Merola Year Starts with a Big Boost
Merola Opera Program’s 55th season opens with announcements of bequests totaling $3.5 million from the Jack H. Lund Charitable Trust and the Blanche Thebom Trust. Lund was a native San Franciscan supporter of the arts whose trust fund was established in 2000, especially dedicated to the training of young musicians. World-renowned mezzo-soprano Thebom was a longtime supporter of Merola and in recent years sponsored several program young singers. The Merola season will feature fully staged performances of Dominick Argento’s Postcard From Morocco (July 19, 21), and Mozart’s La finta giardiniera (Aug. 2, 4), both in the Cowell Theater. The season also includes the annual Schwabacher Summer Concert in Herbst Theatre (July 5) and at a free performance in Yerba Buena Gardens (July 7), in addition to the traditional Merola Grand Finale (Aug. 18) on stage of the War Memorial Opera House.
Tchaikovsky to the Fore at S.F. Ballet
San Francisco Ballet’s 2012 season, opening Jan. 27, with John Cranko’s Onegin (“with passionate music by Tchaikovsky”), is suffused with great music, an aspect often obscured by all the “visual diversions” on stage. Still, dance is “music in motion,” so let’s focus on that vital element filling the Opera House for the next three months. The full-length Cranko work is set to music by Tchaikovsky as arranged by Kurt-Heinz Stolze, but it is not from the opera Eugene Onegin, surprisingly to some, logically to SFCV colleague Lisa Hirsch, who says:
- - Ballet and opera have different overall pacing requirements
- Not all operatic music is appropriate for dancing
- The choreographer didn’t want people sitting there wondering where the voices are
- The ballet is directly based on the Pushkin story, rather than on Tchaikovsky’s version
OK, fair enough, but I regret every time I am robbed of hearing again one of my favorite operas. In the event, S.F. Ballet Music Director Martin West says: The music for Onegin is a compilation and arrangement of many themes and pieces by Tchaikovsky. Most are orchestrated piano pieces; a chunk at the end does a bit of Francesca da Rimini, but is interspersed with other music and is nowhere near all of it. No music from the opera appears.Francesca da Rimini, Tchaikovsky’s “Symphonic Fantasia after Dante” will pop up again later in the season, serving as the music for the Yuri Possokhov premiere piece of the same name. Opera fans might have suggested Zandonai’s or Rachmaninov’s work instead of the overplayed Tchaikovsky, but that’s how it goes.The best description I can think of is ‘freely arranged and adapted,’ as the themes are used just however and whenever the story needs them, and keys and orchestrations are often changed significantly.
Tchaikovsky has been, is, and will continue to be a reliable (and royalty-free) supplier of fine material, coming up again later in the season, with Souvenir de Florence, Op. 70, for Helgi Tomasson’s ballet Trio.
Just a few picks among more unusual musical fare:
- Michael Torke’s Ash, for Christopher Wheeldon’s Number Nine, and Martinů’s Concerto for Harpsichord and Chamber Orchestra, for a new Mark Morris work, in Program 2, Feb. 14–25
- Karl Jenkins’ String Quartet No. 2, Largo from Palladio for Tomasson’s The Fifth Season, and Philip Glass’ Glass Pieces, choreography by Jerome Robbins, and Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances, for a new work by Edvaard Liang, on Program 5, March 21–April 1
- Shinji Eshima’s music composed for Possokhov’s RAkU and John Adams’ Guide to Strange Places for a new work by Ashley Page on Program 6, March 23–April 3
New Executive Director for Philharmonia Baroque
Succeeding Peter Pastreich, who retired on Dec. 31, Michael Costa is Philharmonia Baroque’s new executive director. Board President Paul Sugarman announced the appointment from the ranks of the organization: Costa has been serving as Philharmonia’s general manager. Costa himself said:For the past two years, I’ve had the enormous pleasure of working alongside my mentor, Peter Pastreich, in service to Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. When I graduated from the League of American Orchestra’s Essentials of Orchestra Management Seminar, little did I know that I would have the opportunity to work under the director of the course and that I would one day succeed him.McGegan greeted the appointment by saying: “After an extensive search, we found the ideal candidate within our own ranks. Michael has an incredible work ethic, huge respect for our musicians, and a passion for period instrument performance.”I am honored to take on this new leadership role with Philharmonia Baroque and look forward to continuing to work with Nicholas McGegan and our talented musicians; Bruce Lamott and our renowned Chorale; Paul Sugarman and the entire Board of Directors; and my fellow colleagues on our dedicated administrative staff.
