Silent Night Comes to San José - in February
Although Silent Night recounts the historic day of peace in 1914 when Scottish, French, and German soldiers created an unofficial ceasefire, a Christmas Eve truce, there is much more to it: war and peace, slaughter in the trenches of World War I and hope for a better world than one of armed conflicts.
Composer Kevin Puts and librettist Mark Campbell, who won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Silent Night, will join Opera San José for the opening of the first production here, on Feb. 11. The day before, there will be a series of events dealing with the opera. The new sets, props, costumes, and projections are being created by the company.
The libretto uses English, French, German, Italian, and Latin, and all will be translated into English supertitles. Michael Shell is stage director; company Music Director Joseph Marcheso conducts.
Soprano Julie Adams will make her Opera San José debut appearing as Anna Sorensen, tenor Kirk Dougherty will sing the role of Nikolaus Sprink, a German opera singer, baritone Brian James Myer will appear as Ponchel, the aide-de-camp to Lt. Audebert of the French army. Baritone Matthew Hanscom will sing the role of Lt. Gordon of the Scottish army, and bass-baritone Colin Ramsey will appear as Father Palmer of the Scottish army.
General Director Larry Hancock will present a free, 45-minute talk to ticket holders about the opera at the California Theater before each performance of Silent Night.
Of Vikings They Sing at Humanities West
The next program offered by Humanities West, on Feb. 24-25, in the Marines Memorial Theater, is called “Wanderlust: Viking Raiders, Traders, Neighbors.” Besides examining history, from the sacking of Lindisfarne Abbey in 793 until the end of the 11th century, when voyaging Scandinavian traders and warriors played a decisive role in the formation of European culture, the series also focuses on the art and music of the fearless travelers who explored lands from Newfoundland to Russia, from Portugal to Byzantium, Bagdad, and Sicily.
The Friday evening session is a lecture-performance of Norse myth, poetry, and music, with an extensive panel discussion. Fred Astren (Jewish Studies, SFSU) introduces the program with “Viking Journeys to the East,” offering a look at the Viking culture through the lens of Mediterranean Studies. Patrick Hunt (Humanities & Archaeology, Stanford) follows with “Viking Legacies,” providing an overview of Viking contributions to European cultural life and language derived from archeological findings.
Focus on music includes “Norse Myth, Poetry, Music,” by early music specialist Tim Rayborn. His lecture/demonstration delves into the ancient spiritual and cultural traditions of Northern Europe, presenting both reconstructed works and surviving musical fragments from the Viking Age, featuring voice, Saami drum, deerskin rattle, Baltic overtone flute, Nordic lyre, and bone flute.
The Vikings, Rayborn says, were far more than barbarians and marauders. They were traders, explorers, poets, and masters of sailing. Their literature is remarkable; the Icelandic Sagas are prototypes of the European novel, and the Poetic Edda contains masterpieces of alliterative poetry.
Their cosmology was as rich as those of the Greeks or Egyptians, and as explorers they were unmatched, traveling from Scandinavia to as far as North America and Baghdad. This program includes excerpts from the Edda and the Sagas, among other works, and offers both early medieval and traditional melodies from areas as diverse as Iceland, Norway, Shetland, and more.
An acclaimed multi-instrumentalist, Rayborn plays dozens of musical instruments from medieval Europe, the Middle East, and the Balkans. He has recorded on more than 40 CDs for labels including Gaudeamus, Wild Boar, EMP, Magnatune, and Harmonia Mundi. He earned his Ph.D. in medieval studies at the University of Leeds, while working as a musician, and has since toured around the world, participating in major music festivals. He is the author of several books, with topics including the crusades, the medieval friars, and early 20th-century English music.
San Francisco’s “Chinese Opera” to Be Staged in Hong Kong
“Dream of the Red Chamber – the popular 18th-century Chinese literary classic written by Cao Xueqin – has been told and retold through so many media and art forms that any trip down this well-trodden path risks banality and predictability,” says an article in today’s South China Morning Post.
“But that has not stopped the San Francisco Opera from adapting this romantic, political tale, which follows the fortunes of several aristocratic families in Qing dynasty China. For its general director, David Gockley, it’s high time Western audiences get to know this masterpiece. No expense was spared in forming a dream team of artistic collaborators and star singers, or in crafting elaborate sets and costumes.”
As originally planned, the co-commission with Hong Kong Arts Festival is making its way, first to Hong Kong for March 17 and 18 performances in the Cultural Centre Grand Theatre, and -- if negotiations go well -- to Shanghai or Beijing in the future. The Hong Kong newspaper article continues:
The sets for Dream of the Red Chamber are lavish. Hence all the weighty names attached to the project, including librettist David Henry Hwang, director Stan Lai, composer Bright Sheng and designer Tim Yip. The guidelines that Gockley set out for composers may be the key to his success at getting new operas successfully produced. He says, 'What I have tried to do with composers, including Bright Sheng, is to get them to write in a neo-romantic musical style that the public will embrace right from the start, without having to take university courses.'
Crowden School’s Own Starring at Benefit
Lucky Crowden School! It has so many famous alums and big names (John Adams, for example, sent his children there) that it can always rely on them to bring in audiences for its benefit concerts.
The tradition continues Jan. 31, when the Crowden Winter Benefit features cellist David Requiro (Class of 1999), who will perform with Crowden faculty member, pianist Jeffrey LaDeur in a program of Mendelssohn, Janácek, Strauss, and Chopin.
S.F. Conservatory of Music’s Ulloa Teaches in New Zealand
“Acclaimed voice tutor Cesar Ulloa believes music is a powerful force that can soothe, excite, delight and delve into the listener’s memory banks,” writes Lin Ferguson in New Zealand’s Whanganui Chronicle.
The occasion for the article, about Ulloa -- a famous voice coach and chair of the S.F. Conservatory’s Voice Department -- is his current turn as an international tutor at the New Zealand Opera School at Collegiate School in Whanganui. He is soon heading back to San Francisco to work with singers at the Conservatory, at the S.F. Opera, and the Merola Program.
Bieito, Forza del Destino Fall Victim to Met Budget Woes
“Calixto Bieito, the daring Catalan theater and opera director, will make his Metropolitan Opera debut in the 2017-18 season, with a new production of Verdi’s La Forza del Destino,” reported The New York Times a couple of years ago. Meanwhile, San Francisco Opera's David Gockley assured his company's scoop of Bieito's U.S. debut last year with Carmen.
Alas for the Met debut: it’s not to be. General Manager Peter Gelb, dealing with the company’s $300 million budget, last week announced the cancelation of Forza, saying it will save about $1 million. “It’s obviously something that I’m not happy to be doing,” Gelb said, but the (still balanced) budget “needs to come down given the state of earned revenue.”