The Bay Buzz

A Chat with Glass

2007-10-04T19:52:00.000-07:00

In anticipation of the world premiere of Appomattox at the San Francisco Opera tomorrow, I had the great pleasure to talking to Philip Glass a few weeks ago. For a great iconic figure of the late 20th century, Mr. Glass is remarkably down to earth and easy to talk to. Our chat was a little scattered, but I can attest that it was a very enjoyable experience chatting with him, in advance of the premiere of his new opera.

Here's the Q&A:

- Mr. Glass, thank you very much for taking my call.

Philip Glass: Yes, you're welcome. I’m sorry I was late when you called earlier.

- That’s quite all right. So you are getting ready to come out here in the Bay Area and camp out for the whole month, then?

PG: I’ll be in and out. I’ll be in for final week of rehearsals and the final week of performances.

- Reading the production materials for Appomattox, it feels that your treatment of this opera will be a lot more traditional, compared to, say Einstein on the Beach, or Satyagraha. I mean, the narrative seems to be more linear, leading to a well defined climax. So are you getting "soft" on us, and going to show us your first 19th century-style grand opera?

PG: Oh boy! [laughs] I didn’t think you would ask that question!

- I’ll withdraw the question if you’d prefer!

PG: No, but really, it is going to be a very confrontational piece. I think that you’ll find some elements of it will be quite difficult for some people. I don’t want to talk a lot about it, because I think people should come and see the piece. As I got involved in it, the piece began growing up into the present. The idea was – what was happening to the country at the time of the surrender? We have to remember that the Civil War was a momentous, huge event in the history of our country. The issues that were raised by the Civil War, by the people that participated at that time, are issues that are very much alive today. Issues that were never resolved. On the good side, we are still engaged in resolving these issues. That is one of the great things about our country, that we haven’t shied away from the issues. We embraced the difficulties as we tried to find solutions. We had some measures of success and some not.

- Of course, the country is currently at war. Why this opera now in particular?

PG: That is an interesting question. Myself, I started out by being interested in the two men, Grant and Lee. The popular idea is that Lee was a great man and Grant was less so, which is absolutely not true. One of the great autobiographies of all time was written by Grant. He was a man of tremendous moral character and vision. And so was Lee. Here were two men, leading the armies of the north and the south, the likes of which do not exist in the world today. There are no people in public life today, leading countries or states or cities on the level of Lee ad Grant. So I got interested on the character of these men. For example, at the end of the war, some of Lee’s generals wanted him to start a guerilla war, saying they could run into the hills and hold out for another ten years there. And Lee said, “ no, the war is over.” He told them to go home now and start a new life. The same way, Grant went back north and people told him, “let’s bring that guy Lee here and try him for treason,” and he also said “no, the war is over.” So those men were able to start and stop a war, something that no one in our present days seems to know how to do. We have our countries run by politicians, not by statesmen. This is a study of character, of people who have the moral stamina and vision to lead a country. That’s one thing. The second thing are the issues of the Civil War. These are the issues that are very much at the heart of social change in our country today: states rights, racism. Whatever you want to call it, the things that were discussed in the 1860s were happening again in the 1960s, and never stopped being relevant, because they were never resolved.

- I know that you don’t want to give too much of the opera away, but can you give us a bit of a preview of the music.

PG: Would be happy to. I did something a little unusual this time. There was a lot of music going on during the Civil War, that had colloquial roots. There was a song by the Arkansas First Brigade, which was a black division that fought for the north. There was a ballad by Jamie Lee Johnson, who was a civil right activist in the 1960s. There is a song from the Old Testament, that was sung during Lincoln’s visit to Richmond, when he was welcomed by the Negro population. I wanted to include in the musical language, the feeling and the musical culture of that time, and of the present time. Of course, this still was written for voices skilled in operatic singing, but there are other kinds of music in the opera as well. This was for me one of the most interesting things, to try to bring together different music that would normally be heard at the same time.

- All of these themes carry much weight and gravity. Will there be moments of lightness and humor as well? Judging from your later work, it might seem as if you have lost some of the carefree comic vein present in, for instance, Einstein on the Beach.

PG: Well, I guess there has been humor in some of my operas. There’s nothing funny either about my last opera, Waiting for the Barbarians. It’s true, if that is the criticism, I guess I will have to accept it. However, I am not the only composer who has fallen into that kind of writing, there are certain themes that just don’t welcome humor. In terms of topics and subject matter, there are plenty of operas that are quiet serious. Another opera of mine, Orphée, which was just done at Glimmerglass, has some very funny things in it. It was composed maybe 13 years ago. But in Appomattox… there’s really not a lot it. This was a tremendously important event in our life as a country.

Not funny: Appomattox set model for world premiere production at SF Opera

- You just turned 70 this year. Do you think in terms of your legacy?

PG: I have been too busy trying to make a living. I haven’t thought about that. I’m surprised myself that operas that I’ve written 10 or 15 years ago are being performed today. Satyagraha is coming to the MET and I wrote it 1979. It will be at the MET in the Spring.

- Yes, I’m planning to come to NY and see it.

PG: I saw the production already [at the English National Opera] in London, it was a beautiful production. I think next year there will be half a dozen of my operas, maybe more, being done at different places. To tell you the truth, I never thought of myself as someone who would write operas that would become part of the repertoire of the operatic world. That never occurred to me, I was interested in addressing musical and thematic issues that I found absorbing of my attention.

- You have been know for your interest in Eastern philosophy. Does your musical and creative journey reflect or parallel your spiritual journey.

PG: That’s an interesting question. Music is always by composers, and composers have always asserted their musical life with a spiritual life of some kind. Whether it was Bach, Haydn, Verdi… you name it, this is not less true of contemporary composers. In that regard, I would say that Western composers are not in any way second to the music of non-Western cultures. There is always a strong feeling of spiritual identity and spiritual growth in music. I didn’t need to go to India to find that out; I could find that out right at home.

- And how do you see your music evolving over the years?

PG: That’s a difficult question because I am still in the middle of it, so it is hard for me to tell. However when I go back and listen to “Music in 12 parts” I wrote 1970s, or Einstein on the Beach in 1976; I must say, I’m not unhappy about them. I look back at the young guy who wrote that, and I say “ gee, what an energetic guy that was.” I am proud that early work.

- As you well should be! But your earlier work sounded much edgier, while there is a certain lyrical lushness in your mature work. What do you think brought about this transformation?

PG: I think that happens to everybody. If you start at point A you go to point B. If you start writing dissonant music you end up writing consonant music, and if you start with consonant, you end up writing different music. I think it happens to everybody, the idea that composers don’t change is absurd. We always talk about artists being autobiographical, but autobiographies don’t stop. Our lives don’t stop. I think we are wired that way.

- What is your opinion of the music being created by the current generation?

PG: I am very interested in it. There is a new generation of people, whether they are working with technology, or non-western music, or pop music, or bringing together all these experimental traditions into the theater, this young generation is absolutely on fire. I think we are going to see these young people in their 20s or 30s are going to do some beautiful and amazing pieces. I think they already started to.

- Let me ask you a question of personal interest. I was wondering how did you become familiar with Itaipú?

PG: I went down there. For about ten years I went down to Brazil, partly because it’s so cold here in the winter and I wanted to go somewhere else warm. I went down there to write music, and I traveled throughout the country. I went a lot of places, to Belém, and down to Foz do Iguaçu. I didn’t do it all at once, but every time I’d go somewhere different, so one year I went to Itaipu, the dam that was being built there. It wasn’t finished yet, there was no water but I saw the huge edifice that was being built. And I thought of the power of the water and the power of the river. And the power of the human mind, and the imagination to take natural forces and harness it in that scale, and I was inspired by that.

- And what attracted you to go to Brazil in the first place?

PG: I think it was the music, the culture, the friends I had from Brazil. And I also went down to play there, at a free jazz festival, I think in 1991 or 92. I was in Rio, and said, “my god, I love this place. I’m coming back here!” And I went back the next year. Now I have a son who is living there in Brazil. I have strong connection to the place, it’s a country you can fall in love with.

- Well, thank you for your time. I look forward to thank you in person when you are here in San Francisco.

PG: My pleasure. I hope you’ll enjoy the opera.

© 2007 C. Chang

Temptations at the Opera

2007-09-20T08:13:00.000-07:00

SFO's Tannhäuser

The British director Graham Vick made his belated SFO debut last night in a new staging of Wagner's Tannhäuser, the first new production undertaken under Gockley's regime. While there was much to recommend about the performance, the overall feeling about this production is one of disappointment.

In case you weren't aware, a common trend in Graham Vick's stagework is that he tends to favor more-or-less conventional-looking sets, costuming, etc., while pairing it up with staging that is heavily laden with the sort of edgy symbolism and psychobabble that is so fertile in European productions. This approach has been successful for the British director in the past, who has signed-off on some of the most commented productions in Britain and the rest of Europe. I can attest first-hand that I had the privilege of seeing his memorable Meistersinger staging at the Royal Opera House back in 2002, and it remains to this day one of my favorite operatic experiences.

At the SF Opera Tuesday night, we could be thankful to Peter Seiffert and Petra Maria Schnitzer for some fine singing, as well as other strong performances from the supporting cast. But what we saw on stage was a production running desperately short of really strong and unified ideas, serving up instead a string of scattered gimmicks, executed with varying degrees of success.

The Venusberg cave and the great Wartburg Hall become one, in a uni-set that reminded me of a bath house at a German spa I once visited. Were it not so plain and uninteresting to stare at for four hours, the idea is conceptually interesting, and in anycase does away with the bothersome spectacular theatrics required by the scene change that should occur at Tannhäuser's invocation of the Virgin Mary. And perhaps to make up for the lack of spectacle, a large ring of fire -- real fire -- encircling Venus and Tannhäuser stays tediously lit for an eternity and the better part of act I, making the carbon footprint of this production simply unacceptable for the artistic value it delivers.

The production's costumes were equally uninspiring: not exactly medieval period but non-descript enough as to not offend those who would complain about an outright contemporary updating. Most pilgrims wore ragged clothing, which is worked well, but he also had some "super-pilgrims," clad in all black, making enigmatic assorted appearances at Venusberg. The women during the song contest looked like an entire choir of Our Ladies of Fatimas.

Our Lady of Fatima

And an amateurish calligraphic mistake was made in the drop curtain with the word "Tannhäuser" printed as in a archaic storybook title page: the lower-case letter "s" lacked the distinctive mid-stroke displacement found in the Germanic Fraktur style type.

lowercase "s" has no mid-stroke displacement: looks like a curve on the freeway

"s" with proper mid-stroke displacement

Of course, these minor displacements violations are dwarfed by Vick's shamelessly provocative disregard of Wagner's several specific instructions (written into the score), when Vick has Wolfram choke Elisabeth to death on stage, after she finishes the gorgeous "Almacht'ge Jungfrau." Wagner specifically asks for Elisabeth to exit, because he knew that by ommitting the act of her death onstage, he would afford the listener contemplative space, and allow the heightened lyricism of that moment to shine. Vick's stunt is merely designed to provoke public commentary, coming at the expense of disrupting the splendid flow of the work during the opera's superb Act III.

So whether it is perceived as radical, foolish, or both, this Tannhäuser is perfectly suited to the stealth undertones of the SF Opera's current administration: bring in a few established singers, don't make any outlandish updatings, and David Gockley can have his cake and eat it too. One can only imagine what sort of abuse and ridicule Pam Rosenberg would have had to endure, if she had presented this very same production with minstrels dressed up in trenchcoats and fedoras.

© 2007 C. Chang

Tannhäuser and Senator Larry Craig

2007-09-18T17:41:00.000-07:00

Stets soll nur dir mein Lied ertönen

One only needs to look at the tale of Larry Craig to be reminded of how very current are the themes examined in Tannhäuser.

Venusberg at MSP

The men's room at MSP might as well stand-in for Senator Craig's Venusberg, while the Wartburg great hall of song, of course, takes place on the floor U.S. Congress. This is not so farfetched, after all Craig was an original member of the Singing Senators, along with John Ashcroft and Trent Lott.

First he is guilty, and then he is not. He is going to resign and then he doesn't want to. He sings of virtue on the great halls of congress, but on the way back to Idaho, he is constantly tempted to stop by his own private Venusberg.

The only thing missing in Craig's tale is a self-sacrificing Elisabeth (his current wife doesn't count -- by now, she is part of the problem), which is why he painted himself into a corner with no way out.

"Man goes constantly in fear of himself. His erotic urges terrify him", wrote Georges Bataille, an early 20th Century French priest and sociologist, who renounced his faith so that he could partake more freely of the offerings at Parisian whorehouses, without feeling like a hypocrite. Perhaps Larry should be reading more Bataille now, as the senator's salvation is more likely to come from Bataille than the Bible.

© 2007 C. Chang

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I'm on the paper

2007-06-08T22:29:00.000-07:00

So The Berkeley Daily Planet has picked up my previous blog entry, and I'm mentioned in yesterday's editorial. Cool, I'm famous now!

© 2007 C. Chang

She is African, too

2007-06-04T08:34:00.000-07:00

A friend wonders: "Why did they have to cancel the African American opera patrons dinner? After all, isn't Elza van den Heever African too?"

In any case, there is mounting evidence from different sources suggesting that Hope Briggs dismissal from SFO's Don Giovanni was not about race, but rather a carefully orchestrated deal to promote van den Heever, a new client of Matthew Epstein at CAMI.

A selected portion of an e-mail received from a credible anonymous source:

"... So, this supposedly "sudden" event has been planned for a long time, as I'm sure you suspected as well. Rhoslyn Jones was the official cover, and [her colleagues] had been hearing from her "why am I even here, sitting in rehearsals, spending all this time," because she knew that Elza was in the wings and was being rehearsed, and kept informed of the production -- very quietly. The only person who didn't know was Hope.

[...] Matthew Epstein works very sneakily. While Gockley is not known to be a fan of Elza's around the Opera Center, he was supposedly convinced long ago by Epstein to make a big press splash like this, not only for SFO and the summer season, but for his new client Elza, as well as dumping a singer chosen by Pamela. Of course it would've looked even worse if they cancelled Hope earlier, to only replace her with an Adler (either Roz or Elza)."

Elza Van den Heever is an Adler Fellow, which is essentially a glorified intern undergoing advanced training. So, if SFO had replaced Hope Briggs earlier, they would have felt obliged to find an artist of stature to replace her, thus derailing a calculated plan to offer Matt's client Elza her big break. This version of events seems at least more plausible than asking us to passively believe that Rosenberg's choice of Briggs could be so unfit as to merit an unceremonious dump at the last minute.

© 2007 C. Chang

"Hopeless" Giovanni at SFO

2007-06-03T11:49:00.001-07:00

There was a palpable tension and a fair amount of nail-bitting last night, at the opening night of W.A. Mozart's Don Giovanni at the SF Opera.

Questo è il fin di chi fa mal ...

On one side, there were the boisterous supporters of Elza van den Heever, the young diva who earned her exciting assignment under controversial circumstances; and on the other, the embittered Briggs fans and predisposed skeptics awaiting to see the failings of this Don Giovanni as a confirmation of David Gockley heavy-handed managing style.

Soprano Hope Briggs, originally contracted by Pamela Rosenberg to sing Donna Anna, has performed throughout the Bay Area for nearly a decade now, and built up a modest yet solid following. Indeed, it is hard to find anyone who has seen Briggs give a poor performance, leading many observers to conclude that Gockley's last-minute dismissal of the singer from the production was driven by intramural politics.

Elza: stole the role, stole the show

The good news from the War Memorial last night is that the SF Opera has a thrilling Don Giovanni on stage this summer, and that Elza van den Heever had a great personal triumph in her company mainstage debut in the difficult role of Donna Anna. Even under the unusual circumstances, this stunning production (originally created at Brussels' Theatre de la Monnaie) is a testament to the kind of opera Pamela Rosenberg wanted to show us in San Francisco. And politically motivated or not, the audience learned that we can trust Gockley to have enough survival instincts to never attempt a stunt like this without a strong back-up plan.