Costa has studied voice and piano and participated in several amateur choral groups. He currently serves on the board of Clerestory, a Bay Area all-male vocal ensemble.
Ensemble Parallèle Going Places — and Invites Audiences
Nicole Paiement’s Ensemble Parallèle has just received the National Opera Association’s first-prize award for its production last year of Philip Glass’ Orphée. The company is celebrating by inviting the public for a free preview and a staging rehearsal of its next operatic venture. That’s the world premiere of Jacques Desjardins’ chamber orchestration of John Harbison’s opera The Great Gatsby, a co-commission with the Aspen Music Festival, due in Yerba Buena Center’s Novellus Theater, Feb. 10–12. The Harbison work was originally commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera and premiered there in 1999, with subsequent performances at the Lyric Opera in Chicago.
The free preview is taking place at 6 p.m., Jan. 17, in the S.F. Conservatory of Music’s Sol Joseph Recital Hall. The event includes brief presentations by Paiement and production designer Brian Staufenbiel, followed by musical excerpts sung by all seven leading cast members: Marco Panuccio (Gatsby), Jason Detwiler (Nick Carraway), Susannah Biller (Daisy Buchanan), Dan Snyder (Tom Buchanan), Bojan Knezevic (George Wilson), Erin Neff (Myrtle Wilson), and Julienne Walker (Jordan Baker).
Another free event is a Feb. 3 a staging rehearsal of The Great Gatsby, beginning at 4:30 p.m., in the Kanbar Performing Arts Center, at 44 Page Street.
Ensemble Parallèle has presented 125 performances, including 28 world premieres; released 12 recordings; and commissioned 19 new works. The nonprofit 501(c)(3) arts institution is holding a fund-raising raffle with the grand prize of a trip for two to Gatsby’s New York City.
Rapido! Cash Prizes to Composers
You have 14 days to compose a short new work for a specific ensemble of instruments — and may get your share of $15,000 in cash prizes.
This is the third round of Rapido!, a national competition offering an opportunity to composers from all walks of life.
San Francisco’s Left Coast Chamber Ensemble is joining Voices of Change, from Dallas; Atlanta Chamber Players; Boston Musica Viva; and Chicago’s Fifth House Ensemble for the next contest cycle.
The schedule: registration in April–May, with a 14-day composition period that begins in June.
See previous preliminary and final rounds; composer interviews.
Hart to Play GG Bridge
As the Golden Gate Bridge is about to turn 75, plans for the celebration include a Grateful Dead veteran, the multitalented and experimenting percussionist Mickey Hart’s “sonification” of the bridge as a “giant wind harp.” As Hart told the S.F. Chronicle’s Leah Garchik, he is to use the wave forms, the sounds of the bridge moving, captured inside and out of the structure, mixing the sounds with drummers playing along in “musical conversation.” Hart and the project have a history:
In the late ’60s/early ’70s, recalls the drummer, authorities twice dragged him away — ‘unceremoniously escorted off, the second time in cuffs’ he says — when he attempted to record bridge sounds. Forty years later, the hippie having become an icon, he’s been working with officials on fulfilling his original dream. ‘It’s a great way to celebrate its birth,’ he said, ‘to let people hear what it sounds like. ... The bridge is going to sing its song.’
NEA, Arts in Education Decreased in FY12 Funding Bill
President Obama signed a consolidated federal funding bill at the end of the year, allocating $146 million for the National Endowment for the Arts, and $24.5 million for the Arts in Education program within the U.S. Department of Education.The NEA allocation represents an $8.7 million decrease compared to the previous year. In anticipation of a decrease this year, the NEA, which is halfway through its FY12 grant cycle, has reduced the total amount of grant disbursement. Further changes for FY13 grants and beyond are expected to be announced shortly. Arts in Education suffered a $3 million loss.
Busy, Busy James Gaffigan
James Gaffigan, much chronicled here during his young days as San Francisco Symphony associate conductor, has been building quite a career in Europe, and he is now returning to the U.S. with a dizzying schedule. He will lead nine major orchestras, including debuts with the Atlanta Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Last summer, Gaffigan assumed positions as chief conductor of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra and principal guest conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra.
In 2011, in addition to 10 weeks with the Lucerne orchestra and four weeks in the Netherlands with the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Gaffigan made his debut with the Czech, London, and Dresden philharmonic orchestras, and with the Vienna State Opera where he led performances of La bohème.
