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SF Opera's Pride Concert - the first, but not the last - was a ton of fun.
San Francisco Opera and the Opera Orchestra have signed a contract...eleven months after the last one expired:
San Francisco, CA (June 30, 2025) – San Francisco Opera and the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, represented by the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) Local 6, jointly announce that they have reached agreement on a new two-year contract. The collective bargaining agreement, spanning August 1, 2024 through July 31, 2026, was ratified by the musicians of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra on June 26, 2025. The contract includes wage increases in each of the years and enhanced retirement packages. The new agreement also includes a collaboration between the orchestra and the company to realize a major change to its healthcare plans, resulting in transformational financial savings without reductions in benefits or increases in costs to participants. Additionally, the agreement includes a commitment between the orchestra and the company to negotiate a multi-year contract in the next round of negotiations.
“I am very grateful to both the musicians and the staff who worked with great commitment, care, and thoughtfulness to reach this new agreement,” said San Francisco Opera General Director Matthew Shilvock. “We deeply value the extraordinary talents of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and the transcendent music making they realize in both our theater and in the community. We look forward to a wonderful season ahead that will showcase music making at the highest level.”
“We’re happy to have reached this Agreement and are especially proud that our musicians, along with our healthcare consultant, identified and delivered major cost savings that will benefit the entire Company,” said Gabe Young, Chair of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra Negotiating Committee. “This outcome reflects our deep commitment to the long-term success of San Francisco Opera. With negotiations behind us for now, we’re all eager to return our full focus to the music—to reaching new audiences, exploring new forums for performances, and continuing to create unforgettable artistic experiences. We look forward to negotiating a longer-term contract in the coming years in collaboration with Opera leadership.”I'm extremely curious about the major changes to the health care plans, an area where it's notoriously difficult to get costs down. Congrats to everyone at the orchestra and the company.
I have no idea whether it was deliberate, but SFCV has had the following articles recently:
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Tenor Giovanni Sala has withdrawn from the fall performances of Rigoletto, in which he would have sung the Duke of Mantua. Yongzhao Yu, pictured above, replaces him.
Press release:
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (June 30, 2025) — San Francisco Opera announced a casting update for the opening opera of its 2025–26 Season, which opens Friday, September 5 with seven additional performances through September 27. The role of The Duke of Mantua in Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto will be performed by Chinese tenor Yongzhao Yu, who makes his Company debut. Yu replaces Giovanni Sala who has withdrawn from the production for personal reasons.
Praised by Opera News for his “gleaming, powerful voice” and “thrilling top notes,” Yongzhao Yu made an acclaimed debut as the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto with English National Opera earlier this season. His 2024–25 Season also featured a return to the Metropolitan Opera where he appeared as Rodolfo in Puccini’s La Bohème and the Messenger in Verdi’s Aida, the latter witnessed globally as part of The Met: Live in HD simulcast series. He has performed the Duke with Seattle Opera and, immediately after San Francisco Opera, will perform the role for his Canadian debut with Vancouver Opera. This summer he is scheduled to portray Cavaradossi in a new production of Puccini’s Tosca at the Glimmerglass Festival with soprano Michelle Bradley and bass-baritone Greer Grimsley and reprise the role with Pacific Opera Victoria.
San Francisco Opera’s 2025–26 Season kicks off on Friday, September 5 with the annual Opera Ball, co-presented with San Francisco Opera Guild, and Verdi’s Rigoletto under the baton of Eun Sun Kim and starring Amartuvshin Enkhbat in the title role, Adela Zaharia as Gilda and Yongzhao Yu as the Duke of Mantua. Keystones of the Company’s 103rd season are the world premiere of The Monkey King (November 14–30) by composer Huang Ruo and librettist David Henry Hwang, and Maestro Kim conducting a new production of Richard Wagner’s Parsifal (October 25–November 13). This fall San Francisco Opera also commemorates its legacy of commissioning and presenting new operas with a 25th-anniversary presentation of Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally’s Dead Man Walking (September 14–28), the most widely performed new opera of the last 25 years which was introduced in 2000 at the War Memorial Opera House.
