Friday Photo

Doorway, Bank of England

London, 2024

 

Forthcoming from Raehann Bryce-Davis

Mezzo-soprano Raehann Bryce-Davis

I've seen the wonderful mezzo-soprano Raehann Bryce-Davis twice, first as a terrifying Ježibaba in Santa Fe Opera's brilliant production of Rusalka, then in recital in SF in January. The recital was sadly underattended, because it was scheduled opposite one of Michael Tilson Thomas's performances of Mahler's Symphony No. 5, which are expected to be his last San Francisco Symphony performances. 

Bryce-Davis was a knockout in both performances. She has it all: a beautiful voice with worlds of color in it, sterling dynamic control, and fabulous dramatic sense. I hope that you get to see her and I really hope that she'll sing at San Francisco Opera sooner or later.

In any event, she has an album coming out! I'm not exactly sure when, but she has released two singles from it. You can hear them on her web site, and I hope that they leave you wanting more. (If you want to see her in person, she's currently singing Amneris in a run of Aida at Oper im Steinbruch in St. Margarethen, Austria. Her schedule for the rest of the 2024-25 season is on OperaBase.

News from AFM 802, the NYC Musicians' Union

A couple of interesting items in press releases this week -

• U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer announced [on July 17] that the American Federation of Musicians and Employers Pension Plan, which represents nearly 50,000 union members in the entertainment industry from Broadway to musicians in orchestras, bands, film, and theaters across the country, will receive a whopping $1.5 billion pension-fix from the American Rescue Plan. Schumer said that this will ensure that musicians and their families receive the hard-earned benefits that they paid into their whole lives, but lost through no fault of their own and were set to go insolvent by 2034. “Sweet music! The American Federation of Musicians Plan that covers retirement benefits for nearly 50,000 musicians from Broadway to orchestras to film is getting the pensions relief they have needed to the tune of a whopping $1.5 billion dollars. So many AFM members thought it would lights out and closing curtain for their pensions by 2034, but because of the pension reform I championed in the American Rescue Plan they can now breathe a sigh of relief,” said Senator Schumer. “When I became majority leader, I promised I would not stop fighting until our union brothers and sisters and their families got the pension relief they needed and earned, and today it is music to my ears to hear they will finally get the relief they have long needed.”
• The union "enthusiastically" endorses Vice President Kamala Harris for president.

Museum Mondays

Detail of Picture Frame, "Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth"

John Singer Sargent and Fashion

Tate Britain, July, 2024

 

Mahler 3 at San Francisco Symphony

Davies Symphony Hall

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

SFS closed out the season last month with Mahler's Third Symphony, a 90+ minute monster. This was only Esa-Pekka Salonen's outing with the composer at SFS, following a Mahler 2 ("Resurrection") during the 2022-23 season. Sadly, the 2024-25 season will close with Mahler 2, Salonen's last program as music director.

• Lisa Hirsch, SF Chronicle
• David Bratman, SFCV
• DB at Kalimac's Corner
• Previously: Joshua Kosman, SF Chronicle (Mahler 2)
• Previously: Lisa Hirsch, SFCV (Mahler 2)

I think we're all hearing the same thing in Salonen's Mahler: From Joshua's review in 2022: 

Where Thomas insinuates, Salonen speaks out bluntly. Where Thomas works in chiaroscuro — layering over the orchestral texture with faint shadows and whispers of countermelodies — Salonen works in bold, bright colors. Thomas is perhaps more attuned to the composer’s corrosive irony, Salonen to the forthrightness with which he proclaims his emotional themes.

Obviously, there is no right or wrong here. These are both legitimate ways to understand the slippery, protean voice that Mahler brings to all his orchestral music. A conductor has to choose, at least for the duration of a single performance, but we in the audience don’t.

How you feel about their different styles is very much a matter of taste. 

Salonen Conducts Schumann and Bruckner at SFS

Esa-Pekka Salonen

Photo by Minna Hatinen

Courtesy of San Francisco Symphony

Well, this was something of a surprise: I liked the Bruckner much more than the Schumann.

