Music News
A Hero in a Class of Her Own
Most likely, she was “the last opera star you saw on TV,” writes Steve Metcalf about Beverly Sills. And therein lies sadness beyond the individual loss of a great artist. Of the hundreds of obituaries written about the death of “the American soprano,” Metcalf’s article, in the The Hartford Courant perhaps best captures a larger cultural significance of the life and death of a great lady we knew by her childhood nickname: Bubbles.
Whenever somebody important in the arts dies, especially someone I’ve personally admired, I tend to melodramatically think about how that person will be irreplaceable.The death of Beverly Sills, who succumbed to lung cancer a few days ago at 78, got me thinking about the irreplaceableness of an entire category: The serious artist who is also a popular hero.
“Hero” is the right word, I think. Millions of ordinary people in this country and around the world revered Beverly Sills, not because they had necessarily ever seen her complex and poignant portrayal of the title character in The Ballad of Baby Doe, or heard her spectacular vocal agility in Rossini’s The Siege of Corinth. Rather, they admired this woman because she was a genial, charming, and passionate advocate for music and the arts, and because she made the arts seem human and approachable.
Crucially, though, Sills was only able to make an impression in the wider culture because she was permitted a regular and ongoing place within it. …
Beverly Sills
The press, in turn, is less and less interested in covering anything that hasn’t been precertified by television. Except, strangely, to call attention to its own indifference: There have been several widely circulated stories recently about the many newspapers (and in all honesty, this newspaper is one of them) that have reduced or eliminated their coverage of the serious arts, particularly music.
This is an issue that has been years in the making, of course, but with Sills’ passing, the landscape looks suddenly and unexpectedly barren. Her successor, at least in her role as arts cheerleader-in-chief, is not even remotely in view. …
Sills has been rightly hailed in the past few days as someone who preached and embodied a single message: that the arts are essential, and that they belong in the life of every human being.
But if our vast news and entertainment machine is no longer interested in conveying that message, then perhaps it will turn out that Beverly Sills was, though not exactly in the way she would have wanted, irreplaceable indeed.
Sills appeared in San Francisco between 1953 (as one of the Walkyries in Die Walküre and the Fifth Maid in Elektra) and in 1977 as Elvira in I Puritani, following a 1976 Thaïs title role. If memory serves, the much beloved singer received poor reviews in those last two years, and she retired from the stage in 1980.
Mozart for Free
Robin Hansen, concertmaster of the Midsummer Mozart Festival (ready to launch its 33rd season, July 19-29), is giving her fellow musicians a bit of a warmup this week. San Francisco music-lovers will have the opportunity to attend a free concert downtown. (Hansen, incidentally, is the daughter of Robert Hansen, who was a trumpeter in Golden Gate Park Band for 27 years, and conductor for 26 years after that.)
To be conducted by festival founder/director George Cleve, the free concert by Noontime Concerts — July 11 at St. Patrick’s Church in San Francisco — will use a chamber orchestra of strings and two horns in the performance of the Divertimento No. 15, K.287.
Jamason to Direct Bach Choir
The new artistic director for the San Francisco Bach Choir is Corey Jamason, the third artist in the organization’s 72-year history to hold the post with this, the oldest continuing community choir in the Western United States. He succeeds David Babbitt, who held the post for over 20 years before his death last year. Waldemar Jacobson founded the organization.
Jamason is professor of music at the San Francisco Conservatory, where he teaches early music performance practice, music history, harpsichord, and continuo. He has conducted groups including the Conservatory’s Baroque Ensemble and its annual Baroque opera and oratorio productions, as well as Theatre Comique, an ensemble specializing in 19th- and early 20th-century American musical theater. Also a harpsichord player, Jamason performs both as a soloist and a chamber musician.
