Museum Mondays

A woman's feet

Effigy, Victoria & Albert Museum

London, November, 2019

Media Round-Up: The Hours, Metropolitan Opera

I am planning to see the HD broadcast of Kevin Puts's new opera, The Hours, which is based on a novel I've never read, a film I've never seen, and Virginia Woolfe's Mrs. Dalloway, which I have read, but not recently. I wasn't originally planning a media round-up, but hoo boy, the reviews are...interesting and more than a little dubious.

• Zachary Woolfe, NY Times ("...nearly every scene in the opera eventually gets to the same place musically and dramatically, whipped into soaring emotion. The tear-jerking gets tiring."
• Justin Davidson, New York Magazine ("Discrete personalities start to liquefy and slosh together, all those gracious lamentations merging in a stream of warm melody.")
• Michael Andor Brodeur, Washington Post ("The Hours" should have made an amazing opera. It didn't.) 
• Christopher Corwin, Parterre Box ("I rarely glance at my watch during an opera, but last night at the Met I did—several times—as The Hours seemed to be going on for hours and hours and…")
• Gabrielle Ferrari, NY Observer
• Alex Ross, The New Yorker ("What the opera lacks, however, is a compositional identity distinct enough to hold its own against the jumpy genius of Woolf’s prose—or, for that matter, against the indelible musical signature of Philip Glass, who scored the film.")

Related: the recently-revived Sieglinde's Diaries takes a few unwarranted potshots at Zachary Woolfe, thinking that he is "trashing" Fleming (he is not) and apparently unaware of three five other published reviews that are less-than-raves about her. The kind words for Tommasini - I mean, let me note that plenty of people consider him a milquetoast reviewer unwilling to express his opinions. You know, he moved his Levine recordings from the living room to his bedroom!

Things to Be Grateful For

There's so much: I'm grateful for my partner Donna; for work I (mostly) like and can do from home; for my excellent work colleagues (even though it was another year with three managers....); for the roof over my head.  For the performance arts organizations without whose work my life would be so much poorer; for Eun Sun Kim and Esa-Pekka Salonen and the circumstances that brought them to SF; for West Edge Opera and Opera Parallel; for San Francisco Opera and San Francisco Symphony; for SFO's continuing mask/vaccination policy. For my many friends, on and off the internet; for Deborah, Patrick, Craig, Joshua, Nan, Georgia, Lois, Lizzy, Lizzie, Liz, Steve S. and Steve H., Kalimac, Janos, Ed, Imani, Alex, Mike, Charlise, Tim M. and Tim P., for Matt and Nancy, for Matt and Janet; for The Well, my online home since the last century; for musicology Twitter; for all of the members of the APA about relationships (my offline home since the last century). And for many folks not specifically named here.

It's been a rough almost-three years of the pandemic; I'm grateful for the scientists, doctors, epidemiologist, biologists, nurses, respiratory therapists, physical therapist, occupational therapists, lab technicians, and others who've done the research to create vaccines and treatments and who've given so much - too much, in too many cases - to keep people alive. There've been too many losses and too many deaths, from COVID and other causes, worldwide and in my life; too many friends are in ill health from one thing or another. Still, I'm a very lucky person.

Friday Photo

Grasses

Mendocino Botanical Gardens

August, 2022

 

Media Round-Up: Gluck's Orpheus in San Francisco

Meigui Zhang and Jakub Józef Orliński in the title roles of Gluck's Orpheus and Eurydice

Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

I'll eventually have more educated opinions than I have now, having seen the livestream but not the live opera. Meanwhile....

• Joshua Kosman, SF Chron
• Joshua Kosman, Don’t spin on your head before singing, and other tips from a break-dancing opera star
• Nicholas Jones, SFCV
• Michael Anthonio, Parterre Box
• Mike Strickland, SF Civic Center
• Opera Tattler
• SF Opera's Orfeo ed Euridice with Anne-Marie MacIntosh
  

Voices of Music

Received from Voices of Music, news of their upcoming concerts:

Join the highly acclaimed San Francisco early music ensemble Voices of Music in December for an evening of beautiful music as they present their signature holiday program of virtuoso concertos, perfectly suited to the season.

