Lisa Hirsch's Classical Music Blog.
The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve. Lovers, to bed; 'tis almost fairy time.
Berce mollement sur ton sein sublime
Ô puissante mer, l’enfant de Dindyme!
Monday, September 16, 2024
San Francisco Symphony: Change of Program
Sunday, September 15, 2024
Seen in Santa Fe
- Zachary Woolfe, NY Times, makes many of the same points I do but is gentler about making them. I'll note that the text "Life is long and wisdom slow" appears long before David's exit aria. I'm surprised he doesn't mention the Biblical basis of the story.
- Heidi Waleson, WSJ
- Thomas May, Memeteria (but the review is at Musical America and paywalled)
- James Sohre, Opera Today
- Scott Cantrell, Dallas Morning News
- Mark Tiarks, Santa Fe New Mexican
- Julia Goldberg, Santa Fe Reporter
- OperaGene
- Interview with the composer at Operawire
- The Genesis of The Righteous, Santa Fe New Mexican
San Francisco Opera: The Handmaid's Tale
More to come, but let's start with my review and Opera Tattler's of last night's stunning opening performance of The Handmaid's Tale, the 2000 opera by Poul Ruders and Paul Bentley, based on Margaret Atwood's 1985 novel. The photo gives you a good idea of the set at its most austere. It was bleak even when the set was dressed as multiple rooms in the Commander's house.
- Lisa Hirsch, SF Chronicle and SFCV (link to follow)
- Opera Tattler
- Emily Wilson interviews Irene Roberts, SFCV
- Linda Liu, preview, SF Chronicle
Political Violence
In the wake of the July assassination attempt against Donald Trump, I was amazed by the number of statements from public figures along the lines of "this isn't who we are." It's as though they'd completely memory-holed giant swaths of American history. To give you a sample:
- If the institution of slavery wasn't political violence, I don't know what is. Kidnapping free people, forcing them into servitude, making them property, forcibly breaking up families, committing rape, beating them, and abusing them in so many other ways, all on account of their skin color.
- If driving the Native Americans from their lands wasn't political violence, I don't know what is.
- Four U.S. presidents have been assassinated.
- There have been numerous assassination attempts that different presidents survived.
- Here's a handy list of all successful assassinations of American politicians, including presidents.
- Racial violence: there has been lots.
Friday, September 13, 2024
Tuesday, September 10, 2024
Misinformed
More details have emerged about the justice’s trip to the princess’s castle, including an interview with him by Christian Eckl, the editor in chief of a newspaper in Regensburg, who recognized the justice from reporting in The Times about the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. (Justice Alito wrote the majority opinion in the case.)
In the 32-second video, Justice Alito, with a beard and wearing a dark pinstriped blazer, spoke to an off-camera interviewer. The justice said the castle, seen in the background, was “amazing” and that he was looking forward to going to the Bayreuth Festival to see Wagner’s operas.“I will enjoy it,” Justice Alito said. “A friend of mine has waited his whole life to get tickets to go, and so it’s quite a privilege to be able to go.”Justice Alito did not say in the video which friend he was referring to, and he did not disclose any additional names on his annual financial form.
When I went to the festival in 2015, I'd gotten my tickets through my local Wagner Society, where I'd been a member for quite a few years without having attended. But the friend who went with me got her tickets on the festival web site in May of that year...five minutes after I told her I was going. You no longer have to spend years on a waiting list to get tickets.
Monday, September 09, 2024
San Francisco Opera Opening Night
I'm going to lead here with email that the San Francisco Opera Orchestra is sending out in its newsletter (copied from Janos Gereben's Facebook feed):
Last night, the San Francisco Opera season opened with our performance of Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera. In the moments leading up to the performance, the Orchestra reached an agreement with management for a short-term contract extension through the month of September.
While this is not the longer-term contract that our members deserve, the extension agreement contains the mutual aspiration of musicians and management to negotiate a multiyear contract, which they had previously refused to consider.
