Opera Chic

The San Francisco Opera's Against-All-Odds Dutchman

An opera is only as good as its lead diva's/divo's health (when in doubt/duress, bring in a shock & awe director or a preening conductor), but dehydrating air travel, hotel swapping, restaurant roulette, meet & greet with touchy-feely fans, off-kilter hours and daily misting under collegial spit thrust our beloved singers into germ-ripe environments overrun by lackadaisical antibiotics. ♪ It's like raa-aaaai-ain on your wedding day ♪

Regardless of how it has affected the new generation of artists (you can ask Pappano about that), the Gheorghiu/Alagna/Villazon imprint of rewarding unpredictable artists, doctor's notes and un-punched timecards with fat contracts drafted by opera's biggest intendants (hello The Metropolitan, Vienna Staatsoper and Salzburg) has moistened the disappointed masses, stars in their eyes turned to white dwarfs, intermissions exited for scavenged dinner. Sure, the stakes and profits aren't as big as in professional sports, so what's the incentive aside from the paycheck for singing through sickness -- Pride? Integrity? Don't ask this guy. After all, aren't these the impressionable teens of the Gung Ho generation? Ok, fair enough -- it wasn't released in Romania.

We're sure it's complicated and we'd never wish for an artist to jeopardize their long-term health, so when feverish artists show up (but not dangerously-so), we're always in awe, like what happened at last week's Der Fliegende Holländer in San Francisco that bowed against all odds -- like how Gockley canned the director (Petrika Ionesco) and revised 40% of the production kit with in-house staff and how the original Senta withdrew, citing ~illness~, which hurled American soprano Lise Lindstrom towards her house debut. Who knew that opening night had brought Lindstrom to her knees with strep throat (we didn't but they wrote about it here)? At the end of the pre-production nightmare (Mercury's in retrograde, right?) for Wagner's short-but-hairpin-curve opera, Lindstrom and Greer Grimsely in the title role both elicited favorable reviews, despite the improvised staging.

(Photos: Cory Weaver)

John Martin's San Francisco Opera Ring Portraits

(Above: Swedish soprano Nina Stemme by John Martin)

It's only fitting that in a city as cool as San Francisco you'd have an opera super who devotes his off-stage career to even cooler things. Putting the super into super, San Francisco Opera Supernumerary John Martin shares his intimate portraits of the SFO's Wagner Ring headliners, currently running at the War Memorial Opera House.

San Francisco Opera's Ring Cycle opened a couple weeks ago on May 29th with Siegfried, followed by Götterdämmerung. Last night, Das Rheingold premiered to be followed-up by tonight's Die Walküre, one of the Ring operas that we have a sweet spot for.

Donald Runnicles conducts the Francesca Zambello production, in co-production with Washington National Opera. Brünnhilde is sung by Nina Stemme, Wotan by Mark Delavan, Sieglinde by Anja Kampe, and Siegmund by Brandon Jovanovich.

(Above: Amelia Earhart's got nothing on the Valkyrie sisters -- photo by John Martin)

Tomorrow's Stars -- But You Don't Have to Wait Until Tomorrow: Merola Opera Program

(Above: soprano Nadine Sierra and tenor Daniel Montenegro)

This past weekend at San Francisco's War Memorial Opera House, twenty-five young, aspiring opera singers from the 2010 Merola Opera Program sang in the Grand Finale concert after participating in an 11-week training program. Ok guys now that the program is over, get your party on! Eat spicy take-out after midnight, french kiss random strangers, and scream yourselves silly in drafty, all-night karaoke bars! 

(Above: Alexander Lewis and Janai Brugger-Orman)

(Photos:Kristen Loken)

Nicola Luisotti On "The Conductor's Time Machine": The Opera Chic Interview

 
(photo Terrence McCarthy)

Italian Maestro Nicola Luisotti may still be only a few months into his official tenure at the San Francisco Opera as new Music Director (taking over ~The Runnicles's~ 17-year reign), but he's already shaken-up the Bay City in his own way. In an attempt to return to an Italian opera repertory, SFO has certainly picked the right dude: Born into a fabulously well-connected Italian family in Viareggio (in Tuscany), his great great uncle enjoyed duck hunting on Lago di Massaciuccoli with Maestro Puccini. How's that for an enviable musical legacy and/or awesome bragging rights? He's paid his dues and earned his conducting chops already at Milan's Teatro alla Scala (rehearsal pianist and assistant conductor), Florence's Maggio Musicale (a member of the chorus for their festivals), and at Venice's La Fenice (as a chorus master).