Brilliantly directed by David McVicar, the production has an unmistakably modern European sensibility: austere, architectural sets in shades of charcoal gray; the dark costuming with lots of knee-lenght coats; and a welcome dose of a little nonsense now and then. No trap doors for Giovanni in this production; his after-dinner hell is presented above ground, to great theatrical effect.

And I particularly liked how McVicar solved the theatrically problematic and usually ambiguous staging of Anna's Non mi dir. In most productions, Ottavio usually just stands there like an idiot, and listens to Anna launch into her freakish coloratura outbursts. For once, Anna delivers the aria (with its widely contrasting sections) as a reaction to Ottavio's pain, who (portrayed by Charles Castronovo) at times collapses on the floor with anguish during the aria. McVicar's one possible staging misstep is at the final tableau, when he has Elvira paradoxically kneel next to the fallen Giovanni, and hold his hand as if in mourning.

The vocal show was uniformily strong. Donald Runnicles at the pit offered the reliable package of crisp Mozartian tempos, keeping things fresh and exciting. And who needs marquee stars, really. All of the men were strong and very satisfying singing actors. Mariusz Kwiecien found a perfect balance between evil and mellifluous seduction for his depiction of Giovanni, delivered with superb skill. Oren Gradus' characterization of Leoporello was a bit predictable, but still fun to watch. Kristinn Sigmundsson was an imposing Comendatore, though his ghost-self was a bit too amplified for my taste. And bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni: what a handsome Masetto.

Che bel Masetto! (Luca Pisaroni)

Elza's Donna Anna sounded very impressive, much better than I expected. She was obviously trying very hard, and brought a good measure of verismo energy into the role, just enough to make it exciting. I was a bit less impressed by Twyla Robinson's Elvira, but it was perfectly adequate performance. The superb Claudia Mahnke was almost too good for Zerlina, with a lustrous, polished aristocratic tone -- reminded one of some of the best qualities in Anna Caterina Antonacci and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson.

© 2007 C. Chang

Something to talk about

2007-06-01T18:32:00.000-07:00

So the announcement of Hope Briggs dismissal from the SF Opera's Don Giovanni (opening night tomorrow) was picked up even by the NY Times.

Hopeless in San Francisco

Frankly, there is something fishy about this whole affair. What I don't understand is how they can possibly have decided to replace Hope Briggs with a younger (albeit quite talented) and less proven singer to fill the shoes of the prima donna on opening night. Ms. Briggs is an exciting singer, a memorable voice with beautiful Leontyne-like colors. Her replacement, Adler Fellow Elsa van den Heever is a pretty songbird-type singer. While Ms. Briggs has sung the role of Donna Anna many times before (internationally even), Ms. Van der Heever has sung it at, um... Napa Valley.

So yes, maybe Anna is not the best role for Briggs, but it is implausile that she would be entirely incompetent in its delivery. Unless Gockley just wanted to give us something to talk about, the outcome of this decision seems a lot riskier than allowing Briggs to fulfill her contract.

Otherwise, Donna Anna is ill-suited to 99% of the sopranos who choose to sing it. Save for Mozart's spectacular bravura writing, it is a difficult and ungrateful role. Once her purpose is served as the victim which triggers the plot, she really doesn't do much else for the rest of the opera. Anna is a doormat just like Ottavio -- prone to exaggerated outbursts of coloratura, entirely disproportionate with the situation at hand. Do you really need to sing several octaves worth of scales and high tessitura ostinatos, because your boyfriend has called you "cruel"?

© 2007 C. Chang

New Donna Anna for SFO

2007-05-31T14:52:00.000-07:00

The San Francisco Opera just put out the advisory below a few minutes ago. Can you believe they waited until AFTER the final dress rehearsal to make this decision? Opening night of Don G in SF is day after tomorrow! Poor Ms. Briggs (a fine singer whom I've heard on many occasions); this must be a terrible situation.

-------

SAN FRANCISCO, May 31, 2007 – After the final dress rehearsal for Don Giovanni, San Francisco Opera General Director David Gockley, in consultation with Music Director Donald Runnicles and members of the artistic staff, made the decision that soprano Hope Briggs was not ultimately suited for the role of Donna Anna in this production. Soprano Elza van den Heever, a member of San Francisco Opera’s Adler Fellow Program, will replace Ms. Briggs in the role for all performances of Don Giovanni, which opens June 2 at the War Memorial Opera House. Ms. van den Heever has performed the role of Donna Anna at the Lincoln Theater in Napa Valley and is contracted to sing the role with a major American opera company in a future season.

© 2007 C. Chang

A Steinway at the farm

2007-05-01T21:19:00.000-07:00

Voigt and Steinway

So I braved collapsing freeways and overpriced gas this past weekend, and went down to Palo Alto to hear Deborah Voigt in recital at Stanford University.

Singing an obscure late Mozart cantata, followed by songs by Verdi, Strauss, Respighi, Amy Beach and Bernstein, I regret to say that it wasn't a particularly impressive outing for Voigt, whose throaty gargle sounded alarmingly strident that day. Sure, it could have been a series of interpretive missteps, but even the Strauss selections often sounded shouty and pitchless, rather than soaring and radiant. Her rendition of Verdi's songs were largely salvaged by the clear and beautifully painterly piano playing of accompanist Brian Zeger.

I hold much respect and admiration (particularly judging from portions I heard of the MET's Aegyptische Helena broadcast of a few weeks back) for Voigt as a unique and remarkable artist, but can anyone still assert that her massive weight loss hasn't changed her vocally?

In any case, at a wine and cheese function after the performance for invited guests, I enjoyed meeting Steinway, Ms. Voigt's adorable and impeccably well-behaved Yorkshire Terrier, who obediently posed for me for this close-up:

Deb's pooch

Five-mile-high canines: Gockley wants to know

2007-05-01T21:03:00.000-07:00

Speaking of Steinway (see above), David Gockley has actually asked Deborah Voigt if her dog has had sex in an airplane. If you don't believe me, check out this otherwise terrific podcast (at 44:50), where Debbie rehashes her gastric bypass surgery, weight loss, her ROH firing and rehiring, and much more.

© 2007 C. Chang

He did it for Joyce

2007-02-27T10:35:00.000-08:00

So UK's Gramophone website breaks the news that William Barrington-Coupe, Joyce Hatto's husband, has confessed faking the recordings of his wife by digitally appropriating other pianists performances. "I did it for my wife," he says. Once a liar...

Frankly, I'm surprised it took this long for someone to be caught in a scheme like this. The technical skills required to pull off a stunt such as this are neither advanced nor exhausting. More than decade ago, I remember I was already manipulating pre-recorded sound files for fun, using an iMac and software that cost about $29.99, More techie friends had been playing with digital sound manipulation for even longer.

© 2007 C. Chang

Mattiwilda, forgotten no more

2007-02-10T08:19:00.000-08:00

Mattiwilda Dobbs, in 1958

I am glad to see that Martin Bernheimmer has profiled Mattiwilda Dobbs in the current Feb. 2007 issue of Opera News magazine. Dobbs lived through extraordinary times as an artist and human being, and historically her accomplishments were at least as significant as those of Marian Anderson and Leontyne Price. I was privileged to have spoken to Ms. Dobbs a few years back, and parts of our conversation can still be found here.

© 2007 C. Chang
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Kosman blogs

2007-02-09T21:54:00.000-08:00

Very cool that Josh Kosman has joined the blog revolution. Why, he's even acknowledged my Luisotti scoop on a post.

© 2007 C. Chang

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2007-08 opera by the Bay

2007-01-22T18:17:00.000-08:00

Philip Glass, by Annie Leibovitz

I attended the San Francisco Opera's press conference this morning, mostly because I wanted to hear Philip Glass talk. He didn't disappoint, as he made a convincing case for his new opera Appomattox, which the company will premiere in October.

Glass spoke inspiringly about Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, mentioning how no leaders currently in the world stage rise up to the level of these civil war generals. Lee and Grant met face to face, and ended the most devastating of all American wars with remarkably little residual bitterness, giving it a finality that allowed the nation to move on with dignity. Set on a libretto by Christopher Hampton, the Appomattox premiere continues in a way Glass' epic depictions of larger than life historical entities: Einstein, Akhnaten, Ghandi, etc. Andrew Shore and Dwayne Croft will create the roles of the two generals, respectively, conducted by Dennis Russell Davies.

The SF Opera 2007-08 season looks pretty promising on paper, except that it will open with the company's old production of Saint-Saëns' SAMSON AND DELILAH. During the conference, David Gockley said it is one of the "most beautiful" productions that SF Opera owns, but let's be real: they are restaging this turkey as an excuse to present Olga Borodina in something that won't take too much rehearsal time to put together.

Yawn....

It will be fun to see a new TANNHÄUSER at SFO, solidly cast with Peter Seiffert in the title role, Petra Maria Schitzer as Elisabeth and the return of Eric Halfvarson, the terrific Hagen of the SF Opera's 1999 Ring Cycle. I saw Graham Vick's Meistersinger in London a few years ago and it wasn't at all bad; we'll see how he does with this.

And it is about time we got a new MAGIC FLUTE in San Francisco; the existing production was among the weakest of David Hockney's creations. Don't know how original this (new to San Francisco) Maurice Sendak production will be, but at least it will be something different to look at. I would have been happy even with the Gerald Scarfe production from the LA Opera, but what will help for sure is a fresh and promising new cast, with Christopher Maltman's company debut as Papageno; Rebecca Evans (whom Runnicles called "delicious" at the conference) as Pamina; Piotr Beczala as Tamino; Georg Zeppenfeld as Sarastro; and Erika Miklósa as the Queen.

Rebecca Evans: delicious!

A new production of Puccini's LA RONDINE showcases the company debut of Angela Gheorghiu, assuming of course, that Madame Gheorgiu will actually show up. Anna Christy, the unspectacular Cunegonde of Robert Carsen's recent Candide at the Theatre du Chatelet, is the cast as Lisette in this Nicolas Joël production.

According to Gockley, the production of Verdi's MACBETH is a remnant of Pamela Rosenberg's planning that he was happy to keep. I'm sure the fact that Thomas Hampson was in the cast had something to do with it; but Runnicles promised that Doina Dimitriu (as Lady Macbeth) will be a voice to remember.

A new production of THE RAKE’S PROGRESS by Igor Stravinsky will bring back Laura Aikin (the one-winged blue angel from St. François d'Assise) and James Morris; but the Gockley's casting splurge on this production is Denyce Graves' Baba the Turk. William Burden sings Tom Rakewell.

For sheer entertainment value, the summer 2008 season takes the cake. Wagner's DAS RHEINGOLD launches what will eventually be Francesca Zambello's new Ring Cycle (slated in SF for the summer of 2011). A co-production with the Washington Opera, Zambello's Ring will be inspired by American iconography. Mark Delavan's Wotan is an interesting casting choice, one that many will be eager to hear, along with the unlikely casting of Jennifer Larmore as Fricka. Runnicles conducts.

Zambello's Rhine: Ain't we got fun

The second summer selection comes in the form of the Dallas Opera production of Handel's ARIODANTE, with Patrick Summers leading a truly stellar cast, headed by Susan Graham, Ruth Ann Swenson, Ewa Podles, Eric Owens and Richard Croft. The John Copley production will no doubt be dressed in period splendor, but it will be more interesting to assess Patrick Summers' credentials on Handelian rep.

Vocally, it is hard to erase the memory of Ruth Ann Swenson's fabulous LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR of a few years back. But if anyone can do it, it would be the amazing French coloratura Natalie Dessay, making her company debut as the uxoricidal heroine.

In any case, if you want more details you can find a copy of the SF Opera's official press release here.

© 2007 C. Chang

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Cadavers on stage: Bieito's Wozzeck in Madrid

2007-01-17T07:31:00.000-08:00

I managed to crash the opening night of Calixto Bieito`s production of Berg´s Wozzeck at the Teatro Real in Madrid last Friday. This was the premiere of this production in the Spanish capital, first seen in Barcelona´s Gran Teatre del Liceu last season. The Spanish Royals were not in attendance, but the Teatro could have used the extra security that evening. I have never in my life witnessed such vociferous booing, feet stomping and whistle calls during curtains, not even when soccer player David Beckham got canned at the Real Madrid. But, I think even the booers at Teatro Real realized what we had just seen something quite extraordinary.

Yes, there were some gruesome, very disturbing scenes as expected, particularly having to do with the doctors experiments: he rubs a naked male cadaver, as if preparing to perform a liposuction. Later, he does the same to a female cadaver, and proceeds to lick her body parts, all the while having his casual exchanges with Franz. There are also bloody fights, vomiting, and religious sacrilege (Marie, as she prays to the bible, rips it to shreds and throws the pieces around the stage). At one time, there were so many naked people on stage, you´d think you were participating in a Stephen Tunick installation.

Calixto denies that he tries to become the protagonist of every opera he directs -- of course, I don´t believe it. But I also think in that, in this case at least, it is a very theatrically effective, coherent production. This is not Madama Butterfly, or Ballo in Maschera, operas bathed in tradition and belcanto splendor. Berg´s score lends itself to this sort of edge, with its disjointed scenes stiched together by a score of claustrophobic rumbles, cacophonous alienation, culminating in visceral, psychotic expostulations. This also worked because the performances were simply UNBELIEVABLE, an entire cast of stupendous singing actors! As Marie, Angela Denoke was fabulosa, singing with the hair-raising intensity of a Hildegard Berehns but also with a gorgeous voice. Wozzeck was amazing as well, a guy I never heard of before called Jochen Schmeckenbecher. The necrophiliac doctor was Johann Till and the Drum Major was Jon Villars. Except for Bieito, everyone was warmly applauded.

I was of course prepared for controversy, violence and nudity. What I was not prepared for was what a visually stunning production this was. Predominantly black, gray and red, this Wozzeck is set in a petroleum refinery, with a maze of tubes (think roof of Centre Pompidou) leading nowhere in particular. Wozzeck and the other soldiers become refinery workers, the Drum Major an Elvis impersonator.

The booing was very loud and demonstrative, even for warm blooded Madrileños. I can´t say that I entirely understand the psychology of the audience, but I suspect some of the were boing is because they know that booing is what Calixto wants, and they are just obediently showing the chosen form of praise in Calixto´s universe.

© 2007 C. Chang

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Concert Chasing in Prague

2007-01-13T05:42:00.000-08:00

Statue of Il Commendatore outside the Stavovske Divadlo in Prague, the theater where Don Giovanni was premiered

Chalk it to my lack of exposure to the town, but if you ask me, the Prague concert scene is kinda weird. Apparently, anyone can get a booking on the calendar in Prague.

When you are a tourist, there are these people following you around town, handing out flyers for crappy concerts (a string sextet of locals playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons and Gounod's Ave-Maria, for instance), and some of these concerts actually take place at respectable historical venues. One of these characters with flyers approached me, trying to sell a ticket for a Mozart Requiem ("with big orchestra," he said) for 1000 Czech corunas. I walked away, and they came back and lowered the price to 800 corunas. After offering a third reduction to 500 corunas, the seller's desperation was palpable, making me increasingly uncomfortable. I didn't know what else to do, so I just excused myself by saying that I didn't like Mozart.

Then, more billable talent is actually promoted in a way that is wholly disproportionate, in a way that in the U.S. would befit pop stars. Announcing a recital by Rolando Villazon at the end February, the Prague promoters had his giant posters placed at virtually every train and metro stop in town. And the ticket prices weren't much more above the asking price of the forementioned big-orchestra-Requiem.

Rolando Villazon poster at a bus stop in the burbs of Prague

So the choice I made was to attend a new production of La Clemenza di Tito at the Stavovske Divadlo, the very theater where this opera was premiered, in 1791. Composed for Prague's coronation of Leopold II, this was the opera that just about killed Mozart, rather ironic considering how the Czechs have adopted Mozart as if he was one of their own. We bought tickets from someone outside the theater near curtain time for 800 crowns apiece, and ended up with a box all to ourselves. Standing room tickets, I found out, cost only 30 crowns (about US$1.50).

