Friday Photo

Organ, St. Lawrence Jewry

London, July, 2024

 

It's Here!

If you've been missing Joshua Kosman's voice on all things western classical music in the Bay Area, well, you are not alone––I certainly have. When he retired, he mentioned that he had plans for a weekly newsletter. After a well-deserved break, he has it up and running. You can subscribe here.

The first newsletter includes his takes on Un ballo in maschera and The Handmaid's Tale at San Francisco Opera, as well as a couple of shorter notes.

Adriana Mater

Cover art c/o Deutsche Grammophon

Black & white photo of Kaija Saariaho

Text on photo:

Kaija Saariaho

Adriana Mater

Esa-Pekka Salonen

Fleur Barron Axelle Fano Nicholas Phan  Christopher Purves

San Francisco Symphony    San Francisco Symphony Chorus

DG logo

The world premiere recording of Kaija Saariaho's Adriana Mater was released a few weeks ago by Deutsche Grammophon. It's drawn from performances at the San Francisco Symphony in June, 2023, just days after Saariaho's death from glioblastoma. The performers are listed above in my description of the artwork accompanying the release; I think that alt text doesn't actually work on Blogger.

The performances were a deeply emotional event for the performers and director Peter Sellars. Salonen and Saariaho had been friends since their school days and Sellars directed the premieres of her first two operas, L'amour de loin and Adriana. 

The recording is currently available only as a download, but physical media will become available next year.

 

The New York Philharmonic in the New York Times

Lincoln Center Fountain

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

Javier C. Hernandez published an article in yesterday's NY Times about the NY Philharmonic, which is having troubles that might seem familiar to anyone in the Bay Area: the musicians haven't gotten a raise since 2019; they are between music directors (Jaap van Zweden is gone, Gustavo Dudamel comes on board in two years); their chief executive, Gary Ginstling, resigned after less than 18 months on the job. They also are dealing with an old scandal, where two players were investigated for raping a third player, but they were never charged; the orchestra fired them in 2018, but the contract required arbitration and the arbitrator restored them. The two are currently on paid leave and at least one is suing the heck out of the orchestra. (You can read about the case in Sammy Sussman's Vulture article and various other places around the web.)

The comments....well, they're closed or I would have a couple of my own, mostly in response to people who don't actually know how the orchestra business works and aren't familiar with, say, 990 forms. So a few responses to those comments here.

• "It takes special talent for an orchestra to drive out both its executive AND artistic leader in the same period. " A reminder that the artistic leader (music director) is hired by the board of directors, not the orchestra, though generally there are musicians on the search committee. As far as is publicly known, Jaap van Zweden wasn't driven out by the orchestra, but decided to resign. Whether he was actually let go by the orchestra, we'll never know. He did stay for a year past his initial contract.
• "The NY base salary is low, but the principal players are paid twice as much as principals from Chicago and LA, so it's a question of priority, financial and artistic." Let's check the 990s and see if this is the case. Well, it is; the NY Phil's principals are paid extremely well, based on what I can see on the 990s.
• Concertmasters: Frank Huang, NY: $909,000 (whoa), Martin Chalifour, LA: $476,900, Robert Chen, CSO, $576,000. Okay, Huang's salary....a lot.
• Second highest paid principal: Carter Brey, principal cello, NY: $589,000; Denis Bouriakov, LA, principal flute; $345,000 David Cooper, (former) principal horn, CSO, $329,000.
• Third highest paid principle: Liang Wang, NY, principal oboe (on leave): $580,000; Andrew Bain, LA, principal horn, $342,000; Stephen Williamson, CSO, principal clarinet, $324,000
• "The odds are high that Dudamel stays in Los Angeles." I expect that he will fulfill his contractual obligations in NY. The LA Phil is undoubtedly already looking around for its next music director, and they've got a new CEO who might or might not want Dudamel back.
• "I believe the Chicago Symphony is still paying for the 1990s renovation of Orchestra Hall (I refuse to call it Symphony Center), and doesn't have the endowment the NY Phil has." I cannot speak to the renovation of the CSO's concert hall, but the CSO's endowment on its most recent 990 is $373 million, while the NY Phil's is $236 million. The CSO's endowment, in other words, is $140 million more than the NY Phil's. The LA Phil's is $344 million. (The largest orchestra endowment in the country is the Boston Symphony's, at something approaching a half-billion.)
• "A Music Director who only spends SIX weeks actually conducting his orchestra is just a Principal Guest Conductor, and not worth whatever he is being paid." This is a reference to the amount of time Dudamel will conduct the NY Phil in the year before he becomes its music director. I don't know what his contract says about the first year he is actually music director. (How much time a music director should spend with his or her orchestra is an interesting question, isn't it.) The rest of this person's comments...oy. I certainly wonder why James Conlon's U.S. career hasn't been bigger, as he has been terrific nearly every time I've heard him, in opera or orchestra concerts. But the comments then go on to say that the accusations against the two players seem bogus, and well, they don't look that way to me.