Last fall, I sat in the orchestra section of the War Memorial Opera House for the concert in which Eun Sun Kim conducted the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, Opera Chorus, and soloists in Beethoven's 9th Symphony. The orchestra was up on stage in the Jerome and Thao Dodson Shell, and the effect was pretty odd. There was the gulf of the orchestra pit between the audience and the stage, which isn't usually a problem, but made the orchestra feel very far away. And the orchestra sound wasn't great, not blended and gorgeous as it generally is when the orchestra is in the pit.
At Friday's Pride Concert (my review will be in SFCV!), I was in a box, with another member of the press and our respective companions, and wow, the orchestra, on stage in the shell, sounded fantastic. I'd heard from friends years ago that when the orchestra is on stage, you want to be upstairs somewhere, but this was the first time I'd experienced it. So, come the November Beethoven / de Falla concert, look for me in the Dress Circle somewhere.
I've updated my June 5 post about the SFO La Bohème, with links to Thomas May's review and Joshua Kosman's comments on the alternate cast, as well as my own remarks on that cast.
Conductors looking for jobs (that is, as of the near future, or now, they do not have a posting). The big mystery, to me, is why an orchestra hasn't snapped up Susanna Mälkki. Slightly lesser mystery: Henrik Nanasi, whose superb Cosi fan tutte is still lingering in my ears.
And closed:
I reviewed Pocket Opera's production of Kirke Mechem's Tartuffe the other day. The review is a rave, because the performers and direction are terrific, and it is quite simply one of the funniest and best-constructed recent operas that I've ever seen.
Consequently, I found myself wondering why on earth it's not a repertory staple at U.S. opera companies large and small. I mean, it has gotten some 400 performances or so worldwide, nothing to sneeze at, but still!
All I can come up with is that you need eight strong soloists who can also act, putting it on the expensive side. On the other hand, it can be performed with a big orchestra or a small orchestra; none of the roles are extreme for their voice type, and it seems perfect for a conservatory or program like Merola Opera, where you want opportunities for as many singers as possible.
I've seen two other recent operas that were this funny; they are also not exactly staples and they also should be. They are Kevin Puts and Mark Campbell's Elizabeth Cree and Mark Adamo's Lysistrata.
Bring on the comedies! We all need a good laugh.
Elsewhere:
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I'm sorry to say that I've never been to a concert at Kohl Mansion, which for many years has had an excellent chamber music program. Next season is quite extraordinary and I will be making a special effort to get there.
Sunday, October 19, 2025, 7 p.m.
BENNEWITZ QUARTET* (Prague, Czech Republic)
Jakub Fiser & Stepan Jezek, violins; Jiri Pinkas, viola; Stepan Dolezal, cello
Joseph Haydn: String Quartet in F Major, Op. 77, No. 2
Leoš Janáček: String Quartet No. 2, "Intimate Letters"
Antonín Dvořák: String Quartet in A-flat Major, Op. 105
Sunday, November 16, 2025, 7 p.m.
TRIO BOHÉMO* (Prague, Czech Republic - founded in Budapest, Hungary)
Jan Vojtek, piano; Matouš Pěruška, violin; Kristina Vocetková, cello
Joseph Haydn: Piano Trio in A Major, Hob.XV:35
Bohuslav Martinů: Piano Trio No. 2 in D minor, H.327
Jan Vičar: Cycle of folk songs, “From Moravia”
Bedřich Smetana: Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 15
Sunday, December 14, 2025 - Baroque Holiday Program, 7 p.m.
MUSICA PACIFICA (San Francisco)
Judy Linsenberg, recorder; Ingrid Matthews, violin; Alexa Haynes-Pilon, viola da gamba; Charles Sherman, harpsichord
Hijinks of the High Baroque: Composers Behaving Badly
Festive music of Handel, Telemann, Veracini, Rameau, Purcell punctuated with hilarious stories of the composers' misdeeds and shenanigans.
Sunday, January 18, 2026, 7 p.m.