The production was an ultra-modern affair, in chic modern dress, with an all-white "tunnel" set. The staging often had characters rolling on the floor convulsing, as in tortured Kafkaesque character studies. Vocally, a few bright moments, but rather disappointing overall. Most of the cast was made of local names with lots of haceks, and Titus in particular could really go back to the studio and sing some more Caro mio ben and Vaccai exercises. The one bright exception was the American mezzo Kate Aldrich, who delivered Sesto's great arias brilliantly. I am told she was one of the Carmens recently in San Francisco.

© 2007 C. Chang

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Candidly in Paris

2007-01-02T02:21:00.000-08:00

I spent New Year's réveillon in Paris, and le talk of town was the Robert Carsen production of Bernstein's Candide at the Theatre du Chatelet. Praised by the French press and sold-out to packed houses, even my friend Rene's mother had heard about it and wanted to see it, so I had no choice but go check it out. We went to the last performance of the Chatelet run, on Dec. 31, and tickets were expensive and hard to find. Apparently, many Parisians had the same idea we did: see the show, then afterwards walk down the Seine to watch le feux d'artifice displays.

A few flashes of genuine insight at times, Carsen's production is very creative in a Mark Morris sort of way -- even the use of video at the beginning reminds one of the Hard Nut. But unlike Morris, the production feels gimmicky because it takes itself too seriously. Frankly, La Scala did this turkey a favor by creating the cancellation controversy, for their action elevated this Candide non-event to the level of an international headline.

The entire stage is framed by a giant vintage TV set, and the show opens with Voltaire giving the audience the finger. The production's key shtick is the stylized American iconography. Poking fun at the U.S. always goes well with European audiences. The White House, Bush, Jackie O, even an archetypal Lewinsky-type intern show up on stage, while Cunegonde's "Glitter and Be Gay" is staged as a pantomime of Marilyn Monroe in "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend." The much publicized "politicians in underwear" scene is just a bit plain too silly, as opposed to offensive. Carsen's greatest moment of brilliance was at the end, when the great "Make our garden grow" ensemble was sung against a video projection of smoke stacks, polution, desertification, melting glaciers and a shrinking planet earth.

The evening would have been much more satisfying had the musical performances been stronger. With a provincial sounding pick-up band led by American expat John Axelrod, William Burden's Candide was overmiked, while Anna Christy's Cunegonde was downright grating.

© 2007 C. Chang

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Michael's Men

2006-10-14T20:02:00.000-07:00

Since coming to the SF Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas has appointed three assistant conductors :

Edwin...

Ben...

and James, the latest one.

Hmmmmmmm.....

What do you suppose is MTT's criteria for selecting assistant conductors? And what do these fine gentlemen have in common?

Let me know if you find out.

© 2006 C. Chang

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It's not Patrick

2006-09-22T00:45:00.000-07:00

My usually reliable source tells me that it is not Patrick Summers at this time who is in natural succession to replace Donald Runnicles at the SF Opera, at the end of 2008/09.

You heard it here first: the top contender for the post of Music Director at the SF Opera at this time is none other than Nicola Luisotti, the phenomenal Italian maestro we last heard conduct that fabulous La Forza Del Destino, during Pamela's last season as General Director of the SF Opera. If he is indeed Gockley's choice, this bodes well for our Herr Direktor's vision and originality.

Luisotti at the time of the Forza was unanimously praised by audience and critics. He has a beautiful, sweeping and elegant podium technique, is fun to watch and wondrous to hear. Frankly, I never liked Forza as an opera all that much, and yet his magnificent sense of phrasing and shape was simply thrilling to the ear.

© 2006 C. Chang

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Remembering Jimmy

2006-09-21T22:11:00.000-07:00

I attended the beautiful memorial service yesterday for James Schwabacher, one of the most remarkable and treasured teachers I ever had. Jimmy passed away on July 25th, at the age of 86.

At Temple Emmanuel, with the SF Opera brass in attendance along with Jimmy's closest family and various luminaries from the music world, the event inevitably turned into a pow-wow of sorts. But there were many genuine, moving moments and heartfelt shared reminiscences.

And there was music, of course. Deborah Voigt, looking positively miniscule, sang Strauss' Lob des Leidens, in a beautifully restrained, non-operatic voice. Tenor William Saertre sang one of Jimmy's personal favorites, the gorgeous "Schoene Wiege", from Schumann's Liederkreis, Op. 24. The men from Chanticleer served as the heavenly choral backdrop in the touching arrangement of Aloha 'oe by Queen Lili'uokalani. We were treated at the conclusion of the service with a recording of Robert Stolz' "Das Lied ist aus," sung by Jimmy himself in his 1962 Town Hall recital debut.

I met Jimmy when I was a junior in college, when he came into Cal Berkeley's Music Dept. as a guest lecturer for a masterclass. I sang "Total Eclipse" from Handel's Sansom and Schubert's Doppelganger for him. He gave me some praise and I seemed to have done well enough that he suggested that perhaps I should coach with him. At first I didn't take up the generous offer, being both flattered and horrified that someone important like Jimmy would actually give me the time of day. The next year, when he returned to Cal Berkeley for another round of masterclasses, I took heart and approached him, asking him if he would still give me some coaching. So Jimmy gave me his phone number, and he told me that he only answered the phone between 9 and 10 am.

Coachings with Jimmy took place at his beautiful residence in Pacific Heights, where he had turned the top-level solarium of his house into a working studio, filled with a music library, autographed photos of singers, and a grand piano. Jimmy was always warm and friendly as a person, but as a teacher, he was extraordinarily demanding. Our supposed hour-long lessons would always extend into two, sometimes three hours -- routinely, the sessions would cease only when the accompanist protested that he needed to leave. At times, Jimmy would pick out something like Schumann's Op. 39 off his shelf and say, "Here, take this. Learn and memorize it for next week." Being young, in fear and in awe of him, you made sure you learned and memorized whatever it was that Mr. Schwabacher requested. And under his guidance, in a year's time I became intimately familiar with all the major song cycles by Schubert and Schumann.

Usually, I was completely spent by the end of the lesson, but it was of course a fantastic education. I studied privately with Jimmy over two years, and to this day it still amazes me that someone so respected, prominent and defining of San Francisco's upper-class echelons would have given his time so generously to me -- a fresh-off-the-boat working class immigrant kid at the time, who was barely proficient in the English language. Attending his memorial service, it was clear that Jimmy had made a difference in the lives of many people, making better persons out of those he encounters, with a generosity that transcends mere wealth.

© 2006 C. Chang

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Sorry I haven't written

2005-11-16T18:25:00.000-08:00

Yes, yes, I know I haven't been writing. Sorry.

If you knew what my schedule is like these days you wouldn't blame me. I'm back in school (learning how to save the world), and working at the same time. I should be finished with classes by next fall semester, so hopefully I'll have more time to listen to music then. Meanwhile, I'll post quickies any time I have anything interesting to share.

© 2005 C. Chang

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Rusalka's roots

2005-11-07T18:16:00.000-08:00

Kitka, the treasured Bay Area-based Eastern European women's vocal ensemble, unveils its new Rusalka Cycle this weekend. This latest and highly original collaborative theatrical project by Kitka offers an evocatively tinged score by the young Ukrainian composer Mariana Sadovska, filled with songs in the lush modalities of Eastern European music.

This Rusalka goes well beyond the source of Dvorak's eponymous opera, and attempts to capture the restless spirit of the water nymphs of Slavic folklore, who lure people to them with their melodious gifts. Directed by Mariana Ellen Sebastian Chang [no relation], it's a fully staged and costumed performance -- but don't dare call it an opera.

Opens Sat. Nov. 12 at the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice Street (between 14th and 17th Streets) in Oakland. Check out Kitka's website for times and ticket info.

© 2005 C. Chang

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What Bartoli sang

2005-10-11T08:18:00.000-07:00

Several people have e-mailed me to point out that I failed to list Bartoli's opera proibita program in her Berkeley recital last week. Sorry; the official program from Cal Performances is available here. For someone who seems as genuinely warm as Signorina Bartoli, the picture of her in the program's title page seems rather austere .

© 2005 C. Chang

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Bartoli U.S. Tour: Opera proibita

2005-10-07T11:55:00.000-07:00

Cecilia Bartoli and her boyfriend Claudio Osele spend many of their summers (or whatever free time the pair can scrap together) at various libraries, digging up obscure manuscripts of forgotten baroque music, which she can then bring back to life on stage. The latest batch of such discoveries is catalogued in her new CD, Opera proibita, which is also the core repertoire of her current North American tour.

Bartoli wore the emerald green version of this dress in Berkeley -- original photo by Robert Millard, LA Opera, 2004

I haven't heard the CD yet, though a generally reliable source tells me it is one of her very best recordings to date. But judging from her Berkeley performance last night at Zellerbach Hall, I have no reason to doubt the assertion, even though Cal Performances' Associate Director Hollis Ashby appeared just before curtain to make an announcement that Bartoli had been fighting a cold all week, and begged for our indulgence.

Having heard Bartoli live at least half a dozen times before, I could hear some this cold (only a few days earlier, it caused her to cancel her Toronto date) robbing her of a certain transparency in the upper register, but interestingly, in middle voice the cold seemed to accentuate the mellow dark quality of her chest tones, some times very pleasantly!

Yet, the most noteworthy element of this Bartoli outing was indeed the unusual repertoire she turned up. Joined by a 25 member chamber orchestra called La Scintilla (from Zurich), this was a remarkably generous and ferociously difficult program to be offered by a singer with a cold. The selections came from little known sacred works by Antonio Caldara, Alessandro Scarlatti and G.F. Handel (works composed during his youthful Italian years) -- arias alternating between melancholic laments, and explosive outbursts of coloratura writing, extracted from sensuous operatic writing disguised as pious oratorios, written in the early in the 18th century during the time when the Pope Clement XI banned public theatrical performances.

Overall, this latest occasion was not the most vocally remarkable performance I have heard from the Roman superdiva, yet unquestionably, there were still many superlative, once-in-a-lifetime moments to be savored. In selections such as Caldara's "Vanne pentita a piangere" and Handel's "Lascia la spina, cogli la rosa", Bartoli sang some of the softest, most quiet sounds a singer could make in a 2000-seat hall filled to capacity -- obviously, she has stopped making apologies for the small size of her voice. When she sang at her quietest, not a cough was heard in the audience; the stillness was both true and magical; the effect was breathtaking.

Of course, there were were generous heaps of coloratura in the bravura selections, where Bartoli still dazzles with her technical control -- facial contortions and all. Even with the alleged cold, her million-dollar tricks were in ample evidence: endless runs topped by the most florid ornamentation, arpeggiated sequences landing on perfectly executed mordenti, as well as interminably long notes capped by buttery grupetti.

Bartoli ended her Berkeley recital with three encores; Bononcini's "Ombra mai fu," [which Handel obviously plagiarized for his later, more famous version in Xerxes -- they have a lot of similarities]; Scarlatti's scena "Che dolce simpatico"; and the only famous entry of the evening, a rendition of Cleopatra's victorious final aria from Giulio Cesare, "Da tempesta in legno infranto" ornamented almost beyond recognition and without the minor mode middle section.

I couldn't find a dedicated website for her current tour. As far as I can tell, other cities and engagement dates include: Los Angeles, CA (Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Oct. 10); Urbana, IL (Krannert Center, Oct. 14); Chicago, IL (Orchestra Hall, Oct. 16); Toronto, ON (Roy Thomson Hall, Oct. 17); New York, NY (Carnegie Hall, Oct. 19); Boston, MA (Symphony Hall, Oct. 23); and Washington, DC (Kennedy Center, Oct. 26). If she happens to be coming your way, catch her if you can.

© 2005 C. Chang

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Dr. Atomic blasts off

2005-10-02T23:36:00.000-07:00

Batter my heart, three person'd God

To see a compelling new opera put on stage after years of talk, talk, talk and more talk is a thrilling experience, really. And so it was: John Adams' Dr. Atomic received its proper honors at a world premiere at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco Saturday night.

It joins Nixon in China and Death of Klinghoffer in rounding off the Adams-Sellars team's own trinity of epic operas inspired by recent history. Judging from initial exposure (I'll be seeing it again next week), this may well be the creators' most intense and absorbing work to date, a tale communicated by means of a mature stylistic language that has been refined by many decades of close collaboration. And for a pair known for their cutting edge and often alienating avant-garde excursions, this piece is remarkably accessible.

SFO scene shop: The Bomb -- photo by Will Hamilton

As expected, Dr. Atomic wasn't free of birth pangs, and perhaps the most dramatic of these was when Alice Goodman unexpectedly withdrew as the librettist from the project -- very late in the project's timeline, at a time when Adams had expected delivery on the complete libretto. So bless Peter Sellars once again for his intelligence and talent, saving the project by stitching together a patchwork of letters, memoirs and poetry into a compelling and surprisingly episodic narrative.

Pam, John and Pete -- photo by Chris Lee

Once it became clear that Goodman would not be supplying the libretto to this opera, Pamela Rosenberg's concern with Sellars' schema was that it risked turning Dr. Atomic into an oratorio, or a string of set pieces with limited dialogue or interaction. Rosenberg's concerns were unfounded, as it turns out that Dr. Atomic is a remarkably accessible theater piece, even to those who find might find Sellars' stage works to be hopelessly non-linear.

Musically, Adams' writing is a virtuosic blend of lyricism and contemporary compositional techniques, ripened well beyond the wacky experimental settings most of us have become accustomed to associate with this style of music. He sets off Varesian electro-acoustical landscapes, deployed not as mere abstract environments, but as skillfully contextualized sonic vistas depicting the vast expanse of the desert, broken by the sharp-edged intrusion of the frenzy of activity at the Trinity test site. The glowing, pulsating minimalist ostinatos which characterizes so much of Adams music, capture not only the relentless claustrophobic energy of the test site, but also the psychology of cyclical moral conundrums.

Gerald Finley (Robert Oppenheimer)

Above all, there is vocal writing of extraordinary intensity and majesty. In a performance keenly aware of the magnitude of the event, Gerald Finley gave a visceral, role-defining portrayal of Oppenheimer. Of course, the character's superb chaccone set to John Donne's "Batter my heart, three person'd God," which closes Act I, is soon to become a choicest assignment among leading dramatic baritones. Few future interpreters, however, are likely to capture the meticulously choreographed staging by Peter Sellars of this aria, which finds Oppenheimer writhing his body, externalizing the moral predicament of the character in tragic contortions.

Contributions by the rest of the cast aptly matched the stature of the occasion. True, the role of Kitty Oppenheimer had Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson written all over it (Hunt-Lieberson withdrew from the production due to chronic illness), but Kristine Jepson [the charismatic mezzo who in 2000 alternated with Susan Graham as Sister Helen Prejean in Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking] rose beautifully to the assignment, and more than a mere trouper, offered a truthfully felt reading of the poignant act 2 soliloquy.

Oppie and Kitty (Gerald Finley and Kristine Jepson)

Oppie, Teller and Pasqualita (Finley, Richard Paul Fink, and Beth Clayton)

The tightly rehearsed ensemble cast -- Eric Owens (General Groves); Richard Paul Fink (Edward Teller); James Maddalena (Hubbard); Jay Hunter Morris (Nolan) and Beth Clayton (Pasqualita) -- all gave strong performances, rising to the challenge of Sellars' notoriously exacting demands. Surprisingly strong also was the young Canadian tenor Thomas Glenn, who stepped into the production very late, replacing tenor Tom Randle in creating the role of the idealistic young physicist Robert Wilson.

Thomas Glenn (as Robert Wilson)

Aside from key defining moments, Sellars kept his trademark resource of gestural externalization to quite modest levels in this staging -- leaving much of this externalization to the dancers, and Lucinda Childs' cleanly executed choreography -- but still, there was his unmistakable signature in the tableaux and scenes presented.

