a Fast Machine
- Joshua Kosman, On a Pacific Aisle. Comes down on Rebecca's side rather more than mine. Probably I'm wrong or missed problems in the performances.
- Rebecca Wishnia, SFCV and SF Chronicle. The review is rather the opposite of mine.
- Stephen Smoliar, The Rehearsal Studio
Monday, January 27, 2025
Museum Mondays
Saturday, January 25, 2025
We Saw What We Saw
I'm not going to embed any videos, because I don't want to inadvertently upset or traumatize anyone who would be hurt, upset, or traumatized from seeing a Nazi salute, but: if you saw what Elon Musk did during the inauguration and think it was a Nazi salute, you are complete right. You saw what you saw and interpreted it correctly. Neo-Nazis seeing it thought it was a nod to Naziism and Hitler. Germans, who have some experience with this, thought it was a Nazi salute.
For anyone who might want to see the evidence, I will link to videos of Musk and of Hitler himself demonstrating this gesture. I suggest turning down the sound.
- Musk at the inauguration
- Hitler on May 1, 1936. This video contains many swastikas, film of Hitler, and film of crowds saluting him. Hitler's salute is about 35 seconds in.
Friday, January 24, 2025
Wednesday, January 22, 2025
Opera Omaha Season Announcement
Opera Omaha, located in Omaha, Nebraska, has a short but mighty season coming up in 2025-26:
THE BARBER OF SEVILLE
Friday, October 24 | 7:30 PM
Sunday, October 26 | 2:00 PM
Orpheum Theater
Figaro | Alexander Birch Elliot
Rosina | Daniela Mack*
Count Almaviva | Minghao Liu*
Conductor | Gary Thor Wedow
Director | Stephen Lawless*
SUSANNAH
Friday, January 30 | 7:30 PM
Sunday, February 1 | 2:00 PM
Orpheum Theater
Music and Libretto by Carlisle Floyd
Susannah | Caitlin Lynch*
Olin Blitch | Andrew Potter
Little Bat | Christian Sanders*
Sam | Robert Stahley*
Principal Guest Conductor | Steven White
Director | Patricia Racette*
HERCULES
Friday, March 13 | 7:30 PM
Orpheum Theater
Composed by George Frideric Handel
Libretto by Thomas Broughton
Presented by The English Concert
Dejanira | Ann Hallenberg*
Hercules | William Guanbo Su*
Iole | Hilary Cronin*
Lichas | Hugh Cutting*
Conductor | Harry Bicket
BLUEBEARD’S CASTLE
Friday, April 24 | 7:30PM
Saturday, April 25 | 7:30PM
Holland Performing Arts Center
Composed by Béla Bartók/ Libretto by Béla Balázs
A co-production of Opera Omaha and the Omaha Symphony
Bluebeard | Ryan McKinny*
Judith | Michelle DeYoung*
Conductor | Lidiya Yankovskaya*
Projection Design | David Murakami*
UNSHAKEABLE
Friday, June 5 | 7:00PM
Saturday, June 6 | 2:00PM
Saturday, June 6 | 7:00PM
Sunday, June 7 | 2:00PM
Hoff Family Arts & Culture Center
Composed by Joseph Illick / Libretto by Andrea Fellows Fineberg
* Opera Omaha Mainstage Debut
Season tickets for Opera Omaha’s 25/26 Season are available now at www.TicketOmaha.com or by calling Opera Omaha at (402) 34OPERA (346-7372).
Adams and (Shudder) Orff at SFS
I did discover that it wasn't the first time Robertson conducted the thing with SFS. I wasn't at that performance, because singing Carmina once, when I was in graduate school, and hearing an amateur chorus sing it once, were more than enough for me. It is admittedly much more impressive with the 125-voice SF Symphony Chorus and SFS itself than when performed with two pianos and percussion, but "impressive" is not the same as "good." Robertson is a terrific conductor and I'm sure that he made Carmina sound about as good as it can sound, but hey - he's done great Messiaen and great Carter here, so why ask him to do Carmina again?
Media round-up (updated on 1/23 to include Gabe Meline's review):
- Joshua Kosman, On a Pacific Aisle, writes beautifully about After the Fall and then savages the Orff. He calls the Adams "spectacularly beautiful and ingratiating," then goes on to question the programming decision that put Carmina on the same program. In addition, he says that "Carmina burana taints everything it touches. It’s a ghastly piece of music — repetitive, simple-minded, and resolutely scornful of anything approaching harmonic or contrapuntal substance. We could bring in the piece’s other sins as well, including its fraught history with the Nazi regime and its pilferings from Stravinsky’s Les Noces." 100%, as they say on social media.
- Lisa Hirsch, SFCV and SF Chronicle. Note that I could not squeeze in that the harp parts look beautiful, but I could not hear them very well from my seats at the dress rehearsal and first performance. A friend seated closer and in the center of Davies reports that she could hear them loud and clear at the Saturday performance.
- Michael Strickland, SF Civic Center
- Stephen Smoliar, The Rehearsal Studio. "After the Fall came across as little more than a weak shadow of what Adams had been doing some forty-odd years ago."
- DB at Kalimac's Corner. "Led by guest conductor David Robertson, this was a pretty dull run-through if you've heard Carmina as often as I have." And he liked After the Fall better than Must the Devil Have all the Good Tunes?
- Gabe Meline, KQED. On the Adams: "After opening with cascading notes on harp and celeste reminiscent of Bernard Herrmann’s Vertigo score, Thursday’s world premiere at Davies Symphony Hall of After the Fall presented blissful, clustered melodies on the piano, and the type of sharp jabs that Ellington once delivered on his piano from the brass and woodwinds." On Carmina: "People either love or hate Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. I am in the latter camp, but had never before heard it live. It was performed very well, and I now dislike it more."
- Opera Tattler. "The music swirled and buzzed, and I had the very weird sensation of pinpricks in my ribcage from the various sounds."
- Previously: Media round-up for Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes?
Here's my take on Carmina Burana, in stark contrast to @joshuakosman.bsky.social and @lisairontongue.bsky.social. It's a visionary piece that anticipates rock and roll by nearly 20 years. It elevates rhythm, melody, lyrics, and repetition over harmonic complexity. Its popularity is well deserved.
If what we're looking for is elevating rhythm, melody, lyrics, and repetition over harmonic complexity, let me mention the works of one Igor Stravinsky, who did all of that between 1913 and 1923, long before Orff, in Le Sacre du Printemps and Les Noces, and, not incidentally, did it all much, much better than Orff. Okay, Stravinsky is much more harmonically complex than Orff, but I'm sure you get the point I'm making here.