Ars Minerva's Ercole amante

Sara Couden and Nina Jones in Antonia Bembo’s 

Ercole amante (Photo: Valentina Sadiul)

Between The Monkey King and Gautier Capuçon's cello recital, I saw Ars Minerva's world premiere staging of Antonia Bembo's 1707 opera, Ercole amante. I'd previous written a preview for the Chronicle and SFCV, and Ars Minerva has a strong track record with its revivals of forgotten works, so I was particularly looking forward to it.

Well, you win some and you lose some, and this was, alas, not quite there. To start with, in the first act, the orchestra sounded ragged and underrehearsed. (Things were tighter and livelier in the second act.) To continue, the opera, which was heavily cut, wasn't as good as I'd thought it would be, based on my interviews with company founder Céline Ricci and music director Matthew Dirst. There were fewer arias and more recitative than I'd expected, and the latter got rather tedious in the first act.

I should have listened to the (also heavily cut) recording made from the 2023 concert performances by Il Gusto Barrocco, to try to get some sense of what the opera is like; possibly they made different cuts from Ars Minerva's, since the latter company made some cuts based on what they could reasonably stage.

Lastly, there was an unfortunate vocal hole at the center of the opera: Zachary Gordin, Ercole, who sang the entire opera bare chested and bare legged, dressed in sandals and a gold skirt, has very impressive musculature, but a somewhat less impressive voice. He looked great and was fine dramatically, but the opera would have worked better with a more commanding baritone in the title role.

The other singers were good to excellent (Aura Veruni and Melissa Sondhi as dueling goddesses; Kindra Scharich as Ercole's long-suffering wife, Deianira; tenor Max Ary as Ercole's son Hyllo sounded uncomfortable at the very top of his range but was otherwise fine; Lila Khazoum as Hyllo's fiancée; Sara Couden as a page; Nina Jones as Deianira's servant; Nick Volkert in several roles). Ricci's staging was funny and did everything it needed to with a tiny number of props. I loved Entropy's projections, which were based on Baroque stage design and various paintings.

• Joshua Kosman, On a Pacific Aisle
• Patrick Vaz, The Reverberate Hills
• Charlise Tiee, Opera Tattler
• Michael Strickland, SF Civic Center
• Lisa Hirsch, preview, SFCV and S.F. Chronicle

The Oncoming Concert Pile-Up

Next weekend, there's just too much to choose from:

• SFS with MTT/Ludovic Merlot
• Oakland Symphony
• Ars Minerva's Messalina
• Cosi fan tutte at San Francisco Opera

I'm teaching Thursday night, so I can't swap my SFS ticket for that night so that I be out at concerts four days in a row. I'm having to settle for SFS, Messalina, and Cosi.

Ars Minerva Postpones Messalina

Email from the intrepid company Ars Minerva, following a statement of solidarity with those working for racial justice:

Unfortunately, due to the current Covid-19 pandemic that is still wreaking havoc in our lives and preventing the solace and joy that live artistic performances bring to us,  we have made the difficult decision to postpone our opera production of Messalina from October 2020 to early 2021.

WHEN & WHEREFebruary 12th, 13th and 14th 2021at ODC THEATER3153 17 St, San Francisco.

Ars Minerva is a small company, but we are determined to get through this difficult time with courage, strength and your support. We believe in the uniqueness and beauty of our mission; we believe in the wonderful artists we have the privilege to collaborate with; and we believe in our enthusiastic, supportive and dedicated audience. Ars Minerva will go forward.

Please stay tuned! Soon we will announce a small series of online events and concerts; and very soon, we will meet again in person!

No video or recording will ever replace live performing arts.  This situation is only temporary, and we are impatient to be on stage again and to share with our audience what we love the most: live performance.

Thank you very much for your understanding and support.

Ars Minerva Event (Friday, Mary 22)!

Ars Minerva is having an event on Friday, May22, 2020, on Zoom. It's from 3 to 3:30 p.m., Pacific Time. Joe McClinton and Céline Ricci will talk about Forgotten Operas and Operas Translation.

Here's the Zoom link:
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/73200724209?pwd=dkxiRnRwUHd0bDVYZnJiNzBBQTZXUT09

If you don't have Zoom yet, you will need to do a bit of setup, so click that link 10 or 15 minutes early.