Featured soloists Elizabeth Blumenstock, Chloe Kim, YuEun Kim, Kati Kyme, violin; Dominic Favia, baroque trumpet, Marc Schachman, baroque oboe, and Hanneke van Proosdij, recorder, will play works by Bach, Telemann, Vivaldi, and Torelli.

Three performances in the Bay Area:

  

Friday, December 9 at 8pm

St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, 1111 O’Farrell St, San Francisco, 94109

Saturday, December 10 at 7pm

Unitarian Universalist Church, 505 E. Charleston Rd, Palo Alto, 94306

Sunday, December 11 at 7:30pm

First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way, Berkeley, 94704

  

Tickets range from $5 (full-time students) to $58 (adults under 65)

  

Single tickets:

  

Adult $58

Senior/SFEMS/EMA/ARS $53

Full-time students: $5 (please show valid student ID)

  

Season subscriptions: 

  

Adult $155

Senior/SFEMS/EMA/ARS $140

  

For more information and to purchase tickets please go to http://voicesofmusic.org/concerts.html or call 415-377-4444.

  

West Edge Opera 2023

Scottish Rite Temple

Rear of auditorium

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

Summer, 2022

Gosh, I am surprised to see that I never posted anything about West Edge Opera's 2022 operas and the performances. They were all good! Giulio Cesare, Coraline, and, best of all, Dukas's extremely rare Ariane et Barbe-Bleu, with truly powerhouse performances by Renée Rapier as Ariane and Sara Couden as her nurse. I loved Turnage's Coraline, too; a quirky opera based on a quirky book and film.

The 2023 festival was originally announced as the new (commissioned by WEO) opera  Bulrusher, but that has been postponed to 2024. Instead:

• Monteverdi, The Coronation of Poppea (aka L'incoronazione di Poppea)
• Schoenberg, Erwartung and Stravinsky, Le Rossignol
• Martinez, Cruzar la Cara de la Luna

Casts haven't been announced yet. WEO has performed Poppea before, ten or so years back when they were performing in El Cerrito. 

Next year's festival will presumably again be at the Oakland Scottish Rite Temple's cavernous theater, which seats 1200 and where you need to be careful on the stairs.

Museum Mondays

Effigy

Victoria & Albert Museum, London

November, 2019

Ned Rorem

Composer Ned Rorem died earlier today at 99, a few weeks after that birthday. He was a Pulitzer Prize winner, the composer of hundreds of songs, a dozen operas, and many other works. He wrote prolifically about music. He was also, notoriously, the author of tell-all diaries about his life, drinking, and (very gay!) sexual adventures. I read The Paris Diary and The New York Diary decades ago; I expect that I was a lot more shocked than I would be today, and also that I would read them rather differently today.

• Tim Page, Washington Post
• Daniel Lewis, NY Times. (This obituary originally stated that in the 1950s, Rorem met "the composers Francis Poulenc, Darius Milhaud and Erik Satie," which, no, he did not, because Satie died in 1925. I was one of the people who sent in an error report.)
• Dean Olsher, NPR
• Josh Barone, NYTimes 
• Alex Ross
  

Friday Photo

Canada Geese

Arcata Marsh

August, 2022

 

2023 Ader Fellows

War Memorial Opera House & Veterans Building, SF

Hand-colored postcard

Lisa Hirsch Collection

A press release from SF Opera announces the 2023 Adler Fellows. Here they are, with hearty congratulations; I'm most familiar with the work of mezzo-soprano Nikola Printz, whom I've reviewed a couple of times, including their magnificent recital in the spring.

FIRST-YEAR ADLER FELLOWS:

 

Jongwon Han                           
(Seoul, South Korea)

Bass-baritone Jongwon Han began the 2022–23 season with debuts at Dayton Opera in Handel’s Messiah and Palm Beach Opera as Bonze in Madame Butterfly. Han was an Apprentice Artist with Santa Fe Opera. His operatic credits include the title roles of Don Giovanni and Le Nozze di Figaro, Masetto in Don Giovanni, Schaunard in La Bohème, Baron Douphol in La Traviata and Dr. Miracle in Les Contes d’Hoffmann. Having a deep connection to sacred music, Han has been featured in Bach’s Cantata BWV 140, Mozart’sSparrow Mass and Haydn’s Theresienmesse. 