Corey Jamason
Musical Dollar Figures
Adaptistration, Drew McManus’ classical music industry blog, has published nonprofit organization tax reports for 2004-2005, which show that for the first time, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Daniel Barenboim was one of two American symphony music directors to earn more than $2 million in annual compensation. Barenboim, also music director of the Berlin State Opera, has since quit Chicago, where he earned more than $2 million. The New York Philharmonic’s Lorin Maazel received $2.6 million.
In third place is San Francisco Symphony’s Michael Tilson Thomas ($1,636,218). Boston Symphony’s James Levine earned $1,592,000, Philadelphia Orchestra’s Christoph Eschenbach, $1,546,000, Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Esa-Pekka Salonen, $1,339,500, and the Cleveland Orchestra’s Franz Welser-Most, $1,232,515.
Symphony executive salaries in fiscal 2005 looked like this:
1. Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Deborah Borda — $1,325,542 (on an $80 million budget)2. New York Philharmonic’s Zarin Mehta — $767,807 ($51 million)
3. Cleveland Orchestra’s Gary Hanson — $559,227 ($43 million)
4. Cincinnati Symphony’s Steven Monder — $530,383 ($34.7 million)
5. Boston Symphony’s Mark Volpe — $476,122 ($73 million)
6. Atlanta Symphony’s Allison Vulgamore — $443,812 ($29 million)
7. San Francisco Symphony’s Brent Assink — $406,000 ($52.5 million)
Festival Opera’s Big Do
Walnut Creek’s small, but gutsy Festival Opera is in the news again, this time with a more-rare-than-hen’s-teeth enterprise of the West Coast premiere of a contemporary opera. Ned Rorem’s Our Town takes Thornton Wilder’s famed play as its text. To be conducted by Michael Morgan and directed by Beth Greenberg, the opera will be performed four times between Aug. 11 and 19, at the Lesher Center for the Arts.
The cast includes some outstanding young singers and Merola graduates, including Marnie Breckenridge as Emily, Thomas Glenn as George, Richard Byrne as the Stage Manager, Kirk Eichelberger as Dr. Gibbs, David Cox as Mr. Webb, Marcelle Dronkers as Mrs. Webb, Patricia Houston as Mrs. Gibbs, and Darla Wigginton as Mrs. Soames.
Thomas Glenn and Marnie Breckenridge
in Festival Opera’s Our Town
Photo by Denny Weigand
Bye, Bye Summer Opera
With a twist on the convention of reviewing first nights, here is a trio of reports on last performances, the June 29 – July 1 final presentations of San Francisco Opera’s “Summer of Passion.”
1. Ultimate Tauride
The San Francisco Opera’s final performance of Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride on June 20 provided a rare experience. It was not just a whole exceeding the sum of its parts — it was a total triumph that made its parts virtually immaterial. It was the kind of event when you stop taking notes and just give in to the magic.
Beyond the magnificent work and beyond a great performance, what permeated the War Memorial was the essence of Greek theater (the source of “Iphigénie, complete with ever-losing battles against the gods, mayhem, suffering, deus ex machina — the marvelous Heidi Melton as Diane — and, yes the brightly lit release from the darkness at the end, and with it, catharsis). It was more than entertainment — you felt as if you were back in an amphitheater of antiquity, at one with the community, at a kind of religious ceremony, breathing together in utter silence for two-and-a-half hours, and then exploding in a wild celebration.
Gestalt, fusion, call it what you will, the ultimate Iphigénie en Tauride turned out to be the ultimate in operatic experience. The components: Gluck’s powerful, weighty, “important” music, directed superbly (if not flawlessly) by Patrick Summers. The Opera Orchestra was at its best, and Ian Robertson’s Opera Chorus beyond its best — scary in its greatness — shaded, powerful, otherworldly, in turn.
The claustrophobic, black-on-black Robert Carson production was overwhelming: It set up the work for the “religious ceremony” that evolved. The writing — and erasing — of names on the walls is a risky idea, but it worked. Jean Michel Criqui’s stage direction, with Phillipe Giraudeau’s breathtaking choreography, Lawrence Pech as ballet master, and Jonathan Rider’s fight scenes, all came together.
