The season is pretty much what I thought it would be. Orlando Furioso (Vivaldi) turned out to be Orlando (Handel), and I'm fine with that. I'd heard that Brian Jagde wouldn't be singing in SF next season, but no! There he is as Cavaradossi again (he was in the last two bring-ups, Gheorghiu/Racette /Moore and Haroutounian).
I am....sorta dubious about some of this. Matthew Polenzani as Don José? Um. Marco Berti as anything? He "withdrew for personal reasons" after two performances of the 2014-15 Norma, to be replaced by Russell Thomas for the remaining five and was pretty terrible in the last Trovatore, with Sondra Radvanovsky and the late Dmitri Hvorostovsky.
On the other hand, the winning trio of Radvanovsky, Jamie Barton, and Thomas is back for Roberto Devereux, and they're joined by Artur Rucinski, whom everybody loved in last year's Traviata.
Nice to see Rusalka back, and of course not in the by-now-moth-eaten Schenk, though why McVicar? Well, we luv him here. I would have preferred to see a production that really digs into the problems with the story, and I bet this does not. Nice cast, though.
I have somehow managed to see repertory staple Cav & Pag only once, back in the 80s; I skipped the last SFO bring-up, which must have been 10 or 15 years ago. I might have to see Tosca owing to Carmen Giannattasio. The bit of the production that got flashed on screen during the ten-minute season announcement looked like....primary-colors Sant'Andrea della Valle.
I vaguely thought that Heidi Stober might be Zdenka, especially after Ellie Dehn was announced as Arabella, and yup. It's pretty nicely cast. Return of Richard Paul Fink!
Again, nice cast for It's a Wonderful Life, which, with its sentimental streak crossed with torturing poor George Bailey, is not exactly a favorite film of mine. I'll see William Burden in pretty much anything and likely he will give a nuanced performance. Sorry not to see Anthony Dean Griffey as Uncle Billy, looking forward to hearing Golda Schultz. (I will say that making the angel female rather than the sad sack incompetent in the movie....might work better.)
I might need someone to explain to me what, exactly, this means, about Carmen: "San Francisco Opera production, originally created by Opera Australia based on the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and Norwegian National Opera co-production." We own the physical production but the intellectual property comes from the ROH and NNO via Opera Australia? I'm confused!
Of interest is the conductor lineup: absent a music director, we're getting eight conductors for the season, six of them new to SFO main stage. Patrick Summers (Wonderful Life) and Riccardo Frizza (Roberto Devereux) are the returnees. Bel canto is what Frizza does well, so fine. The debutants are Daniele Callegari (Cav & Pag), Leo Hussain (Tosca), Marc Albrecht (Arabella), James Gaffigan (Carmen), Christopher Moulds (Orlando), and Eun Sun Kim (Rusalka). Kim will be one of the few women to conduct at SFO (previously: Sara Jobin and....anyone else?). (Yes, Karen Kamensek conducted Susannah in 2014, as JSC says in comments. I would have sworn that Jane Glover conducted here, but I cannot find her in the archive.)
I'm going to note that Santa Fe Opera is one of the Arabella production's co-producers, so it will presumably meet their requirements: no traps, no flies. I saw their Albert Herring in LA a few years back, and it was weird to see all the scenery wheeled in from the wings.
Lastly, the season announcement had nothing about Opera Lab or the Wilsey Center and neither does the press release. I have made inquiries.
The whole lineup is after the jump.
CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA by Pietro Mascagni / PAGLIACCI by Ruggero Leoncavallo
Production New to San Francisco Opera
September 7 (8 p.m.), 12● (7:30 p.m.), 16● (2 p.m.), 19● (7:30 p.m.), 22 (7:30 p.m.), 28 (7:30 p.m.),
30 (2 p.m.), 2018
Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège production
Cavalleria Rusticana
Libretto by Guido Menasci and Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti; based on a story and play by Giovanni Verga
First performance:
First SFO performance:
Most recent SFO performance: 2003–04 Season
Pagliacci
Libretto by Ruggero Leoncavallo
First SFO performance:
Most recent SFO performance: 2003–04 Season
Cavalleria Rusticana Cast:
Turiddu
Santuzza
Alfio
Lola
Mamma Lucia
Pagliacci Cast:
Canio
Nedda
Tonio
Silvio
Beppe
Cavalleria Rusticana / Pagliacci Creative Team:
Conductor
Production
Revival Director
Chorus Director
San Francisco Opera Orchestra and San Francisco Opera Chorus
ROBERTO DEVEREUX by Gaetano Donizetti
Production New to San Francisco Opera
September 8 (7:30 p.m.), 11● (7:30 p.m.), 14 (7:30 p.m.), 18 (7:30 p.m.), 23● (2 p.m.), 27● (7:30 p.m.), 2018
Canadian Opera Company production
Libretto by Salvadore Cammarano; based on the tragedy Elisabeth d’Angleterre by François Ancelot
Sung in Italian with English supertitles
Approximate running time: 2 hours, 40 minutes including one intermission
First performance:
First SFO performance:
Most recent SFO performance: 1979 Season
Cast:
Elisabetta (Elizabeth I)
Roberto Devereux
Sara
Duke of Nottingham
Lord Cecil
Walter Raleigh
Creative Team:
Conductor
Director
Chorus Director
San Francisco Opera Orchestra, San Francisco Opera Chorus and San Francisco Opera Dance Corps
TOSCA by Giacomo Puccini
SAN FRANCISCO OPERA PRODUCTION PREMIERE
October 3 (7:30 p.m.), 7● (2 p.m.), 11● (7:30 p.m.), 14 (2 p.m.), 17● (7:30 p.m.), 20 (7:30 p.m.),
23 (7:30 p.m.), 26 (7:30 p.m.), 30● (7:30 p.m.), 2018
San Francisco Opera production
Libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on the drama La Tosca by Victorien Sardou
Sung in Italian with English supertitles
Approximate running time: 2 hours, 40 minutes including two intermissions
First performance:
First SFO performance:
Most recent SFO performance: 2014–15 Season
Cast:
Floria Tosca
Mario Cavaradossi
Baron Scarpia
A Sacristan
Spoletta
Sciarrone
A Jailer
Creative Team:
Conductor
Director
Production Designer
Lighting Designer
Chorus Director
San Francisco Opera Orchestra and San Francisco Opera Chorus
ARABELLA by Richard Strauss
Production New to San Francisco Opera
October 16 (7:30 p.m.), 19 (7:30 p.m.), 24● (7:30 p.m.), 28● (2 p.m.); November 3● (7:30 p.m.), 2018
Co-production of the Santa Fe Opera, Minnesota Opera and Canadian Opera Company
Libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal
Sung in German with English supertitles
Approximate running time: 3 hours including one intermission
First performance:
First SFO performance:
Most recent SFO performance: 1998–99 Season
Cast:
Arabella
Zdenka
Matteo
Mandryka
The Fiakermilli
Adelaide
A Fortune-Teller
Count Waldner
Count Elemer
Count Lamoral
Creative Team:
Conductor
Director
Production Designer
Chorus Director
San Francisco Opera Orchestra and San Francisco Opera Chorus
IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE by Jake Heggie
WEST COAST PREMIERE
November 17 (7:30 p.m.), 20 (7:30 p.m.), 24● (2 p.m.), 25● (2 p.m.), 29● (7:30 p.m.);
December 1● (7:30 p.m.), 4 (7:30 p.m.), 7 (7:30 p.m.), 9 (2 p.m.), 2018
Co-commission and co-production of San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera and Indiana University Jacobs School of Music
Music by Jake Heggie
Libretto by Gene Scheer
Based in part on the film It’s A Wonderful Life™ by permission of Paramount Licensing, Inc., and on The Greatest Gift, a story by Philip Van Doren Stern.
Sung in English with English supertitles
Approximate running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes including one intermission
First performance:
Cast:
George Bailey
Clara
Mary Hatch
Uncle Billy Bailey
Mr. Potter
Harry Bailey
Mother Bailey
Angel Quartet
Angel Quartet
Angel Quartet
Angel Quartet
Creative Team:
Conductor
Director
Set Designer
Costume Designer
Lighting Designer
Projection Designer
Choreographer
Chorus Director
CARMEN by Georges Bizet
Production New to San Francisco Opera
June 5● (7:30 p.m.), 11 (7:30 p.m.), 14 (7:30 p.m.), 20● (7:30 p.m.), 23● (2 p.m.), 26● (7:30 p.m.),
29 (7:30 p.m.), 2019
San Francisco Opera production, originally created by Opera Australia based on the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and Norwegian National Opera co-production
Libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novel by Prosper Mérimée
Sung in French with English supertitles
Approximate running time: 3 hours including one intermission