True, the work could use some tightening on the second act, but after all these years, Sellars' stage imagery still mesmerizes, surprises, and absorbs you into his world -- making opera just as fresh and exciting as his Mozart/Da Ponte trilogy was back in the late 80's. And with upcoming stagings of Dr. Atomic at Amsterdam's De Nederlandse Opera; the Lyric Opera of Chicago; and Torino, Italy; before its MET debut, there is little doubt that Dr. Atomic will quickly establish itself as a major contribution to the repertoire.

The blast -- SF Opera Chorus

[Except where indicated, all photos on this entry by Terrence McCarthy, used with permission from the SF Opera.]

© 2005 C. Chang

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Where in the world is Peter?

2005-10-01T08:44:00.000-07:00

Me, worry? (Photo by Terrence McCarthy)

So it is the evening before the world premiere of Dr. Atomic.

And where in the world is Peter Sellars, the production's co-creator, director and librettist? Having a triple heart attack worrying over last-minute changes [p.s., there were many] and assorted details that could derail the epic premiere?

Of course not. Peter was actually in Berkeley, at the performance of Mark Morris' choreographed opera, Virgil Thomson's Four Saints in Three Acts, in appreciative support of Morris' dancers.

Looking surprisingly refreshed and relaxed, Peter greeted fans and friends alike with his usual warmth, chatting casually with anyone who approached him. "Get ready!" -- was his mischievous reply whenever the topic of Dr. Atomic came up.

© 2005 C. Chang

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Handel Haters, in Berkeley?

2005-09-30T08:20:00.000-07:00

At the Berkeley Public Library last night, Pamela Rosenberg spoke about the SF Opera's commission of Dr. Atomic, in a session moderated by my dear friend Andrea Lewis, the host of KPFA's current affairs Morning Show .

Proceedings were cordial and uneventful, until the post-talk Q&A session, when a hyperventilating old lady pounced on Pamela with the question, "Why do you hate Handel?" Visibly distressed, the unidentified questioner pressed-on, "I hated your Alcina -- why do you have to destroy Handel's beautiful music by having people trashing furniture and disrobing on stage? And after I read Joshua Kosman's review of Rodelinda, I immediately returned my tickets!"

(The accuser, of course, conveniently failed to register that Kosman actually considered Alcina one of the top ten classical music perfomances that season.)

Pamela Rosenberg, Handel hater

Always the classy one, the cornered Madame Rosenberg expressed regret that the questioner felt such way, but she actually thought the current production of Rodelinda was actually one of the most moving things she had shown during her tenure. And added credence to her statement by disclosing that David Daniels (who sings Bertarido in different productions of Rodelindas both at SFO and the MET this season) said in a panel discussion in New York that he much rather sing baroque opera in updated versions, as he feels closer to the character than in a production where he has to wear powdered wigs and breastplates. And Rosenberg further went on to defend the Stuttgart production of Alcina: "that production has become something of a cult in Europe," she said. Her company was invited to present it at Edinburgh Festival, where it was consistently praised by critics.

© 2005 C. Chang

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Atomic music -- noises from the wings

2005-09-06T12:27:00.000-07:00

Word has from spies at rehearsals that John Adams' Dr. Atomic, premiering next month at the SF Opera, is a very musical score. The character of Oppenheimer (which will be sung by Gerald Finley) in particular has a beautiful lament set as a chaccone, not unlike Dido's "When I am laid in earth." This will also mark the Peter Sellars' return to the SF Opera; he's been absent from the War Memorial Opera House since the 1992 premiere of Adams' Death of Klinghoffer.

On a lighter side (or heavier, depending on how you look at it) rumor has it that Madame Borodina gained several pounds since she was first measured for her costumes in SFO's L'Italiana. Apparently, when she came in for the actual fitting she became very distressed when she realized the costumes didn't fit the way the were supposed to. Hopefully, SFO will have something figured out by opening night.

© 2005 C. Chang

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Tropical Wagner -- Amazon Ring pics

2005-08-16T21:38:00.000-07:00

Valkyries

So I finally got around to processing all the RAW files I took with my trusty Canon 10D during my trip to the Amazon Opera Festival's Ring Cycle in Manaus, and now have arranged the images into a viewable web photo album.

Check my pictures out here if you're curious. Note that this is a personal trip album; i.e., please don't re-publish these pictures anywhere else without permission. The opera pictures are about a half of the way down.

With balcony tickets selling for as little as $4 dollars, the Manaus Ring was the first presentation of an integral Ring Cycle in Brazil, and a daring gamble for the municipality of Manaus and the Amazonas state's (the largest state in the Brazilian Federation) Secretary of Culture. The Festival came off without any major glitches, and was a resounding success in every respect.

Yes, we saw piranhas

Those of you who kept telling me before the trip that the "adventure" aspect of a Ring in Manaus took precedence over the artistic experience were quite mistaken. To be sure, there were many things that were very special about the trip itself besides experiencing Wagner's Des Ring des Nibelungen in such an exotic part of our planet. Manaus and the inconceivably huge rainforest will always be there, but to experience the Ring cycle in such a fresh and inventive production, performed so wondrously in a beautiful, intimate 700-seat theater is certainly a privilege that will not soon to be repeated. Next year, the Manaus production of the Ring will in fact travel to São Paulo (the 20 million metropolis in Southeastern Brazil), but I doubt the new venue could be as intimate or splendid as the legendary Teatro Amazonas.

Of the performances, I was mightily impressed with the Brünnhilde of Maria Russo, a fine American soprano whose career has been centered mainly in Germany and Austria. She has been involved with this project from the start -- five years in the making -- and honed in on her character comfortably with great nuance and verve. I later learned that she was not at her best health last year, when the Festival offered the first staging of its Gotterdämmerung (in anticipation of this year's Ring Festival). But thankfully in full vocal powers this year, Russo's sound was supple, buttery and round -- easily supplying the vocal impact most of us only dream of from Valkyries at the Met or San Francisco. One hasn't lived until one has heard Brünnhilde's Immolation sung from twenty feet away.

I was in Seattle when Alan Woodrow hurt his foot, and had to be substituted by Richard Berkeley Steele at the Seattle Opera's Ring in 2001, so I was glad I finally got to hear his Siegfried. In Manaus, I don't know how much adjustment Alan Woodrow made in the space, but I expected him to be almost overbearing with the amplitude of his voice. The performance actually turned out to be quite musical, and Woodrow used his volume judiciously, saving it for the moments of greatest impact. Seattle patrons this summer will no doubt appreciate that his characterization is nicely fleshed-out, worthy of the best portrayals of the role we currently have available.

Wotan was portrayed with great poignancy by Licio Bruno, possibly the best bass-baritone Brazil has produced. The noble vulnerability of his singing nurtures a quality which greatly informs the character, and brings Wotan's snarly rages into high relief. Bruno was partnered by the great Brazilian mezzo Celine Imbert as Fricka, in an intense and warm blooded rendition of the role. There was a palpable sense of ensemble from the supporting cast, an assemblage of some of the best singers in Brazil, including some voices that clearly deserve greater international exposure.

© 2005 C. Chang

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Why Ekaterina?

2005-04-10T09:14:00.000-07:00

Of all people, does anyone know why Ekaterina Semenchuk was chosen to sing at Charles and Camilla's wedding? "I had nothing to do with it," said Richard Taruskin at the Kirov Orchestra concert last night in Berkeley.

© 2005 C. Chang

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Alan Woodrow in the Jungle

2005-03-30T08:40:00.000-08:00

Alan Woodrow -- Siegfried in the Amazon

A preview for those of you going to the Seattle Ring, here is a video clip of Alan Woodrow singing the sword forging scene from Siegfried, at the Amazon Opera Festival back in 2003. (N.B., file size is 9.2MB).

This is the same production that will be seen in Manaus this coming May, at the first Brazilian Ring Cycle (see my "guide" below). This time, Woodrow is scheduled to sing in both Siegfried and Goetterdaemmerung -- in particular, I'm looking forward to the full impact of his voice at the Teatro Amazonas, a gentle 700-seat hall with kind acoustics for the voice. Another tidbit I came across informs us that, because Wagner tubas are in short supply in the Amazon, the Festival is importing four Wagner tubists from Germany.

© 2005 C. Chang

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Wagner's Ring on the Amazon: A Survival Guide

2005-03-20T08:08:00.000-08:00

Interior of the Teatro Amazonas

After I reviewed their performance of Goetterdaemmerung for Opera News magazine last year, several people have contacted me requesting information about the Amazon Opera Festival's presentation of the first integral Ring Cycle in Brazil, taking place on May of 2005 in Manaus (a large city in the heart of the Amazon jungle) . Indeed, I am planning to attend this Ring presentation myself, and since I am now in the final stages of planning my own trip, I actually have information that I can share.

This Ring will take place at the fabled Teatro Amazonas, which was prominently featured in the film Fitzcarraldo, by Werner Herzog. I'll try to post reports from the Amazon once I'm there, during the actual performances, if I am able to find a reliable net connection I can use.

I'm going down with a handful of close friends for this Tropical Ring; there will be about six of us and now we have gathered all contact info, prices, etc. of the services we will be using ourselves. Some European tour operators are offering some very expensive packages for this Ring -- in excess of 2000 British pounds, as much as the costs of attending the Bayreuth Festspiele -- so for my group, I decided to contract services directly with the locals. Note that I am not a tour agent: this information is provided as is, it is entirely your responsibility to re-check facts and tailor this info to your needs.

I also found out that the Festival did not issue a Festival brochure, they're making do with an MS Excel chart. If you are contemplating a trip, here's an overview of some info you'll need.

* DATES:

Cycle I: May 7,8,10,12
Cycle II: May 14, 15, 17, 19 (this is the one we're going to)

(Rheingold is the new production; the creative team's Die Walküre was first seen at the Festival in 2002; Siegfried in 2003; and Götterdämmerung was staged last year.)

Brunnhilde (Maria Russo) and Siegfried (Sergei Liadov)

The Gibchung's clinic

* CAST INFO

I don't have a complete/confirmed/updated cast list yet. In the Festival's previous productions Brunnhilde was the excellent Maria Russo; young Siegfried was Alan Woodrow; "old" Siegfried was Sergei Liadov; Wotan was Licio Bruno; Fricka was Celine Imbert; Hagen was Stephen Bronk; the incestuous twins Sieglinde and Siegmund were the excellent Laura de Souza and tenor Eduardo Alvarez. Alberich will be the Brazilian bass Pepes do Valle. Most of the supporting roles are by national and South American singers -- names familiar to audiences of the opera houses in Rio, Sao Paulo, and key South American venues such as the Teatro Colon.

The conductor for this Festival will be Luiz Fernando Malheiro (the Festival's artistic director), and the director and set designer are assigned to be the British team of Aidan Lang and Ashley Martin Davies.

* THE ORCHESTRA

The Festival Orchestra is made up largely of musicians recruited directly from the Eastern Europe by the state's Secretary of Culture, at the time of the Festival inception almost a decade ago. Since Manaus lacked music conservatories and or formal Music Depts. in their colleges, the selected candidates were also given permanent working contracts and teaching positions at local schools and colleges. Some of their pupils are now reaching professional status, and have begun joining the festival orchestra as full professional members as well. Of course, the instrumental requirements for a Wagner orchestra being what they are, the Festival will be contracting additional musicians from the large orchestras in Rio and São Paulo.

* TICKETS: [THIS IS COMPLICATED! Ask me for help if you are serious about going.]

How to obtain tickets if you don't live in Manaus: Call up the theater and request that they send you a ticket ordering form, which is actually not a form at all, but a list of performances and ticket prices. (I suppose I can send you a copy of mine, but only if you're really need it.)

Select the tickets you want using the ticket ordering form (the form does include a seat map/plan of the theater), then add up the cost. You have to make a deposit (via wire, or in person) at an agency of Brazil's Bradesco bank, to the following payee:

IX FAO - ASSOCIAÇÃO DE AMIGOS DA CULTURA
BANCO BRADESCO
Account no: 220.698 – 6
Branch no.: 482 – 0

Obtain a receipt for your deposit. Then, fax the bank receipt to the Teatro Amazonas, (92)622-1880 along with your seat/date request/preference. Note that VISA, AMEX and MC are NOT ACCEPTED. Ticket prices ranges from US$2 for a top floor lateral seat (purple section, see below) to a top price of about US$20 for the best box/orchestra floor seats, at current exchange rates. Assuming the American dollar doesn't keep failing, the whole Ring at the highest ticket price should set you back about $80 bucks -- enough to buy you half an admission to a single opera at the Ring in Chicago or Seattle this season.

Teatro Amazonas seat map

Beyond that, please cut the box office staff some slack -- this is after all one of the most remote regions in the developing world. At the MET, SF Opera, Bayreuth, etc., lousy patron services are unexcusable. However, civil servants in Manaus have no obligation to know what service levels opera patrons from North America and Europe expect -- they're just not trained that way.

You can also ride with the locals

* GETTING TO THE AMAZON:

And I don't mean that on-line CD shop.

Easiest way is to fly via any major American carrier (UA, Continental, American, Delta) into Rio de Janeiro (GIG) or Guarulhos (GRU) in São Paulo, then catch a flight on one of the national airlines (Varig, TAM, Gol) to Manaus (MAO). This is what my group will be doing. You'll probably have to make a connecting flight thru Brasilia to get to Manaus, RT ticket GIG-MAO-GIG, if purchased in advance, is about $300-$400 in economy.

I heard that there is a local flight from Caracas, Venezuela (which is served by major U.S. carriers), via one of those obscure regional South American airlines that use propeller powered planes. But I didn't look into that option, since my group actually wants to spend a few days in Rio de Janeiro.

Another option for the adventuresome is to get a Brazil Airpass from TAM or Varig, $400-$500 gives you four or five flight coupons, which allows you to criss-cross between the various exotic destinations in Brazil. This is a huge country (larger than continental U.S.) so flying is really the only way of covering these distances.

* ACCOMMODATIONS:

There is a wide range of accommodations, but the top establishment serving the international clientele is the Hotel Tropical owned by Varig Airlines corporate conglomerate. This is where my party is planning to stay.

The disadvantage of this particular place is that it is a little far from downtown (a 20 min taxi ride, about US$10); but the advantage is that it is a comfortable, scenic resort style complex with international service levels, next to the acidic waters (i.e., no mosquitos) of the majestic Rio Negro. The resort has its own river dock, with water and air taxi service and tours.

Costs for accomodation at current exchange rates at the Hotel Tropical is about $100 per day for a basic single apartment, $120 or so for a double, when booked through the local agent that I'm using. Her name is Cristina, and she also happens to be doing the hotel bookings for the Ring's cast, and the out-of-town Festival staff. I can provide you with her contact info if you're interested, but unfortunately no one in her office speaks English.

You can go much cheaper using business hotels downtown, but you kinda have to know what you're doing, and do your own research.

* NON-OPERATIC ATTRACTIONS:

Meeting of the waters

On days when there is no opera in the evening, there are extraordinary day trips to be taken into the mighty river, and explore the otherworldly fauna and flora from the countless tributaries. A particularly impressive phenomena happens when the dark colored waters of the Rio Negro meet with the light and muddy waters of the Rio Solimões, to form the great Amazon River proper. The two-toned waters run side by side for several miles, before mixing.

Peaking waters

Also, the Amazon rises about 40ft at its peak seasonal tide; and the wildlife (mostly birds, snakes and monkeys on trees; weird gigantic fish, alligators and pink dolphins in the rivers) becomes concentrated to the very top of the trees, so they're easily viewable by boat. The flora specimens are also impressive, particularly the Victoria Regias, a giant water lily that can grow to nearly 10 feet in diameter. The river's water levels peak around late June and July, when the oppressive summer heat starts. I think May is a good time to go, because the waters are fairly high, and the heat is still not as severe as in the summer.

Nature's show

The sheer scale of the land and geography in the region nurtures a fertile sense of wonder. It is the site of the second largest folkloric celebration in the country (after pre-Lent Carnival), the Boi-Bumba. The Boi-Bumba celebration is actually mentioned in a song that Kathleen Battle sings in that cotton-candy CD, "Pleasures of Their Company," issued by EMI before they canned her contract.

