Merola Finale

Merola Finale; all participants

Photo by Kristen Loken

Last Saturday, August 15, was the Merola Finale, a concert with orchestra given by this year's young singers of the Merola Opera, who've spent ten weeks working very hard at their art and craft. They've given concerts and an opera and they're a talented bunch.

That said, I was less happy this year than I was last year, and I'm going to chalk it up to conducting that I felt did not adequately support these singers. Numbers that should have sparkled didn't; numbers that needed lilt or charm didn't have it. The duet "Parigi, o cara" from La Traviata was taken at a tempo I found bizarre, though my notes don't indicate whether it was too fast or too slow (probably too fast). 

I own that this is a difficult assignment – there were many numbers on the program and a lot of gear-switching – and also that the second half seemed better than the first, but I've heard it done better and I thought the singers deserved better. 

I can't say how many of the numbers that fell flat for me would have been better with a different conductor; I do not know whether some singers needed more coaching. I do know that in June's concert by Kyle Ketelsen, with Carrie-Ann Matheson and and a Merola participant as collaborative pianists, the young singers on that program all sounded good.

I do think that there was some miscasting: with several excellent lyric tenors in the mix, somehow the Duke of Mantua, in the Rigoletto quartet, was sung by a budding spinto tenor. In that, he felt miscast; as Dick Johnson in a duet from La Fanciulla del West, he shone.

So let me name this fine young tenor: Chester Seungyup Han, who sounded terrific in the Fanciulla duet with soprano Charlotte Kelso. She has a voice that is both beautiful and characterful, a big, dark-toned, vibrant instrument, which she wielded with great skill: great control of dynamics and color. 

Han was also the tenor in the Faust finale, with the excellent soprano Anna Thompson and bass John Mburu. The latter made a big impression in Kaspar's aria "Schweig! Damit sich niemand warnt," which I will bet he got to coach with Ketelsen, whom I heard in that very role in Munich last month. Mburu has a good, solid sound and good interpretive instincts.

There's been some excellent Berlioz at both Merola and Adler concerts over the last five or ten years, and this program had another installment: a beautiful traversal of "Nuit d'ivresse," the love duet from Les Troyens, by mezzo Theo Claveles and tenor Matthew Sink. These two have very distinctive voices that blended well, and yet you could hear the play of the lines against each other.  You bet that I'm sorry to have missed them in Ariadne auf Naxos, as the Composer and The Tenor/Bacchus, respectively.

Baritone Enes Pektaş stood out for his crisp delivery of "Şeyh Bedriddin Destani," by the Turkish composer Murat Cem Orhan, and Paul Jang showed off a beautiful bass voice in "Yearning," a setting by DongHwan Kim of a poem by KiChul Lee. I enjoyed tenor Logan Wagner's suave "On the street where you live," from Lerner and Lowe's My Fair Lady.

Perhaps the most dramatic number of the evening was tenor Ryan Bryce Johnson's electrifying delivery of the "Aria of the Worm" from John Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles, which really made me sit up and take notice.

Claire Choquette’s direction worked well both in terms of interactions among the singers and how it took advantage of the two-level Manon set.

As always, a skilled and talented group of singers, all hoping to join the Adler program. Best of luck to them all; I look forward to hearing these young singers again, whether as Adlers or elsewhere.

Elsewhere:

• Joshua Kosman, On a Pacific Aisle
• Steven Winn, SFCV (and SF Chronicle)
• Charlise Tiee, Opera Tattler
• Michael Strickland, SF Civic Center
• Matthew Travisano, Parterre Box

Merola Grand Finale

 

Chea Kang as the Sandman

Hansel und Gretel

Photo: Kristen Loken, courtesy of Merola Opera

The Merola Grand Finale took place this past Saturday, August 16, at the War Memorial Opera House. As always, there was a ton of great singing. Chea Kang, above, was particularly wonderful as Humperdinck's Sandman, from Hansel and Gretel. Between her singing and Elio Bucky's canny direction, I couldn't take my eyes off her.

