Department of Speculation

Post, 2011 SFO Ring

San Francisco Opera hasn't announced when they're doing the Ring next, though since it's known that Eun Sun Kim will conduct, it'll be before her contract expires at the end of the 2030-31 season. Given the problematic financial environment for the arts just now, well, it could be a ways out. [Update: A couple of people have mentioned to me, and I have now seen with my own eyes, that Opera says it'll be in June, 2028. They're usually quite well informed.]

Still, as I wrote in my Santa Fe Die Walküre review, we're at a moment of generational change in Wagner singing. Let's take some time to speculate as to who might be in the next SFO Ring. I have absolutely no inside information on casting; these are strictly my hallucinations. Also, my lists are in alphabetical order, not the order in which I'd like to see these roles cast.

Wotan

• Nicholas Brownlee
• Ryan Speedo Green (singing his first this year, in Santa Fe and LA; apparently signed for the next Met Ring)
• Brian Mulligan (sang it in Europe, in concert, with YNS)

Fricka / Waltraute / Norn

• Jamie Barton
• Tanja Ariane Baumgartner
• Raehann Bryce-Davis
• Irene Roberts
• Sarah Saturnino
• Annika Schlicht

Alberich

• Tomas Konieczny
• Falk Struckmann

Brünnhilde

• Lise Davidsen (can SFO pay her fees?)
• Christine Goerke
• Anja Kampe (an impressive Isolde last year in SF)
• Camilla Nylund (an impressive Kaiserin in 2023 in SF)
• Tamara Wilson

Sieglinde

• Vida Miknevičiūtė
• Irene Roberts (I know, I know, she's a mezzo, but believe me she has the vocal chops for this)
• Elisabeth Strid
• Suggestions from Charles Bush, hoisted from the comments, with my own comments added:
• Jennifer Holloway
• Elza van den Heever. By the end of 2025-26, she'll have been back at SFO for three productions, which makes her a strong candidate to be included in the Ring.
• Rachel Willis-Sorensen. I hear that she is aiming away from Wagner, but yes, she'd be great. Such a beautiful voice.

Siegmund

• Clay Hilley
• Brian Jagde
• Brandon Jovanovich
• Jamez McCorkle
• Simon O'Neill
• Russell Thomas
• Suggestions from Charles Bush, hoisted from the comments, with my own comments added:
• John Matthew Myers. I've seen him twice, in Gurrelieder, jumping in for Jovanovich, and as Iopas in the truncated Seattle Les Troyens. He's very impressive.
• Michael Spyres. HELL YES.

Siegfried

• Daniel Brenna
• Clay Hilley
• Simon O'Neill?
• Andreas Schager
• Stefan Vinke
• Suggestions from Charles Bush, hoisted from the comments:
• Klaus Florian Vogt (?)
• Michael Spyres (!?!)
  

Loge / Mime

• Russell Thomas
• Brenton Ryan
• Suggestions from Charles Bush, hoisted from the comments, my own comment added:
• Sean Panikkar. Oh, I wonder if he's a plausible Siegmund? He was wonderful in the L.A. Satyagraha and more recently as Stravinsky's Oedipus at SFS.

Hunding / Hagen

• Peixin Chen
• Jongwon Han
• Soloman Howard

Who do you like?

Children in Danger: Fantasy Opera Season

Seeing certain operas this year gave me an idea:

• Britten, Turn of the Screw
• Humperdinck, Hansel und Gretel
• Janacek, Jenufa
• Wagner, Lohengin
• Mussorgsky, Boris Godunov
• Britten, Peter Grimes
• Rautavaara, Rasputin
• Bellini, Norma
• Various composers, Médée/Medea
• Lang, little match girl passion on a double bill with Puccini, Suor Angelica

Kind of a short season; anyone have additional ideas? It's interesting that two of the operas above are by Britten.

....And This is Why SFO (or some other company) Needs to Put On a Trojan Wars Season

Renée Falconetti as Joan of Arc

in Carl Dreyer's The Passion of Joan

Odyssey Opera in Boston has a doozy of a season coming up: it is called Joan of Arc and the Hundred Years War.