Good News from Ars Minerva: Their Next Opera!

Ars Minerva has put on a series of outstanding presentations of 17th and 18th c. opera over the last several years. I'm so happy to see the announcement of their planned fall, 2020 production Doesn't this look like fun??

MESSALINA

An opera composed by Carlo Pallavicino in 1679 - Libretto by Francesco Maria Piccioli

A sex farce with teeth. Clever, lecherous Messalina turns the tables several times on the gullible Emperor Claudius, who is hardly innocent himself. Meanwhile two other couples suffer their own romantic vicissitudes. Furtive assignations, frustrated trysts, kidnappings, betrayals, sudden recognitions, a heroine and a hero both in drag, and a plot as convoluted as only 17th-century Venetian opera can put together, all lead to a reconciliation that will last only as long as Messalina can keep pulling the wool over Claudius’ eyes. 

WHEN & WHERE
October/November 2020
ODC THEATER
3153 17 St, San Francisco.

In the event of a longer worldwide health crisis, the performances will be postponed. We are also working on eventual live stream performances.

ABOUT THE COMPOSER

Carlo Pallavicino (1630-1688): Italian composer Carlo Pallavicino wrote more than 20 operas, which premiered in the cities where he worked during his life: Venice, Italy and Dresden, Germany. He also wrote oratorios and sacred works. Pallavicino began his musical career as a church organist in 1665-66 in Padua, Italy. His first operas were staged in Venice, Italy in 1666. He moved on to the Dresden, Germany court in 1667, where he was a choirmaster for a few years. After that period, he returned to his organist position in Venice. He became the musical director of a Venice conservatory that provided musical training for orphaned children. Then, in 1685, he resumed his post in Dresden and then became director of chamber and theater music in 1687. Two of his operas were staged in Dresden, but he continued to compose mainly for Venice. Of Pallavicino’s operas, Vespasiano (staged in 1678 in Venice) was his most popular.

Dear Friend of Ars Minerva,
 

Ars Minerva is a unique and young performing arts organization. On a shoestring budget we have presented 5 annual modern world premieres of lost operas that no one else presents, producing them for Bay Area audiences since 2015, and collaborated with San Francisco Bay local artists. Messalina cast calls for 8 vocalists and 6 instrumentalists, a creative team and a technical team. Our artists, except one, will be residents of the San Francisco Bay Area and are actively contributing to the local and vital arts scene. Please consider supporting us during this difficult time.

You can support Ars Minerva on Go Fund Me.

Ars Minerva Concert, October 5

I am going to be at a jujitsu event on October 5, so I probably will not be able to attend this fabulous program, but perhaps you can. From Ars Minerva's email:

The Women of the Mediterranean are back!

Céline Ricci with mezzo-soprano Kindra Scharich, soprano Aurélie Veruni and harpsichordist Kelly Savage will preform an Ars Minerva Opera featuring vignettes of famous and influential Mediterranean women. Arias from female roles from the operatic repertoire and spoken texts will alternate and lead you in a journey inhabited by legendary women and heroines as Cleopatra, Didone or Ottavia.

Music by: Claudio Monteverdi, Francesco Cavalli, George-Frideric Handel, Pietro-Andrea Ziani and Giovanni Porta.

Doors open at 7pm; Pre-show talk at 7.30pm; Concert starts at 8pm
Tickets $25 – $45

906 World Cultural Center

906 Broadway

San Francisco, CA 94133

Media Round-Up: Ifigenia in Aulide, Ars Minerva

Raves for Ars Minerva's Ifigenia in Aulide, by Giovanni Porta:

• Joshua Kosman, Chron
• Lisa Hirsch, SFCV
• Maria Nockin, Operawire
• Liz Henry, Composite
• Opera Tattler
• Stephen Smoliar, The Rehearsal Studio
• Michael Anthonio, Parterre Box (the post title is hilarious, but I must note that there are no priests or priestesses in the opera)
• Michael Strickland, Civic Center (inquiring minds want to know how he got the production photos that the rest of us were longing for)

UPDATED: December 9, 2018, with links to Michael Anthonio and Michael Strickland's reviews.