Media roundup, links to follow for the other writers:

• Lisa Hirsch, S.F. Chronicle and SFCV
• Joshua Kosman, On a Pacific Aisle 
• Opera Tattler. I should also have mentioned the wholly unnecessary amplification of Charlotte Siegel and Justice Yates in their number.
• Michael Anthonio, Parterre Box
• Michael Strickland, S.F. Civic Center

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.

 

Oof.

War Memorial Opera House Interior

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

A dismaying press release from the Merola Opera, SFO's young singer training program. This sounds....bad:

Based on an abundance of caution the acclaimed Merola Opera Program has announced a programming update for its Merola Grand Finale, to be presented live July 31 atthe Golden Gate Park Bandshell. Following an occurrence in which artist health and safety COVID protocols were compromised by a number of participants, the decision has been made to prioritize the well-being of young artists, faculty, staff, and other participating artists, and to proceed with a reduced number of onsite participants and a greater focus on virtual training for the duration of this year’s program. 

 

After exploring numerous possible alternatives, it has been determined that this difficult step would help ensure the safest environment for the final week and a half of the summer training program and the Merola Grand Finale. Says Jean Kellogg, Executive Director of the Merola Opera Program, “It was a heartbreaking decision, but the safety of our young artists and production team is paramount.” 

I mean...health and safety protocols compromised by a number of participants? A wild party of some kind? People drinking to excess? Everybody leaving their masks home? Ouch, in any event. The press release continues: 

The public will still have the opportunity to enjoy a free outdoor performance featuring outstanding young artists from the Merola Opera Program performing a thrilling array of selections from some of opera’s most brilliant works. The Merola Grand Finale will be presented at 2:00pm, Saturday, July 31, at the Golden Gate Park Bandshell, John F. Kennedy Drive and Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, San Francisco. Admission is FREE and open to the public. (Limited reserved seating is available for Merola members Gold Circle and above.) 

 

All Merola participants can be seen next month in “Back Home: Through the Stage Door,” a digital production filmed on location in early July at the historic Herbst Theatre, with the entire 2021 Merola ensemble performing classics and lesser known gems. Free on-demand streaming of “Back Home: Through the Stage Door” will be available to Merola members beginning August 13, and free to the public beginning August 27. For more information or to become a Merola member, visit www.merola.org.

 

San Francisco Opera Center Artistic Director Carrie-Ann Matheson and General Manager Markus Beam noted, “The health and well-being of our artists, faculty, and staff has been and must remain our top priority,” adding that some participants will continue their Merola summer training virtually. The 2021 Merola Stage Director Audrey Chait, as originally announced, will direct the Merola Grand Finale. 

 

There Goes Merola.

War Memorial Opera House

Another sad landmark: Merola Opera, which was scheduled for July 9 to August 22, 2020, just canceled, for the obvious reasons. The young artists who planned to attend will be able to return as participants in 2021. Press release after the cut.

Merola Opera, 2020

In other optimistic news, the Merola program of the San Francisco Opera announced its summer season today:

Schwabacher Summer Concert: Presidio Theatre, 99 Moraga Ave., San Francisco
7:30pm, Thursday, July 9
2:00pm, Saturday, July 11
Tickets: $35-$55

Postcard from Morocco:
Presidio Theatre, 99 Moraga Ave., San Francisco
7:30pm, Thursday, July 23
2:00pm, Saturday, July 25
Tickets: $55-$80
Le nozze di Figaro:Presidio Theatre, 99 Moraga Ave., San Francisco
7:30pm, Thursday, August 6
2:00pm, Saturday, August 8
Tickets: $55-$80  

Merola Grand Finale:War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco
7:30pm, Saturday, August 22
Tickets: $25-$50Reception tickets: $75

And the Merola fellows are:

Sopranos

Emily Blair, Hoffman Estates, Illinois

Catherine Goode, Friendswood, Texas

Magdalena Kuźma, New York, New York

Celeste Morales, San Antonio, TexasAshley Marie Robillard, Norton, Massachusetts 

Mikayla Sager, Vancouver, BC, CanadaJohanna Will, Dresden, Germany

Mezzo-sopranosGabrielle Barkidjija, River Forest, Illinois Gabrielle Beteag, Atlanta, Georgia

Jesse Mashburn, Hartselle, AlabamaNikola Printz, Novato, CaliforniaIsabel Signoret, Miami, Florida

Tenors

Victor Cardamone, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Gabriel Hernandez, Tampa, Florida

Philippe L’Esperance, Grafton, Massachusetts WooYoung Yoon, Seoul, South KoreaTianchi Zhang, Huainan, Anhui, China

Baritones

Thomas Lynch, Lynbrook, New YorkSamson McCrady, Tucson, ArizonaLaureano Quant, Barranquilla, Colombia

Bass-baritonesBen Brady, Denver, Colorado

Andrew Dwan, Mountain View, California

Seungyun Kim, Cheong-ju, South Korea

Apprentice CoachesYang Lin, Shanghai, ChinaMichael McElvain, Chicago, IllinoisAnna Smigelskaya, Saint Petersburg, RussiaShiyu Tan, Changsha, Hunan, ChinaMarika Yasuda, Williamsburg, Virginia

Apprentice Stage Director

Audrey Chait, Menlo Park, California

My fingers are crossed that this actually happens.

A Fit of Pique

This is the kind of thing that should not happen: depending on when you log in to the SF Opera web site to buy tickets to either If I Were You or the Merola Finale, you could wind up paying quite different prices.

When I logged in after selecting a seat, I would have been charged a total of $37 ($25 seat, $12 "Merola fee"). Click the screen shot to enlarge it to something readable.

When I logged in before selecting a seat, I would have been charged a total of $25 ($25 seat):

I have two problems with this:

• The order in which you select a seat and log in should not result in a price change. I believe that SFO is aware of this, from a brief conversation with the box office.
• What the fuck is a "Merola fee" and why is anyone being charged this? No ticket price should be increased by 50% (or 25% if you're buying a $50 seat) over some extra fee. 

And it's why I'm not attending either If I Were You or the Finale. This just pisses me off too much.

Jake Heggie Commission at Merola Opera

The Merola Opera program commissioned a new work from Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer, and it will be premiered in just a couple of weeks. Here are the details, from the press release:


WHAT:    If I Were You, by distinguished American composer Jake Heggie and noted librettist Gene Scheer, will be the first-ever commissioned work in the Merola Opera Program’s 62-year history. Loosely based on the novel Si j’étais vous by the French-American writer Julien Green, If I Were You is a contemporary story of identity with echoes of classical literature, from Faust to Jekyll and Hyde. The lead character is Fabian Hart, an aspiring writer who yearns for adventure and a way out of his stifling existence. Brittomara, a shape-shifting devil, appears to him in many guises, finally offering Fabian a supernatural power that will allow the writer to transfer his soul into other people’s bodies, taking up the day-to-day existence of each host, while their displaced souls languish in a shadowy netherworld. Thus begins the journey of If I Were You as Fabian moves his increasingly lost soul from person to person in search of a better identity, leaving a trail of human wreckage and hollow shells. It will be conducted by Nicole Paiement, Founder and Artistic Director of Opera Parallèle, and directed by Keturah Stickann, known for bringing to stage new productions of Orphée, Rigoletto, andLa rondine, among many others. If I Were You will be presented August 1-6 (times below) at the Herbst Theatre with two alternating casts.

WHERE:          Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Ave, San Francisco

SHOWS:          7:30pm, Thursday, August 1* – Herbst Theatre

2:00pm, Saturday, August 3** – Herbst Theatre

2:00pm, Sunday, August 4* – Herbst Theatre

7:30pm, Tuesday, August 6** – Herbst Theatre

*Pearl cast

                        **Emerald cast

                       

TICKETS:          $35-$80 

Ticket discounts are available for groups of 10 or more. $15 student tickets available in limited quantity in advance at San Francisco Opera Box Office.