I guessed three of the five operas and have barely heard of the other two:

• The Maid of Orleans, Tchaikovsky (really not a great piece, sorry)
• Giovanna d'Arco, Verdi
• Jeanne d'Arc au Bucher, Honegger
• L'Assedio di Calais (The Siege of Calais), Donizetti
• The Trial at Rouen, Dello Joio

A Trojan Wars season could be so great!

Gay, Gay, Gay

You knew this was coming, right?

• Harvey Milk, Wallace
• Fellow Travelers, Spears
• Patience and Sarah, Kimper
• Lulu, Berg
• Death in Venice, Britten
• Der Rosenkavalier, Strauss
• As One, Kamisky (because we are counting LGBTQI in all its expressions)
• King Roger, Szymanowski (h/t mountmccabe for reminding me of this and the Charpentier)
• David et Jonathas, Charpentier
• Don Carlo(s), Verdi
• Champion, Blanchard (h/t Tod Brody, who was ED of Opera Parallele when they staged it, for reminding me)
• Brokeback Mountain, Wuorinen (h/t Mary Jane Leach for reminding me of this one)
• Norma, Bellini (Face it - the best relationship in the opera is between Norma and Adalgisa. Somebody needs to write an alternate ending where the two of them burn Pollione)
• La Gioconda, Ponchielli, because it is the campiest opera of them all.

General hat tip to Patrick Vaz, because we talked about this on the way back from Cabrillo last night.

Religion Will Get You Into Trouble

Today's Twitter activity brought a request for more themed opera seasons, so here's the first that occurred to me.

• Khovanshchina, Mussorgsky
• Les Huguenots, Meyerbeer
• La Juive, Halevy
• St Francois d'Assisse, Messiaen
• Le Martyr de St. Sebastien, Debussy (Yes, this is a little bit of a cheat, but oh, how I loved it at SFS during the centennial season)
• Theodora, Handel
• The Bassarids, Henze
• Parsifal, Wagner
• Moses and Aron, Schoenberg
• Dialogs of the Carmelites, Poulenc
• Palestrina, Pfitzner
• Moses in Egypt, Rossini
• Don Carlos, Verdi (and I mean that s at the end)
• Susannah, Floyd
• The Crucible, Ward
• The Gospel According to the Other Mary, Adams
• The Gospel of Mary Magdalene, Adamo
• Giovanna d'Arco, Verdi
• Jeanne d'Arc au Bucher, Honneger
• The Maid of Orleans, Tchaikowsky

Shakespeare at the Opera

A fantasy opera entry; a long, long season of operas based on Shakespeare, including Doppelgangers and also a....what the heck would those trios be called?

• Britten, A Midsummer Night's Dream
• Purcell, The Fairy Queen
• Thomas, Hamlet (even though I consider it mediocre at best!)
• Verdi, Otello
• Rossini, Otello
• Bellini, I Capuleti
• Gounod, Romeo et Juliette (hey, on record it sounds a lot better than Faust)
• Berlioz, Romeo et Juliette
• Verdi, Falstaff
• Nicolai, Merry Wives of Windsor
• Vaughan Williams, Sir John in Love (even though it doesn't sound that good on record)
• Reimann, Lear
• Verdi, Macbeth
• Bloch, Macbeth (a belated entry, August, 2016)
• Adès, The Tempest
• Hoiby, The Tempest
• Berlioz, Beatrice et Benedict
• Wagner, Das Liebesverbot

Fantasy Opera Update

Three years ago, I wrote a series of postings detailing the operas I would stage if I had all the money in the world. It was, of course, a list of operas I'd like to see. Here's an update on which of those works I've managed to see.

