Tosca, SF Opera

Patricia Racette as Tosca (SF Opera Photo)

To Tosca last week, with Racette, Jagde, Delavan/Luisotti. I had a subscription ticket to see Gheorghiu,  and swapped for Racette even before the show opened. You can see why in one of the interviews I read with the two sopranos: Gheorghiu loves singing Tosca because the character is Gheroghiu. Racette loves singing Tosca because she is such a different personality to explore.

Well, Gheorghiu seems to do the diva thing, or her idea of the diva thing, even in concert, from what I hear. That's not so interesting.

The staging this time around, again by Jose Maria Condemi, was far better than last time. So was the conducting and so was the drama; Nicola Luisotti kept things moving along nicely, and while there were no revelations, I also didn't want to kick him. To the extent that there was any slumping, my sense was that he was being good to Brian Jagde, who needed some help, or he was keeping the volume down a bit.

Brian Jagde. SIGH. According to Racette, the late Salvatore Licitra was originally in the cast. He died in September, 2011, and Jagde must have been swapped in before the January, 2012 season announcement. Along the way, he also picked up some Cavaradossis in Santa Fe, after the tenor there dropped out.

He needs a lot more seasoning before he will be a good Mario. "Recondita Armonia" was square rather than liquid; he had power but no bloom at the top and went out of tune all too often. Ugh. He was better in the more conversational scenes, but "E lucevan le stelle," which got off to a nice introspective start, lay right on his vocal break. You could say that I'm sorry that he's in as Pinkerton in the summer, 2014, run of Butterfly, especially with an otherwise admirable cast headed by Patricia Racette, who is a great Cio-Cio-San. I know who I would have liked to have as Cavaradossi in this run, but unfortunately he was in Los Angeles singing Pinkerton.

Mark Delavan was a whole lot better than the last time I saw him, making an impressively slimey and sadistic Scarpia. I still think his voice is too soft-grained, without much squillo, but whatever. He was fine.

Racette is, indeed, a little underpowered for Tosca, but sounded really good 98% of the time. The other 2%, well, I worry about her: there is more flapping on sustained high forte notes than three years ago in Trittico. But otherwise all was well vocally, with beautiful tone and a fine Italianate line. Dramatically, she was a wonderful Tosca, tremendously appealing, human, complex, changeable, a delicious flirt, jealous but not too jealous, fiercely brave in her act II confrontation with Scarpia. Oh, and very sexy: she looks fantastic in a black wig, with her beautiful skin and the particular makeup she was wearing. She was certainly the most convincing Tosca I've seen; I can't help but think that all those other sopranos trying to put her across as a tigress are missing the boat: she comes across as a caricature, not a human.

On balance, then, a satisfying evening.

Jonathan Harvey

The English composer, whose work I have not heard before, died today at 73. Listening to some of his music on the web, I am tremendously sorry, and hope to hear some of these beautiful pieces in concert.

Dave Brubeck

The great pianist has died at 91. If you think you don't know his music, you're probably wrong:

 

Sacred & Profane 2012-13 Season

Sacred & Profane Chamber Chorus's season brochure arrived in the mail this week, and unlike last year's, which was printed in light red 8 point type on glossy paper, I can read this year's. (Note to S&P: if someone sends you email about an issue like this, you should answer it. People are more likely to come to your concerts if they can read the season brochure.)

It's a beautiful season with a ton of interesting and rarely-performed music, with an overall theme of Music of Transcendence. The first program focuses on music by Pärt, Tavener, and Górecki; the second on music from the Jewish Tradition; the third, on Scandinavian composers.

A huge draw, for me, is the Requiem of the Icelandic composer Jon Leifs.

Full season after the cut, copied and pasted from the chorus's web site. As for most small choruses, ticket prices are low; $22 at the door, $18 in advance; $15 for students.

I Suspect That a Marketing Person Wrote This.

Found on the Berkeley Symphony web site, in their description of tomorrow's program of Mattingly, Ligeti, and Schumann:

In contrast to the rhythmical Piano Concerto, Schumann’s Symphony No. 2 is both passionate and exuberant.

You don't say. Did you notice that "rhythmical" is a word that could be applied to almost every piece of music?

SFO Season Announcement: Other Coverage

I'm not the only person with a few things to say about this:

• John Marcher at A Beast in a Jungle (note discrepancy between URL and post title)
• Janos Gereben, SFCV
• Joshua Kosman, Chron
• Opera Tattler
• Parterre Box (where there's an interesting discussion....)