• Lisa Hirsch, SF Chronicle
• Rebecca Wishnia, SFCV
• DB at Kalimac's Corner

Fellow Travelers at Opera Parallèle

 

Opera Parallèle, with Jaymes Kirksey, Guest Conductor, and Brian Staufenbiel, Stage/Creative Director, in a dress rehearsal of “Fellow Travelers.” This image from left to right: Joseph Lattanzi, as Hawkins Fuller, Cara Gabrielson, as Lucy, Victoria Lawal, as Mary Johnson, and
Jonathan Pierce Rhodes, as Timothy Laughlin

©2024 Stefan Cohen/Photo Courtesy of Opera Parallèle

Gregory Spears's opera Fellow Travelers had its Bay Area debut last month. Reviews:

• Steven Winn, SF Chronicle
• Lisa Hirsch, SFCV. My review should have mentioned the efficient and attractive set.
• The Opera Tattler

Friday Photo

National Gallery

Trafalgar Square, London

July, 2024

 

Michael Cavanagh

Irene Roberts (Dorabella), Nicole Heaston (Despina), Nicole Cabell (Fiordaligi)

Cosi fan tutte, November, 2021

Photo: Cory Weaver, courtesy of San Francisco Opera

Michael Cavanagh, who directed seven San Francisco Opera productions between 2012 and 2022, died on March 13, 2024. He was 62 and died of leptomeningeal cancer. This news didn't get a lot of attention in the Bay Area, because it dropped the day before the disastrous news that Esa-Pekka Salonen would be leaving the San Francisco Symphony.

Here's what Cavanagh directed at SFO:

John Adams’ NIXON IN CHINA (2011-12 season) – San Francisco Opera premiere

7 performances; opened June 8, 2012

 

Carlisle Floyd’s SUSANNAH (2014-15 season) – New Production

5 performances; opened September 6, 2014

 

Donizetti’s LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR (2015-16 season) – New Production

7 performances; opened October 8, 2015

 

Ana Sokolović’s SVADBA-WEDDING (2015-16 season) - SF Opera Lab premiere

7 performances; opened April 2, 2016

 

Mozart’s THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO (2019-20 season) – New Production, *Mozart-Da Ponte Trilogy

8 performances, opened October 11, 2019

 

Mozart’s COSI FAN TUTTE (2021-22 season) – New Production, *Mozart-Da Ponte Trilogy

5 performances; opened November 21, 2021

 

Mozart’s DON GIOVANNI (2021-22 season) – New Production, *Mozart-Da Ponte Trilogy

8 performances; opened June 4, 2022

I missed Susannah, because I had pneumonia that year, but I saw the rest. I thought that The Marriage of Figargo and Don Giovanni had significant flaws, but the other productions were all excellent, and Cosi was among the greatest productions I have ever seen, sly, human, very funny, and with the ambiguity the opera demands. RIP, Michael Cavanagh.

Livermore Valley Opera 2024-25

Livermore Valley Opera (LVOpera) has a two-opera season coming up for 2024-25. They're doing two classics: Donizetti's The Daughter of the Regiment, a comedy with an extremely silly plot redeemed by surprisingly lovely and complex music, and Mozart's Don Giovanni, which needs no introduction. 

I've only been out to LVOpera once, for an excellent production of Verdi's Otello. Yes, I regret missing their recent production of Carlisle Floyd's Of Mice and Men. LVOpera performs in a 500 seat theater, and I really like the intimacy of seeing opera in a theater of that size.

Here are some details about LVOpera's upcoming season. 

Location (all performances): Bankhead Theater 2400 First Street, Livermore, CA 94550

Cost: Adults $25-$110. Tickets can be purchased through the company's website at www.LVOpera.com. Special ticket pricing: $25, ages 20 and younger; $45, ages 21-40. Bankhead Ticket Box Office: 925-373-6800.

Alexander Katsman conducts all performances.

The Daughter of the Regiment 

Véronique Filloux, Marie; Chris Mosz, Tonio; Lisa Chavez, Marquise of Berkenfield; Eugene Brancoveanu, Sulpice; Deborah Lambert, Duchess of Krakenthorp; Gilead Wurman, Hortensius.

Performances:

• September 28th, 2024 @ 7:30pm
• September 29th, 2024 @ 2:00pm
• October 5th, 2024 @ 2:00pm
• October 6th, 2024 @ 2:00pm

Don Giovanni

Titus Muzio III, Don Giovanni; Murrella Parton, Donna Anna; Cara Gabrielson, Donna Elvira; David Walton, Don Ottavio; Samuel Weiser, Leporello; Kirk Eichelberger, Commendatore; Phoebe Chee, Zerlina; Joseph Calzada, Masetto

Performances:

• March 1st, 2025 @ 7:30pm
• March 2nd, 2025 @ 2:00pm
• March 8th, 2025 @ 2:00pm
• March 9th, 2025 @ 2:00pm

Museum Mondays

Detail of "Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth"

John Singer Sargent and Fashion

Tate Britain

July, 2024

 

Return of Friday Photos

Regency Cafe

Westminster, London

July, 2024

 

Return of Museum Mondays

Detail of "Doctor Pozzi at Home"

John Singer Sargent and Fashion

Tate Britain

July, 2024

 

Salonen Conducts Mahler 3rd at SFS

San Francisco Symphony Program

Black & white photo of Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting. 

