Partenope, San Francisco Opera

 

Handel's "Partenope" with Julie Fuchs as Partenope, Hadleigh Adams as Ormonte, Daniela Mack as Rosmira (disguised as Eurimene), Nicholas Tamagna as Armindo, and Carlo Vistoli as Arsace.

Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

I liked this revival much better than I remember liking the 2014 bring-up, but couldn't remember why other than "what's the deal with the bathroom jokes?" Maybe I have reverse-aged, because they just blended in with the rest of the production this time? But I also had vague memories of not much liking the previous singer in the title role, Danielle de Niese. She's a very beautiful woman but can't hold a candle to Julie Fuchs as a singer.

I'll note that the program essays have no photos or mention of the countertenor who sang Arsace in 2014, presumably for the good reason that he's now a convicted rapist. Harassment allegations have also been made against the conductor of that production.

Reviews:

• Lisa Hirsch, S.F. Chronicle
• Nicholas Jones, SFCV
• The Opera Tattler
• Michael M. Landman-Karny, Stage and Cinema
• Michael Anthonio, Parterre Box

Previously:

• Joshua Kosman, Chronicle. I hadn't read this review since it came out, and I'm amused to see a few similarities between it and my review anyway. The review also confirms my memory that de Niese wasn't quite up to the title role.
• Robert Commanday, SFCV.

Music Reviewer Waking Nightmare

So there I was a week ago, out running errands, when suddenly I realized that I was reviewing a performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 3 the next day, and...I was unprepared, in that I hadn't heard it in a couple of years, hadn't looked at the score, hadn't thought about it at all. PANIC.

....until I realized that I was reviewing a completely different program the following day and had no idea yet whether I would be reviewing the Mahler on June 28 or not.

Belated Anniversary

 

Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

I wrote some music reviews in college, for the Brandeis Justice, because there was a ton of musical activity at Brandeis. I was offered the position of features editor, but turned it down because I spent so much time rehearsing and practicing. My life might have been very different if I'd had that level of journalism experience when I eventually got out of school. 

In the 90s, I wrote a few CD reviews for Janos Gereben, when he was arts editor of a local paper.

My first paid professional music review appeared in San Francisco Classical Voice in early February, 2004. I had responded to a Question of Week and mentioned in it that I had been a music major in school. The follow week I got an email from the editors asking if I'd like to try reviewing for me. I did, and that worked out pretty well. I've now published in SFCV, Early Music America, The Classical Review, Opera, Opera News (RIP), and the San Francisco Chronicle. It took me all day to write that first review, which, to be honest, was also not that great. I'm grateful and a little astonished to find myself twenty years into this particular career.

Ravel and Schoenberg at San Francisco Symphony

Arnold Schoenberg, Erwartung

Mary Elizabeth Williams in the process of knocking everyone's socks off.

Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting SFS.

Photo: Kristen Loken, courtesy of San Francisco Symphony

An extraordinary evening at San Francisco Symphony, with Esa-Pekka Salonen leading Ravel's delightful Ma Mère l'Oye (Mother Goose) ballet, with rapturous choreography by Alonzo King, danced (of course) by Alonzo King LINES Ballet, and Arnold Schoenberg's harrowing Erwartung given an astounding performance by soprano Mary Elizabeth Williams, directed by Peter Sellars on his absolute best behavior. 

• Lisa Hirsch, SFCV
• Michael Strickland, SF Civic Center (Mercifully, I was in Row T and heard no clomping in the Ravel.)
• The Opera Tattler

 

Innocence Livestream

"Innocence" by Kaija Saariaho, Sofi Oksanen, and Aleksi Barrière.

Photo includes Vilma Jää and Ruxandra Donose

The livestream of this great opera is on Wednesday, June 12, 2024, starting at 7:30 pm Pacific Time. I think that Innocence will look good on video. The cost is only $27.50 and the video will be available for 48 hours.

Friday Photo

Shrine to a cat

Laurel District, Oakland, CA

May, 2024

 

San Francisco Opera: Innocence

 

Innocence, by Kaija Saariaho, Sofi Oksanen, and Aleksi Barrière

Innocence opened at San Francisco Opera on June 1, and it is a magnificent achievement in every way.