There are an estimated 30 or so tribes in the Amazon region which still have had no contact with western culture, but many of the indigenous populations have essentially turned into the urban poor of Manaus after contact with civilization. Since the record of contact is so poor, Brazil's federal office for indigenous affairs currently has a hands-off policy, of avoiding contact at all costs with remote tribes.

During opera days, you can visit the town itself. Manaus is a city of 1.5 million inhabitants, and it has an interesting history. The Amazonas state (the largest State in the Brazilian federation, encompassing the bulk of the Amazon basin and comparable in size to the entire Western U.S.) is investing heavily on museums, libraries, film, music, literary grants, and various festivals, as a strategy for regional development in tandem with its growing eco-tourism economy. These initiatives are offered as an alternative to more destructive, exploitative uses of the rainforest economy, and represent a cornerstone strategy by the state's new generation of leaders, headed by the 38-year-old new governor, Eduardo Braga. The lavish opera house is the city's calling card and the festival is iconic of this effort. It was built from the wealth of 19th century rubber extraction economy -- back when the Americans and the Germans were beginning to mass manufacture cars, and needed rubber for tires -- before rubber was synthesized from petroleum distillates.

By the way, you can see pics from my last trip here.

HEALTH and SAFETY CONCERNS:

* Safety: The usual travel advice applies. There is a lot of poverty around, but it is my personal opinion that Manaus is many times safer than Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, or NYC for that matter. Rio and São Paulo have a better tourist infrastructure than Manaus, though.

* Health: Read the Centers for Disease Control web page for the most current advice for South America pertaining to disease outbreaks and vaccinations recommendations. The CDC recommendations seem really a bit of an overkill to me, but use your judgement and make your best decision. Personally, I would only take this many vaccinations if I had a compromised immune system, or if I were in ill-health BEFORE the trip.

Diarrhea is usually the most common travel ailment, so try to drink bottled water whenever possible, and go easy on exotic raw food -- but really, no need to avoid it all together. Load up on vitamins several weeks before your trip to booster your immune response, and if you catch anything you'll recover pretty fast. The locals have immunity to most of local strains of infections diseases, but we tend to have better overall health, from proper medical care and nutrition.

Speaking of infections diseases, HIV/AIDS infection rates in Brazil have made a slow, but decisive descent from the peak epidemic levels into endemic ones, thanks to effective and well designed HIV intervention programs, targeted at high-risk populations -- so very successful that their interventions are being modeled by the WHO for implementation in other countries. However, even at endemic levels the numbers are still very high, and you must use prophylactic protection if you are planning to have sex with locals.

Happy adventures. E-mail me if you have specific questions, but keep in mind that I may not have the answer to that which you seek.

© 2005 C. Chang

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Back to home

Buy American Made Music

2005-03-12T20:32:00.000-08:00

While I agree that the SF Symphony's recently announced 2005/06 season seems unspectacular and somewhat bland compared to what we have come to expect from MTT, the naysayers point to a lack of "American Music" as the new season's defining fault. Some of the complainers point out that they have only counted two American composers in the SFS's repertoire next year.

Ok. So what? Symphonic market protectionism?

Frankly, I enjoyed the various incarnations of MTT's American Mavericks Festival as much as anyone, as well as the debate that went along with it. But I do hope we, as Americans, will find a way of getting beyond this nationalistic afirmative action mind frame as far as American music.

Heck, there's good American music being composed all over the world. Even the Europeans seem to have overcome these outdated, old-fashioned notions about nationalism, and are avid consumers of new music by American composers. We live in global world, and compositional bean-counting is just plain silly. When it comes to artistic creation, indeed, the realm of ideas (to paraphrase MTT) is indeed a lot more interesting than pure statistics.

Which is not to say that MTT won't make questionable or misguided programming choices, but I would much rather see his choices assessed on their artistic merit rather than plain flag waving and "Made in America" advocacy.

© 2005 C. Chang

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MTT's ideas

2005-03-03T22:28:00.000-08:00

Earlier this week, the SF Symphony's held a press event to announcement the new season. During the question and answer section, Charles Armirkhanian, the artistic director of the Other Minds festival, nearly stumped Michael Tilson Thomas on the podium, when Armirkhanian noted the lack of non-minority contemporary composers in the SF Symphony's 2005/06 season. "Is it even a concern in your mind," asked Chuck.

MTT, usually a compelling public speaker, seemed to be at a loss for words at first. After what seemed like a small eternity, the maestro redeemed himself by saying "I usually work with composers on the level of ideas, rather than agendas," or words to that effect.

© 2005 C. Chang

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Gockley in SF: so far so good

2005-02-20T08:20:00.000-08:00

David Gockley in Houston

So what are we to expect of David Gockley's
regime at the SF Opera, when the man takes
over on Jan. 1st of 2006?

It's a good thing Gockley has a reputation for
being a diplomat, because diplomacy will be
what he'll need when he arrives in town. His
first order of business may very well be to
appease those of us who feel that Pamela
Rosenberg got shafted, while at the same time
facing the reality that he might *not* be able
to populate the rosters of the company with
the big star marquee names at the frequency
that Rosenberg's MET-jealous naysayers are so
eagerly expecting. Besides, this more traditional
base of support at the SF opera -- the "prima la
voce" crowd -- maybe in for a shock, when
they realize that Gockley is a fearless champion
of contemporary opera.

But all the news are good so far; Gockley seems
to be a solid choice, possibly the best American
candidate currently available. And hopefully, SFO's
incoming general director will be able to articulate
a vision for the company that is not only inspiring,
but one that is also as clearly stated as that of
his predecessor (a remarkable feat for Rosenberg,
considering that she had such tentative public
speaking skills). In Rosenberg's case, her ideas
had a polarizing effect in some quarters (but oh
how fun it was while it lasted!), and Gockley may
very well need to take some similar risks as well.
Certainly, the loudmouthed constituencies of the
SF Opera will need to know what the Houstonian
wants to do with the company, before they'll throw
their support behind him.

So to pass time while we wait to hear on Gockley's
ideas for SFO, I solicited a number of reactions from
various individuals and observers, some of whom
have worked with Gockley in Houston.

"I am thrilled with David's appointment as new General Director in San Francisco! As both of these houses are dear to my heart - San Francisco for being the cradle of my development as a young artist, and HGO for being the catalyst of my heightened profile in the U.S. as an international artist - I could not be more happy that my two worlds are meeting through the appointment of David Gockley in San Francisco. I don't know of anyone else in the business who has it all - vision, administrative excellence, and the ability to get financial donors excited about opera. David Gockley is the only person I can think of who can take the helm there and not only cope but thrive. He has a lot to bring to San Francisco. I think the coming years will be a relief for some beleaguered patrons and a wonderful renewal of the San Francisco Opera into its former glory. Selfishly, I also hope to be a part of that, as I miss singing at the War Memorial! The Symphony is fantastic, but it's only one part of "home."

-- Laura Claycomb, soprano.

"I have known David Gockley for more than twenty years. His leadership of the Houston Grand Opera has been exemplary; his enthusiasm for producing opera and his leadership in discovering and producing contemporary American opera have characterized his time in Houston. He has in every respect proved a vital force in American opera. I'm sure that he will bring to the San Francisco Opera the same enthusiasm and will make a great and strong company even stronger."

-- Speight Jenkins, Seattle Opera

"I am thrilled that David Gockley will be coming to San Francisco Opera. He is the ideal combination of a director with a bold and innovative vision together with all the necessary skills to work within the community to raise money and create excitement. We in the Bay Area should be proud of having found such a perfect person for the job. His track record in Houston is second to none."

-- Nicholas McGegan, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra

"I was introduced to David Gockley when I worked for Kurt Herbert Adler during the 70s. I believe that Gockley's exemplary record of building the Houston Opera over four decades, his knowledge of opera in America and his friendship and association with the directors of the San Francisco Opera over these years equip him well to successfully meet the exciting new and bigger challenge of producing opera here in 2006 and beyond. I was especially pleased to hear him reference Spring Opera which I too was very enthusiastic about, in remembering so many wonderful productions like "Death
in Venice" and a staged "St. Matthew Passion" that Kurt Adler arranged in a smaller theater environment in the 70s."

-- Ruth Felt, San Francisco Performances

"David Gockley has done wonderful things for opera over the years he has been in Houston and I had the joy of doing my first Norma under his watchful care. His record has always been impressive and no doubt he will bring his remarkable skill, imagination, expertise and skill to a company that already has one of the greatest supporting "behind the scenes" people in the world. I wish all the best with his very blessed time in the most family like company I have ever known."

-- Carol Vaness, soprano

"Suffice to say that the man who helped bring Nixon in China into the world -- and who has been so fearless in his support for new American opera -- has to be good news."

-- Alex Ross, www.therestisnoise.com

[If you'd like to add your own opinions and views, feel free to
e-mail them to me, I'll post them here later as well.]

© 2005 C. Chang

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Off topic: Gerbils in the White House?

2005-02-19T21:36:00.000-08:00

Gerbils in the White House?

Gannon, Guckert and gerbils -- off topic, but this is just too hilarious!

© 2005 C. Chang

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The competency of baritones Christopher Maltman in San Francisco

2005-02-11T13:14:00.000-08:00

The most common creature populating our vocal recital stages is undoubtedly the baritone art song recitalist, and members of this common genus need to work particularly hard to assert any sort of individual identity or artistic imprint. British baritone Christopher Maltman’s San Francisco recital debut at Herbst Theater last night provided a clear example of why competence alone won’t suffice for entrants in this crowded field.

Maltman was the winner of the prestigious Cardiff Singer of the World competition in 1997 (the same contest which launched the careers of Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Bryn Terfel). His voice is focused, generally dark and dramatic, but carries a bright and overtone rich top. An ample volume comes easily to the singer, and I found myself thinking that perhaps he could be more judicious in his use of decibel power for interpretive impact. Otherwise, Maltman has beautiful clean diction, and is obviously thoughtful on matters of musical style.

Supported by the trusty pianist Roger Vignoles, Maltman opened a interesting but rather heavy handed set of Henry Purcell songs, including the last (and lesser known) of the composer’s three versions of If music be the food of love. The English undercurrent ran strong, as the singer then offered a reading of Ralph Vaughan Williams Songs of Travel. Maltman showed a nice affinity for these, contrasting moments of ravishing eloquence against the hollow spirit of a vagabond's endless search.

Pianist Roger Vignoles offered particularly notable partnership in the set of Carl Loewe songs, producing bouncy, prancing rhythms against Maltman's broad paced declamations in Herr Oluf. The pair's delivery of Edward was given a sweeping epic feel, with the alliterative interjections rendered with full sonorous impact. They also performed Loewe's setting of Goethe's Erlkoenig, a masterfully crafted though more restrained and self-contained version than Schubert's.

It was in the in selections by Hugo Wolf where Maltman failed to establish a greater sense of artistic originality. The reading captured the flow and rug-pull psychology of Wolf's enigmatic narratives, but interpretively found Maltman relying too much on his facility in accessing volume as a means to generate easy excitement. Maltman's concluding pair of encores, an excellent reading of Benjamin Britten's folksong setting Down by the Sally Gardens, and Flanders and Swann's humorous Have some Madeira, m'dear, reminded once again of his spirit and affinity for the songs of British composers.

© 2005 C. Chang

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Gockley it is

2005-02-07T13:24:00.000-08:00

It's official: Houston Grand Opera's current General Director David Gockley has been appointed the new general director of the SF Opera -- the sixth in the company's history. Gockley's appointment becomes effective January 1st, 2006, but he will be shadowing outgoing director Pamela Rosenberg beginning in July.

© 2005 C. Chang

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Just a day job: Fleming's Berkeley recital

2005-01-24T14:43:00.000-08:00

Renée's recent CD of Handel Arias

During the encores portion of her recital Sunday afternoon in Berkeley, Renée Fleming had some trouble offering from the stage a description of the lyrics to Strauss' song, "Morgen." After much awkward fumbling while attempting to translate the words, the divine Renée joked, "I think I'll be keeping my day job."

Problem is, Miss Fleming is increasingly treating her "day job" like a "day job." Sporting a dazzling skin colored, body hugging Oscar de la Renta gown, the soprano goes through the motions as a sophisticated star diva -- managing concert tours, gala engagements, TV and high-profile appearances with the poise and assurance of a seasoned veteran in the public eye -- yet seems a tad desperate when attempting to define her artistic self.

Accompanied by the excellent pianist Hartmut Höll, Fleming opened the recital with a set of Handelian arias, mirrowing the selections in her recent CD release. Handel provides ample opportunity for the soprano to exhibit her glorious sustained high notes, and no doubt hardcore Fleming fans appreciate these. Yet the heavy handed approach, the tremulous middle register, and above all her excessive use of portamenti provides a version of these arias that is downright bizarre. You gotta give the woman credit for trying to be interesting, but Alban Berg's Seven Early Songs and John Kander's overly sentimental A Letter from Sullivan Balou are hardly choices which suit a soaring operatic voice such as hers, or the tastes of her key audience.

I'm sure that Miss Fleming's spirit of championing contemporary composers is sincere. However, selecting something as stilted as Andre Previn's dismal The Giraffes Go to Hamburg makes her seem like a singer that tries to program contemporary music, only because that is what "serious" artists do. True, opera singers often have trouble searching and defining their non-operatic repertoire, yet it is possible to make this very search into an element which complements one's artistic identity -- as evidenced in Ben Heppner's repertoire choices at his Davies Hall recital, only a week ago. Fleming gets a lot of slack for that glorious voice and her million dollar tricks, but her overreaching repertoire simply offers no focus these days, making her soprano sound like a splendid instrument being misused.

In the concluding set of Schumann songs, the soprano found a safe environment in which could be again at ease, and regained much of her footing. Fleming concluded the recital with four encores: Puccini's "O mio babbino caro;" Morgen; Gershwin's "Summertime," and a repeat of "Cäcilie," heard recently when she appeared at MTT's birthday bash.

© 2005 C. Chang

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Denyce and Susie sounded good

2005-01-20T13:22:00.000-08:00

It was L'Incoronazione di Giorgio in DC today. The
production cost over $120 million in private and public
subsidies, and was simulcast nationwide on all networks,
except PBS. Denyce Graves and Susan Graham sounded
radiant, though their parts were small.

© 2005 C. Chang

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MTT turns 60; acknowledges partner

2005-01-14T13:52:00.000-08:00

That Michael Tilson Thomas actually turned 60 on Dec. 21 just past is but a mere detail. Yet at last night's bash at Davies Hall, the San Francisco Symphony made a convincing effort to make up for the belatedness of the acknowledgment.

The birthday boy speaks

With all the pizzazz of a celeb-filled gala event, MTT was joined on stage by Frederica Von Stade, Renée Fleming, Lisa Vroman, Audra McDonald and Thomas Hampson, with program choices that ranged from Bizet's L'Arlesienne to selections from Canteloube's Chants d'Auvergne; Verdi's "Eri tu" from Un ballo in maschera; ensembles from Bernstein's On the Town; the scherzo from Mahler's First Symphony; entries by Copland, Ginastera, and Tchaikovsky; and showtune standards by Gershwin and Rodgers & Hammerstein. Michael Tilson Thomas' own songs were also offered convincingly, in readings one a piece by the soloists.

Flicka, Vroman, MTT, Audra, Renee: More applause, please

Tom asks Renée: "How come your bouquet is bigger than mine?"

The evening's line up reminded one of Apple's new iPod "shuffle", a playlist of disjointed entries designed to accommodate the birthday boy's wishes and the celebrity performers at hand. But performances were all top notch, with both soloists and orchestra dutifully coming thru with the goods for MTT.

Lots of coyness and puffy charm to go around, but there were some genuine moments scattered throughout the evening, as MTT attempted to establish a mood of intimacy with a crowd of 3000. In particular, this was the first time (to my knowledge) that MTT, in thanking the audience and supporters, publicly recognized his partner Joshua Robison's support, from the maestro's podium. Notably, Gavin Newson was in attendance.

