Saturday, November 30, 2024

SF Opera: 2025 Adler Fellows


War Memorial Opera House
Photo by Lisa Hirsch

San Francisco Opera has announced the 2025 Adler Fellows. The last few years of Adlers have been truly wonderful, a varied group of skilled young singers. 

First up, soprano Olivia Smith and bass-baritone Jongwon Han will be back as third-year Adler Fellows. 

Next, the returning second-year fellows are soprano Georgiana Adams, soprano Caroline Corrales, pianist Julian Grabarek, baritone Samuel Kidd, and tenor Thomas Kinch.

The new first-year fellows are soprano Mary Hoskins, pianist Ji Youn Lee, tenor Sam White, and baritone Olivier Zerouali. 

Soprano Arianna Rodriguez, mezzo-soprano Nikola Printz, bass-baritone James McCarthy and pianist Yang Lin have all concluded their fellowships.

I attended two of the Merola concerts and reviewed the Merola Don Giovanni production, and I don't envy anyone trying to choose which Merolini become Adler fellows. The singers in Don Giovanni were a strikingly polished group of singers, a cast that matched the strongly-cast main stage DG directed by Michael Cavanagh a few years ago. Best wishes to all of the 2024 Merolini and to the 2025 Adler Fellows.



 

SF Opera Pride Concert

 

A large neo-classical building, the War Memorial Opera HOuse, lit in rainbow colors.

War Memorial Opera House
 (photo: Reneff-Olsen Productions, courtesy of San Francisco Opera)


For the 2024-25 season, San Francisco Opera cut back to six operas and two concerts. The first concert, Eun Sun Kim conducting Beethoven's 9th Symphony, has taken place already. The second concert is next year, on Friday, June 27, 2025, on Pride Weekend, which is appropriate because it's a Pride Concert.

SFO announced the performers the other week, though the repertory has not yet been announced. Here's the press release, which is brief:

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (November 15, 2024) — Monét X Change, the multi-hyphenate performer most well known for her appearances on RuPaul’s Drag Race, will emcee San Francisco Opera’s Pride Concert on Friday, June 27, 2025 at the War Memorial Opera House. Classically trained in opera and winner of the fourth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars, Monét X Change is among the artists headlining this celebration of the LGBTQIA+ community. Expanding upon the Company’s annual Pride celebrations, the evening includes a special concert, immersive projections and more.

 

Mezzo-sopranos Jamie Barton and Nikola Printz and baritone Brian Mulligan will share the stage with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra conducted by Caroline H. Hume Music Director Eun Sun Kim for a genre- and era-spanning program mixing classical arias with queer anthems and music showcasing LGBTQIA+ composers, librettists, songwriters and themes. The high-octane evening will be enhanced by digital artist Tal Rosner’s video projections. Complete program and event information will be announced at a later date.

 

SAN FRANCISCO OPERA PRIDE CONCERT

Friday, June 27, 2025 at 7:30 p.m.

War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, 94102

 

Monét X Change, emcee

Eun Sun Kim, conductor

Soloists: mezzo-sopranos Jamie Barton and Nikola Printz; baritone Brian Mulligan

San Francisco Opera Orchestra

 

Tal Rosner, video concept and direction

 

Complete program and event information will be announced at a later date. For information, visit sfopera.com/pride-concert.

 

Tickets are priced from $30–$225 and are available at sfopera.com, the San Francisco Opera Box Office at (415) 864-3330 and in-person at 301 Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco.


I've never seen Monét X Change, but Barton, Printz, and Mulligan are all great artists and I think I will have to go, genre mixing or not. I wonder if there will be a trapeze for Printz.

Friday, November 29, 2024

Tuesday, November 26, 2024

San Francisco Symphony Program Update: Salonen/Wang


Esa-Pekka Salonen
Photo by Minna Hatinen, courtesy of San Francisco Symphony

I have no idea what the motivation for this program update is. For the February 13-16, 2025 programs, Yuja Wang was originally going to be the soloist for these works by Igor Stravinsky:
  • Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments
  • Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra
  • Movements for Piano and Orchestra 
A press release today from SFS says that instead, she'll be playing the following:
  • Ravel, Piano Concerto for the Left Hand 
  • Rautavaara, Piano Concerto No. 1
Works by Debussy complete the program and those are unchanged.