 

Challenge to the Reader

 

Christopher Oglesby, left, as the Chief Magistrate and Mei Gui Zhang, right, as Oscar

Act I, Verdi's Un ballo in maschera

Photo by Cory Weaver, courtesy of San Francisco Opera

Found in various reviews of Verdi's Un ballo in maschera at San Francisco Opera:

• Lisa Hirsch, SF Chronicle: "In a weak staging, Oscar, the king’s page, can be an annoyance, but not here."
• Michael Anthonio, Parterre Box: "I belong to the camp that thinks Oscar is one of the most annoying characters in opera. Still, on Friday, Mei Gui Zhang made the role much more bearable with her dazzling coloratura and carefree mannerisms." 
• Michael Strickland, SF Civic Center: "In the photo above, Gustavus is accompanied by his young male page, Oscar, a trouser role that can be one of the most annoying in all of opera, but soprano Mei Gui Zhang was an absolute delight as she continually interrupted serious scenes with silly trills."

We're all in agreement about the potential for Oscar being an annoyance and also that Mei Gui Zhang was not personally annoying. Long ago, a friend mentioned that he finds Cherubino, from Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, extremely annoying, and it's certainly true that the page––it's always a page––gets into all kinds of trouble during the opera.

So here's the challenge: who do you consider to be the most annoying character in opera? Please show your work.

San Francisco Symphony: Change of Program

Davies Symphony Hall

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

When the San Francisco Symphony's 2024-25 season was announced, the first concert (not the gala, which isn't until next week, don't ask, I have no idea) was just the Verdi Requiem. Then three works for chorus and orchestra by Gordon Getty appeared, to be performed before intermission: St. Christopher; the Intermezzo from Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Getty’s 2021 opera based on James Hilton’s classic novella; and The Old Man in the Snow, featuring a poem by Getty. 

The program has been updated yet again. The Getty works have been postponed to a later date, and this week's concerts will be the Verdi Requiem only.

 

Museum Mondays

Teatro Pisano, by Giancarlo Girard

Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe, NM

August, 2024

 

Seen in Santa Fe

Michael Mayes (David) and Greer Grimsley (Paul) in The Righteous.

Photo by Curtis Brown for the Santa Fe Opera.

I made my more or less annual vist to Santa Fe Opera in August, seeing four of this year's five operas. (I passed on La Traviata.) My Letter from Santa Fe is posted at San Francisco Classical Voice. If you want to compare notes with my thoughts, Der Rosenkavalier and Elixir of Love are still streaming and can be heard at KFHM. This post is both a media roundup and further commentary; I couldn't fit a few things in. Apologies for not getting this post up before The Righteous and Don Giovanni came down.

The big event was, presumably, the world premiere of Gregory Spears and Tracy K. Smith's The Righteous. I was not very happy with the opera, which sags a lot. It is overly long, overstuffed, awkward, and generally unsuccessful.

• 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

Related:

• Interview with the composer at Operawire
• The Genesis of The Righteous, Santa Fe New Mexican

Don Giovanni and his ego: a wall covered with portraits of the character, with another on its way.

Ryan Speedo Green (Don Giovanni), photo by Curtis Brown for the Santa Fe Opera.

For a long time, I really was not fond of Don Giovanni, ranking it far under The Marriage of Figaro and Cosi fan tutte, the other two Mozart-da Ponte operas. The libretto is far messier, the time frame of the action less clear. It's got a tenor role that is difficult to make persuasive, because of the two arias and the tendency to cast a light lyric tenor in the role even when the Donna Anna is, say, Jane Eaglen.

I saw two productions of Don Giovanni in less than a week, and realized that the reason I had trouble with it was crappy productions at San Francisco Opera. The production they saddled Marc Minkowski with was awful, and unfortunately the recent new production by Michael Cavanagh has good moments but he did not really follow through whole-heartedly with his dystopian future idea. So I hadn't seen a really persuasive production since the David McVicar (!) in 2007.

The two I saw recently persuaded me of the opera's greatness, though I am not not not willing to go as far as to say "greatest opera ever written." If I had to choose a Mozart opera as a candidate for that spot, no question, Marriage of Figaro. 