• Ades, The Tempest. Seen on HD broadcast, heard some excerpts live at SFS (never reviewed the program). I continue to like this opera a lot. People like to pound on the libretto, which I think is quite a bit better than they do. If not for supertitles, would it be so disliked?
• Birtwistle (The Minotaur, or any opera). I saw Gawain and Yan Tan Tethera in London and would like to see them both again. Gawain is deeply serious and surprisingly philosophical; YTT is the obvious entry-level Birtwistle opera. It is serious but also very charming. I mean, how many operas have a chorus of sheep?
• Britten (anything except Billy Budd). I've seen the magnificent Peter Grimes at SFS and two productions of Turn of the Screw, while managing to miss two productions of The Rape of Lucretia.
• Janacek, From the House of the Dead. Seen on DVD in the great Chereau production, conducted by Boulez. A great, great piece.
• Strauss, Frau ohne Schatten. Seen at the Met and reviewed here.
• Verdi, Falstaff. Seen again last year at SFO in a not-very-lovable Olivier Tambosi. I need to write this up.
• Boito, Mefistofele. Seen last year at SFO; I need to write it up.
• Dallapiccola, Il Prigioniero. Seen in concert in London, not yet reviewed.
• Barber, Vanessa. Seen at West Edge; reviewed here.
• Glass, Einstein on the Beach. Seen on tour and sensationally great; reviewed here for SFCV.

Fantasy Opera, Season 6

Unbelievably, I omitted Respighi from the first five seasons.

• Respigh, La Fiamma
• Delius, Koanga
• RVW, Hugh the Drover
• Peri, Dafne
• Offenbach, La Belle Helene
• Tippett, King Priam
• Chabrier, L'Etoile
• Chausson, Le Roi Artus
• Bolcom, A Wedding
• Britten, Curlew River
• Turnage, Anna Nicole
• Glass, Einstein on the Beach
• Musgrave, Mary, Queen of Scotts
• Sciarrino, Lohengrin
• Gretry, Richard Coeur de Lion

Fantasy Opera, Season 5

Still daydreaming.

• Barber, Vanessa
• Britten, Gloriana
• Delius, A Village Romeo and Juliet
• Argento, Postcards from Morroco
• Weisgall, Esther
• Bennett, The Mines of Sulphur
• Humperdinck, Konigskinder (aka The Goose Girl)
• Mascagni, Isabeau
• Albeniz, Merlin
• Dallapicolla, Il prigonniero (need companion opera...)
• Lully, Cadmus et Hermione
• Charpentier, Medee
• Rameau, Samson
• Cherubini, Medee
• Martinu, The Greek Passion

Fantasy Opera, Season 4

You didn't think I was done, did you??

• Salinen, Kullervo. I have a recording of this; I've heard some of his music live and on record, and I'd love to see a production of this one.
• Monteverdi, L'Orfeo
• Krenek, Jonny Spielt Auf
• Weill, Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny
• Leoncavallo, La Boheme
• Reyer, Sigurd
• Hindemith, Mathis der Maler
• Adamo, Lysistrata
• Verdi, Les V

  ê

  pres Sicilienne
• Saint-Saens, Henry VIII
• Ponchielle, La Giaconda (So sue me - I love this one, at least on record. I have more recordings of Giaconda than I have of all Rossini operas put together.)
• Dvorak, The Devil and Kate
• Weber, Oberon
• Dukas, Ariane et Barbe-Bleu
• Zandonai, Francesca da Rimini
• Martin, Le Vin Herbe

Fantasy Opera Elsewhere

Around the blogosphere:

• Alex Ross found a rather odd cartoon/music pairing on YouTube that's relevant. 
• Mark Berry at Boulezian has a great season of his own.
• Steve Morrison at Plentiful as Blackberries lists two superb seasons. 
• Zerbinetta at Likely Impossibilities chimes in with her own fantasies.

I detect a palpable longing for modernist and unusual operatic repertory. Opera houses and orchestras of the world: take note! The New York Philharmonic sold out three performances of Le Grand Macabre. You, too, can tap into the unmet desires of musical minorities. And yes, I'd settle for concert or semi-staged performances of just about all of the operas we've listed.

Fantasy Opera, Season 3

Assuming I'm a billionaire, of course.

• Chin, Alice in Wonderland
• Mussorgsky, Khovanshchina
• Wagner, Rienzi
• Rossini, Guillaume Tell
• RVW, Sir John in Love
• Nicolai, The Merry Wives of Windsor
• Verdi, Aroldo
• Auber, Manon Lescaut
• Maw, Sophie's Choice
• Marschner, Der Varmpyr
• Blomdahl, Aniara (you can all look it up - I have the recording!)
• Rimsky, The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevronia
• Smyth, The Wreckers
• Handel, Orlando
• Pfitzner, Palestrina

Yeah, maybe all three Falstaff treatments belong in the same season. And maybe I should schedule a Shakespeare season or the Trojan Wars season.