 

Monday, November 25, 2024

Saturday, November 23, 2024

Venue Accessibility

There's a concert that I am going to in the near future, and I was unable to find accessibility information on the web site of the venue where it's taking place.

It's 2024; the Americans with Disabilities Act became law more than 30 years ago. Every venue should have this information on their web site and it should be easy to find. A venue's accessibility page should cover the following:
  • Where wheelchair accessible entrances are
  • Ideally, but I've never seen this, path of travel distance from regular and wheelchair accessible entrances to different seating areas. This is useful for ambulatory disabled people.
  • Drop-off locations
  • Elevator locations
  • Locations of accessible toilets
  • The types of accessible seating offered, which can include:
    • Wheelchair spaces
    • Companion space for patrons using wheelchairs
    • Bariatric seats
    • Seats without arms
    • Seats where an armrest can be lifted
  • Facilities and assistive devices for people who are deaf or have hearing impairments
  • Facilities and assistive devices for people who are blind or have visual limitations
  • Whether there are performances for neurodiverse people
  • Whether there are performances for people bringing small children
The web site of the San Francisco Opera has a model page that is easy to find. It's linked from their general visitor information page, where the link uses the magic word "accessibility."

The web site the San Francisco Symphony is not so good. It has a very brief section called Patrons with Disabilities on the Visitor FAQs page. I have no idea why the word "accessibility" isn't used. Worse, this page is buried and difficult to find. Using the search box doesn't find it under "disabilities" or "accessibility." You navigate to it this way:

Your Visit -> SCROLL past the section for Upcoming Concerts -> Click View FAQs. 

It's the second section and it doesn't say very much, like telling you which entrance to Davies is accessible.* The particular seats that a disabled person I know uses cannot be purchased on the web, so the page is a bit misleading; you have to call the box office to get purchase them (and they apparently can't be part of a subscription).

* I'll give away the secret: it's the entrance on Grove by the box office. The one on Van Ness near Hayes is up steps.


Conor Hanick Plays Ustvolskaya

This was a few weeks back, but three of us got there. Simon Morrison's talk was excellent; Hanick was fabulous; Ustvolskaya was quite something as a human and as a composer.

Belated Friday Photo (November 22, 2024)


St. Lawrence Jewry altar
City of London
July, 2024


 

Even More Conductor Updates

I wasn't expecting another installment of this so soon, but needs must. 

  • Joseph Young to leave the Berkeley Symphony at the end of the 2024-25 season. The announcement didn't include anything about whether he has a new appointment.
  • Martin Pearlman will be retiring from Boston Baroque, which he founded, at the end of the 2024-25 season. He founded the group 52 years ago.
  • Adam Hickox becomes chief conductor of the Trondheim Symphony next year. He's the son of the late Richard Hickox. Did I mention children of conductors recently?
  • Jaap van Zweden will be music director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.
  • Jaap van Zweden lands another position, as artist in residence at the Evergreen Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan.
  • Philippe Jordan appointed chief conductor of the Orchestre National de France, succeeding Cristian Mačelaru. Did I mention children of conductors recently?
  • Markus Poschner is the new music director of the Utah Symphony.
  • Mark Wigglesworth recently began his tenure as Chief Conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, succeeding Kirill Karabits. The appointment was announced some time ago, but apparently I missed it.

Open positions:
  • Boston Baroque, when Martin Pearlman leaves.
  • Berkeley Symphony, when Joseph Young leaves.
  • Milwaukee Symphony, when Ken-David Masur leaves.
  • New Jersey Symphony, when Xian Zhang leaves at the end of the 2027-28 season.
  • Ulster Orchestra, when Daniele Rustioni leaves
  • 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.

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.

  • Ken-David Masur
  • Marc Albrecht
  • 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:

  • Utah Symphony, with the appointment of Markus Poschner.
  • Bournemouth Symphony appoints Mark Wigglesworth as Chief Conductor (some time ago).
  • Colorado Symphony appoints Peter Oundjian, effective with the 2025-26 season.
  • Pacific Symphony appoints Alexander Shelley to succeed Carl St. Clair, starting with the 2026-27 season.
  • Milwaukee Symphony, when Ken-David Masur leaves at the end of 2025-26.
  • Seattle Symphony, with the appointment of Xian Zhang as of the 2025-26 season.
  • Edward Gardner starts as music director of Norwegian National Opera this season,
  • Sarasota Orchestra: Giancarlo Guerrero has been 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: Cristian 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.