MTT's Bday party: Brazilian band Boca do Rio sets the beat

The concert proper was followed by another one of the SF Symphony's fabulous tented parties, decorated by Stanlee Gatti on a theme of blue and orange polka dots. Patrons danced to the Brazilian beat of a group called Boca do Rio, while drinking champagne and chomping on glazed cupcakes iced with the initials "MTT." An odd but welcome surprise was a bonus performance by a gamelan ensemble and Balinese dancers -- apparently the latest fad amidst MTT's interest pursuits.

Heck, you can do anything you want when you're 60.

MTT's Bday party: Gamelan

MTT's Bday party: Balinese dancer

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Comings and goings at SFO

2005-01-12T16:40:00.000-08:00

The proverbial rumor mill is working overtime, as the city bites its nails awaiting the SF Opera's impending announcement of the company's next General Director. The SF Chronicle's Josh Kosman openly posits that HGO's David Gockley is the search committee's top contender at the moment.

David Gockley

Assuming that the Opera's search committee wants to hire an American general director, Gockley is not a bad choice at all. The guy has a long and proven track record of fiscal prudence, great working relationships with top singers and conductors, and above all a well document spirit for innovation -- a remarkable feat given that his base of operation is in the heart of Bush country. Gockley will sometimes shoot into the dark, but is otherwise a great visionary and supporter of baroque and contemporary opera -- under-served repertoire I personally would like to see more often on the War Memorial stage.

Pamela Rosenberg

Still, most sensible opera lovers will look at Pamela Rosenberg's departure with sincere regret -- she steered the company through one of the most tumultuous and challenging periods in SFO's history, and yet she managed to produce opera that was by and large uncompromised in excitement. Inheriting a company that was set on automatic pilot towards financial disaster, she made the hard decisions -- faced naysayers with elegance and dignity, took voluntary paycuts, fired upper management, dealt assertively with unions -- and still brought us thought provoking and well prepared productions, populated with fresh, interesting new voices infused with a rich vein of personality. No other General Director has brought so much excitement in such a short tenure to one of the major American opera companies.

Meanwhile, the 2005-06 season has been officially announced -- no big surprises from what had been rumoured before. The cast for Norma looks very promising, and Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson is confirmed in the cast of the John Adams' Dr. Atomic premiere. Other season highlights include Handel's Rodelinda, with David Daniels and Catherine Naglestadt; Christine Brewer's Leonore in Fidelio; and the return of Olga Borodina, in a new production of L'Italiana in Algeri. Check SFO's website for details.

© 2005 C. Chang

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Faltering, errant panelists

2005-01-09T15:22:00.000-08:00

So I tuned mid-way into the Live from the MET Otello broadcast yesterday, and caught a portion of the intermission Quiz. The host, I gather, was Brian Zeger, and the topic was something about prayers in opera. Not sure who the panelists were. Excerpts are played, and everyone gets Musetta's prayer at the end of Boheme, and someone gets the hard one -- a prayer from Jenufa. Then, amazingly, Fiordiligi's great Rondo "Per Pieta," from Cosi fan Tutte is played.

And no one gets it right!!!

One panelist identifies it correctly as Fiordiligi, but can't name the aria. The other one, identifies the aria but totally misses the context and improvises it: "She's is praying for her lover's safe return from war," he says. The host "corrects" him, and says, "no, actually she is praying to God to give her strengh in her fidelity," or something to that effect. Of course, that is also wrong!

In that particular excerpt, one of the most amazing pieces of music Mozart's ever created, Fiordiligi is not really praying, but actually making a plea of forgiveness to her absent lover -- "Per pieta, ben mio, perdona!" -- for her errant, faltering soul who begins to weaken in her resolve.

So there you have it.

© 2005 C. Chang

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Roughly Glagolitic -- MTT does Janacek

2005-01-07T19:25:00.000-08:00

Cheerful, enigmatic and evocative all at once, Janacek's irresistible Glagolitic Mass is in many ways a disaster-proof piece. And that's a good thing, because it is a incredibly challenging piece of music -- from the trickiest of compound rhythms to the crushing tessitura of the difficult soprano and tenor solos; the challenging diction of the Old Church Slavonic text; the conductor's tight-rope act of balancing the marvelous orchestral voicings against the boisterous brassy sections; and the massive, frenzied final organ solo.

That's essentially what we had this past week at the San Francisco Symphony, when Michael Tilson Thomas brought back this marvelous piece to Davies Hall, after a ten year absence. The work's irrepressible dynamism was all there, as was the mystic moods and rhythmic vitality. I'll take energy and spirit over precision any day, yet one must note that it this was a reading lacking in polish and refinement -- sort of in the way when a crack team of musicians perform severely underehearsed.

With a poorly coordinated orchestra and chorus serving as the backdrop to an odd set of soloists, the performance suffered with persistent balance problems. Constantly, the brass section would drown out the beautiful, intricate rhythmic patterns, set against the tender and wistful melodies of Janacek's modal universe. To top it off, Thursday evening's performance evidenced the sloppiest rendition I've ever heard of the monstrous organ solo, chunky and disconnected, played by guest organist John Walker.

Still, the evening provided many new revelations. Sporting an outsized 'fro' hairdo with elegant highlights, the young Canadian soprano Measha Brueggergosman proved to be an enormously promising dramatic soprano in the making, as she offered a credible full-voiced account of her assignment. The only indication that her instrument might benefit from a more judicious maturation came in the emphatic upper reaches of Janacek's writing, when Brueggergosman pushed her tone a bit excessively in an effort -- entirely unnecessary -- to be heard above the orchestra.

The other surprise was veteran tenor Sergei Larin, whose body mass has shrunk dramatically since his last local appearances, and apparently so has his voice. He is now a Tamino-sized tenor, and against the uncompromising volume of orchestra, he stood little chance of being properly heard -- MTT could have helped him by reigning in the orchestra a bit, but apparently chose not to. Mezzo Jill Grove delivered her miniscule assignment with warm aplomb, as did Armenian bass Tigran Martirossian.

Janacek's setting of the liturgical text is a decided change of pace from the traditional treatment of the Latin Mass text. The cries of "Veruyu" (the traditional Credo in the Latin text), for instance, are not a jubilant affirmation of one's belief in one god, but rather a frightful revelation -- as if a bunch of sinners had just witnessed a miracle which makes them repent. Vance George's San Francisco Symphony Chorus seemed to enjoy itself, as it captured the work's shifting moods and proper spirit.

The first half of the evening was occupied by a delightful series of Luciano Berio's instrumental duets, written for teacher-pupil pairs. It gave MTT the opportunity to invite gifted members of the SF Symphony Youth Orchestra to perform in a main subscription concert, pairing them with the orchestra's regular members. This was followed by "Island Music," a piece by Tilson Thomas himself, scored for a marimba ensemble. Though it had obvious charms, one felt a bit captive in seated in the hall, as the plunking went on in a seemingly amorphous manner.

© 2005 C. Chang

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That was mean!

2005-01-01T11:12:00.000-08:00

Who was it that yelled "BRAVA!" at Bejun Mehta, at the
end Unulfo's aria in today's broadcast of Handel's "Rodelinda"
from the MET? That was mean... but kinda funny too.

Otherwise, David Daniels sounds fabulous as Bertarido --
and he's bringing the role to SFO next season; that alone
should justify renewing a subscription.

© 2005 C. Chang

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Another Nut in Berkeley

2004-12-02T14:00:00.000-08:00

The Brit director and choreographer Matthew Bourne's Nutcracker! at Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall is pure candy coated fun as a holiday show. But specially for those of us who are regularly spoiled by the caliber of dance programs offered at Cal Performances, this production's impact fizzles in comparison to Mark Morris' now classic Hard Nut. Given Mr. Bourne's previous high-profile outings -- his homoerotic version of Swan Lake, his homoerotic version of Carmen ("Car-Man") , his homoerotic... etc. -- this is a production that seems to promise more good old depravity and bite than it ultimately delivers.

So I felt a little cheated. Bourne's Nutcracker! feels like a two-hour long Old Navy TV commercial, and as such, the show provides wholesome yuletide entertainment for kids and more than a few chuckles for the adults. This Nut screams in desperate need of a live orchestra to elevate its stature, as the dancing is of pretty high caliber overall.

Nutcracker! plays in Berkeley through this weekend, before heading to LA and Orange County. Check out Matthew Bourne's site for more info.

© 2004 C. Chang

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Hear Lorraine's Urlicht

2004-11-29T11:40:00.000-08:00

Click here for an excerpt of Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson's Urlicht from the fourth movement of Mahler's Symphony No. 2 with MTT and SF Symphony -- offered by special permission from the SF Symphony (all rights reserved).

This is the live broadcast version; the pristine SACD recording has just been released by SFS Media, the Symphony's own private label.

© 2004 C. Chang

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Mahler's second coming at the Symphony:MTT's new Resurrection

2004-11-26T13:30:00.000-08:00

The label "Resurrection" has stuck to Mahler's great Second Symphony like a presage. More than an implicit association with the content of this opus, each generation since Mahler's has felt compelled to rediscover this piece on its own terms, pondering upon its timeless meaning, obsessing over its vast dimensions, and marveling in the miraculous manner by which it connects with the human experience. Just ask the millionaire American investment banker Gilbert Kaplan, who during the fat years of the late 20th century used his own cash to book Carnegie Hall (and hire an orchestra and chorus) to put on his own performances -- very legitimate, it turns out -- of the great Resurrection.

A quick search on the net will reveal that there are well over one hundred documented recordings of Gustav Mahler's great Second Symphony in existence, with several of them still in print. Still, one can only welcome the latest addition to this work's lengthy catalog by the San Francisco Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas, with the SF Symphony Chorus and soloists Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson and Isabel Bayrakdarian.

[An excerpt from the 4th movement "Urlicht" of Mahler's Symphony No. 2 by the SF Symphony and Michael Tilson Thomas; June 2004 broadcast version. Offered by kind permission from the SF Symphony, all rights reserved.]

Released under the Symphony's own SFS Media label as part of Michael Tilson Thomas' highly acclaimed cycle of Mahler symphonies, this is actually the SF Symphony's second recording of this massive work. In 1992, the Symphony under then music director Herbert Blomstedt enjoyed an exclusive recording contract with Decca/London, and released a very fine commercial recording with the orchestra, chorus and soloists Charlotte Hellekant and Ruth Ziesak. Appropriately enough, it also marked something of an observance of the rebirth of Davies Hall, after a massive acoustical revamp.

So what does Tilson Thomas offers this time, that Herbert Blomstedt or others haven't already? On the surface, Blomstedt's tempi are generally much faster than those of MTT. The former maestro offers a rich, thick and liquid rendition of the score, tinged with more than an occasional hint of the dense Scandinavian flavor, accentuated by Swedish mezzo-soprano Charlotte Hellekant's full-bodied sound.

MTT's new version offers a more ample, airy feel, where the heavily layered Mahlerian textures emerge with crystalline clarity, with contrasts sharpened and thunderous climaxes rendered in beautiful control and poise. Aided by a strong sense of pulse, separate elements and individual events are rendered with superb definition within Mahler's massive architecture.

As if for the first time, the listener readily notes the ominous presence of the fatidic horn calls in the early movements; or the impossible sweetness of the wistful, heaven bound melodies. At Mahler's magnificent apocalyptical landscapes, some might prefer the frenzied chaos and abandon of the Blomstedt version, but to my ears, his approach begins to sound a bit more dated than the mere 12 years since its execution might suggest.

While MTT's reading does sounds more analytical, it is nonetheless every bit as emotionally wrenching and spiritually edifying as any reading of this piece I am familiar with. Rather than stifleness, one suspects that the vibrancy and immediacy of the current reading rather comes from the clear sense of structure it provides. And above all, MTT's scored big time in his choice of Bay Area mezzo Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson as the soloist (along with a more modest contribution by the young Canadian soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian). Hunt-Lieberson's rendering of the luminous Urlicht is one of unbearable poignancy and closeness to the heart. Paired with the distant horns and William Bennett's touching oboe obbligato, the performance becomes a breathtaking musical moment.

© 2004 C. Chang

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"Aubernica" -- d'après Picasso

2004-11-24T13:47:00.000-08:00

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Runnicles' Birthday Present

2004-11-17T10:30:00.000-08:00

Christine Brewer, soprano

At Donald Runnicles' 50th Birthday concert last night at the Opera House, that snake thing Carol Vaness used as a prop for Elettra's aria "D'Oreste, d'Ajace" (from Idomeneo) was a plush toy from that IKEA store in Emeryville.

The delivery of the aria was great, but we hadn't yet seen the campiest from soprano that evening. At the concert's end, stage hands rolled out a giant birthday cake on stage, and Miss Vaness jumped out of it wearing a white low cut dress and a blond Marilyn Monroe wig, singing her own version of "Happy Birthday" on the verge of an orgasm.

Anyhow, the irony is that Donald's orchestra sounded very rough last night, but hardly mattered since it turns out maestro Runnicles' real birthday present was the awesome Wagnerian soprano Christine Brewer, making her SF Opera debut singing Isolde's Liebestod. It was a moment of re-affirmation for every Wagnerite in the house, that yes, there are voices walking among us who can do justice to this music.

We would have been happy with the Liebestod, but that Brewer and Juha Uusitalo (the current Dutchman) came back after intermission to do the final scene from Die Walküre was truly the proverbial icing on the cake. Hers is a truly "golden age" type voice, something to get really excited about. Brewer's sound soars easily over a large orchestra in the manner of Karita Mattila, but the hefty tone is rich and creamy, and her cool control of it is just amazing! One can only hope that her presence at this event signals the fact that the company has signed her on for a meaty role in an upcoming season.

© 2004 C. Chang

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Schade Shines in Schubert

2004-11-15T13:45:00.001-08:00

Michael Schade

Turns out the much heralded tenor shortage of the early 90s was just chicken little stuff.

Really, who cares that Pavarotti doesn't really have a voice anymore, and that Domingo is getting ready to collect Social Security. These days, opera companies and the world's soloists rosters can be populated with the likes of Ramon Vargas, Ben Heppner, Marcelo Alvarez, Richard Margison, Roberto Alagna, José Cura, Marcello Giordani and Vladimir Galouzine, with plenty of other names to go around. And in the horizon, we see the emergence of fresh, exciting new voices in Daniel Shtoda and Joseph Calleja, side by side with the still young careers of Juan Diego Florez, Salvatore Licitra and Rolando Villanzon.

The numbers have become such that there is even enough room for some specialization among the ranks these days. Case in point, Berkeley's Cal Performances presented on Sunday a recital at Hertz Hall by German-Canadian tenor Michael Schade, a hefty lyric voice of obvious operatic qualities, that nevertheless carries an uncommon sensibility for the art song.

Often, art song and opera don't mix well in the tenor voice, but Schade had already proven himself on both here in San Francisco, when he sang a fine David in Wagner's Die Meistersinger at the SF Opera; and when the tenor made a greater impact -- in the opinion of many, including yours truly -- than Thomas Hampson when Michael Tilson Thomas paired the two for performances of Mahler's orchestral song cycle, Das Lied von der Erde.

Accompanied by the affable Malcolm Martineau at the piano, Schade offered the crowd a voice of seamless beauty and technical ease. He opened the program with Beethoven's Adelaide Op.46, phrased with a pleasant, expansive feel, exemplifying a disciplined and well schooled approach to style.

Interestingly, Schade provided later in the program Schubert's less famous setting of this song, and yet it turns out to be a far more interesting take. Schubert's Adelaide D.95 brims with convincing intensity, while by comparison, LVB's setting becomes mere juvenile infatuation. Schade's theatrical skills soon became evident when he closed the Beethoven set with comic song, Der Kuss ("The Kiss") Op. 128, with well timed ironic pauses and long, moaning notes held in depiction of the narrator's frustration.