Fantasy Opera, Season 2

Why not?

• Nielsen, Maskerade
• Verdi, Il Corsaro
• Carter, What's Next?
• Bellini, La Sonnambula
• Sessions, Montezuma
• Saariaho, L'Amour de Loin (I cannot believe I left this out of season 1!)
• Floyd, Susannah
• Janaceck, The Excursions of Mr. Broucek
• Meyerbeer, Robert le Diable
• Double bill: Busoni, Turandot (I am not making this up); Bartok, A kékszakállú herceg vára
• Leoncavallo, La Boheme
• Handel, Tamerlano
• Faure, Penelope
• Berlioz, La Damnation de Faust
• Boito, Mefistofele

If I Were a Rich Geek

Okay, I'm going to stop complaining - well, mostly - about opera seasons that don't match my admittedly peculiar, out-of-the-mainstream, interests, because I'm simply at the point where I've seen most of the Big Standards and I'm mostly interested in works I haven't seen, whether old or new. No opera company in the world is going to program the season I really want to see.

If I had managed to make a mint in my 14 years as a technical writer (someone I saw recently jumped to the conclusion that "works at Google" = rich, which is not at all the case, not if you started long after the IPO), I would so have an opera company. It's an extremely expensive proposition, even if you pay everyone a salary, say, $50,000/year. You won't get big stars to sing for that kind of money, though I expect that you could put together a good orchestra of freelancers and recent conservatory grads for a steady salary.

That said, if I were a rich geek, here's the opera season of my dreams:

• Ades, The Tempest
• Hoiby, The Tempest
• Birtwistle, The Minotaur (or one of his other operas)
• Reimann, Lear (which I did not see in SF in the 1980s)
• Britten - anything except Billy Budd
• Janacek, From the House of the Dead
• Berlioz, Les Troyens (would settle for Beatrice or Damnation)
• Weinberger, Schwanda the Bagpiper
• Strauss, Die Frau ohne Schatten
• Verdi, Falstaff (would settle for Les Vepres Sicilienne, the only middle or late Verdi I've never seen)
• Handel, any of the ones I haven't seen; there are plenty!
• Zimmerman, Die Soldaten
• Schreker, anything, even Gezeichneten, which I've seen
• Korngold, Die Katrin or Der Wunder des Heliane, because I have seen the Decker production of Die tote Stadt that's been making the rounds. There are even singers around who know Heliane!
• Monteverdi, Il ritorno d'Ulysse in Patria

Believe me, I know that it's impossible. Just putting on Frau and Troyens could bankrupt a company! Even my personal company of salaried everyone would have a tough time with learning and rehearsing that repertory, whiich takes in just about every style imaginable.

The Trojan Wars

Over the last decade, I've toyed off and on with the idea of a themed opera season. I've seen some half-hearted attempts at this; for example, San Francisco Opera usually finds some kind of overarching tag line for its summer season. Those have seemed strained to me, though I suppose the 1998 season of Poppea, Lulu, and Carmen was aply characterized as "Femmes Fatales." Beyond the prima donna roles, though, it's hard to figure out what those operas might have in common.

I'd like to propose a Trojan Wars season, to be staged by a major opera company with a big budget and access to more than one performing space. My candidate operas:

• Dido & Aenaes, Purcell
• Les Troyens, Berlioz
• Elektra, Strauss
• Idomeneo, Mozart
• Die aegyptische Helena, Strauss
• King Priam, Tippett
• Troilus and Cressida, Walton
• One of the Iphigenia operas - Iphigenie en Tauride or Iphigenie en Aulis
• Il ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria, Monteverdi
• Penelope, Faure

I've seen Elektra, Idomeneo, Iphigenie en Tauride, and, probably the greatest rarity I've seen live, Penelope. I'd want the 17th and 18th c. works done in a small theater, holding 800 to 1100, the big-gun works done in larger houses.

There must be other worthwhile Trojan Wars operas. And I have a couple of other seasonal themes in mind to blog.