This is a positive step forward, but there is still much work to be done to ensure that we can reach a multi-year agreement that provides stability and a path forward both for orchestra musicians and the organization as a whole.
We are grateful to everyone who came out to the performance last night – and to celebrate the San Francisco Opera.
We hope to be able to play for you throughout the upcoming season with a new, fair contract!
The San Francisco Opera Orchestra
I call your attention to "in the moments leading up to the performance" and suggest that you contemplate what would have happened if there hadn't been an agreement. And here's the whole story, just published in SFCV.
The performance that followed was first-class; top-notch singing, a staging I liked (although a friend was...dubious about the set for Ulrica's scene, which was not a hut outside Stockholm but something more like a basement, only with good lighting), and good conducting. I thought the conducting did not catch fire, and so noted in my review with hope that it might be more on fire later in the run.
Reviews:
- Lisa Hirsch, SF Chronicle
- Lisa Hirsch, SF Chronicle. My first review for the Chronicle was the previous production of Ballo, a decade ago, in Joshua Kosman's absence.
- Steven Winn, SFCV
- Opera Tattler. Adding to the tattling: Right before the curtain went up for Act 2, someone shouted "Give them a raise!", referring to the orchestra. At the beginning of Act 3, someone in my row but across the aisle in the center section of the orchestra hadn't turned off their phone and was viewing a video on it or something.
- Harvey Steiman, Seen & Heard International
- Michael Strickland, SF Civic Center
- Tony Bravo goes backstage and attends the dinner; from this article, we also learn that Judit Kutasi (Ulrica) is married to tenor Sunnyboy Dladla, who has a beautiful voice and is a handsome fellow as well. They have a two-year-old son who will undoubtedly have voice lessons at some point. I hope that Greg Henkel and Matthew Shilvock have heard him sing.
- Linda Liu, Chronicle, covers the Opera Ball
- Linda Liu, Chronicle, covers Opera in the Park. Note that the Beethoven 9th performance is already sold out.
Museum Mondays
Sunday, September 08, 2024
Name That Portrait
Friday, September 06, 2024
Thursday, September 05, 2024
Xian Zhang to Seattle
Open positions:
- New Jersey Symphony, when Xian Zhang leaves at the end of the 2027-28 season.
- Ulster Orchestra, when Daniele Rustioni leaves
- Utah Symphony
- Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, when Daniel Harding leaves
- Oslo Philharmonic, when Klaus Makela moves on in 2027
- Orchestre de Paris, when Klaus Makela moves on in 2027
- Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, when Santu-Matias Rouvali leaves in 2025
- Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra because of the departure of Lorenzo Viotti in 2025
- Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, because of the departure of Lorenzo Viotti in 2025
- Dutch National Opera, because of the departure of Lorenzo Viotti in 2025
- English National Opera
- Bergen Philharmonic
- LA. Opera, at the end of 2025-26
- San Francisco Symphony, at the end of 2024-25
- Phoenix Symphony
- Cleveland Orchestra, as of June, 2027.
- Lahti Symphony, when Dalia Stasevka leaves.
- Antwerp Symphony, with the departure of Elim Chan.
- Paris Opera is currently without a music director.
- Nashville Symphony, when Giancarlo Guerrero leaves.
- Deutsche Oper Berlin, when Donald Runnicles leaves.
- Rottedam Philharmonic, when Lahav Shani leaves.
- Los Angeles Philharmonic, as of 2026-27, when Gustavo Dudamel leaves for NY.
- Teatro Regio Turin: Open now with departure of Gianandrea Noseda. The Teatro Regio has not named a new music director.
- Marin Symphony, at the end of 2022-23.
- Vienna Staatsoper, when Philippe Jordan leaves at the end of 2025.
- Pacific Symphony, when Carl St. Clair retires.
