Artist's rendering of the Wilsey Center Theater in the War Memorial Building
San Francisco Opera General Director David Gockley announced at the company's annual meeting last week, and wrote in a letter to subscribers and donors, that the company is planning future productions of Bellini's Norma, Carlisle Floyd's Susannah, Berlioz' Les Troyens, Richard Strauss' Elektra, Janáček's Jenufa, Wagner's Meistersinger, Handel's Partenope, and Verdi's Don Carlo.
He mentioned numerous San Francisco favorites and highly regarded newcomers to be engaged: Sondra Radvanovsky, Thomas Hampson, Krassimira Stoyanova, Dolora Zajick, Susan Graham, Bryan Hymel, Karita Mattila, Liudmyla Monastryska, Roberto Alagna, Leah Crocetto, Gerald Finley, Brandon Jovanovich, "and a host of others."
Donor Dede Wilsey, with David Gockley
There is also more news about the planned Wilsey Center in the War Memorial Veterans Building, with its 300-seat theater. Gockley showed a rendering of the theater, and spoke of its use for works that couldn't fill the Opera House, but fit this venue well. His examples included Handel’s Amadigi, Monteverdi’s Orfeo, Glass’ Fall of the House of Usher, Britten’s Turn of the Screw, Stravinsky’s A Soldier’s Tale, Adés’ Powder Her Face, Catán’s Rappaccini’s Daughter, and others.
Besides the theater, Wilsey Center's important assets include more than 33,000 sq. ft. of vaulted galleries and 10,000 sq. ft. of basement storage, enabling the Opera to move rehearsal halls, costume shop and storage, administrative offices, a public archive, and a company canteen, and more.
Meanwhile, Jeff Dunn reports from last Monday's "Plan a Season" course on March 11, moderated by Kip Cranna, director of music administration, in the Opera Chorus Room:
Some 60 gathered to hear a brief discussion of factors influencing season programming, then the group was invited to workshop season development. Broken into about 10 subgroups, we were given spreadsheets listing 34 operas by category, with points (not dollars) estimating six categories of cost and anticipated income for each.
What it takes to put a season together
we were to assemble a season of eight operas with a total cost of 4500 or fewer points and an income of no less than 2000 points. We had to do one opera at least from these categories: French, German, Modern, Mozart, Puccini, Verdi, and two "wild card" operas from this list: Ariodante, Barber of Seville, Boris Godunov, Elixir of Love, Queen of Spades, and a world premiere.
We also had to include in our list at least two "Grade AA" operas from this list: Carmen, Magic Flute, La Boheme, Tosca, Turandot, Aida, Rigoletto, and The Barber of Seville. After 40 minutes of wrangling, each subgroup presented their season.
Since we had to pick from a given list, there was no opportunity to propose anything creative. The best I could do was persuade my group to do a "world premiere" consisting of a new one-act opera, followed by Gianni Schicchi (to raise enough income). The result was that all the groups came up with boring seasons that met budgetary requirements.
At the end, Cranna reported to us that the "points" estimated for the current season were 4,500, plus 2,000 "administrative" costs. The 6,500 was paid by 2,000 in ticket sales, 1,000 in endowment, and 3,500 in donations. With a little research, I'm sure someone could come up with how many dollars there are per point.