First performance:
First SFO performance:
Most recent SFO performance: 2015–16 Season
Cast:
Carmen
Don José
Micaëla
Escamillo
Creative Team:
Conductor
Production
Associate & Movement Director Denni Sayers
Chorus Director
San Francisco Opera Orchestra, San Francisco Opera Chorus and San Francisco Opera Dance Corps
ORLANDO by George Frideric Handel
Production New to San Francisco Opera
June 9● (2 p.m.), 15● (7:30 p.m.), 18 (7:30 p.m.), 21 (7:30 p.m.), 27● (7:30 p.m.), 2019
Scottish Opera production
Libretto adapted from Carlo Sigismondo Capece’s L’Orlando, after Orlando furioso by Ludovico Ariosto
Sung in Italian with English supertitles
Approximate running time: 3 hours including two intermissions
First performance:
First SFO performance:
Most recent SFO performance: 1985 Season
Cast:
Orlando
Angelica
Dorinda
Medoro
Zoroastro
Creative Team:
Conductor
Director
San Francisco Opera Orchestra
RUSALKA by Antonín Dvořák
Production New to San Francisco Opera
June 16● (2 p.m.), 19● (7:30 p.m.), 22● (7:30 p.m.), 25 (7:30 p.m.), 28 (7:30 p.m.), 2019
Lyric Opera of Chicago production
Libretto by Jaroslav Kvapil, based on the novella Undine by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué
Sung in Czech with English supertitles
Approximate running time: 3 hours, 25 minutes including two intermissions
First performance:
First SFO performance:
Most recent SFO performance: 1995 Season
Cast:
Rusalka
The Prince
Vodník (Water Gnome)
Ježibaba
The Foreign Princess
The Kitchen Boy
Creative Team:
Conductor
Production
Choreographer
Chorus Director
San Francisco Opera Orchestra, San Francisco Opera Chorus and San Francisco Opera Dance Corps
14 comments:
Karen Kamensek conducted Susannah in 2014.
Knowing what the operas were several months ago kinda took some of the fun out of it, but knowing the casting and exact productions is a big part of the excitement for me too and I am overall mostly happy.
Things that make me happy: Jamie Barton in TWO roles, J'Nai Bridges as Carmen with Gaffigan conducting, Hye Jung Lee in the weird Zerbineta-like role of The Fiakermilli in Arabella, and everything about Orlando and Rusalka. There can never be enough Handel or Dvorak, and the latter features Brandon Jovanovich besides.
Things that I will not be attending: Cav/Pag was shocking and revolutionary when they both premiered (separately) but now they are as stale as Tosca, an opera I hope never have to see again.
Because I've only seen Cav/Pag once, I'll go, but I must admit: I watched part of a Cav DVD a couple of years ago and I was shocked at....how boring it was.
Sigh, Tosca. Maybe I'll go standing room. Curious about the soprano and the conductor. I will skip Carmen, however.
SFCV's piece on the season announcement mentioned that the Taube and Wilsey plans for 2018 are on hold since Ring rehearsals will be using a lot of that time and space.
When a SFO season announcement rivals LA Opera for ZZZZZZ's, that's quite an achievement. Oh well, no reason to go to any of those for me --you'd have to pay me vast sums of money to sit through even 10 minutes of a Handel opera again-- at least I'll save on air fare and the hideous cost of a hotel in San Francisco. :-)
It's hard to believe that this is the same company that has done Lear, Der Besuch der alten Dame, Lulu, Das Verrrantene Meer, Saint François d'Assise, Le Grande Macbre and more "tonal" operas like The Fiery Angel, Doktor Faust, Death in Venice and so on. I get it, the days of having one or two slots for non-standard rep stuff are probably gone forever, but it's disappointing to me nonetheless.
There are three non-standard-rep operas on the schedule, whether they are your style of non-standard rep or not: Orlando, Rusalka, and Wonderful Life. Yeah, I'd like to see a Dvorak opera that is not Rusalka and an opera based on Stephen Jay Gould's "Wonderful Life" might be more fun than the Heggie, but still.
There's also a reason for the more-cautious scheduling. With the decline in subscriber numbers over the last 35 years, they really have got to sell every ticket. Here are David Gockley's numbers on subscriptions in three years:
1980: 165,000
2015: 93,000
2022: 80,000 estimated
In the 80s, when they had that many subscribers and did more operas/year, it was a lot easier to schedule four performances of something VERY unusual. Here's the lineup for 1985-86:
Adriana Lecouvreur
Lear
Orlando
Turandot
Werther
Falstaff
Toca
Ballo in Maschera
Billy Budd
Rosenkavalier
Trovatore
Lucia
Cav/Pag
La Voix Humaine/The Medium
How much of that schedule would you actually like to see, I mean, besides Lear? The year they did Das Verratene Meer is similar and includes four Rossini operas; <a href="http://archive.sfopera.com/qry1operalist.asp?psearch=1991-1992&Submit=GO&psearchtype=&pageno=&dpr=&pageno=>see this page from the archives</a>.