Although now a lover of everything West Coast, the Italian translpant still finds time in his schedule to make plenty of appearances on his native soil. He's leading Teatro Comunale di Bologna's prestigious season-opening ceremonies (this Saturday, January 16) with his powerful Strauss, zapping the audience into submission with a Salome stunner (with Swedish-American soprano Erika Sunnegårdh replacing a 12th hour cancellation from German soprano and OC-fav Nadja Michael) and all-around talented cast. If you can't be in Bologna on Saturday night, you can catch the performance in a live simulcast at select theaters.  

Maestro Luisotti spoke right before his Bologna Salome with Opera Chic in his native Italian. Sucks for you if you don't speak Italian! <-- Just kidding! Opera Chic presents the interview in both Italian and English. Remember, all translations copyright Opera Chic, k thx!

Click the link below to be transported to a world of time-travel, Verdi's Attila, a window into San Francisco, and how a maestro needs to keep it real.

San Francisco Opera Promises Oh So Much More for Next Season

San Francisco Opera General Director David Gockley announced the ambitious line-up for the company's 2009-10 season earlier today, and it's chock full o' star power for their upcoming 87th season. We can expect gorgeous appearances from Diana Damrau, Nadja Michael, Sondra Radvanovsky, Patricia Racette, Nina Stemme, Deborah Voigt, Stephanie Blythe, Juan Diego Flórez, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky.

Incoming Music Director, Puccini man Nicola Luisotti (taking over this summer from Donald Runnicles's 17-year-reign), has been saddled with the company's new agenda to return to an Italian opera repertory, and will inaugurate it with an auspicious David McVicar production of Verdi's Il Trovatore on September 11, 2009.

More plans include three commissions by American composers Christopher Theofanidis, Mark Adamo and Jennifer Higdon, a June 2011 Wagner Ring Cycle, and two free simulcasts (Tosca and Il Trovatore) in the San Francisco Giants's baseball stadium. Visit the site for more details.

San Francisco Opera: The full 08-09 season schedule

Good stuff in the cartellone for the new season of San Francisco Opera:

   The fall season opens Sept. 5 at the opera house with "Simon Boccanegra," starring Hvorostovsky and Frittoli; Runnicles conducts. "Simon Boccanegra" continues through Sept. 27.

The season, the company's 86th, runs 9/5/08 to 7/5/2009, with 78 performances of 11 operas.

Nicola Luisotti: Hunting with Puccini

This past Tuesday, forty-five year old Italian Maestro Nicola Luisotti has been appointed the new Music Director of the San Francisco Opera, and will assume his new position with the 2009-10 season. He will succeed Donald Runnicles. SF Opera General Director David Gockley said in a statement, “Nicola Luisotti is the ideal music director for the next stage in the company’s life, a passionate music maker who is especially experienced in the Italian repertory.”

Endearingly stated by the incoming Maestro Luisotti:

"Era stato il mio sogno quello di tornare a lavorare a San Francisco. Considero un grande privilegio dirigere l'orchestra di questa città così piena d'incanto, di tradizioni culturali. Mi piace la gente di San Francisco. Mi piace tutto di questa città."

Translation, "It had been my dream to return to work in San Francisco. I consider it a great privilidge to direct the orchestra of a city that is so full of enchantment, and of cultural tradition. I like the people of San Francisco. I like everything about this city."

Of Luisotti's cultural legacy and involvement with music, he gave an interview with Corriere a few years ago, and shared an anecdote of previous summers that his family passed with Maestro Giacomo Puccini:

"Mio nonno andava a caccia di folaghe in barca sul lago di Massaciuccoli con Puccini. E a Bergeggia, in Lucchesia, dove sta la mia famiglia, Puccini veniva sempre a sentire il gioco delle campane. Dall' epistolario ho appreso che lì ha tratto l' ispirazione per l' inciso delle campane all' alba nella Tosca".

Translation: "My great great uncle would go duck-hunting in a boat on the lake of Massaciuccoli with Puccini. And to Bergeggia, in Lucchesia, where my family was, Puccini came always to hear the playing of the [church] bells. I later learned from his letters that he got the inspiration of the bells in Tosca from hearing them when he stayed with us."

In bocca al lupo al nuovo Maestro!