Out From the “Shadow of the Stars,” a Chorister Emerges in the Spotlight
Tonight, at the conclusion of S.F. Opera’s fall season-closing performance of Aida, the company’s highest honor, the San Francisco Opera Medal, will be presented to Opera Chorus member Jim Meyer, a veteran of 43 years of performances on stage. He will be retiring from the chorus, but will stay on with the company as the Chorus and Dance Manager.
Meyer, a bass, moved to San Francisco in 1972 after vocal studies in New York with Lawrence Stayer and Eleanor Steber. His invitation to audition for the Opera Chorus came in 1974 while he was in his first season with the newly formed San Francisco Symphony Chorus. Besides his work in the chorus, he also had many comprimario roles, such as M. Javelinot (The Dialogues of the Carmelites), a Sailor (Billy Budd), a Gondolier (La Gioconda), and Isaac (Falstaff).
Meyer was a soloist with the Saint Mary’s Cathedral Choir, and a founding member of San Francisco Choral Artists, and continued his vocal studies with James Schwabacher. In 1988, Chorus Director Ian Robertson invited him to create the position of Chorus Manager for San Francisco Opera — the first such position in the United States. Since 1990, he has been both Chorus and Dance Manager.
Among those receiving the Opera Medal in the past: sopranos Leontyne Price and Joan Sutherland, mezzos Frederica von Stade and Susan Graham, tenor Plácido Domingo, baritone Thomas Stewart, conductors Donald Runnicles and Charles Mackerras, director John Copley.
Peninsula Women’s Chorus Opens Gold Anniversary Season
Longevity being just one of the choir’s distinctions, Martín Benvenuto’s Peninsula Women’s Chorus opens its 50th season in style, with an unusual, varied program.
The concerts in Palo Alto’s St. Mark’s Episcopal Church on Dec. 17, and in Mission Santa Clara on Dec. 18, will feature Latvian composer Eriks Ešenvalds’ Stars, Ernst Bacon’s Winter Afternoons, Michael Haydn’s Missa Sancti Aloysii (with the Jubilate Baroque Orchestra), Ron Jeffers’ Whitman Credo, and Dale Trumbore’s Flare, among others. The program concludes with PWC’s traditional holiday sing-along, and Biebl’s Ave Maria.
Further in the season and celebrating the important anniversary, PWC will hold its gala fundraising concert on March 5, in Santa Clara’s Triton Museum of Art. Featuring works by Kirke Mechem, Joan Szymko, Michael Bojesen, the event will also provide a preview of an anniversary commission by Eric Tuan and Mechem — called the “dean of American choral composers” — is expected to share stories about his rich history with the chorus and his thoughts on the American choral scene.
The chorus, which has commissioned 35 new works and released seven CD recordings over the last 10 years, is also preparing for a special weekend program, April 28–30. To be held at Mission Santa Clara under the name of “True North,” the event will include joint rehearsals for alumnae and current singers, a dinner party, and other activities, culminating in a Sunday afternoon concert at Mission Santa Clara. On the program there: Schubert’s Psalm 23, the “Song of Survival” repertoire, works by Kathleen McGuire, Cecilia McDowall, and Ron Jeffers (“Jabberwocky”) will join several new PWC commissions.
Saariaho’s L’Amour de Loin Coming to Your Local Movie Theater
Kaija Saariaho’s L’Amour de Loin (Love from Afar) has its Metropolitan Opera premiere run, the first work by a woman composer at the Met since 1903. (Ethel M. Smyth’s Der Wald was the first and only until now.) It features the Met debut of Susanna Mälkki on the podium. Rave reviews clash with a few negative ones, but the event and the work are of obvious importance in the musical world.
Now, thanks to the ongoing Live in HD Met program, L’Amour de Loin can be seen and heard in theaters everywhere, including an increasing number of venues in San Francisco and the Bay Area. The live transmission begins at 9:55 a.m. (ouch!) Pacific Time, on Saturday, Dec. 10. For ticket information, follow http://www.metopera.org/Season/In-Cinemas/Theater-Finder/ to the theater of your choice and then use the website for purchase.
Robert Lepage’s staging, which uses thousands of LED lights to create the sea that separates the opera’s distant lovers, is a coproduction with L’Opéra de Québec, where it premiered to acclaim in the summer of 2015. Susanna Phillips stars as Clémence, the Countess of Tripoli, opposite Eric Owens as Jaufré Rudel, a troubadour on a quest to find his perfect love, and Tamara Mumford as the Pilgrim who carries messages back and forth between them.
The Music of the (S.F. Playhouse) Night
As usual, San Francisco Playhouse is doing something unusual. Co-founders Bill English and Susi Damilano of the small-but-mighty company are presenting a virtually through-composed musical that has very little spoken dialog, with a small live band seated on balconies of the grand set, and a big, excellent cast singing splendidly, even though most of them are actors, not singers.
The Jerry Bock-Sheldon Harnick She Loves Me uses the same source — Hungarian author Miklós László’s Parfumerie — that also inspired The Shop Around the Corner, In the Good Old Summertime, and You’ve Got Mail. In the Playhouse presentation, it’s a darker, more substantial work. Closer to the original than in the other versions, the musical has the lovers-in-correspondence/enemies-in-reality work together in a stressful environment, rather than heading competing businesses, which gives the story a different twist.
English — the company’s artistic director and co-designer of the spectacular, revolving set — opens his program notes with a chilling comparison between Hungary in 1937 and fears about the U.S. 80 years later, but concludes on a more positive note:
We are proud to present this tuneful holiday confection whose glittering surface hides the truth of a society at war with itself. Hopeful that its Hungarian factions can find love. If they can find a way to talk to each other, She Loves Me gives us hope too that our own splintered American can find language to help us heal.
Damilano, the company’s producing director and stage director for the musical, pulled together actors, singers, musicians, and dancers into a marvelous production. Bock’s music is simple but effective, a great deal of it is parlando — in the manner of speech —so the actors can handle the score well.
More is required for leading roles such as Amalia (the Meg Ryan character in the film) and her friend Ilona, and here, “company songbird” Monique Hafen and Nanci Zoppi, respectively, meet higher requirements on the order of a Viennese operetta. Hafen performs memorably in “No More Candy,” “Will He Like Me,” “Dear Friend,” “Vanilla Ice Cream,” in a duet with Zoppi, and the Finale ensemble.
Sitting in one balcony that’s part of the stage-right set, music director David Aaron Brown plays keyboard and conducts across the set, to balconies seating virtuoso musicians: violinist Lucas Gayda, Audrey Jackson (woodwinds), Justin Smith (trumpet and flugelhorn), and Chris Maneri (drums). In solos, ensembles, and accompanying the singers, the band played with consistent excellence. The only concern was with the sound: singers and instrumentalists sounded at least “enhanced,” perhaps amplified. Against the Playhouse’s commendable past policy of using only natural sound, I wonder what was going on at the Sunday matinee I heard.
In Brief: New Honor (and $10K) for Adler Fellow Edris; Holiday Gala at Kohl Mansion; S.F. Ballet Nutcracker Casting Hiding in Plain Sight
New Honor (and $10K) for Adler Fellow Edris
After the S.F. Opera Adler Fellows concert Friday evening, after the party and celebration, after — maybe — some sleep, Amina Edris took off for Palm Springs where she completed her busy weekend by winning the $10,000 first prize in the prestigious 33rd-Annual Competition and Rossini Awards. The Egyptian-born New Zealander is not only the wife of Adler Fellow Pene Pati, but also the sister-in-law of Amitai Pati, incoming member of the 2017 Adler Program. “It’s a Small World, After All.”
Holiday Gala Returns to Music at Kohl Mansion
Environment, architecture, art, and charm combine for Music at Kohl’s annual holiday gala on Dec. 18, this time featuring the Aulos Ensemble with soprano Julianne Baird in a program called “A Baroque Holiday.”
The concert includes music by Michel Corrette, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Alessandro Scarlatti, François Couperin, and Johann Sebastian Bach, with traditional carols of the season. The event benefits Kohl’s for Kids programs, serving more than 7,500 youths annually.
S.F. Ballet Nutcracker Casting Hiding in Plain Sight
Now that the San Francisco Ballet’s “Nutcracker engine” is revving up — 33 performances in the 3,200-seat War Memorial, expected to sell out even at $427 for orchestra seats — and the entire cast is hard at work, questions have come up about who is dancing major roles at specific shows. SFB has been providing the answer, but in a strangely complicated way:
“To view casting, please visit sfballet.org/nutcracker and scroll down to where it says “CASTING” next to a photo of Principal Dancer Sarah Van Patten. Then, click on the arrow in the white circle. We will have more casting up shortly, so be sure to check back frequently.”
SFCV just learned that the SFB is now providing a simpler way to get there. Just go to sfballet.org/casting and all will be revealed.