• Steven Winn, Chronicle
• Lisa Hirsch, SFCV
• Opera Tattler
• Opera Tattler (Innocence again)
• Michael Strickland, SF Civic Center
• Caroline Crawford, Bay City News
• Harvey Steiman, Seen & Heard International
• Michael Anthonio, Parterre Box
• Richard S. Ginell, Classical Voice North America
• Emily Wilson, "How SF Opera is Preparing the Cast and Audience for Kaija Saariaho's Innocence", SFCV

Previously:

• Alex Ross, The New Yorker
• Zachary Woolfe, NY Times
• Alastair Macaulea, Financial Times
• Andrew Clements, Guardian
• Colin Clarke, Seen & Heard International
• Mark Berry, Boulezian

Kaija Saariaho

Courtesy of San Francisco Opera

No photographer credited.

A year later, I still can't quite believe that Saariaho is gone.

I dress up a bit when I'm reviewing but for this occasion, I made an exception, wearing a t-shirt under a light black jacket:

San Francisco Opera, The Magic Flute

 

Amitai Pati as Tamino, Kwangchul Youn as Sarastro, Christina Gansch as Pamina, and Lauri Vasar as Papageno (below) in Mozart's "The Magic Flute."

Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

There's an awful lot going on visually in Barrie Kosky and Suzanne Andrade's "silent movie" Magic Flute production. From moment to moment, it's attractive and entertaining, but ultimately it is just too much. There's no repose or grandeur on the stage, and those are both significant aspects of the opera. The singers are much too hemmed in by the demands of the production.

• Lisa Hirsch, S.F. Chronicle
• Steven Winn, SFCV
• Opera Tattler
• Opera Tattler (Magic Flute again)
• SF Civic Center

Weh! Weh!

What am I wailing about? I'm wailing over Joshua Kosman's retirement from the San Francisco Chronicle.

I'm happy for him, I really am: after 36 years on the job, writing thousands of overnight reviews and hundreds of features, he has earned retirement! He'll have more time for games and puzzles of all kinds, for going to the theater, for attending musical events that he isn't reviewing. And those are all good things.

But he's been such a constant presence at the Chron and such a reliably interesting and thoughtful writer, whether or not I agreed with his take on a particular performance or performer. I always found something to think about in his reviews, and very often reacted with "Why didn't I think of that?" He's a terrific writer, less formal and with more spice than my own reviews and articles usually have. So, yeah, I'm happy for him and I will miss him.

I've learned so much about how to write a review from reading his reviews, and over the years I've gotten a lot of good advice from him, as well. When Andrew Gilbert, at Mission Local, interviewed Joshua a few weeks ago, he mentioned that Joshua's work mentoring younger writers was not publicly visible. Gilbert talked with Hannah Edgar, now a contributor to the Chicago Tribune, about working with Joshua at the Rubin Institute and elsewhere. She wasn't the only one, I'm sure.

The Mission Local article mentions that he was thinking of starting some kind of a weekly newsletter, and I hope that happens, because here I am, wondering what he thought of The Magic Flute and Innocence at San Francisco Opera, and I can't just open the Chronicle to find out.

Retirements at San Francisco Symphony

Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

Five musicians with more than 180 collective years of playing in the orchestra are retiring at the end of the 2024-25 season. They are:

• Nadya Tichman, 44 years; violinist and former Associate Concertmaster, also acting concertmaster 1998-2001
• Steven Dibner, 41 years; Associate Principal Bassoon
• Amy Hiraga, 26 years; violinist. Note that Hiraga won two auditions to SFS. She played for one year, moved back to NYC, then returned in 1999.
• Jill Rachuy Brindel, 44 years; cellist.
• Peter Wyrick, 28 years, Associate Principal Cello from 1999 to 2023. He won two auditions. He played for three season, then returned to NYC, and came back to SFS in 1999.  (If this sounds familiar...Hiraga and Wyrick are married.)

More auditions coming, of course. The orchestra is becoming less MTT's and more Salonen's.