But it was in the Schubert set, where the singer displayed his most impeccably controlled artistry, a stylistic approach that was both disciplined and original. The famous Was ist Silvia D.891 ("Who is Sylvia," based on Shakespeare's lyrics) had a deliciously impatient, prancing and confident feeling that this beloved Sylvia woman was safely his already.

Schade's operatic training betrays him a little bit, in Trost: an Elisa D.97, when he raises both his arms in the air and booms his voice at top notes. And though the usually infallible pianism of Martineau was a tad aggressive in the gorgeous song Ganymede, D.544, the results were still quite splendid.

Franz Liszt's triptych of Petrarca sonnets brought the first half of the recital to a rousing conclusion. With ardent displays of messa di voci and impressive, crowning top notes, it was obvious that Schade was comfortable in the Lisztian environment, both in voice and temperament. The crushing, edge-of-despair torment captured by his reading were a perfect reminder that unrequited love really, really sucks.

Curiously, for a singer who is consciously trying to build his appeal as an artist in the Austro-German tradition, Schade's Strauss songs were the least effective. The grand sweep of Cäcilie lacked more translucent, colourist qualities; while the sensuous ethereality of Morgen, suffered from a slight disembodiment in the tone as the singer attempted to scale his voice down to the softest possible pianissimi. The fervent calls of "Heilig, heilig an's Herz dir sank" from Zueignung, the final Strauss selection, showed that Schade is still more at ease with the grand, declamatory statements.

The recital program concluded with a set of four Viennese Folk songs by various composers -- a bit too many bonbons & champagne for my taste, but were all nicely and idiomatically rendered. Reaffirming his affinity for Schubert's songs, Schade returned for encores with Nacht und Träume and Der Neugierige; in addition to an almost obligatory Viennese operetta offering, Franz Lehar's "Dein ist mein ganzes Herz!"

© 2004 C. Chang

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The Scotsman stays

2004-11-12T10:15:00.000-08:00

Donald Runnicles created a stir recently when he announced that he would leave the United States if Bush won the elections. (I feel his pain...) But I guess he won't be leaving after all, since the SF Opera Association has just renewed maestro Runnicles' contract thru 2009.

Some details from the SF Opera's announcement:

>>>>

SAN FRANCISCO OPERA EXTENDS CONTRACT FOR MUSIC DIRECTOR DONALD RUNNICLES THROUGH 2009

SAN FRANCISCO-The San Francisco Opera Association and General Director Pamela Rosenberg announced today that Music Director Donald Runnicles’ contract has been extended through 2009. The Maestro, whose contract was due to conclude in 2006, will remain with the Company at least though the close of the 2008-09 Season.

“San Francisco Opera continues to play a vital role in the life and community of this great city,” said Runnicles. “It has been a privilege over the past twelve years to help shape the Company and I have had an enormous enjoyment working with Pamela. I am honored to have the chance to deepen my relationship with this extraordinary organization and am excited about its future.”

“My partnership with Donald has been one of the highlights of my career,” Rosenberg commented. “His leadership of the Orchestra has been inspiring and he has contributed immeasurably to the artistic success of this Company. He is a treasure for San Francisco Opera and for this community.”

Opera Association President Karl O. Mills remarked: “Donald is simply one of the finest conductors of opera anywhere. Here in San Francisco he has brought this Company to the musical forefront. Whether it is Puccini, Verdi, Shostakovich or Messiaen, when he steps onto the podium you know you are in for something very special. He makes the music come alive with energy and emotion and brings out the full potential of all who work with him. We feel so fortunate to have him here as a key member of our ongoing artistic leadership.”

Maestro Runnicles, who turns 50 on Tuesday, November 16, will be honored by San Francisco Opera with a special birthday concert and separate gala at the War Memorial Opera House. As part of the festivities, there will be an investiture ceremony on the Opera House stage where British Consul General Martin Uden will present Maestro Runnicles the insignia of an Officer of the Order of the British Empire on behalf of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. He was named an OBE in the Queen’s birthday list of honors announced in June 2004. <<<<

© 2004 C. Chang

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Michael Boder withdraws from Macabre

2004-11-02T16:02:00.000-08:00

An emergency surgery has forced conductor Michael Boder to withdrawn from this week's performances of Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre, the SF Opera has just announced. German conductor Alexander Rumpf takes over the remaining performances starting this Friday, making his unscheduled company debut.

“Our thoughts are with Michael who is recuperating very well and is in good spirits,” says SF Opera General Director Pamela Rosenberg. “Depending upon the swiftness of his recovery, the doctors say that there is a chance he may be able to return before the final performance."

Rumpf has conducted "Le Grand Macabre" in a concert version in London, starring Willard White, Caroline Stein and Graham Clark, three of the principals who are also featured in the SF Opera's current production. The music director of the Oldenburg State Theatre in Oldenburg, Germany, he has also conducted Ligeti's opera at his company.

© 2004 C. Chang

Ligeti's car horns

2004-11-02T07:30:00.000-08:00

photo by Ken Friedman

There were a lot of funny quotes from various composers in Le Grand Macabre, in the manner of what John Corigliano does with Mozart in "Ghosts of Versailles." At the SF Opera performance last Friday, I was amused to hear several Afro-Latin beats in that car horn tocatta which opens each act of Le Grand Macabre.

I suspect the sound that Ligeti really wanted were not really car horns, but rather this Afro-Brazilian friction percussion instrument called cuica, which is like a drum with a stick attached to the inside skin. You rub resin on the stick, and it gives the sort of mocking and wailing quality that goes so naturally with those beats. Maybe Ligeti didn't know what a cuica was, or maybe he thought cuicas would be hard to find in Scandinavia. And Sweden being the land of Volvos, the car horn became the viable alternative.

Click here to hear a sample of the cuica I found on the web.

2004 C. Chang

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Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre : Contemporary opera makes fun of itself

2004-10-30T08:00:00.000-07:00

Judging from the San Francisco Opera offerings thus far into the season, you'd think Pamela Rosenberg had already left town. Yes, there were adequately rendered productions of Tosca, La Traviata, and Billy Budd, all adequately cast, in attractive stagings that were by and large realistic looking and traditional in feel -- cosi fan tutti indeed.

So it was terrifyingly exciting to welcome the U.S. premiere of Hungarian composer Gyorgy Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre at the SF Opera Friday night, and a chance to hear something that is so daringly original both musically and theatrically.

After the company announced that it was pushing back Berlioz' five-hour long epic Les Troyens to 2008, Le Grand Macabre became the season's chief artistic battle horse. Presented in a production imported from the Royal Danish Opera, conducted by Michael Boder and directed by Kasper Holten [see my last post], Friday evening's opening was an impressive achievement for the company, and another vindication of Rosenberg's artistic vision.

It is easy to see why Le Grand Macabre has achieved such a cult stature in Europe. Dubbed the anti-opera, this comedy both mocks and validates the establishment at several levels, in broad yet decisively well-informed strokes. Not even opera itself, as an artform, escapes its sardonic analysis, as the work hilariously ridicules the both excesses of contemporary opera as well as the stifling rigidity of tradition. Through it all, the work's message is ultimately a life affirming one, that somehow through our assorted individual paranoias and deep dysfunctionality, we have the capacity to survive our awkward fears, even if by merely learning to enjoy life and not take it so seriously.

There is nothing lurid or explicit on stage, yet several scenes poke fun at the banality of extreme sexual obsession in contemporary theater that is often seen on European stages -- including an S & M exchange between post menopausal characters, and a pair of lovers constantly looking for a place to do the deed. The mockery is also heightened at the musical level, right from the start with an irreverent car horn sinfonia, the opener of a score that is punctuated by rambunctious odd-ball sounds such as sirens and amplified paper-tearing.

The characters' absurdity is often rendered in amorphous, atonal vocalizations comically stripped of any melodic sense. The Berg-to-Bellini mix offers sudden shifts into outbursts of wild, hilarious stylized displays of belcanto clichés, with endless vocal roulades topped by piercing acuti held to the point where even Donizetti would cry uncle. And those of us who missed Ruth Ann Swenson's high E-flats in La Traviata will not want to miss Gepopo's act 2 bravura showdown, brilliantly rendered by German soprano Caroline Stein in a part worthy of Edita Gruberova.

Of course, for all of this to work one has to assume that the audience is "in" on the joke. At the premiere, it seemed like most of the public in attendance was in synch with Ligeti, judging particularly from the high number of elaborately costumed patrons for the Halloween weekend. Myself, it took a little while to absorb the spirit of the work early in act 1 -- having arrived at the opera house at the last minute, somewhat stressed after a rushed day -- but by the time act 2 started, I was won over and Ligeti had me completely.

Despite the chaotic feel, Le Grand Macabre actually has a thoughtfully conceived architecture. The recurring references to the Dies Irae and Latin texts serves not only as a framing device, but also reminds us that fear and anxiety are atemporal, having been with us from the beginning of time. And as crazy the characters are, each of them are clearly and individually developed early in the opera. By the time we arrive at the apocalyptical midnight hour, we feel comfortably connected with each of them as we share ther fear and dread of the approaching fatal moment. This climaxing moment is also the one place where we find Ligeti is at his most compostionally brilliant. The slapstick horsing around suddenly ceases, as the music becomes chillingly real, grotesque and truly frightful.

© 2004 C. Chang

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Macabre humor: Danish director brings Ligeti premiere to San Francisco

2004-10-29T13:00:00.000-07:00

Just in time for Halloween weekend and the U.S. elections, the U.S. premiere of Hungarian composer Gyorgy Ligeti's "Le Grand Macabre" at the San Francisco Opera is being touted by the New York Times as one of the milestones in the national arts scene this season.

Since its premiere in 1978 in Stockholm at the Royal Swedish Opera, "Le Grand Macabre" has established itself in Europe as one of the most successful operas by a living composer, a comedy which resonates broadly with the global anxieties of the Bush era. Finding great appeal with European audiences, it received various new stagings, including a highly polemical one by Peter Sellars at the Salzburg Festival.

The production that will be seen in San Francisco originated in Copenhagen, at the Danish Royal Opera, and at the center of this daunting enterprise is the unassuming 31 year-old Danish director Kasper Holten. The precocious stage director received a lot of attention in the European press some five years ago, when at age 26, he was appointed artistic director of the Royal Danish Opera, Denmark's national company and one of Scandinavia's cultural gems.

Kasper Holten

"It was something that surprised even myself," says Holten. "At the time, I was often asked whether I felt people would respect me. And in some ways, I didn't really feel fully prepared for the job. On the other hand, how could I have turned down such an opportunity?"

"But assuming a post of such responsibility at age 27 was also very liberating, as I found out. I was still in the process of forming my views on opera, so I brought no rigid preconceptions. And at that age no one expected that I would know how to deal with every situation and solve every problem. So I had a lot of excellent help."

Holten's duties as the artistic director of Denmark's national company include programming and casting decisions,administrative and budget oversight, in addition to the hands-on direction of several mainstage operas every season.

Approximately 80% of the Royal Danish Opera's funding comes from the state, which of course, is typical of the European cultural environment. The ample government subsidies enjoyed by European arts organizations frees the creative process from marketing entanglements, and allows artists the freedom to create many of the fearless, egdy and sometimes scandalous works that American companies often shy away from.

In 2002, for instance, the staging of Verdi's "A Masked Ball" by Catalan director Calixto Bieito (complete with anal rape scenes, coke snorting, and singers on lavatories) created such a huge controversy that it indirectly led to the dismissal of General director Nicholas Payne at the head of London's English National Opera.

"I have never caused any controversy on the level of Calixto's, "says Kasper. "but some of my updatings and modern stagings
have also been criticized.

"I don't have an interest in mere provocation, I like to think that in Copenhagen, my company is known for its storytelling. But
opera is an interpretive art. Perhaps the composer's directions should be followed as closely as possible the first time a work
is staged. But once a new work has had six or seven productions, we should try to see the work in different ways.

"Those criticizing modern concept productions merely wish to see psychological realism on stage. This has little to do with
authenticity, or even the wishes of the composer. If we were to mount a Mozart opera today exactly the same way as it was seen in Austria two hundred years ago, we would find it very strange. There were stage conventions, gestures and such that would no longer make sense. If a soprano, for instance, were to show her ankle on stage in the 18th century, she would have created a scandal.

"And even if we could reproduce a staging to a high degree of historical accuracy, one thing we cannot ever reproduce is the
audience! It is impossible to recreate the original audience, today's public has had completely different experiences; they have seen television, they have traveled the world, and they already know about the internet."

Otherwise, Kasper Holton feels the responsibility and honor in making his U.S. debut with such a high profile production. The story line of Ligeti's "Le Grand Macabre" is a disconnected satirical tale, with the arrival of Nekrotzar, the Grim Reaper, announcing the arrival of an imminent apocalypse. The hillarious score also introduces an unconventional collection of anxiety provoking sounds to the orchestra, ranging from a suite of car horns to amplified paper-tearing, along with outlandish dynamic contrasts in the orchestra, which conductor Michael Boder describes as sounds which mimick the strike of weapons of mass destruction.

Designed by Steffen Aarfing, the sets are inspired on Belgian comic book art, and the characters populating this staging of "Le Grand Macabre" seem to have stepped right out of Hergé Moulinsart's "The Adventures of Tin Tin." The scenic tableaus show vivid colors and exaggerated perspectives, with comic book gags such as frames within frames and "thought bubbles" deployed sporadically.

"We are in a constant state of fear," says Holten. "Fear of death, fear of destruction, fear of elections. And the always imminent end of the world."

"This fear leads to anxiety, mistrust, racism, religious fanaticism, abuse of political power, wars, and serious challenges to our well being. Though this is a serious topic, the opera offers a simple message, which seems more pertinent now than in is premiere in 1978. It teaches us to deal with life, which is so precious, with a lot of humor. If we spend all our life in fear, we forget about living."

Gyorgy Ligeti's "Le Grand Macabre" - at San Francisco Opera, on Oct. 29, Nov. 5, 9, and 13 at 8 pm; Nov. 18 at 7:30 pm; Nov. 21 at 2 pm. War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness Ave in SF. Tickets: $10-$180; call (415) 864-3330 or visit www.sfopera.com

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Met announces new General Director, and it's not Placido

2004-10-29T11:00:00.000-07:00

So the Metropolitan Opera in New York has chosen its
new leader for the post-Volpe era. It's Peter Gelb, the
51 year old CEO of Sony Classics. Details here.

© 2004 C. Chang

Video preview of "Le Grand Macabre"

2004-10-28T23:17:00.000-07:00

The San Francisco Opera just released a video
preview of Ligeti's "Le Grand Macabre," narrated
by Kasper Holten. It's available here.

2005 Adlers: New kids on the block

2004-10-28T15:35:00.000-07:00

The SF Opera Center just announced today the ten
Adler Fellows for 2005. They are:

Jane Archibald (Nova Scotia, Canada)
Kimwana Doner (Detroit, Michigan)
Nikki Einfeld (Manitoba, Canada)
Elza van den Heever (Johannesburg, South Africa)
Gerald Thompson (Pocahontas, Arkansas)
Thomas Glenn (Calgary, Canada)
Sean Panikkar (Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania)
baritones Lucas Meachem (Carthage, North Carolina)
Eugen Brancoveanu (Arad, Romania)
Joshua Bloom (Melbourne, Australia)

Archibald, Einfeld, Glenn, Meachem and Bloom are
2nd year returning Adler Fellows; the others were
selected from this summer's Merola Opera participants.

Notably, no mezzos selected as fellows this year.
These artists will be featured in a trio of one-act
operas: Pergolesi's "La Serva Padrona"; Darius Milhaud's
"Le Pauvre Matelot," and Donizetti's "Rita," all staged
by Christopher Alden for the annual Showcase
presentation, March 11-20 at Fort Mason’s Cowell
Theater.

2004 Adler's commencement

2004-10-28T14:57:00.000-07:00

The 2004 Adlers will appear together one final
time as a group on Dec. 8, in a concert entitled
"The Future is Now" at the Herbst Theatre.

