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Monday, July 11, 2011

SF Opera: Rumor & Gossip Edition

Lohengrin with Brandon Jovanovich, care of someone posting anonymously, as do we all, on Parterre Box.

10 comments:

  1. From Opera Tattler's SFO Futures page:

    2012-2013 Season
    Fall 2012: Rigoletto: Lučić, Vratogna, Demuro, Kurzak
    Fall 2012: Heggie: Moby-Dick
    June 2013: Adamo: The Gospel of Mary Magdalene

    2013-2014 Season
    Fall 2013: An untitled opera by Jennifer Higdon
    Fall 2013: Lohengrin
    Fall 2013: I Capuleti e i Montecchi

    2014-2015 Season
    Catán: Florencia en el Amazonas

    Other rumors:
    Les Contes d'Hoffmann with Natalie Dessay
    Così fan tutte directed by Graham Vick
    Mefistofele directed by William Friedkin
    Tosca with Patricia Racette
    Manon with Diana Damrau
    Adriane Lecouvreur
    Andrea Chénier

    **************

    I wonder if Higdon has decided on a subject yet? The Catan is a beautiful opera, I'd love to see another production of it. Wonder what aging diva they'll trot out for the Cilea? I'd love to see Andrea Chénier, with a good tenor, of course. Cosi, if directed by Graham Vick, will be Regie, so that'll be sure to get the traditionalists howling.

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  2. I'd like to see the Catan. I heard Lohengrin is for next year, not 2013.

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  3. I'm not sold on this Jovanovich Lohengrin business whatsoever. I certainly think he has the vocal power to do it, but I kept expecting a "y'all" to slip out or something during that Siegmund in San Francisco. I'm not sure where all this fast and furious repertory switching stuff is going with him. I like him enough, but am finding more and more that he doesn't ever leap to mind for anything in particular.

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  4. Who would be the conductor? That would certainly matter. I'm not sure a Luisotti-led Lohengrin is what I would want to hear. Maybe Conlon could come up for the run?

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  5. Luisotti has said several times, in print, that he's planning to conduct Lohengrin.

    I don't think Conlon would be better, based on the pretty flat Goetterdaemmerung I heard last year. You know who I want to hear, anyway.

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  6. Brian, I'm not sold on Jovanovich as Lohengrin myself. I only heard the cycle 1 Siegmund, thought the voice just right, the approach and delivery....ah....unpolished and unstylish. I need to find someone reasonably objective to tell me whether he improved over the course of the cycles.

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  7. Who- Runnicles? I have a feeling it will be a long time until he returns. What I'd like to see is MTT across the street but at this point I don't think that's ever going to happen.

    I think Conlon does Wagner really well- it's the acoustics at the Chandler that are the problem. I don't remember if we were at the same performance of Gott last year in LA.

    As for Jovanovich, I was at the last Walkure and I think he was better as far as being more comfortable in the role, but vocally, besides a larger volume, I didn't notice much of a difference. However he also had to work with the blocking for Melton and they had no physical chemistry together although vocally they were quite a well-matched pair. I hope the one they broadcast will be that last one with her despite the fact that the first act was a little shaky until she found her confidence.

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  8. Yeah, Runnicles, and sigh, yeah, probably he will not be back anytime soon.

    The problems I heard with Conlon were the conducting, not the acoustics, more to do with flow than sheer sound.

    MTT just doesn't conduct much opera, and how could he do it at SFO, anyway? He typically has responsibilities across the street when the opera is in session, and can't take off two to four weeks for rehearsals and another two for performances.

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  9. re MTT and SFO

    Two words: Summer. Season.
    He does it in Europe, he can do it here. It's possible, but unlikely. Still, that doesn't stop me from wishing it were different!

    We'll have to agree to disagree about Conlon. The Lohengrin he led in LA last year was musically fantastic.

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  10. SFO's summer season is in June. He spent June conducting Mahler in Europe and making a mess out of his two programs. here. ;-)

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