Public Service Announcement

Don't leave purses and other objects on the floor where somebody might trip on them.

SF Opera 2013-14, or Wall-to-Wall Racette

Here's the story, in brief:

• Mefistofele, Boito (Racette, Abdrazokov, Vargas/Luisotti)
• Dolores Claiborne, Picker (Biller, Zajick, Futral/Monahan)
• Falstaff, Verdi (Terfel, Arteta, Arwady, Demuro, Rapier, Stober, Capitanucci, Silvestrelli/Luisotti)
• Flying Dutchman, Wagner (Grimsley, Schnitzer, Storey, Sigmundsson/Summers)
• Barber of Seville, Rossini (Meacham/Iversen, Leonard/Mack, Camerena/Shrader, Corbelli/Muraro, Silvestrelli, Cook; Finzi)
• Show Boat, Kern (Stober, Racette, Robinson, Gunn, Simpson/DeMain)
• Madama Butterfly, Puccini (Racette, Jagde, DeShong, Mulligan/Luisotti)
• La Traviata, Verdi (Yoncheva/Perez, Pirgu/Costello, Stoyanov/Kelsey, Luisotti/Finzi)

A few things that should jump out at you:

• Patricia Racette in four roles in three operas
• Heidi Stober in two substantial leads
• Andrea Silvestrelli a bit underused as Don Basilio and Pistola

About Racette. As I said during the Q&A, I love Pat more than just about anyone not named Beth Clayton, but WTF? Okay, I didn't put it that way. It turns out that Butterfly was originally something else that turned out to be too expensive, so they swapped it out for Butterfly. I vaguely got the idea that having her sing Julie in Show Boat is....a bit of an aside for her? A sweetener for taking away [nameless postponed opera]? Mefistofele is certainly off the beaten track.

Someone else asked about Britten, and, yes, they did think about doing Britten during his centenary, but. I think this must have been another case of "we need to sell tickets, soooo...."

I also asked about the recent performances of arias from Il Corsaro, and David Gockley said that no, they're not planning Corsaro, but they are planning a different, rarely-done early Verdi opera for a future season.

During his introductory remarks, Gockley was explicit about this: that the need to keep the company on a decent financial footing has been paramount during the ongoing recession. His priority has been to keep quality high while sacrificing repertory. He said that he is leaving repertory holes, and he knows it, that he hopes will be filled by his white knight successor. During the chit chat after the press conference, I told him that this had pre-emptively answered my planned question about whether we'd be seeing From the House of the Dead and Die Frau ohne Schatten, because....both are very expensive to stage and risky as far as ticket sales go.

The Wilsey Center project next door is proceeding; this will given the company shop space nearby as well as a 350-seat theater for chamber opera and other productions suitable for a small theater. (See recent programs for lots of info about the Wilsey Center plans.) The Indiana St. property where shops are currently housed is in contract to be sold. The funds from that sale will pay back the endowment, from which money was borrowed to fund several years of planned deficits.

There's another commission in the works, to a favorite Italian composer of Luisotti's, Marco Tuttino. His opera will be based on Alberto Moravia's Two Women, which was made into a film by Carlo Ponti. Tuttino has already written around 15 stage works (operas or musicals).

Mefistofele will be the company's Robert Carsen production, which had been sold to Turin. We tracked it down and bought it back. We are collaborating with the Met to restore it; they will use it in a future production.

Show Boat will be done in grand opera style, with white and black choruses, white and black dancers, and so on. It cannot be done this way on Broadway because of the economics. I believe we were also promised that it would not be amplified ("not dependent on mikes stuck down their throats").

They're finishing up the process of getting all labor contracts aligned for media purposes; only the stagehands' contract needs to be negotiated before they can have regional & international cinema presentations, streaming media, DVDs, and other. The next ballpark simulcast will be during the summer of 2014.

Tobias Picker, J.D. McClatchy, Dolora Zajick, Elizabeth Futral, Susannah Biller, and James Robinson were all on hand for a nice discussion of Dolores Claiborne and performances of an aria and a trio. I rather liked the music and what they had to say; looking forward to the performances.

