Music Director Designate Eun Sun Kim
Photo by Nicolaj Lund
I believe that this gets her on the podium for SFO 100!
Next season, she is conducting a new production of Fidelio, and it opens on opening weekend. I take that to mean "not opening night, but Saturday of that weekend." She will conduct up to four productions each year.
She has exceptional qualifications.
- Studied composition as an undergrad
- Has a doctorate in conducting
- Has considerable breadth and depth of repertoire, unlike former MD Nicola Luisotti
- The first opera she worked on was La Boheme, which isn't an easy score.
- She speaks six languages well and considered being a translator.
- She knows enough Czech that she fed the singers every word of Rusalka.
I was at the press conference where this was announced. Apparently it was love at first sight between her and the company, especially the orchestra. Matthew Shilvock, the general director, said people were approaching him to tell him how wonderful she was during the rehearsal and performance period for Rusalka.
I personally thought she was terrific in that Rusalka. The orchestra sounded fabulous, in way that not very many conductors can make it sound; the last time it sounded that good, to my ear, was when Sir Mark Elder conducted Die Meistersinger in 2015. And she worked extremely well with the singers; one took...notable liberties at a big moment. Kim supported that singer so well that I'm pretty sure that not very many people noticed.
10 comments:
Let me be the first to question the wisdom of hiring another MD based on one well-received production and note the last time this was done it didn't work out all that well (Luisotti? Oh yes, that guy). And I hate to be the first who openly wonders if this decision seems like it's being made based on demographic and social considerations as much as musical ones, but I will. I have no axe to grind against ESK, but I've heard her conduct Zauberflote at WNO, and it certainly wasn't anything to get excited about. Plus, I don't see a resume that makes her seem like the operatic equivalent to having EPS at SFS. Why not bring her back a couple of times before making such a big decision, and make sure she isn't a one-hit-wonder? I know, too late, but maybe I'll get to be the one who called it first. Still, I hope it's good news because I'd like Shilvock's era to be more artistically satisfying than his predecessor's.
You know that Donald was also hired as a result of a one-off appearance, right? He conducted the second-cast Ring in 1990. She has way more operatic/musical depth than Luisotti had when he got here. He was previously an opera chorus conductor who was just starting to get some gigs in the pit.
I gather you didn't hear the Rusalka, which was definitely something to get excited about. I don't know why you're discussing demographics, since all sorts of mediocre white men get hired for lots of jobs because they're the default demographic.
From everything that was said at the press conference, there is excellent chemistry between Kim and the orchestra, and apparently everyone totally loved working with her. These are important qualities.
I hope we can agree there is a significant difference between a Ring cycle and Rusalka, which I sadly did not hear. And, while I'm being contrary, much was also made about the chemistry between Luisotti and the orchestra when he was hired, that he was going to bring back SFO to its former traditions before Rosenberg and Runnicles ruined everything, and blah blah blah. As for mediocre white men, no demographic has mastered the art of failing upward better than we have, but that doesn't mean SFO needs to make such a hasty decision - and really, more than anything else, this strikes me as a hasty decision that might be at least in part driven by the amount of positive, feel-good press generated simply by being the first major US opera house to hire a woman as MD. And surprise, it's working perfectly!
This is not being contrary; it's being a jerk: "And I hate to be the first who openly wonders if this decision seems like it's being made based on demographic and social considerations as much as musical ones, but I will." Like, don't openly wonder it; maybe have more direct experience with the conductor, and above all, focus on the person's competence before anything.
You mention Salonen. He was extremely green, with a lot of potential, when the LA Phil hired him. I have heard stories about how bad some of his standard rep was in the early days.
I'm going to have to ask SFO for the press release announcing Luisotti as MD.
"Maybe have more direct experience with the conductor, and above all, focus on the person's competence before anything." - That is precisely what I'm doing, and in this case, my direct experience is about the same here in DC as it is for the SF audience -- one conducting appearance. While SF's experience with her was positive, her appearance here last month was not impressive. Here's a round-up:
Bachtrack: Conductor Eun Sun Kim handled the convergence with a steady baton, proficient to the point of cautious. But with so many aesthetic and artistic decisions already in the air, perhaps it was wise not to rock the boat.
Midgette: Musically, it was a capable if not flashy evening. The conductor Eun Sun Kim is building a significant career in some of the world’s big houses, and started this season as the Houston Grand Opera’s principal guest conductor. Buther work on Saturday was a little mushy, not crisp and not always completely synchronized with what was happening onstage.
Downey: At the podium, Korean conductor Eun Sun Kim left a mixed impression. From the opening triple strikes of the overture, she did not give much leeway at parts where other conductors, in line with conventional ideas, might slow down. While that independence was refreshing, she had some trouble bringing the orchestra and some of the singers along with her. It was a far cry from the authoritative touch of former music director Philippe Auguin, who led the company’s last production of this opera in 2014.
Me: Conductor Eun Sun Kim makes her WNO debut with this production. Over the summer Kim left a great impression on San Francisco Opera audiences conducting a widely acclaimed Rusalka, but here she offers little insight, and some inexplicable moments of outright fuzziness, first in the Overture and then forward at various spots during the first half.
Maybe ESK just felt at home in SF in a way she didn't in DC
That would be understandable, of course -- this town is full of jerks :)
Still, as an audience member, I would want a new MD to have at least as much experience with SFO as Nánási and Franklin.
Miss you!
It’s worth noting that Houston also signed Kim up after one performance, so this isn’t just SF going way out on a limb. As for the DC Magic Flute, it’s a little hard to tell from the out-of-context review excerpts, but it is possible that she was actually making the best of a situation that was never going to be transcendent (nothing you quote implies that the evening would have been a marvel if the conducting had been different). We the audience only see a limited part of the whole experience.
As for her “demographics”: those things have always been a consideration, even if what exactly is being considered has changed over time. It helped Solti that he was not associated with the Nazis, and hurt Furtwangler, however unfairly, that he was; it helped Bernstein that he was American at a time when importing distinguished Europeans was starting to look very pre-War; it probably hurt Mitropoulos that his homosexuality was fairly widely known. If being an Asian woman helped give the edge to someone with solid musical credentials, this whiteboy doesn’t see anything wrong with that: she’s not only a technician; she’s part of the face of the company, and an ambassador to the outside, and if they want to send a message about openness and inclusion, I’m happy to see them go beyond the usual lip-service, and if hiring an Asian woman is going to play well in this area, and I think it is, then they would be silly not to take that into consideration.
Beyond what the audience perceives of a performance, the MD has to have qualities that are going to play well with the Board, the staff, the orchestra, the media, the donors, season ticket-holders, occasional opera-goers, &c . . . corporations are full of people with deep technical knowledge who are disastrous leaders because of their personal qualities. I’m going to trust that SF and Houston (and, for all I know, DC) saw plenty of back-stage qualities that made Kim someone they wanted around.
As for Luisotti, he was basically fine in his niche, even if he didn’t really grow beyond that, but he was working for a general director who, as far as I can tell, didn’t challenge or want him to: Gockley decided, for better or worse (the word you choose will depend on what you like operatically) that in uncertain times the best thing to do was recycle the same handful of popular Italian operas over and over (AND OVER). I don’t think Luisotti chafed at that restriction, but he also didn’t cause it.
Hiring someone is always a risk – it’s possible that Salonen won’t work out at the Symphony, since San Francisco’s misleading reputation as an open and adventurous place certainly doesn’t apply to the extremely conservative and unadventurous Symphony audiences. You can hire someone with decades of experience only to find out that he or she has started coasting. You just never know. I see no reason not to give Kim the benefit of the inevitable doubts. (Also, I love Fidelio and look forward to hearing her lead it.)
My daughter who lives in Seoul says: "In revised romanization [that is, from Hangul, the Korean scrip] her name is Eun Seon Kim. It’s more like 'sawn'." But perhaps in the West she'll use "Sun" both in spelling and in pronunciation, much easier for Westerners to say and understand. (I have a Czech friend whose name is very difficult to pronounce for those not fluent in Czech and (since he now lives in Britain) he uses an anglicized pronunciation.)
Thank you, Paul! That's extremely interesting.
I'd actually say it's pronounced closer to "Suhn." The vowel sound is more of a "uh" (literally the "uh" in "uh what") than an "aw." The real difference, though, is the s is much softer than in English. "Sun" isn't a bad approximation.
Thank you, Simon.
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