We are unhappy too.
That's because San Francisco Opera has just sent out a press release about Fall of the House of Usher: Richard Croft is out of both operas, replaced by Jason Bridges, as Edgar Allan Poe, in Gordon Getty's Usher House and Joel Sorensen, as the Doctor, in Debussy's La Chute de la Maison Usher. Croft has withdrawn for personal reasons.
So, who's next? Rene Barbara, Daniela Mack, Alessandro Corbelli, or Lucas Meachem? And can we sequester the casts of Jenufa and Don Carlo?
Don Carlo better be the exception to this Fall's cancellations. All will be forgiven. Remember last season when cancellation was a good thing (Norma).
ReplyDeleteStarting with Brian Hymel in TROYENS it's not been a good year for SFO. Watch Stoyanova cancel DON CARLO. The cast of CARMEN is so young I doubt they'll cancel. They'll want/need the major house credit.
ReplyDeleteYet another reason why booking singers so far in advance is such a bad idea.
Then again Damrau's cancelation of LUCIA led to the glory that is Sarah Shafer in an otherwise insufferable ZAUBERFLOTE. So it's not all bad.
Darrick, yes, Barton for Karenas was a great swap and surely an improvement. Usually, we're not that lucky, though.
ReplyDeleteMatthew, I saw Hymel in two of his three appearances, so I got lucky with Troyens. I hope he will not schedule himself to the point of exhaustion going forward.
That's a good point about the Carmen casts. I hope Stoyanova is able to sing here; I'd like to hear her and she is...past mid-career, I think. If she does cancel, I hope they can get Lianna Haroutounian or Juliana Di Giacomo.
Well....I am skipping Magic Flute entirely, and likely for most of the next decade.
I truly hope NO cancellation by Stoyanova - I was deeply disappointed when she cancelled Ballo. As I stated elsewhere, she can cancel only if SFO can get Harteros as the replacement. :D
ReplyDeleteI don't get Di Giacomo. I think she has potential, but thought she had problems with her voice in the higher register and had pitch problems. Perhaps I just caught her on a bad night - all singers have them. I thought she has a Verdi sound, and admired the beauty of her overall tone. I just thought she had problems that need to be fixed technically.
I do like Hartounian and was glad I went to Tosca when she made her house debut. I do wish SFO would retire that production or use it less often. When it debuted back in the 90s it was novel, but would like to see another set. I've been lucky with SFO Toscas - only one disappointment in one of the 2nd cast Tosca back in the Monsuri years. Other than that, it's always been well cast.
Lisa, I hope you do a Fall review, as this season thus far has been rather lackluster compared to last year in my opinion. I missed Sweeney and have no desire to go to Flute or Barber. I want my first Flute to be sung in German which SFO hasn't done in years. I have tickets for Meistersinger and unless it's a total disaster will go to Usher - waiting for the reviews. I have tickets for all the summer operas.
Cheers.
Ahahaha, HARTEROS. She sang at the Met in 2003, 2004, 2007 and 2008, 29 performances in all. I will faint if we ever see her here.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the Tosca set is getting tiresome, but I think a major money-saver for the company these days is using existing productions as long as possible and co-producing as much as possible so that production costs are spread out among several companies. So they are going to hang onto that one for a while.
I'm trying to write up operas as I see them - still have not done Lucia - but I am skipping Magic Flute and Barber, so I'll have nothing to say except continuing to say that I don't like the Flute production.