 

Han was a 3rd Prize winner of 2022 Operalia The World Opera Competition and Grand Finalist in the 2021 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, receiving the Pamela Craven Award. His recent accolades include 2022 Houston Grand Opera Eleanor McCollum Competition, 2022 Giulio Gari International Voice Competition, 2022 Loren L. Zachary Vocal Competition, 2021 Gerda Lissner Lieder Competition, 2022 Butler Opera International Competition and 2022 Vero Beach Opera Competition.

 

Han received his bachelor’s degree from Seoul National University and his master’s degree from Mannes School of Music and student at The Juilliard School’s Artistic Diploma Opera Studies program.

 

Yang Lin
(Shanghai, China)

Pianist/Coach Yang Lin was born into an operatic family in Shanghai, China. A frequent and passionate performer of Wagner, he worked closely with renowned dramatic soprano Jane Eaglen for recitals and dramatic voice workshops. He has been praised by Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for his “unfailing accuracy and attention to color and detail that went far to compensate for lack of an orchestra.”

 

In 2022, he worked with Lyric Opera of Kansas City in productions of Amahl and the Night Visitors, La Traviata, Carmen, Tosca and The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs. His other opera credits include Don Giovanni, Die Zauberflöte, The Bartered Bride, La Clemenza di Tito Dinner at Eight, Cendrillon, Hansel and Gretel, Gianni Schicchi, La Bohème, Otello, Lohengrin and Die Fledermaus. He has worked with Cincinnati Opera, Indianapolis Opera, Pittsburgh Festival Opera, Aspen Music Festival, Canadian Vocal Arts Institute, Beijing’s National Center for the Performing Arts and I Sing International You Artist Festival.

 

Lin received his training from Merola Opera Program (2020, 2022), University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, New England Conservatory and Shanghai Conservatory.

 

Nikola Printz 
(Oakland, California)

 

Nikola Printz is an artist whose talents span multiple genres. Recent role debuts include Hannah After (As One) and the modern premiere of Vinci’s Astianatte. In their 2021–22 season they were seen in the titular roles of Carmen and Dido with Opera San José, for which they were praised by Opera News as having “big opulent tone and an easy reach to their high register.” Printz is also a two-time participant of the Merola Opera Program (2020, 2022). Their Schwabacher Recital in March received rave reviews from audiences and critics alike.

 

Recent digital appearances include the award-winning film Behind the Stage Door with Merola Opera Program and Three Romances by Erling Wold, which had its 2022 premiere in the Opera Philadelphia Film Festival. Other role debuts incldue Elle (La Voix Humaine), Orfeo (Orfeo ed Euridice, West Edge Opera), Rosina, Cherubino and Isabella (L’Italiana in Algeri), all with Opera Memphis during their tenure as a Resident Artist from 2016–2018.

 

Printz is an accomplished aerialist, training in static and dance trapeze. They have cultivated several aerial acts sung and performed live with both piano and orchestra, in grand concert halls and smokey cabaret clubs.  

 

Arianna Rodriguez
(Fairfax, Virginia)

Guyanese, Puerto Rican soprano Arianna Rodriguez has been described as “a delight” and a “brilliant soprano delivering her wit and love with flair” (The Eagle Times). She is a Florida District winner and Southeast Regional Finalist with the 2022 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition and a Gerda Lissner Encouragement Award recipient.

 

A 2022 participant of the Merola Opera Program, Rodriguez performed the title role of Amadeo Vives’ Dona Francisquita in the Schwabacher Summer Concert. On the operatic stage, she has been featured as Musetta in La Bohème with Opera North, Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi and Krysia in Jake Heggie’s Out of Darkness Two Remain with Peabody Conservatory. As a concert performer, she has appeared in a staged production of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass and Laura Karpman’s Ask Your Mama.

 

Rodriguez earned a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance from George Mason University and a Master of Music in Voice Perofrmance from Peabody Conservatory.

 

Moisés Salazar
(Santa Ana, California)

Moisés Salazar is a Mexican American tenor known for his rich romantic sound and broad range of vocal color. This season, he returned to Palm Beach Opera as Remendado in Carmen, as well as performing the 1st Armored Man in Die Zauberflöte with Merola Opera Program.

 

During the 2021–22 season, Salazar appeared as Tebaldo in I Capuleti e i Montecchi, both 1st Priest and 1st Armored Man in Die Zauberflöte with Palm Beach Opera.