But here's a surprise: the Merola Opera production, which I reviewed for SFCV, outshone Santa Fe Opera's, for two reasons: they had a better and more convincing Don Ottavio and Patricia Racette's direction was excellent with no major errors. 

I cannot say the same for Stephen Barlow's production in Santa Fe. His direction was mostly good and the physical production looked great, but oh dear, he really screwed up the end of the opera. The details are in my review, though here's a picture that explains the problem:

Ryan Speedo Green and Rachael Wilson

Photo by Curtis Brown for Santa Fe Opera

You might be forgiven if you think you've stumbled into a production of Tosca. I go into some detail about why this is such an awful mistake in the review, but I must mention that my notes say "...he's sprawled on the floor like Scarpia OH SHIT." I mean....why didn't someone tell Barlow that a mashup of Tosca and Don Giovanni was a bad idea? A friend has noted that perhaps it was an inside-opera joke, but I am dubious.

No photos of Elisir, but it was a charming delight. And the Rosenkavalier performance I saw was lovely, with Rachel Willis-Sørensen in gloriously beautiful voice as the Marschallin. 

San Francisco Opera: The Handmaid's Tale

Irene Roberts, center, as Offred; Sarah Cambidge, seated at right, as Aunt Lydia

Photo: Cory Weaver, courtesy of San Francisco Opera

 

San Francisco Symphony's second opera of the 2024-25 season is The Handmaid's Tale, the 2000 opera by Poul Ruders and Paul Bentley, based on Margaret Atwood's 1985 novel. It is stunning, strongly sung and directed, and extremely harrowing.

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. Note that the publications used photos by different photographers, and they are quite different. The Chronicle's Carlos Avila Gonzalez took photos that are dark and moody; I love them. To my eye Cory Weaver's photos for SFO look more like what you see on stage during a performance.
• Joshua Kosman, his newsletter
• Patrick Vaz, The Reverberate Hills
• Opera Tattler
• Michael Anthonio, Parterre Box
• Harvey Steiman, Seen and Heard International

Related:

• 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.

Apparently someone shot at Trump again today, and again they missed. As a friend remarked last night over dinner before The Handmaid's Tale, there's no scenario where assassinating Trump is a good thing. Campaign against him, speak out against him, campaign for the people and values you care about, vote against him. That's the way to keep him out of office.

Friday Photo

Battery at Market St.

San Francisco, CA

August, 2024

 

Stromness

Stromness, Orkney

June, 1982

 

Misinformed

 

Bayreuth Festspielhaus

August, 2015

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

Associate Justice Samuel Alito, when he's not busy making things up about constitutional law and taking away women's rights, hangs out with right-wingers from more than one country. The NY Times has an article about his visit to Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis (gift link), a notorious German conservative. He reported $900 in tickets to musical events on his most recent disclosure form....and the tickets seem to have been to the Bayreuth Wagner Festival.

The justice is somewhat misinformed about how difficult it is to attend the Bayreuth Festival these days:

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.

Kirkwall

Bishop's Palace

Kirkwall, Orkney

June, 1982

 

San Francisco Opera Opening Night

Lianna Haroutounian as Amelia

Un ballo in maschera

Cory Weaver / Courtesy of San Francisco Opera

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
• Joshua Kosman, his newsletter
• 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.
• Michael Anthonio, Parterre Box
• Michael Strickland, SF Civic Center
• Harvey Steiman, Seen & Heard International

Related:

• 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

From La Cartonería Mexicana, an exhibit of Mexican paper and paste art

Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe, NM

August, 2024

 

Name That Portrait

 

Michael Fabiano as King Gustavus III

Un ballo in maschera

Photo: Cory Weaver / San Francisco Opera

I recognized two of the portraits in this wall of paintings as real portraits, so probably the rest are as well. Do you recognize any?

Portraits seem to be a thing right now. There was a giant wall of portraits of Ryan Speedo Green as Don Giovanni in the eponymous opera, in Santa Fe's production this summer. Presumably they have to be reconstructed for every new singer in the title role.

Ryan Speedo Green as Don Giovanni

Curtis Brown Photography

Courtesy of Santa Fe Opera

Stenness

Stones of Stenness, Orkney 

June, 1982

 

Friday Photo

Battery at Market

San Francisco, CA

August, 2024

 

Xian Zhang to Seattle

Xian Zhang

Photo by Cherylynn Tsushima, courtesy of the New Jersey Symphony

Two and a half years after the departure of Thomas Dausgaard, the Seattle Symphony has named Xian Zhang, currently music director of the New Jersey Symphony, as their next music director. Zhang will join Seattle for the 2025-26 season and will remain music director of the New Jersey Symphony until the end of the 2027-28 season.

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