Probably a rehearsal because he's wearing a t-shirt.

Photo: probably Minna Hatinen; the style matches her other photos of him

• Lisa Hirsch, SF Chronicle. In which San Francisco Symphony learns that all publicity is not good publicity. It is ham-handed to make threats against a 30-year-plus patron. They could have written a slightly sheepish request, but decided that a threat was the right way to go. Also, the bylaws don't specifically forbid signs in the hall, and I've seen quite a few recently. 
• David Bratman, SFCV
• Steve Winn, Musical America (paywalled; no link)

Partenope, San Francisco Opera

 

Handel's "Partenope" with Julie Fuchs as Partenope, Hadleigh Adams as Ormonte, Daniela Mack as Rosmira (disguised as Eurimene), Nicholas Tamagna as Armindo, and Carlo Vistoli as Arsace.

Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

I liked this revival much better than I remember liking the 2014 bring-up, but couldn't remember why other than "what's the deal with the bathroom jokes?" Maybe I have reverse-aged, because they just blended in with the rest of the production this time? But I also had vague memories of not much liking the previous singer in the title role, Danielle de Niese. She's a very beautiful woman but can't hold a candle to Julie Fuchs as a singer.

I'll note that the program essays have no photos or mention of the countertenor who sang Arsace in 2014, presumably for the good reason that he's now a convicted rapist. Harassment allegations have also been made against the conductor of that production.

Reviews:

• Lisa Hirsch, S.F. Chronicle
• Nicholas Jones, SFCV
• The Opera Tattler
• Michael M. Landman-Karny, Stage and Cinema
• Michael Anthonio, Parterre Box
• Michael Strickland, SF Civic Center

Previously:

• Joshua Kosman, Chronicle. I hadn't read this review since it came out, and I'm amused to see a few similarities between it and my review anyway. The review also confirms my memory that de Niese wasn't quite up to the title role.
• Robert Commanday, SFCV.

Music Reviewer Waking Nightmare

So there I was a week ago, out running errands, when suddenly I realized that I was reviewing a performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 3 the next day, and...I was unprepared, in that I hadn't heard it in a couple of years, hadn't looked at the score, hadn't thought about it at all. PANIC.

....until I realized that I was reviewing a completely different program the following day and had no idea yet whether I would be reviewing the Mahler on June 28 or not.

Belated Anniversary

 

Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

I wrote some music reviews in college, for the Brandeis Justice, because there was a ton of musical activity at Brandeis. I was offered the position of features editor, but turned it down because I spent so much time rehearsing and practicing. My life might have been very different if I'd had that level of journalism experience when I eventually got out of school. 

In the 90s, I wrote a few CD reviews for Janos Gereben, when he was arts editor of a local paper.

My first paid professional music review appeared in San Francisco Classical Voice in early February, 2004. I had responded to a Question of Week and mentioned in it that I had been a music major in school. The follow week I got an email from the editors asking if I'd like to try reviewing for me. I did, and that worked out pretty well. I've now published in SFCV, Early Music America, The Classical Review, Opera, Opera News (RIP), and the San Francisco Chronicle. It took me all day to write that first review, which, to be honest, was also not that great. I'm grateful and a little astonished to find myself twenty years into this particular career.

Ravel and Schoenberg at San Francisco Symphony

Arnold Schoenberg, Erwartung

Mary Elizabeth Williams in the process of knocking everyone's socks off.

Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting SFS.

Photo: Kristen Loken, courtesy of San Francisco Symphony

An extraordinary evening at San Francisco Symphony, with Esa-Pekka Salonen leading Ravel's delightful Ma Mère l'Oye (Mother Goose) ballet, with rapturous choreography by Alonzo King, danced (of course) by Alonzo King LINES Ballet, and Arnold Schoenberg's harrowing Erwartung given an astounding performance by soprano Mary Elizabeth Williams, directed by Peter Sellars on his absolute best behavior. 

• Lisa Hirsch, SFCV
• Michael Strickland, SF Civic Center (Mercifully, I was in Row T and heard no clomping in the Ravel.)
• The Opera Tattler

 

Innocence Livestream

"Innocence" by Kaija Saariaho, Sofi Oksanen, and Aleksi Barrière.