 

Other operatic roles include Ferrando (Così fan tutte), Señor Alcalde (The Summer King), Lysander (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Borsa (Rigoletto) and Camille (The Merry Widow).

 

Salazar began singing in his family’s mariachi band, Trio Los Salazar, and is presently creating a concert series dedicated to Mexican folk music.

 

 

Olivia Smith

(Penticton, British Columbia, Canada)

 

Canadian soprano Olivia Smith is completing her studies at the Curtis Institute of Music. Current engagements include Governess in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw with the Curtis Opera Theatre and Marguerite in excerpts from Gounod’s Faust with Curtis Symphony Orchestra.

 

Other roles in Smith’s repertoire include Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, Berta in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Cathleen in Vaughan Williams’ Riders to the Sea, First Witch in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and Mrs. Gobineau in Menotti’s The Medium—all with the Curtis Opera Theatre.

 

Smith attended the Merola Opera Program in 2022 where she sang the role of Margarita Xirgu in scenes from Golijov’s Ainadamar. In summer of 2021 she attended Houston Grand Opera’s Young Artist Vocal Academy and in January 2022 participated in HGO’s Eleanor McCollum Competition where she received the Online Viewers Choice and the Ana María Martínez Encouragement Award. Smith won the first place Vanderlaan Prize in Grand Rapids, Michigan and in 2019 was awarded an encouragement grant from the George London Compeition.

 

 

SECOND-YEAR ADLER FELLOWS:

 

Gabrielle Beteag                      
(Atlanta, Georgia)

Gabrielle Beteag is a rising American mezzo-soprano praised for her “choice voice” (OperaWire) and “dramatically vivid” performances (Broadway World). A participant in the 2021 class of the Merola Opera Program, she joined the Adler Fellowship Program in 2022. She recently created the role of Iras for the San Francisco Opera world premiere production of John Adams’ Antony and Cleopatra.

 

During the 2020–21 season Beteag was a Studio Player at the Atlanta Opera, where she performed Mercedes in the Big Tent production of The Threepenny Carmen. Her other role credits include Woman in a Hat/Duchess (Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles), Lady Billows (Albert Herring), Mme. De Croissy (Dialogues des Carmélites) and Secretary (Menotti’s The Consul). 

 

An accomplished competitive singer, Beteag was a Grand Finals Winner of the 2020 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and has received accolades from other competitions, including the Shreveport Opera Mary Jacobs Singer of the Year Competition (Runner Up, 2020), the Opera Birmingham Vocal Competition (Finalist, 2019) and the Kristin Lewis Vocal Scholarship Competition (Grand Prize Winner, 2018).

 

Sponsored by Peggy & Boyce Nute

 

Victor Cardamone
(Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)

Victor Cardamone has garnered much attention and critical acclaim over the last decade. His ”sweet tenor” is equally known for its “power and ringing high notes” (Cincinnati Business Courier). Cardamone has performed with the Merola Opera Program, Cincinnati Opera, Opera Columbus, Wolf Trap Opera and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Leading roles include Ferrando (Così fan tutte), Rinuccio (Gianni Schicchi), Don Ramiro (La Cenerentola), Jeník (The Bartered Bride), Tamino (Die Zauberflöte) and Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni). He has been a member of Opera Fusion: New Works and was part of the first workshops/studio recordings for Matthew Aucoin’s Eurydice (co-commissioned by The Metropolitan Opera and Los Angeles Opera), Scott Davenport Richards’ Blind Injustice and Kevin Puts’ The Hours (co-commissioned by The Metropolitan Opera and the Philadelphia Orchestra).

 

Cardamone is a three-time Central Region Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and was sole recipient of the Regional Encouragement Award in 2017. He is also a three-time Corbett Competition award winner.

 

Cardamone earned his Bachelor of Music in Music Education from Youngstown State University, with a double major in voice and French horn. He completed additional coursework at Ball State University, before earning his Master of Music in Vocal Performance and his Artist Diploma in Opera Studies from the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music.

 

Sponsored by Valerie Crane Dorfman

 

Edward Graves 
(Oxon Hill, Maryland)

Noted by Opera News for his "stunningly sweet tone," tenor Edward Graves joined San Francisco Opera’s Adler Fellowship Program in 2022. His Company appearances include Stone/Eunuch in Bright Sheng and David Henry Hwang’s Dream of the Red Chamber and Gastone in La Traviata. Other recent performances include Policeman 2 in Jeanine Tesori and Tazewell Thompson’s Blue at Detroit Opera and the title role of Judas Maccabaeus with Berkshire Choral International. In 2023 he will make his Spoleto Festival USA debut as Anatol in Vanessa. 