INFO:               For information or to order tickets visit http://merola.org or call the San Francisco Opera Box Office at 415-864-3330. The box office is open Monday, 10:00am-5:00pm, and Tuesday through Friday, 10:00am-6:00pm.

Me, I'm trying to figure out how to see this and get to Cabrillo for one of their programs that weekend.

News from Merola

Weird, I don't seem to have a press release about this: Merola Opera has announced some additional details about their upcoming commission, the first in the program's history.

The new work will be by Jake Heggie, libretto by Gene Scheer (that's not new). New to me: the work will be called If I Were You, "loosely based" on the French novel Si j'etais vous.

Newly announced: Nicole Paiement will conduct!! She is a great conductor, the artistic director of Opera Parallele, and principal guest conductor of Dallas Opera. (I hope she'll conduct at San Francisco Opera one of these days.)

Pamela Rosenberg was Wrong About This (In a Good Way)

Found in email from the Merola Opera program, in an interview with baritone Lucas Meachem:

Secondly, I’ll never forget walking up to the War Memorial Opera House for the first time. I remember looking up at it, and thinking for the first time in my life, “I’ve made it.” 

However, my bubble quickly burst in our first meeting, where Pamela Rosenberg said to us singers that only one or two of us would make it in this career. Rather than taking that advice negatively, I took it as a personal challenge to succeed. In that moment, I began to work even harder. I thought, “I have to be that one, or that one or two.” I wanted to be that minority of singers who made it. Her talk inspired me not just that summer at Merola, but beyond.

Only one or two? Meachem was in the 2003 summer program, which apparently had 29 singers, stage directors, and coaches. At the very least, the following singers from that year went on to solid professional careers:

• Jane Archibald
• Meredith Arwady
• Joshua Bloom
• Arturo Chacon-Cruz
• Nikki Einfeld
• Thomas Glenn
• Joseph Kaiser (then a baritone, now a tenor)
• Lucas Meachem
• Elza van den Heever

Some of these singers are bigger stars than others, and there may well be other singers with solid local careers, but that's way more than one or two. Perhaps the Merola program was especially good at talent-spotting that year, or perhaps as a group they just worked harder, but that's a pretty impressive group of singers.

The Year in Review

This was one very weird year, in so many ways. Personally, it was pretty good! My job went reasonably well, and I have the best colleagues possible in Cloud Networking Docs and generally in Cloud Docs. The only task left with my mother's estate is filing one final tax return. I did not travel as much as I would have liked to, although....Los Angeles for opera; Seattle twice for work within a one month period; NY twice, once for my mom's unveiling, my aunt Ida's unveiling, and my uncle Irving's 99th birthday party, and, ten weeks later, Irv's funeral (sigh, but he had a good long run...); once to Hawaii (not the best vacation ever for various reasons); and once to Santa Fe for opera.

Musically, I will forever remember 2017 as the year Mason Bates wrote a better opera than John Adams. At no point before the dress rehearsal of Girls of the Golden West would I have expected this, and in fact, I would have laughed at the notion.

Boy, was I wrong. While my review of GGW was not as vitriolic as Joshua Kosman's, he and I and nearly everyone else are in agreement about the weaknesses of the opera; in fact, I'm willing to bet that even reviewers who on balance liked it agree about what the weaknesses are. And everybody loved the performers, too.

That said, while Bates's The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs has obvious weaknesses (see my review for details), the music is inventive, energetic, and consistently engaging. I'm looking forward to seeing it again in SF! And wondering about the casting, since Seattle announced an almost completely new cast for their bring-up. My bet: Brian Mulligan or maybe Quinn Kelsey as Steve.