Current Adler Fellows include Jane Archibald,
Nikki Einfeld, Ricardo Herrera, Katherine Rohrer,
Joshua Bloom, Thomas Glenn, Lucas Meachem
and Karen Slack. Mark Morash will lead the bunch
in scenes and arias from operas by Mozart, Berlioz,
Verdi and Strauss.

Tickets cost $20, $35 and $48; call Opera Box
Office at (415) 864-3330, or go on-line at
www.sfopera.com/octix.

Renée Fleming delivers high E's in Spain and Portugal

2004-10-18T20:01:00.000-07:00

I was at the Met's "La Traviata" in NYC earlier this year, and
imagine my shock when Renée Fleming blatantly skipped
the optional high E-flat at the end of "Sempre Libera."

Of course, she's got the notes, so perhaps she had been
them for her current Iberian tour. In concert appearances
both in Spain and Portugal, the soprano has offered the
optional, fearless high-E *natural* at the end of the bolero
from "Vespri Siciliani."

I'm sure I'm not the only one left wondering if she'll take
the optional high note at the end of "Happy Birthday to You"
next January, when she flies into town for Michael Tilson
Thomas' star -studded birthday concert.

More seriously, Madame Fleming received decent and I'm
sure well deserved praise for her overall performances. But
consistent with her appearance at the SF Opera's opening
night gala, she was also panned by Iberian critics for her
rendition of the two arias from Handel's "Rodelinda." This
does not bode well for her upcoming attempt of the role at
the Met this season.

From Madrid's "La Razon":

http://www.larazon.es/noticias/noti_esp15166.htm

> Empezó con dos arias de «Rodelinda» de Haendel,
> que no la iban nada, con la voz fría, áspera y
> coloraturas de andar por casa.

From Lisbon's "O Publico" (requires subscription):

> A principal alteração, correspondente ao novo
> disco e à rodagem para a próxima estreia no papel
> titular de "Rodelinda", foi a inclusão a abrir de
> duas árias dessa ópera de Haendel. ... Não foi
> uma troca feliz.

The case of Rio's mooning director

2004-10-10T23:42:00.000-07:00

Last month, the Brazilian federal courts effectively
dismissed the municipality of Rio de Janeiro's action
against the mooning director, and shelved the case.

Gerald Thomas -- this idiot's name is actually
"Geraldo," but he is so ridiculous that he changed
it to "Gerald," in order to make it sound more
foreign -- was the director of Rio de Janeiro's
Theatro Municipal's controversial production of
Tristan und Isolde. On opening night, the fragile
ego'd director mooned the audience and simulated
masturbation at curtain calls, in response to public
booing.

Thomas was charged for indecent public exposure
under article 233 in the Penal Code. But the presiding
judicial authorities on the matter cited that, while his
gesture was rude and tasteless, Thomas' actions did
not rise to the level of a criminal offense.

In particular, he was not seeking sexual pleasure
from his acts, but rather wanted to demonstrate that
he was indifferent to the public booing.

Standards of community decency were also invoked
in the court's decision. In Rio's libertine culture of
sexual open-mindedness, the public indecency display
in this case was a fairly mild one. Had it happened in
the smaller and more deeply religious towns in the
interior of Brazil, the offense would have carried a
greater weight. It was also argued that society provides
other mechanisms for ostracizing such indiscretions,
outside the penal code.

I think I agree with the decision. His acts were juvenile
and selfish, coming from a blatant lack of
professionalism, but did not rise to a criminal offense.

MTT's 60th birthday

2004-10-06T17:13:00.000-07:00

The San Francisco Symphony announced today a big,
star-studded 60th Birthday Gala Bash for music director
Michael Tilson Thomas on Jan. 13th, 2005. (Never mind
that his actual birthday is on Dec. 21st)

Soloists scheduled to perform include Renée Fleming,
Audra MacDonald, Flicka von Stade and Thomas Hampson.
The conductor hasn't been announced yet; but various
surprises are also planned.

Invitations to this party cost $85 to $285; or $1000 to
$2000 if you'll be wanting some food with your music.
Stanlee Gatti will decorate a tented pavillion at Lake Louise,
where the pre-concert dinner will take place.

Call Box Office at (415)552-8000 if you want to purchase
an invitation; details are also available at the symphony's
website, http://www.sfsymphony.org

The Dame complains: Kiri Te Kanawa in San Francisco

2004-10-04T21:29:00.000-07:00

During her recital tonight at Davies Hall, Kiri Te Kanawa
told the crowd that "you don't make a Dame of the British
Empire wait in line for three hours." But that's exactly
what they did to her at the American Consulate in London,
as she cued up with everybody else waiting outside on
Grosvernor Square while applying for a visa, said Kiri.

After landing in U.S. soil, she said that being an
exotic Maori, between various connecting flights she
was searched 8 times, had her baggage trashed at X-ray
scanners, and was finger printed three times.

"They asked for my index finger," she said, "but I gave
them an impression of that other finger." The audience
applauded in sympathy. She found the experience so
aggravating that she said she wouldn't be doing an U.S.
recital tour any time soon. So to her American fans, her
current tour is a temporary farewell to the 60-year old
diva, one of the 80's greatest opera stars.

Other than visa requirements, it might be wise also for
Kiri to stay home for a while, judging by the condition
of her voice. Te Kanawa still has a very polished and
classy stage presence, but the voice I heard last night
was in a bit of technical disrepair, most serious being
the wobbly intonation problems that appear when she
applies volume to the tone.

For sure, there were some nice moments to be had
through the course of the evening, but her first selection,
Cleopatra's "Piangero, la sorte mia," was perhaps the
most ill-advised. Both the recit and aria were rendered
in an excessively mannered way, with "ma poi morta,"
the bravura middle section, completely lacking in properly
articulated coloratura.

She did better with the Strauss songs, but even those
were a shadow of her former glory, as compared to the
excellent recording of these included in that Four Last
Songs CD with Andrew Davis. I had high hopes for her
three songs from Les Nuits d'ete. But there too, she
disappointed. The climactic, ecstatic declamation of
"J'arrive du paradis, j'arrive..." in 'Le spectre de la rose"
came out rather dry toned.

Dame Kiri's only uncompromised pieces in the program
were the two Wolf-Ferrari miniatures, Rispetti nos. 1 and 3.
She ended the program with two Puccini songs, "Morire"
and "Sole e amore," which carried recognizable tunes from
Boheme and Butterfly. Her two encores were a Maori song,
and Chi bel sogno di Doretta.

The ninth heaven

2004-10-01T23:19:00.000-07:00

The San Francisco Symphony's performance os Mahler's
gloriously tragic Ninth was easily the best performance
I've ever heard of this work, one of my favorites. It was
a reading to remember for a lifetime -- besting even
Bernstein's performance of this work I heard as a teenager.
Best of all, these performances are being recorded as
part of the SF Symphony's Mahler Cycle.

Thursday night, the quiet ending ending to the first
movement was magical, with 3000 people sitting at
Davies Hall in stunned silence -- no coughers!

James Keller's program notes warns us not to indulge in
excessive sentimentality in our approach to this work, but
I don't care: I want the 4th movement's Adagio played at
my funeral.

Villanzon survives Sutherland

2004-09-22T17:51:00.000-07:00

I finally caught up with the SF Opera's current staging of
Verdi's "La Traviata", starring Ruth Ann Swenson and
Rolando Villanzon.

It has been reported that Villanzon was a Merola
Opera Program participant here in SF back in 1998,
yet before hearing him tonight, I simply had no
recollection whatsoever of previous local exposure
to his name, or even the face in the pictured in the
program bio.

But last night, once Alfredo started singing, I
immediately recalled that voice in an almost eerie
way. Yes, I have heard Villanzon before, it was at
a masterclass given by none other than Dame Joan
Sutherland, sponsored by the Merola Opera Program
back in 1998. Even then, the young Villanzon had
good poise, a very memorable and distinctive dark
timbre, as well as a ringing quality that is
remarkably similar to that of Placido Domingo.

At that particular open masterclass, I remember
feeling a great urge to tell the Dame to shut up,
not because she made any xenophobic remarks
about immigrants, but because over the course of
a three hour session Sutherland had absolutely
nothing of value to impart upon the youthful singers.

She stopped Villanzon's beautiful "Pourquoi me
reveiller" every other bar, sometimes to share little
tales that had precious little to do with what was
being attempted at hand.

It was simply appalling; it was as if the Dame wasn't
interested in any of these singers, and didn't even
want to extend them the courtesy of pretending that
she was. Constantly talking about herself, she even
found a way of dissing criticism of her diction,
written some 20 years before.

Villanzon has obviously overcome that sorry session,
and his pairing with Ruth Ann Swenson in this Traviata
was very satisfying. He is shows quite a bit of stage
magnetism for a guy that's got a relatively small
physique. He sings in well shaped phrases and polished
vocalism, and like Swenson, the delivery is impressive.

Vocally, the only fault of these two is that yet every vocal
trick sounds a bit on the safe side; everything is so
securely rendered that the performance lacks a little
in "danger," and the adrenaline that comes with it.

Billy Budd: the Indomitable docks in SF

2004-09-22T10:57:00.000-07:00

I'm glad to see The Indomitable docking at so many
places around the world at once. Benjamin Britten's
opera "Billy Budd" is a very special work. It was a great
privilege to see my first live performance of this work
in such a splendid production as the one unveiled
last night in San Francisco.

Nathan Gunn is quite good as Billy, the character comes
naturally to him, and of course, he's got the ultimate
physique du rôle for the part. Nate's pecs still look
awesome, and it seems like he's been spending time in
a tanning booth, too.

But for my money, I find John Claggart by far a more
interesting character. Claggart's "O beauty, o
handsomeness goodness" is one of the most fascinating
operatic soliloquies ever written, a creepy self-analysis of
such harsh, terrifying honesty, that instead of bringing
a deliverance to Claggart, it ultimately causes his own
demise, and he takes Billy along with him. It is also
central to the opera and sends Claggart into a path of
destruction akin to that of Salieri in Peter Shaffer's
"Amadeus," when he decides to destroy Mozart, one of
God's supreme creations.

The SF Opera's Claggart was bass Phillip Ens. He delivered
a serious character study and a committed reading, but
one which didn't sound vocally ideal to me. Britten is a great
composer for the voice, and my personal preference would
have been for a little more warmth in the lyrical passages
of Claggart's great soliloquy, juxtaposed against a more
roaring, enraged verismo resonance for the character
defining declamation, "I will destroy you!"

I'd love to hear John McVeigh's current Novice at the Washington
Opera in in D.C. (I love his Emilio in the Partenope recording
from the Gottingen Festival), but tenor Harold Gray Meers did
an excellent job in this emotionally wrenching, difficult and
traumatized character's part.

The chorus also did a superb job. The choral writing in Billy
Budd is brilliant, firmly webbed to the dramatic fabric, rather
than simply in the manner of specious manifestations to
provide variety.

Otherwise, people who are skipping this opera because it
doesn't have any female dramatis personae to hit the high
notes don't know what they're missing. Besides, this being
Britten, there's always going to be cherubic voiced little boys
running around.

Ruth Ann skips E-flat, too

2004-09-21T00:01:00.000-07:00

In a perfect world, you'd have a car in every garage,
a chicken in every pot, and a high e-flat at the end
of every cabaletta. When I heard that lazy Ruth Ann
Swenson was skipping Violetta's optional e-flat (even
though she's got one), I almost stayed home to watch
the final episode of The Amazing Race instead.

To see an opulent, traditional hoopskirts and
chandeliers Traviata wihtout the e-flat is like going
to a three ring circus without the elephants.

Cosi fan tutte at SF Opera: Thus do they all in a time of war

2004-09-12T08:12:00.000-07:00

Truly stunning musical moments last night at the
SF Opera's Cosi fan tutte, the formal opening of the opera's
2004/05 season. I constantly found myself very happy
while sitting at the Opera House, and that's always a
good sign. And conductor Michael Gielen is such a
genius! This was a performance of phenomenal polish;
it felt like hearing this opera for the first time. Just goes
to show what can be accomplished with a few extra
rehearsals.

Mean-spirited NYC Met groupies nearly ran soprano
Alexandra Deshorties out of town after her disastrous
MET Constanze last year, so I was quite worried that
her Fiordiligi would be a compromised one. Nonsense.
While the great Rondo "Per pieta, ben mio" was quite
involved and exciting, Deshorties' "Come scoglio" was
simply one of the most perfect readings I've ever heard
of this aria, or even any aria, in a live performance.
Claudia Mahnke's Dorabella, Paul Groves' Ferrando, and
all others, were all in superb from. And to have Flicka
von Stade as Despina was just icing on the cake.

Of course, this was not the new production of Cosi
Pamela Rosenberg wanted to present, that one was
scrapped as a cost-cutting measure, and this was the
stop gap one. This production is set during WWI, at a
luxury hotel at a coastal Mediterranean resort town.

Director John Cox alleges that Da Ponte tells us very
little about the background of the characters in Cosi,
and insinuates that Da Ponte only sets the tale in
Naples because he wants to gain favor with his then
lady friend, Adriana Ferrarese del Bene.

Cox feels that, by setting it at an identifiable time of war,
the tale becomes more "real" because the sister's fear of
losing their boyfriends in battle is made into a point of
contact with the audience.

In fact, at the opera's final moments, Cox goes as far as
adding proceedings extraneous to the original libretto:
after all is revealed, Ferrando and Guiglielmo are actually
recalled into battle -- for real this time -- and the two
bid adieu to the sisters once again. This device also
serves the purpose that it vindicates as valid the
confusing, hurtful and ambiguous feelings that the
sisters experience, while they are caught up in the
imbroglio conceived by Don Alfonso.

Frankly, this feels like warmed over Jonathan Miller [the
obtuse English director] to me. What bothers me is not
that fear and devastation of war are not subtexts present
in Mozart's music for this opera, it is just that, as a
concept and adaptation, it is too facile, simplistic, and
blatant. So if opera is an interpretive art form, you'd hope
its interpretive manifestations could be a bit more
challenging than this.

Surely one agrees that there is absolutely nothing fun
about war, but listening carefully to the score of this
opera, one hears that Mozart's only reference to war in
Cosi is jocular music in jocular spirit, the "Bella vita militar"
chorus. A more wild and wacky konzept European regisseur
would at least have made things ambiguous and
non-sensical enough to keep you guessing, and that way
at least you could choose to ignore the unfunny war
business it if you didn't want to deal with it.

So the plot of Cosi fan tutte is pretty ludicrous. But I
believe that there has got to be more original and poignant
ways of looking at the illusion of love's permanence, or the
frailty of human nature, if one listens to what Mozart has
put into the score.

Salzburg's new head

2004-08-30T21:06:00.000-07:00

I was just informed that Jürgen Flimm was appointed today
to the top post of the Salzburg Festival, suceeding current
director Peter Ruzicka. His contract beging in Oct. 1 2006,
and runs thru Sept. 30, 2011.

Chosen unanimously by the Festival's Board of Directors,
Flimm also requested to have Peter Schmidl appointed
director of concerts at Salzburg, which the Board complied.
(Schmidl is currently the director of the Vienna Philharmonic
and the Pacific Music Festival.)

Seems like a good choice on paper. Jürgen Flimm scored a
great triumph at the MET last season, with an incendiary
production of Salome starring Karita Mattila, which apparently
everyone in the planet has seen except me. Flimm shouldl hold
up well the tradition of contemporary and concept productions
at Salzburg, though his rather middle-of-the-road approach
is much less threatening than Jossi Wieler and Sergio Morabito.

The announcement I received from the Salzburg Festival's
American representation also says that, before he resigns
from his post, Ruzicka plans to present all of Mozart's 22
operas and oratorios for the 2006 Festival, in observance of
Mozart's sestercentennial (250th) birthday.

In any case, doesn't concern me much. With the exchange rates
for the Euro at such peak levels against the dollar, it'll be a
long time before I make it to Salzburg.

About time

2004-08-16T22:00:00.000-07:00

It's good to be here, thanks for reading!

Ching Chang