 

As a 2021 participant in the Merola Opera Program, he was featured in a recital entitled What the Heart Desires and a filmed project entitled Back Home: Through the Stage Door. Graves has previously appeared at Michigan Opera Theatre as a Studio Artist in the 2019–20 season where he made his company and role debuts as Rinuccio in a double bill of Puccini's Gianni Schicchi and Michael Ching's Buoso's Ghost.

 

He made his Seattle Opera debut in 2018 as Robbins in Porgy and Bess and appeared at The Glimmerglass Festival as a Young Artist in 2019 as Policeman 2 in the world premiere of Blue and 2017 as Peter in Porgy and Bess and Fred in Oklahoma! In the 2017–18 season, Graves was a Baumgartner Studio Artist at Florentine Opera where he performed roles in The Merry Widow, John Blow’s Venus and Adonis/Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and The Magic Flute​. 

 

Graves is a 2022 San Francisco District winner of the Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition. Graves received his Performer Diploma and Master of Music in Voice Performance from Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music. He received his Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance from Towson University.

 

Sponsored by Karin Eames

 

Mikayla Sager
(Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)

Canadian soprano Mikayla Sager joined the Adler Fellowship Program in 2022. Recently, Sager was awarded the 2022 Maria Manetti Shrem Prize at Festival Napa Valley, where she also performed the role of Giannetta in L’Elisir d’Amore. Last season, she was featured in San Francisco Opera’s Eun Sun Kim Conducts Verdi concert. This fall, Sager was Sister Felicity in the Company’s presentation of Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites. 

 

Originally slated to make her role debut as the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro as a part of Merola Opera Program, Sager performed excerpts from Bellini’s Norma and the Countess in the award-winning film Back Home: Through the Stage Door directed by David Paul.

 

In 2021, Sager was a prize winner of the Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonygne Foundation’s Elizabeth Connell Competition; a District Winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions; a finalist in the Jensen Foundation Vocal Competition, the Tenor Viñas Competition, National Opera Association Competition and Opera Index Competition; a semi-finalist in the Zenith Opera Competition, Annapolis Opera Vocal Comeptition and James Toland Competition and received second place in the Vienna Internanational Music Competition.

 

She has performed the roles of Violetta from La Traviata in concert, Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), Vitellia (La Clemenza di Tito), Micaëla (Carmen), Norina (Don Pasquale) of which Opera Canada said she “brought an edgy intensity to her role [and] augmented her vocal prowess with enviable acting skills,” Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) with Venture Opera and, while at Manhattan School of Music, performed The Fox (The Cunning Little Vixen), Pamina and Second Lady (Die Zauberflöte), Orphée aux Enfers and La Fée (Cendrillon). Further highlights include a performance at David Geffen Hall with the New York Philharmonic and Rossini's Mosè in Egitto with New York City Opera.

 

Sponsored by Anna & Steven Fieler

 

Marika Yasuda
(Williamsburg, Virginia)

Pianist Marika Yasuda is a recent graduate of the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University where she is a doctoral candidate in Collaborative Piano.

 

As a soloist, she has received top prizes at competitions, including the Hellam Young Artists’ Competition, Virginia Waring International Piano Competition and Julia Crane International Piano Competition and was named a winner of the 2015 Oberlin Conservatory Concerto Competition.

 

As a collaborative pianist, Yasuda has worked with opera, vocal and instrumental music organizations throughout the U.S. She was on music staff for San Francisco Opera’s productions of Bright Sheng and David Henry Hwang’s Dream of the Red Chamber and Verdi’s La Traviata this year. Previously, she served as coach accompanist for the Indiana University Opera Theater. Some productions included The Barber of Seville, La Bohème, Gianni Schicchi, West Side Story and Mason Bates’ opera The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs with Santa Fe Opera, Seattle Opera and San Francisco Opera. Other recent engagements include concerts at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Seiji Ozawa Hall, Bennett Gordon Hall and Herbst Theatre. She has held fellowships at Merola Opera Program, Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, Tangelwood Music Center, SongFes and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. During the 2021 Merola Opera Program, she performed in a recital co-curated by mezzo-soprano Ronnita Miller and tenor Nicholas Phan titled What the Heart Desires as well as in Merola’s award-winning film, Back Home: Through the Stage Door, directed by David Paul.