BALOURDET QUARTET* (Bloomington, IN)
Angela Bae & Justin DeFilippis, violins; Benjamin Zannoni, viola; Russell Houston, cello
Béla Bartók: String Quartet No. 3
Amy Beach: String Quartet in One Movement, Op. 89
Eleanor Alberga: String Quartet No. 2
Johannes Brahms: String Quartet No. 3 in B-flat Major, Op. 67
Sunday, February 22, 2026, 7 p.m.
LYSANDER PIANO TRIO (Athens, GA – founded at Juilliard School, NY))
Itamar Zorman, Violin; James Kim, Cello; Liza Stepanova, Piano
W. A. Mozart: Piano Trio in E Major, K. 542
Rebecca Clarke: Piano Trio
Shulamit Ran: Soliloquy
Antonín Dvořák: Piano Trio in F minor, Op. 65
Sunday, March 22, 2026, 7 p.m.
WINDSYNC* (Houston, TX)
Garrett Hudson, flute; Noah Kay, oboe; Graeme Steele Johnson, clarinet; Kara LaMoure, bassoon; Anni Hochhalter, horn
Nadia Boulanger/arr. LaMoure: Prelude in F
Nadia Boulanger/arr. LaMoure: Three Pieces
Elliott Carter: Woodwind Quintet
Philip Glass/arr. LaMoure: Etude No. 17
Dieterich Buxtehude: Passacaglia in D minor, BuxWV 161
W. A. Mozart/arr. Rechtman: Serenade in C minor, K. 388
Sunday, April 19, 2026, 7 p.m.
BEO STRING QUARTET* (Pittsburgh, PA) with guest artist Michel Taddei*, double bass
Jason Neukom & Andrew “Gio” Giordano, violins; Sean Neukom, viola; Ryan Ash, cello
J.S. Bach: Selections from The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080
Philip Glass: String Quartet No. 3, Mishima
Sean Neukom: El Balcón
Gabriela Ortiz: Mictlán (Place of the Dead), from Altar de Muertos
Antonín Dvořák: Double Bass Quintet in G Major, Op. 77
Sunday, May 3, 2026, 7 p.m.
CALIDORE STRING QUARTET (New York, N.Y.)
Jeffrey Myers & Ryan Meehan, violins; Jeremy Berry, viola; Estelle Choi, cello
W. A. Mozart: Divertimento in F Major, K. 138
Erich Wolfgang Korngold: String Quartet No. 3 in D Major, Op. 34
Ludwig van Beethoven: String Quartet No. 9 in C Major, Op. 59, No. 3, “Razumovsky"
Well, you know, they were great, but there's no space for listing them all in a review, so here they are:
Horns
Trumpets
Trombones
The last few weeks have felt like all Salonen, all the time, because they have been. I attended his last four concerts as music director of SFS, reviewed two of them, and wrote a scene piece about the last. He conducted splendidly across a wide range of music, introduced a new work by Gabriella Smith, and closed with three transcendent performances of Mahler's Symphony No. 2, "Resurrection."
You don't have to be a Christian to be deeply moved by Mahler's vision of renewal, and I regret that I missed the chance to sneak a riff on "You don't have to be Jewish to love Levy's [rye bread]" into my review. On the other hand, I'm not sure how many current readers are familiar with that classic advertising campaign from the 1960s and 70s.
I will note that I cried at different points in the different Mahler performances - I attended all of them and the open rehearsal, so, yes, four Mahler 2 performances in three days. At the rehearsal, the tears came in Sasha Cooke's first lines in the "Urlicht" movement; in the first performance, somewhere in the staggering last movement. I have never heard Cooke sing with greater beauty or feeling and I think I've heard most of her Bay Area performances.
Fun trivia about the performances: I wrote down the start and end times of the four movements, and over the three performances, the movement timings.....did not vary from each other by as much as a minute.
This round-up will cover all of Salonen's last four programs as music director, in reverse chronological order, but not all at once.
June 12-14: Mahler, Symphony No. 2 in C Minor, "Resurrection"
Gift links for the Chronicle and WSJ.