 

Carmen, San Francisco Opera


Drogen and members of the SF Opera Chorus.
Also: Christian Van Horn as Escamillo
Photo: Cory Weaver / San Francisco Opera


I saw the latest SF Opera Carmen last night, and came home mostly wishing I'd swapped my ticket as soon as I could for the Tristan matinee, the livestream of which I watched. An even better move might have been to swap for whichever La Bohème cast I don't have already, because, really, both casts are quite attractive.

It's not that the Carmen was bad, although neither was it really good. I am definitely Carmen-ed out, in the sense that I've seen it too damn many times.  Last night's performance never grabbed me and made me pay attention.

It is true, in defense of everyone involved, that I was extremely tired, because it was my sixth performance in ten days, or something like that. I had also written a long article for Opera and done the last interview for a different long article that I'm filing in a few days. I got soaked in the rain, which was dispiriting. So: tired.

The performers I saw were all more than competent. Conductor Benjamin Manis seemed good; energetic in the right ways and right places, if not exactly French, to the extent that I'm able to pin down what that means. I'll note that André Cluytens's 1950-ish recording of the opera is often cited as the height of French style. Certainly you can't go wrong with the excerpts? complete recording? by the great Régine Crespin.

But there wasn't a whole lot of fire on stage, by which I mean heat and chemistry between Don José and Carmen, the combustion that would explain his obsession with her and the lengths he will go to possess her. 

I'm putting it that bluntly because when a person stalks and then murders his ex to keep her from moving on to a new partner, we recognize that as domestic violence. I have no sympathy at the beginning of the opera in this staging, when he's clearly going to be executed for murder. 

The opera should be played for what it is; José should become more and more dangerous, starting early on. And that's not what I saw. Maybe it's Jonathan Tetelman (José), maybe it's the direction, maybe it's both. I do not buy that Carmen is a demon who drives men to murder. I do buy that jealous men kill their ex-partners; it's in the newspapers on a weekly basis.

The singing was all decent, though I didn't find debuting Eve-Maud Hubeaux, as Carmen, particularly alluring. She is French and of course her French in the spoken dialogue was excellent. The character vamps a lot, exposes ankles and legs up to the knee, and I can't help but wonder whether a more restrained portrayal might be sexier. Also, did you feel a chill when she sang "la mort" (death)? Neither did I.

Jonathan Tetelman was okay, though, again, maybe not sufficiently obsessed. Louise Alder (Micaela), also making her SFO debut, was fine. Christian Van Horn was a pretty good Escamillo, but the horse he rode in on upstaged him. Live animals on stage are almost always a bad idea, and when they are even prettier, if much more placid, than the people around them, well, then. Resist the temptation. If your Escamillo needs a walking 1500-pound prop to make the right impression, consider firing the director or recasting the part. I do not think Van Horn needed the horse.

The Adler Fellows who filled out the smaller roles provided much-needed variety: Arianna Rodriguez (Frasquita), Nikola Printz (Mercedes), James McCarthy (Zuniga), Christopher Ogelsby (Dancaïre), and Samuel Kidd (Morales). Also excellent in a smaller role, Alex Boyer, who isn't an Adler, as Remendado.

There is some kind of problem with the staging, the timing of the supertitles, or the audience itself: I heard much much more inappropriate laughter than is usual, as in, maybe every ten minutes the audience laughed at something that most definitely wasn't funny. Sure, there are moments of lightness, but this opera is a tragedy. I wasn't taking notes, but after the first few occurrences of questionable laughter, I wished I had been.

Of the commentators here, only Michael Zwiebach is really happy with what he saw....but I have people telling me "I heard good things about it!" I'm vaguely wondering where they heard this.

Tuesday, November 19, 2024

La Bohème, Opera San José


Schaunard (Jesús Vincente Murillo) Colline (Younggwang Park), Marcello (Kidon Choi), and Rodolfo (WooYoung Yoon) who has bought a new hat for his love Mimì (Kearstin Piper Brown) in 
Opera San José's production of La Bohème 
Photo: David Allen, courtesy of Opera San José

Opera San José's six-performance run of Puccini's evergreen La Bohème opened this past Saturday at the California Theatre in, of course, San José. It's the kind of opera that's so spectacularly well-written and so theatrical that, if well-directed, you'll come out of it weeping, and, well, I certainly teared up regularly during the performance.