Some of the big musical highlights of 2017:

• Nixon in China at the LA Phil. Conducted by John Adams himself, gorgeously directed by Elkhana Pulitzer, and with a terrific cast, Nixon remains one of the great 20th c. additions to the operatic repertory.
• Salome at the LA Opera. A revival of an old and well-traveled Peter Hall staging and somewhat looking its age, but also with some wonderful touches. An excellent cast, led by the surprisingly convincing, and very brave, Patricia Racette. You wouldn't have thought this was her role, but her combination of musicality and total dramatic commitment makes up for the fact that her voice isn't exactly the right type or size. Beautiful and supportive conducting from James Conlon helped a lot, I am sure. The supporting cast was very fine, with Isaacha Savage a magnificent Narraboth and Alan Glassman a lyrical and convincing Herod. Savage is the real dramatic tenor deal and I look forward to seeing him in leading roles. This performance also made me a fan of the opera after decades of casually loathing it, which is why I now have five recordings of it floating around. Read Alex Ross's wonderful Gramophone roundup for recommendations.
• Das Rheingold at the NY Philharmonic, Alan Gilbert's last subscription appearance as music director of the orchestra. An excellent cast, although....I found Eric Owens a little recessed for Wotan. Jamie Barton as Fricka, Russell Thomas a real WOW as a lyrical and straightforward Loge, and Christopher Purves as the best Alberich I have seen (and I include a great performance by Richard Paul Fink at Seattle in 2001). I note that with Morris Robinson's Fasolt, this was the first non-Porgy opera I've seen with more than one African American singer! And how on earth did they get the great Stephen Milling as Fafner? Gilbert was excellent, and, by the way, there were six harps on stage, although That Hall being what it was, they weren't very audible in the upper reaches.
• Das Lied von der Erde with the Met Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. Esa-Pekka Salonen, Stuart Skelton, and Karen Cargill delivering greatness all around.
• Alcina and The Golden Cockerell at Santa Fe, in addition to Steve Jobs. I hope to write up both productions in greater detail.
• Elektra at San Francisco was in the HOLY MOTHER OF GOD category, with Christine Goerke's haunted and fabulous Elektra leading the way in an absorbing, if slightly wayward, Keith Warner production set in a museum. Adrianne Pieczonka, Michaela Martens, and Alfred Walker rounded out a tremendous cast; Henrik Nanasi conducted; all my friends saw this multiple times and I only wish I'd gone to the Wednesday performance I missed.
• Manon at SFO. Okay, I'll never be a huge fan of the piece, but the sparkling production and excellent singing by Ellie Dehn and Michael Fabiano made this the second-biggest pleasant surprise of the year for me, after Steve Jobs.
• Turandot at SFO, Nina Stemme, Brian Jagde, Leah Crocetto, debuting conductor Christopher Franklin gave the best performance of this I've seen. I've got a detailed review about half done.
• Claire Chase's amazing four-hour flute recital, the first fruits of her 23 year commissioning project, Density 2036. Greatest recital I've ever seen? The review was not easy to write because you run out of superlatives pretty fast.
• Merola triple bill of La Serva Padrona, Savitri, and The Bear. Peter Kazaras's direction left a good deal to be desired, but the singing and execution did not.
• Krzysztof Urbańsk's two programs at San Francisco Symphony were simply astonishing.

And some lowlights:

• Girls of the Golden West. I've already said plenty about this.
• Berlioz Requiem at SFS, with Charles Dutoit giving an uncharacteristically weak performance.
• Frankenstein at West Edge Opera. A well-performed train wreck of an opera.

Important news:

• MTT to retire as music director of SFS in three years. Wow. I mean, I have had a lot of complaints about the degree of dead-white-guy programming, but the orchestra is in great shape and it's been a wonderful partnership. Enormous shoes to fill, etc. 
• James Levine, finally, after forty years of rumors.
• Charles Dutoit, and since his behavior was in the newspapers 22 years ago, it's not even rumors.
• Waiting for about 30 other shoes to drop.

Oh, FACEPALM!

C'mon, Merola - a $12 fee on top of a $25 ticket? That's just wrong.