Conductors looking for jobs (that is, as of the near future, or now, they do not have a posting). The big mystery, to me, is why an orchestra hasn't snapped up Susanna Mälkki. Slightly lesser mystery: Henrik Nanasi, whose superb Cosi fan tutte is still lingering in my ears.
- Marc Albrech
- Markus Stenz
- Esa-Pekka Salonen, if he wants such a position again
- James Conlon, if he wants such a position again.
- Dalia Stasevska (though her contract at Lahti has been extended by a year)
- Elim Chan
- Kirill Karabits
- Tito Muñoz
- Andrey Boreyko
- Osmo Vänskä
- Susanna Mälkki, who left the Helsinki Philharmonic at the end of 2022-23.
- MGT (apparently does not want a full-time job, as of early 2022)
- Miguel Harth-Bedoya (seems settled in at Baylor)
- Sian Edwards
- Ingo Metzmacher
- Jac van Steen
- Ilan Volkov
- Aleksandr Markovic
- Lothar Koenigs
- Henrik Nanasi
- Philippe Jordan, eventually
- Franz Welser-Möst, if he wants such a job
And closed:
- Edward Gardner starts as music director of Norwegian National Opera this season,
- Sarasota Orchestra: Giancarlo Guerrero just got named music director, as of 2025.
- Hong Kong Philharmonic: Tarmo Peltokoski becomes music director in 2026.
- Tokyo Symphony, with the appointment of Lorenzo Viotti.
- Oakland Symphony, where Kedrick Armstrong succeeds the late Michael Morgan.
- Minnesota Opera: closed with the appointment of Christopher Franklin.
- The Chicago Symphony Orchestra gets to share Klaus Mäkelä with the Concertgebouw.
- The Hallé Orchestra's next conductor will be Kahchun Wong.
- Marin Alsop becomes principal guest conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, I believe succeeding Nathalie Stutzmann.
- Simon Rattle becomes principal guest conductor of the Czech Philharmonic.
- John Storgards will becomes chief conductor of the Turku Philharmonic.
- Update and correction: San Francisco Chamber Orchestra was unable to hire Cosette Justo Valdés. Instead, Jory Fankuchen, a violinist in the orchestra, has been named Principal Conductor and will lead this season's programs.
- Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra: Cristinia Mačelaru becomes music director in 2025
- Indianapolis Symphony hires Jun Markel, effective September 1, 2024.
- Andris Nelsons renewed his contract with the Boston Symphony. He's now on an evergreen rolling contract, which will continue as long as he and the orchestra are happy with each other. MTT had one of these at SFS.
- Shanghai Symphony, with the appointment of Long Yu.
- Virginia Symphony, with the appointment of Eric Jacobsen.
- Warsaw Philharmonic, with the appointment of Krzysztof Urbański.
- Bern Symphony, with the appointment of Krzysztof Urbański.
- Berlin State Opera, with the appointment of Christian Thielemann.
- Dresden Philharmonic, with the appointment of Donald Runnicles.
- New York Philharmonic, with the appointment of Gustavo Dudamel. Note that Jaap van Zweden leaves in 2024 and there will be a two-season gap before Dudamel arrives.
- Helsinki Philharmonic: Jukka-Pekka Saraste to succeed Susanna Mälkki.
- Staatskapelle Dresden, with the appointment of Daniele Gatti.
- Seoul Philharmonic appoints Jaap van Zweden.
- Royal Opera appoints Jakub Hrůša to succeed Antonio Pappano
Wednesday, September 04, 2024
Facepalm
Crude as a gut punch, tender as a kiss, Verdi’s Requiem translates the medieval Latin mass for the dead into the vivid and visceral idiom of Italian opera.
Very seriously, who writes this stuff? That first clause is ridiculous, inaccurate, a likely turn-off to potential audience members, and frankly embarrassing. SF Symphony can certainly hire better people than this....well, wait, maybe they just can't afford to these days.