Opera San José owns this production and has staged it before. It moves the action from the 1850s into the 1920s, but I can't say that this was very obvious, except in the French soldiers' uniforms in the second act. There are no telephones, biplanes, or automobiles to tip you off, no walking wounded from the recently-concluded Great War. The women's fashions aren't flapper-era, either. I don't see any gains from this temporal relocation, but neither did it do any harm.

More importantly, Michelle Cuizon's direction was suitably lively; funny or serious when required and always snappy. I particularly liked the end of act 3, where you get comedy and tragedy on stage at the same time, with Marcello and Musetta having it out on the left for probably the 20th time, while on the right Mimì and Rodolfo are weeping quietly together. Kim A. Tolman's realistic sets of a Parisian garret, Café Momus, and the Barrière d'Enfer look good and work well.

This run has two sopranos as Mimì, Kearstin Piper Brown, whom I saw on Saturday, and Mikayla Sager, whose work I know from when she was an Adler Fellow. I feel you can't go wrong with either of them! I'd seen and loved Brown last year in Opera Parallèle's The Shining; she has a beautiful voice with great control and lots of spin, making her an ideal Mimì. Sager has a darker, equally beautiful voice and, like Brown, is a wonderful artist. She was fabulous a couple of years ago in Desdemona's long scene at the end of Verdi's Otello. So, as I said, you can't go wrong withe either soprano.

Also really wonderful in this production is Kodon Choi as Marcello, Rodolfo the poet's painter sidekick, the on-and-off lover of Musetta. Choi has a gorgeous dark voice that sounds built for the big Verdi baritone roles. I wouldn't be surprised to see him as Rigoletto or Renato or one of those guys in his future appearances. WooYoung Yoon is an appealing Rodolfo, with a reedy voice and a tendency to go sharp when his voice is under pressure.

And there we get to a solvable problem in the production: the California Theatre is very small, seating around 1120 people, and Joseph Marcheso, Opera San José's music director, is conducting enthusiastically and, at times, rather too loudly. This affects Yoon a lot, when he's trying to make himself heard, and it's particularly a problem for the show's Musetta, Melissa Sondhi. She was a good Barbarina in the fabulous Marriage of Figaro a couple of seasons back, and she's a fine actress, but she has an unusually small voice for Musetta, and she's getting drowned out too often. My plus-one for the evening, a horn player who knows the score well, detected orchestral balance issues, too.

The rest of the cast is perfectly lovely and together they make a great ensemble cast: Jesús Vincente Murillo's Schaunard,  Younggwang Park's Colline, and Philip Skinner's Benoit and Alcindoro are all good.

Four performances remain, on November 22 at 7:30 p.m., November 24 and 30 at 2:00 p.m., and December 1 at 2:00 p.m. 

See also Joshua Kosman's review.

SF Symphony: Fujikura, Ravel, Fauré


Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall

I didn't get to last week's SFS concert, between multiple conflicts and not being a big fan of the Fauré Requiem (yes, go ahead, hate me; when it comes to choral requiems, I'm with Brahms all the way). For similar reasons, Joshua Kosman wasn't there either. (I know this because we were at three of the same performances from Thursday to Sunday.) So just two opinions, which are somewhat different.
  • Rebecca Wishnia, SFCV and SF Chronicle; your bonus is that she's got some timely reporting about the SF Symphony Chorus contract.
  • Michael Strickland, SF Civic Center
  • Janos Gereben reports on the Symphony Chorus situation in greater detail at SFCV. The administration and board can talk all they want about "transparency" and "financial challenges," but they haven't yet explained the alleged deficits, based on "internal accounting," in a way that I find transparent.

 

Monday, November 18, 2024

Adler Fellows Concert, 2024


Soprano Olivia Smith (far right) sings an aria from Gounod's Romeo et Juliette
Benjamin Manis conducts
"The Future is Now," Friday, November 15, 2024
Photo: Kristen Loken/San Francisco Opera

"The Future is Now," SF Opera's annual showcase for the Adler Fellows, was a great night for the young singers. Here's what we have in the way of write-ups so far:

Museum Mondays

 


Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
July, 2024

Sunday, November 17, 2024