 

Yasuda holds a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance and Vocal Accompaniment from Oberlin Conservatory and a Master of Music degree in Piano Performance from the Jacobs School of Music.

 

Sponsored by Karen J. Kubin

 

 

Three Music Director Appointments

Here are a few appointments that I missed or that are very new:

• In mid-2024, Daniele Gatti will succeed Christian Theilemann at the Staatskappele Dresden. Gatti was dismissed by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in 2018 for reasons of sexual misconduct. Thielemann was not offered a contract renewal by the Staatskappele Dresden. Gatti was unanimously elected new Chief Conductor.
• Ludovic Morlot was been named Principal Conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of Barcelona / National Orchestra of Catalonia. He assumed this position in September.
• Cosette Justo Valdés becomes Music Director for the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, to begin Spring 2023.

Open positions:

• Marin Symphony
• Indianapolis Symphony
• Sarasota Orchestra, following the death of Bramwell Tovey
• Seattle Symphony, following Thomas Dausgaard's abrupt departure in January, 2022
• Chicago Symphony Orchestra, where Riccardo Muti leaves at the end of 2022-23
• Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra: open in 2024
• New York Philharmonic, when Jaap van Zweden leaves in 2024.
• Hong Kong Philharmonic, when Jaap van Zweden leaves in 2024.
• Oakland Symphony, owing to the death of Michael Morgan in August, 2021.
• Teatro Regio Turin: Open now with departure of Gianandrea Noseda. The Teatro Regio has not named a new music director.
• Minnesota Opera: Michael Christie has left. MO has not named a new music director. 
• Virginia Symphony: JoAnn Falletta is now laureate, but no successor has been named.
• Shanghai Symphony Orchestra
• 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): 

• Christian Thielemann
• Osmo Vänskä
• Alasdair Neale (Not currently seeking a new position)
• Ben Simon (Not currently seeking a new position)
• Susanna Mälkki, who leaves the Helsinki Philharmonic at the end of 2023-24
• MGT (apparently does not want a full-time job, as of early 2022)
• Krzysztof Urbański
• Miguel Harth-Bedoya
• Lionel Bringuier
• Sian Edwards
• Ingo Metzmacher
• Jac van Steen
• Mark Wigglesworth
• David Robertson
• Peter Oundjian
• Philippe Auguin
• Kwame Ryan
• Ilan Volkov
• Aleksandr Markovic
• Lothar Koenigs
• Henrik Nanasi
• Philippe Jordan, eventually

And closed:

• San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, with the appointment of Cosette Justo Valdés.
• Staatskapelle Dresden, with the appointment of Daniele Gatti.
• Seoul Philharmonic appoints Jaap van Zweden.
• Royal Opera appoints Jakub Hrůša to succeed Antonio Pappano in September, 2025.
• Garry Walker: now full-time music director of Opera North
• Jun Markl: music director of the Malaysian Philharmonic
• Juanjo Mena: music director of the Cincinnati May Festival
• Eric Jacobsen is the new music director of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra.
• Andrés Orozco-Estrada is now music director of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra (not to be confused with the Vienna Philhamonic).
• James Gaffigan appointed Music Director of the Komische Oper in Berlin, succeeding Henrik Nanasi, who left several years ago. 
• Royal Stockholm Philharmonic: Ryan Bancroft is chief conductor designate. He starts in 2023-24.
• Anja Bihlmaier is the new chief conductor of the Residentie Orchestra, The Hague.
• Dalia Stasevska is the new chief conductor of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra.
• Daniela Candillari named principal conductor of OTSL.
• Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, where Klaus Mäkelä, now their artistic partner, becomes chief conductor in 2027.
• Jonathon Heyward becomes music director of the Baltimore Symphony, succeeding Marin Alsop. Baltimore is not in great shape; they've had terrible management and terrible financial problems, although they've also hired Mark Hanson, who is known to be competent.
• Thomas Søndergård becomes music director of the Minnesota Orchestra, succeeding Osmo Vänskä. (The NY Times can manage the umlauts in Vänskä, but not the diacriticals in Søndergård. C'mon, you can do better than that.) Two interesting things about Søndergård: he was a timpanist, unusual among conductors, who tend to be pianists; he married his partner, a baritone, less than two weeks ago. Me, I'm wondering whether he was worried that Obergefell might be overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, given Justice Thomas's threat in Dobbs.
• Michigan Opera Theater: new principal conductor is Daniela Candillari.
• Teatro Comunale, Bologna: Oksana Lyniv becomes music director.
• Sarasota Orchestra: Bramwell Tovey becomes MD in 2022-23.
• Atlanta Symphony: Nathalie Stutzmann to succeed Robert Spano in 2022-23.
• Carlos Kalmar is now Director of Orchestral and Conducting Programs and Principal Conductor of the Cleveland Institute of Musicas well as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago. 
• Houston Synphony: Juraj Valčuha to succeed Andrés Orozco-Estrada.
• Opera de Paris: Gustavo Dudamel succeeds Philippe Jordan.
• Melbourne Symphony: Jaime Martin becomes chief conductor in 2022. Sir Andrew Davis left at the end of 2019. 
• City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra: Kazuki Yamada replaces MGT when she leaves at the end of 2021-22
• London Symphony Orchestra: Sir Antonio Pappano becomes Chief Conductor Designate in September, 2023, Chief Conductor the following year.
• Fort Worth Symphony: Robert Spano to succeed Miguel Harth-Bedoya.
• Oregon Symphony: David Danzmayr succeeds Carlos Kalmar at the beginning of the 2021-22 season.
• Scottish Chamber Orchestra: Maxim Emelyanychev has succeeded Robin Ticciati
• Orchestre de Paris: Klaus Mäkelä to succeed Daniel Harding
• Montreal Symphony Orchestra: Rafael Payare has succeeded Kent Nagano.
• Richmond Symphony: Valentina Peleggi succeeds Steven Smith.
• Singapore Symphony: Hans Graf succeeded Lan Shui.
• BBC National Orchestra of Wales: Ryan Bancroft succeeded Thomas Søndergård
• BRSO hires Sir Simon Rattle to succeed the late Mariss Jansons, effective 2023.

La Traviata, San Francisco Opera

"La Traviata" Act I set model

Credit: Robert Innes Hopkins

I saw San Francisco Opera's new production of La Traviata on Sunday, November 13, and I am equivocal about what I saw and heard, certainly more so than the other reviewers that I've read. I should note that the opera house was evacuated about ten minutes before curtain time and the performance didn't start until about 2:30 pm. It's possible that the singers were rattled by this and were in better form at the first show, on Friday, Nov. 11.

Let's start with the new production. Overall, the sets are prettier and more spacious, allowing for more on-stage movement, than the John Copley production that has been retired after 35 years. You can see the Act I set model, for Violetta's apartment, above.

The set for Act II, scene 1 is usually an indoor room, but this looks like an outdoor patio or screened porch, somehow wedged between two indoor rooms. I'm scratching my head at the architecture, but as a set it works well, it looks nice, and it's very handsomely lit.

Simone Piazzola as Giorgio Germont and Pretty Yende as Violetta in Verdi's "La Traviata."

Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

Act II, Scene 1

I'm not so sure about the lurid red set for Flora's party in Act II, scene 2. It looks like a stereotypical bordello, but the party is at Flora's residence. The libretto says "a richly furnished and lit room." Well, I guess it is, and maybe this is how the demi-monde lived? You tell me.

Pretty Yende as Violetta in Verdi's "La Traviata."

Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

Act II, Scene 2

None of the press photos shows the whole set.

I do have one problem with the sets: using the same set for I and III looks to me like a money-saver. At the beginning of Act III, it's made clear that Violetta is impoverished; she has almost no money left and of course she has no patron. She cannot possibly be renting the big apartment of Act 1, and most productions set this act in a garret or attic room.

The costumes are a mixed bag. Many of them look to me to be somewhat streamlined versions of real 19th c. French women's clothing. I was surprised to see Violetta with pink carnations decorating her Act I dress, and I suppose I should ask whether this was intentional, to signal ambiguity or something like that. (She usually has white carnations, signaling her sexual availability; if they were red, it would signal "I have my period.") 

Pretty Yende as Violetta in Verdi's "La Traviata."

Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

The women's costumes for Flora's party seemed like caricatures. The gender-bending Spanish dancers and the man in a pink tutu were cute. I have a friend who knows way more than me about historical clothing, but she has moved out of state and won't be seeing this production unless she streams it. Maybe I'll ask her to take a look at these photos and comment on the costumes.

I mostly like Shawna Lucey's direction, which seemed apt and sensible from moment to moment. I'm not so sure about Violetta jumping on one of those couches in a corset, bustle, and long skirt, as a matter of 19th c. deportment as much as for practicality given the undergarments. 

I think I saw an interview where she referred to a specifically feminist reading of the opera. While I think it's nice to see some female solidarity when Alfredo and the Baron are going at it at Flora's party and the women all gather around Violetta, this isn't an obvious candidate for a strongly feminist treatment. It's more about class and the ways that the Germonts need to protect their daughter's reputation than about sexism per se, although of course the men get to have their courtesans without damage to their reputations.

And on to the musical side. The orchestra sounded absolutely gorgeous; beautiful string tone and blending of the woodwinds and brass with the strings. Eun Sun Kim was always supportive of the singers and never came anywhere near swamping them. I liked her tempos, some of which were quite fast ("De' miei bollenti spiriti", for example). I would have liked to hear more flexibility of tempo, though! One small historical example: hear what Franco Ghione, not usually thought of as one of the greatest conductors of Italian opera, does with Violetta's arching phrases in Act II, scene 2. He gives the soprano a lot of space, and it really heightens the pathos of the scene.

I was most impressed with Pretty Yende in the last act. Her reading of the letter and exclamation "E tardi" ("Too late!") were magnificent, just overwhelmingly sad and passionate. She was tremendous throughout the act and honestly looked and sounded as though she was dying. Her duet with Alfredo in that act was also gorgeous (they sounded great in the first act together as well). But the vocal acrobatics of the first act didn't come easily or naturally, and if you can't hit the optional Eb easily, why sing it at all? Yende's voice qua voice is a nice-sounding, but not very distinctive, lyric soprano. Her acting chops are for real, so I'd like to see her in different repertory.

Simone Piazzola was adequate as Giorgio Germont; we've definitely heard better here, with Dmitri Hvrostovsky, Dwayne Croft, and Artur Ruczinski, among others, singing that role in the last 20 years. Piazzola has a sturdy but unvaried baritone with little vibrancy, and when he had to hold a note for more than a beat or two, he went noticeably off pitch. I vaguely thought that he spent a lot of Act II, scene 1 looking at the ground, or the prompter, or the conductor, anywhere but at Violetta and Alfredo, but I was in the dress circle and I'd need confirmation from someone in the orchestra section.

Simone Piazzola as Giorgio Germont and Pretty Yende as Violetta in Verdi's "La Traviata."

Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

See what I mean? Why is he looking at the floor 

instead of at Violetta, who is overcome?

The tenor Jonathan Tetelman, making his house debut (same as Yende and Piazzola, of course), was the most vocally consistent of the three, presenting a passionate and mostly very well sung Alfredo. He was originally trained as a baritone and sometimes sounds as though he is still feeling his way around the upper reaches of his voice, particularly when he's called upon to sing quietly. It's a lovely sound, though, on the dark side and under good control. He and Yende both have old-school flicker vibratos, which is so much more appealing than wide vibratos that verge on the wobbly. He's also tall and handsome, good qualities in a tenor.

Jonathan Tetelman as Alfredo and Pretty Yende as Violetta in Verdi's "La Traviata."

Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

The smaller roles were beautifully sung and acted! Philip Skinner never fails to come through, and he was here an unusually brutish Baron Duphuol. Taylor Raven sounded gorgeous as Flora and Elisa Sunshine was lovely as Annina. Adam Lau was a sonorous Dr. Greville and I'd love to hear him in a bigger role. The chorus sang as alertly and sharply as I can remember and sounded great.

• Joshua Kosman, SF Chronicle
• Jason Victor Serinus, SFCV. That high Eb is optional, and there's just no reason to name-check long dead singers.
• Georgia Rowe, Opera News (paywall)
• Michael Strickland, SF Civic Center.  
• Opera Tattler
• Michael Anthonio, Parterre Box