Photo includes Vilma Jää and Ruxandra Donose

The livestream of this great opera is on Wednesday, June 12, 2024, starting at 7:30 pm Pacific Time. I think that Innocence will look good on video. The cost is only $27.50 and the video will be available for 48 hours.

Friday Photo

Shrine to a cat

Laurel District, Oakland, CA

May, 2024

 

San Francisco Opera: Innocence

 

Innocence, by Kaija Saariaho, Sofi Oksanen, and Aleksi Barrière

Innocence opened at San Francisco Opera on June 1, and it is a magnificent achievement in every way.

• Steven Winn, Chronicle
• Lisa Hirsch, SFCV
• Opera Tattler
• Opera Tattler (Innocence again)
• Michael Strickland, SF Civic Center
• Caroline Crawford, Bay City News
• Harvey Steiman, Seen & Heard International
• Michael Anthonio, Parterre Box
• Richard S. Ginell, Classical Voice North America
• DB at Kalimac's Corner
• Emily Wilson, "How SF Opera is Preparing the Cast and Audience for Kaija Saariaho's Innocence", SFCV

Previously:

• Alex Ross, The New Yorker
• Zachary Woolfe, NY Times
• Alastair Macaulea, Financial Times
• Andrew Clements, Guardian
• Colin Clarke, Seen & Heard International
• Mark Berry, Boulezian

Kaija Saariaho

Courtesy of San Francisco Opera

No photographer credited.

A year later, I still can't quite believe that Saariaho is gone.

I dress up a bit when I'm reviewing but for this occasion, I made an exception, wearing a t-shirt under a light black jacket:

San Francisco Opera, The Magic Flute

 

Amitai Pati as Tamino, Kwangchul Youn as Sarastro, Christina Gansch as Pamina, and Lauri Vasar as Papageno (below) in Mozart's "The Magic Flute."

Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

There's an awful lot going on visually in Barrie Kosky and Suzanne Andrade's "silent movie" Magic Flute production. From moment to moment, it's attractive and entertaining, but ultimately it is just too much. There's no repose or grandeur on the stage, and those are both significant aspects of the opera. The singers are much too hemmed in by the demands of the production.

• Lisa Hirsch, S.F. Chronicle
• Steven Winn, SFCV
• Opera Tattler
• Opera Tattler (Magic Flute again)
• SF Civic Center

Weh! Weh!

What am I wailing about? I'm wailing over Joshua Kosman's retirement from the San Francisco Chronicle.

I'm happy for him, I really am: after 36 years on the job, writing thousands of overnight reviews and hundreds of features, he has earned retirement! He'll have more time for games and puzzles of all kinds, for going to the theater, for attending musical events that he isn't reviewing. And those are all good things.

But he's been such a constant presence at the Chron and such a reliably interesting and thoughtful writer, whether or not I agreed with his take on a particular performance or performer. I always found something to think about in his reviews, and very often reacted with "Why didn't I think of that?" He's a terrific writer, less formal and with more spice than my own reviews and articles usually have. So, yeah, I'm happy for him and I will miss him.

I've learned so much about how to write a review from reading his reviews, and over the years I've gotten a lot of good advice from him, as well. When Andrew Gilbert, at Mission Local, interviewed Joshua a few weeks ago, he mentioned that Joshua's work mentoring younger writers was not publicly visible. Gilbert talked with Hannah Edgar, now a contributor to the Chicago Tribune, about working with Joshua at the Rubin Institute and elsewhere. She wasn't the only one, I'm sure.

The Mission Local article mentions that he was thinking of starting some kind of a weekly newsletter, and I hope that happens, because here I am, wondering what he thought of The Magic Flute and Innocence at San Francisco Opera, and I can't just open the Chronicle to find out.

Retirements at San Francisco Symphony

Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

Five musicians with more than 180 collective years of playing in the orchestra are retiring at the end of the 2024-25 season. They are:

• Nadya Tichman, 44 years; violinist and former Associate Concertmaster, also acting concertmaster 1998-2001
• Steven Dibner, 41 years; Associate Principal Bassoon
• Amy Hiraga, 26 years; violinist. Note that Hiraga won two auditions to SFS. She played for one year, moved back to NYC, then returned in 1999.
• Jill Rachuy Brindel, 44 years; cellist.
• Peter Wyrick, 28 years, Associate Principal Cello from 1999 to 2023. He won two auditions. He played for three season, then returned to NYC, and came back to SFS in 1999.  (If this sounds familiar...Hiraga and Wyrick are married.)

More auditions coming, of course. The orchestra is becoming less MTT's and more Salonen's.

 

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