Reading Material

Alex Ross, Marc-Andre Hamelin, Ethan Iverson

Herbst Theater, San Francisco, April, 2010

Stuff you should read:

• Johannes Baumann interviews Kaija Saariaho, at Ionarts
• Ethan Iverson in conversation with Marc-Andre Hamelin; especially amusing is the part where Ethan plays recordings for Marc-Andre, who can identify work and pianist off the bat, for the most part. This is from 2009, but I just stumbled across it yesterday. It does provide an opportunity for me to reprint the photo above, which I took between the Alex/Ethan lecture/demo and hopping a plane to LA.
• Andy Doe (aka Proper Discord) attempts to answer the question "What is Going On with the Music Industry?", demonstrating that there isn't an answer.

Tax Subsidies to Business

The NY Times is starting what looks like a strong series of articles about tax incentives, subsidies, and rebates to private businesses, and the comparatively small payback in jobs and other public benefits. The next time you hear someone complaining about government social programs that directly benefit individual citizens who need help, show them this series about the high cost of corporate welfare.

Another Chance to See Melody Moore

If you're willing to stand, that is: I just heard that Angela Gheorghiu has withdrawn from tonight's performance on account of flu. The performance is sold out; there are tickets available for tomorrow's 2 p.m. matinee with Patricia Racette.

Balance Exercises Class

I'm teaching a simple balance exercises class next month and have two spaces open in it. 

Saturday, December 22, 2012

2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Studio 12 (next door to Berkeley Tool Lending Library)

Sawtooth Building

8th St. at Dwight Way

Berkeley

 

$20 (no one turned away for lack of funds)

 

Let me know if you'd like to attend. No special equipment required.

Found in the Obits

In the obituary for guitarist Mickey Baker:

In the early 1960s, he moved to France, first to Paris and later to Toulouse, and he rarely returned to the United States.

He studied composition and theory with the Greek composer Iannis Xenakis, among other teachers, and experimented on his own, playing and writing in a variety of forms, including classical music; he wrote a series of fugues and inventions for guitar and a concerto, “The Blues Suite,” for guitar and orchestra.

In the obituary for attorney George C. Kern, Jr.:

An opera buff, he built a personal collection of record albums that numbered more than 200,000, his daughter, Heath Kern Gibson, said.

Maybe They'll Get It Right This Time

Third time's a charm (we hope): Avery Fisher Hall to get yet another makeover.

NYPO is already thinking about where they might perform during the two years the hall is unavailable. New York State Theater? Park Avenue Armory?

Carnegie Hall?

Some high school auditoriums?

Grawemeyer to van der Aa

Michel van der Aa wins the 2013 Grawemeyer Award for Musical Composition, for his Up-Close, which evidently hasn't been played in the US yet. Has it been recorded?

WQXR's Q2 branch sends a weekly newletter, and this week they say that van der Aa is the second consecutive Dutch composer to win this prize. Oh, people, please copy-edit and fact-check these statements a little more carefully. Here are the last three winners:

2013 - Michel van der Aa
2012 - Esa-Pekka Salonen
2011 - Louis Andriessen

I know why this happened; the Grawemeyer web page lists winners from 2011 backwards and apparently hasn't updated to include Salonen's prize. But that means Q2 didn't notice the gap from 2011 to 2013.

Update: Fixed typo in the 2011 winner's name; h/t Zwölftöner for catching the error. See the comments for other interesting remarks. Also, Q2's story has been corrected on line.

Social Media Stupidity

As I'm sure you have all noticed, not all organizations are clued in about how to use social media effectively. San Francisco Opera has an eye-roller today on its Facebook page: a photo of martial arts great Bruce Lee and the following text:

This day in 1940 Bruce Lee was born. We can't help considering the incomparable martial arts star as part of our opera family. He was born right here in San Francisco while his father--Cantonese opera star Lee Hoi-Chuen--was on tour.

For heaven's sake. Could the connection be more tenuous? 

Tanglewood 2013

I have the BSO's press release for Tanglewood 2013 in hand. More details later this week, but here are a few items of interest.

• Women don't conduct at Tanglewood.
• Women don't appear as soloists, either. Oh wait, there's Anne Sophie von Otter, and there's BSO principal flutist Elizabeth Rowe. And Christine Schaffer. And Erin Wall and Audra MacDonald. Okay, lots of stuff you can't do without women singing!
• Women don't write music that's performed at Tanglewood. The contemporary music festival will focus on five composers, four of whom are living, one of whom is recently deceased, all of whom are male.