I think that we may also be at the tail end of Gockley's programming, given the three to five year planning horizon. We don't yet know what Matthew Shilvock's programming will be.
Oh, dammit. Here's the link to the archive with the close-quotation in place.
Sharing my thoughts on the 18/19 Season....
It is a shame that subscribers have declined so drastically since the 1980s. Could it be costs of tickets? Choice of repertoire? Just lack of interest in opera? I'm sure if SFO knew they would try to fix it.
Anyway, I am disappointed that the casting is so blah for 2018/19. To me there isn't any major or upcoming singer making a SFO debut in the Fall/Summer season. The only production that I think is really well cast is the Roberto Devereux - same lineup that we had for Norma a few years back which was glorious.
That said, I am torn as to whether or not to buy a full season and take friends with me or wait until singles go on sale. I think the casting of the Cav/Pag is very disappointing. It will be nice to hear Haratounian as Nedda, but the two tenors are not my favorites and I missed Semenchuk's Amneris. However, Cav is one of the first operas I really loved. I've never seen a staged performance and it doesn't seem to be given very often so I will go.
I want to see Devereux as I've not seen that one and it's very well cast. Tosca is interesting as its a new production and I'm kind of interested in hearing Giannattasio- I've read some of her reviews. If it were the old production, I think I would wait to hear what the critics say.
I think I'll skip Arabella. I really would love to see this one as Richard Strauss is one of my favorite composers, but I can't get excited by the cast. It looks like the originally cast soprano cancelled and Dehn is taking her place. I know the last time SFO did Arabella, Fleming was cast, but she switched to take over Blanche in Streetcar, so Janice Watson was cast. I have Arabella on my list of operas to see before I die, but Arabella needs a lot of help to sell itself. There is some beautiful music, but long dull stretches in it as well.
Wonderful Life, Carmen, and Orlando are definitely a pass for me. I saw Rusalka when SFO did it last and don't have a need to rush out again; but Jamie Barton and Brandon Jovanovich, whom I like, are singing. I wasn't thrilled with Willis-Sorensen in Meistersinger, but maybe it's wasn't a good fit for her voice.
I hope others aren't as jaded as I am.
Cheers!
Subscriptions are in decline at nearly every performing arts organization in the country. It is not specific to SFO; it's a problem every group has tried to solve. The most likely causes are 1) the number of arts & entertainment options that are out there and 2) a declining preference to commit in advance - that is, greater interest in spontaneous decisions.
The availability of cut-rate tickets from Goldstar has probably also contributed. People wait for discounts rather than buy subscriptions in advance.
That...is an interesting theory about Arabella.
The last Rusalka was in 1995! It would not count as rushing out to see this one. ;-)
Hi Lisa,
Has it really been 22 years since Rusalka graced the stage of SFO? It seems like only yesterday. I certainly remember it, well Renee Fleming in the title role that is. That role fit her voice so well.
Another comment on the audiences at SFO. I remember that when I first started to attend in the 90s, it was very often that house was full and for the more popular operas, sold out. Nowadays it seems a sold out house is the exception. Breaks my heart to tell you the truth.
The other thing I noticed is almost every performance I have attended always ends with a standing ovation - regardless of what was on stage. In the past few years, I have only really been moved 2 or 3 times to stand and applaud - Elektra for sure and Don Carlo from the summer previous. Else, I've felt the performances were good at best and adequate at worse. Must say I haven't encountered a disaster too often. Maybe it's me just being crabby.
Thoughts?
Cheers!
OSA Honors English, not sure why you removed your post (although I think I might have responded to you elsewhere....)
JSC, that makes no sense. The Atrium Theater is free until Ring rehearsals start (probably in mid-to-late April or early May) and it'll be free after the Ring closes. SFO told me that formal planning for Opera Lab is on hold for they hope is a brief hiatus.
I don't get the constant standing ovations myself. I think that there have been a fair number of truly outstanding performances over the years.
The house isn't filling in part because of the reasons I listed above and perhaps because of repertory fatigue. I know people who only go to the REALLY unusual stuff.
Hi Again Lisa,
Are you buying a full subscription? half? or just selected tickets?
Am torn as to what I should do. Driving down to the Bay Area is getting more challenging and am torn. I feel Devereux and Cav/Pag are musts for me. I can't seem to bring myself to add Arabella as much as I would like to see it before I die. Rusalka is looking better and better.
I would also love to attend the opening night ball at least once to see what its like. But who knows...
Thoughts?
Cheers....
I have to see all of the operas because of the open music director position. Haven't decided what to do as far as what I buy. I mean, I really do not want to see Carmen or Tosca again, but I do want to see the conductors and some of the singers.
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