His first North American concert of the season will be a return engagement with the National Symphony (Jan. 19–21), followed by concerts with the Toronto Symphony (Jan. 25–28). In February he conducts the Minnesota Orchestra (Feb. 9–11) before returning to Baltimore to lead the Baltimore Symphony on Feb. 16–17 and then will make his debut conducting the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra on Feb. 23 and 25.
In March 2012, Gaffigan makes his debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra (March 8–10) and with the Los Angeles Philharmonic (March 30–April 1), then leading performances of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (April 6–7) and the Dallas Symphony (April 12–15), before returning to Europe to conduct La cenerentola at the Glyndebourne Festival.
Gaffigan currently resides in Lucerne with his wife, Lee Taylor Gaffigan, and his daughter, Sofia.
Clarinet Is the Star at Left Coast Concerts
Left Coast Chamber Ensemble concerts in Mill Valley (Jan. 19) and the S.F. War Memorial Green Room (Jan. 23) will feature the clarinet. The program includes Sean Friar’s Velvet Hammer; Eric Zivian’s Trio for clarinet, cello, and piano; Stephen Hartke’s Horse With the Lavender Eye, for clarinet, violin, and piano; and Brahms’ Sonata for Clarinet and Piano in F Minor, Op. 120, No.1.
Artistic Director Anna Presler says of Hartke’s Horse, which she is performing with Eric Zivian and Jerome Simas:
It is unusually picturesque music, very persuasive. I especially like the third movement, ‘Waltzing at the Abyss,’ in which the waltzer does come perilously close to the edge, seems to glance over, and whirl back, and the second, ‘Servant of Two Masters.’ In this, the ‘trick’ is setting the triplet melody in the violin against movement in fours in the clarinet, and forcing the piano to try to attend to each of us in succession.It is fun to play and to hear. The first movement has an elaborate inspiration in Japanese courtly life, which seems appropriate for the prelude-ish section that it is, and a funny quirk. The instrumentalists play with only the left hand. For the last movement, more involved musically than the first, we are instructed to ‘Cancel my Rhumba Lesson.’ Here, the clarinet and violin make lots of cool rhythmic off-kilter textures at different dynamic levels until the piano squeals off the road into rhythmic tangents that involve wildly irrational rhythms.
Finally we play a quite beautiful melody that gives the impression of being improvised as well. Hartke has described the inspiration from history, literature. and art for the piece.
Palmer Returns to Conduct Machine
Former San Francisco Lyric Opera Music Director Barnaby Palmer returns to the Bay Area to conduct the premiere of an opera at the Oakland venue called The Crucible.The opera, Machine, by Clark Suprynowicz and directed by Mark Streshinsky, runs Jan. 11–14 and 18–21. It features pyrotechnics, along with glass and bronze pours, all built around a set designed by Jean-Francois Revon. Soloists are Eugene Brancoveanu, Valentina Osinski, Joe Meyers, Ann-Kathryn Olsen, Dawn McCarthy, and Alexis Lane Jensen.
Opera and Ballet at the Movies
Special HD events this month at the Balboa Theater: - Jan. 14–16 at 10 a.m., Jan. 18 at 7:30 p.m.: Don Giovanni from La Scala, with Anna Netrebko, Bryn Terfel, and Peter Mattei
- Jan. 21-22 at 10 a.m., Jan. 25 at 7:30 p.m.: Caligula from the Paris Opera Ballet, choreographed by Nicolas Le Riche
- Jan. 28–29 at 10 a.m., Feb. 1 at 7:30 p.m.: Cendrillon from the Royal Opera House, with Joyce DiDonato, Eglise Gutiérrez, and Alice Coote
Not quite at those lofty heights, but certainly of entertainment value, is the Balboa’s offer of watching the Golden Globes telecast in the theater on Jan. 15, beginning with the Red Carpet preshow at 3 p.m. and the real thing from 5 p.m. on. With HD screening and Dolby stereo through the theater’s Meyer Sound system, admission is only $5.
'Home Team' in Berlin
San Francisco Opera Music Director Nicola Luisotti ended 2011 by leading the Berlin Philharmonic in acclaimed concerts of Debussy’s Syrinx (with Emmanuel Pahud, flute), Poulenc’s Gloria (with Merola/Adler alumna soprano Leah Crocetto), Berio’s Sequenza I for Flute, and Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5.Luisotti says he programmed the concert with works “both modern and understandable: the supreme discipline for composers of the 20th century.”