Honestly, the long parade of male names is pretty appalling. 

The King of Nerds

Nate Silver, the King of Nerds, came to Nerdistan today; he's signing copies of The Signal and the Noise in the photo above. I wish we'd had an even bigger tech talk room for him, because the room was completely filled and into videoconferencing overflow by 15 minutes before the talk. His book also sold out, though I think there is some way for me to order a discounted copy.

He didn't exactly give a talk; he answered questions from Googlers and from chief economist Hal Varian, who moderated. Nobody asked for Nate's hand in marriage, which surprised me a bit. He discussed bias in polls, and among other things said that Rasumussen's model for making money apparently includes being Republican leaning, while Gallup is just doing things wrong in various ways.  I hope this event will go up on YouTube (probably it will).

Here are a few choice quotations, as best I caught them:

It's an honor for me to be here, because you're just about the smartest company around as far as using data and statistics.

And:

Five thirty eight is about making journalism smarter.

And:

The food in the NY Times cafeteria is not as good as the food in the Google cafeterias.

And:

There was a point where Gingrich looked pike he might be the candidate and that is where he became a pinata for the other candidates. Obama vs Gingrich would not have gotten a better outcome for the Republicans.

He also said at some point that it's problem for the Republicans that they are now the anti-empiricist party.

Rolling Jubilee

Want to help out Americans in need?

Rolling Jubilee buys up debt at debt-collector rates, five cents on the dollar....and then forgives the debt. Even $5 or $10 helps. Take a look and donate what you can.

Isaiah Sheffer

Isaiah Sheffer, founder and guiding light of Symphony Space, died earlier this month; his NY Times obit is here. There's a memorial on December 17, 5-7 p.m. at, yes, Symphony Space.

Symphony Space is home to all sorts of musical performances, and of course the annual reading of Ulysses. In the days before it became positively trendy to perform in unusual locations, Symphony Space must have looked like a huge gamble.

Rest in peace; Symphony Space lives on and prospers, the best possible memorial.

The Dialogue

You can see the responses to the save-classical-music Invitation to a Dialogue in the NY Times here. As I predicted, there is nothing new or unexpected in the responses. I wish that just one person had questioned the whole notion that classical music is dying. Yes, some institutions are in a bad way because of bad management and the recession, but remember: a few years ago, Alex Ross counted 50 new music ensembles in NYC, where in the 1970s there had been 2. 

To the guy who apparently stopped attending classical concerts because of one stupid question from a fellow audience member, come to San Francisco Symphony, where khakis and a polo shirt will make you more formally dressed than about half the audience. If you like the music, buy tickets, ignore the dopes, and enjoy!

So Much to be Thankful For

For my excellent partner and our happy, peaceful, home; our creatures (as horrible as they sometimes are); for work I like and care about at an endlessly fascinating company; for Dan Zan Ryu jujitsu and my students, who are coming to class and don't seem to care that I'm short, fat, and creaky; for those of you who read me and those of you I read; for Patrick for our endlessly interesting and amusing correspondence; for MTT & SFS (and especially the incredibly centenary season); for SF Opera and the great singers who've appeared there; for John Adams and Mark Adamo; for GRRM, P.C. Hodgell, and Hilary Mantel; for Anthony Trollope and Robertson Davies; for Paul Krugman, Nate Silver, Barack Obama (and the team that got the president re-elected); for Janos Gereben and Joshua Kosman; for Carpana Antico, Hendricks, and the Balvanie; for so much more.

Isoldina

H/T Intermezzo for the pointer to this possibly-recognizable tune:



Wouldn't you know? Marc-Andre Hamelin has also recorded Isoldina.

 

JDD in Concert and on Record

Joyce DiDonato is giving a concert tonight at Weill Hall, Green Music Center, Sonoma State University, and how I wish I could be there, given her stellar performance in I Capuleti and her jaw-dropping virtuosity at the Flicka Gala a year ago.

If you can't be there, consider picking up a copy of Drama Queens, a juicy and satisfying CD of arias from sundry Baroque operas, some by composers you've never heard of. She is just wonderful.

Marianne Cherkasskaya

My icon here and there is a Russian soprano named Marianne Cherkasskaya. I got the image from eBay I don't know how many years ago.

Cherkasskaya made some recordings, I've found! Here they are. She's good.

From Ruslan:




 From Queen of Spades: