San Francisco Opera 2023-24

War Memorial Opera House at Dusk

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

SF Opera announced its 2023-24 season the other day; herewith the lineup, with some comments. Parts of this were known in advance because SFO announced the three contemporary works in the season announcement for 2022-23, and they have indicated a plan for MD Eun Sun Kim to conduct one Verdi and one Wagner opera each season, leading up to an eventual Ring.

Fall, 2023:

Opening night gala concert, conducted by Music Director Kim, with tenor Roberto Alagna and soprano Aleksandra Kurzak.

 

Verdi, Il Trovatore. Kim/Arturo Chacon-Cruz, Angel Blue, George Petean, Anita Rachvelishvili. David McVicar production, seen here in 2009. Classic barn (and baby) burner. I see two potential issues: Chacon-Cruz doesn't strike me as having the right kind of voice for Manrico, and Rachvelishvili has been cancelling a lot owing to some health problems. This is 8 months out, so we'll see.

 

Mason Bates (c), Mark Campbell (l), The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs. Michael Christie/John Moore (Steve Jobs), Sasha Cooke (Laureen Powell Jobs), Bille Bruley (Woz), Wei Wu (Chino Otogawa). No announcement of who is singing Chrisann Brennan, Jobs's girlfriend and the mother of his daughter Lisa. I saw this in 2017 at its Santa Fe Opera premiere and liked the music a lot. The libretto had big problems: the incredibly embarrassing and racist-trop role of Otogawa, advising Jobs from beyond the grave while being a "magic Bhuddist" and the poorly-written women's roles. An SFO co-commission.

 

Wagner, Lohengrin. Kim/Simon O'Neill (Lohengrin), Julie Adams (Elsa), Brian Mulligan (Telramund), Judit Kutasi (Ortrud), Kristinn Sigmundsson  (King Henry). David Alden production previously seen twice at Covent  Garden; not the production used in 2009 2012. My friend Mark Berry reviewed it at CG and liked it better the second time under the revival director, who is also directing this revival.

Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels (c), libretto by Rhiannon Giddens, Omar. John Kennedy/Jamez McCorkle (Omar), Taylor Raven (Fatima), Brittany Rene (Julie), Norman Garrett (Abdul and Abe), Daniel Okulitsch (Johnson and  Owen), Barry Banks (Auctioneer and Taylor). SFO co-commission.

 

Donizetti, L'elisir d'amore. Ramon Tebar/Pene Pati (Nemorino), Slávka Zámečníková (Adina), David Bižić (Belcore), Renato Girolami (Dulcamara). Production new to SFO, by Daniel Slater.

 

Summer 2024:

 

Mozart, Die Zauberflote. Kim/Amitai Pati (Tamino), Christina Gansch (Pamina), Lauri Vasar (Papageno), Kwangchul Youn (Sarastro), Anna Simińska (Queen of the Night), Zhengyi Bai (Monastatos). No Papagena announced. Production new to SF, by Barrie Kosky, set in the 1920s and using a lot of animation. It's been done in LA and Chicago and is popular.

 

Kaija Saariaho (c), Sofi Oksanen and Aleksi Barrière (l); Innocence. Clément Mao-Takacs/Ruxandra Donose, Claire de Sevigne, Rod GIlfry, Miles Mykkanen, Kristinn Sigmundsson, Lucy Shlton, Vilma Jaa. US premiere, SFO co-production. Innocence got excellent reviews from Zachary Woolfe (NY Times) and Alex Ross (TNY). "Sung in English, Finnish, Czech, Romanian, French, Swedish, German, Spanish and Greek with English supertitles." I've been looking forward to this ever since Matthew Shilvock said, at the public annual meeting about five years ago, that the company had commissioned a "very interesting woman composer." My only disappointment about this is that Susanna Mälkki, who led the premiere, isn't conducting at SFO.

 

Handel, Partenope. Christopher Moulds/Julie Fuchs (Partenope), Daniela Mack (Rosmira), Carlo Vistoli (Arsace), Nicholas Tamagna (Armindo), Alek Shrader (Emilio), Hadleigh Adams (Ormonte). The same Christopher Alden production seen in 2014; a revival was canceled owing to the pandemic. The music is great but I kinda hated this overly-jokey production.

 

Other commentary: I'm wondering if this is the first season with productions by brothers. I like this season, because what's not to like about an eight-opera season with three new operas? (And five new operas over two seasons!) I will say that I'd hoped to go another decade without seeing The Magic Flute, but I'm intrigued by the Kosky production. I'm not much of a fan of Elisir, but I am a fan of the adorable and golden-voiced Pene Pati. It's been too long since the last Trovatore (2009) and there just hasn't been much Wagner since the departure of Donald Runnicles (Ring, 2011 and 2018; Lohengrin (2012); Meistersinger, 2015). It's great that Kim will be conducting Wagner annually.