Above all, of course, came wave upon wave of “that music” from the pit and the stage. It was relentless, dramatic, and moving. Summers marshalled great forces, maintained tempo, balance, and dynamics with consistency. Except, and that’s why the “not flawlessly” caveat appears above, in two fast-and-furious, great arias in the first act, by Thoas (Mark S. Doss) and Oreste (Bo Skovhus). Summers “stepped on” the singers. He had the orchestra pace the music instead of allowing the vocal line to lead. It was disappointing (especially as those two arias happen to be personal favorites), but immaterial.
Being picky again — with the repeated acknowledgment that it didn’t matter — “our” Susan Graham, who sings Iphigénie so musically, so gloriously, is somewhat underpowered for the role. The ideal voice would have more heft and edge, perhaps even a bit of Electralike “ugliness.” Great diva that Graham is, she cannot begin to sound ugly. Doss, too, could have used “more,” but Skovhus turned in one of his best, most consistent performances here, and Paul Groves’ Pylade was marvelous.
Adler Fellows and soloists from the chorus all did their parts. I noticed a group of young people in the audience nearby, who looked as if they were nervously getting ready for their first opera. There was not one peep out of them all evening. Their eyes were glued to the stage. They were caught up in the event. It might have been their first opera, but my guess is that they will come back many times, in search of a similar experience. It may take a long time to recapture the feeling, but it’s a worthwhile quest.
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Susan Graham was Iphigénie in the stark
Robert Carson production
Photo by Terrence McCarthy
2. A Night of Seductions
Appropriately enough at the last performance of the San Francisco Opera’s summer-season production of Don Giovanni on June 30, there were some seductive happenings.Donald Runnicles: After watching his work here for 17 years (my, how time flies), I took special notice at this performance of what a peerless accompanist he is. The orchestra — although overall not as brilliant as on opening night — embraced and supported every voice and each ensemble with passionate artistry. Not only did Runnicles cradle Charles Castronovo’s gorgeous semiwhispered “Dalla sua pace.” But also in the quiet duets and trios that channeled Così fan tutte, the conductor made the music shimmer underneath the voices, giving them a special glow. It may be just my impression, but the always outstanding Wagner/Britten “specialist” has grown greatly in Mozart.Mariusz Kwiecień: Once again, this swashbuckling, supermacho Don favored his gently beguiling voice where appropriate, making putty of both Claudia Mahnke’s Zerlina and most of the audience with a double-X-chromosome-filled “La ci darem la mano.” Mahnke, in turn, did her own seduction of Masetto, both effectively and hilariously.Elza van den Heever: Unlike the opening-night substitution hoopla, this eighth performance showed a decidedly promising Donna Anna in the making. She pulled back on volume and improved on musicality, “showing off” her big voice moderately. It may be a passing phase, but the singer with all the chest voice in the world relied mostly on head voice in “Or sai chi l’onore.” Once the voice comes from the right place and is more in service of the composer, there will be an awesome Donna Anna (and all-purpose Wagnerian soprano).David Gockley: Qualitatively and quantitatively, this has been an outstanding summer season. On Saturday evening, it was a full house — for Mozart in the summer, at the end of the run, after seven previous performances, no less. Wading through an unusually large standing-room crowd made me curious about facts and figures, and this is what I got from the box office: all 3,148 seats sold, and all 200 standing-room tickets were gone. Add a good crowd of standees with house passes, and in all, you could see some 3,500 people — for Mozart, in summer, at the end of … and so on.With ticket prices ranging from $25 to $205 — and even allowing for $30 discounted seats for students and seniors (who, by the way, are 65-and-up, unlike the S.F. Ballet’s arbitrary and unfriendly 68-and-over policy), $10 for standing room (versus the Ballet’s $20) — filling this huge house is still a great challenge. These summer sellouts are proof of Gockley’s ongoing seduction of the city.
Elza van den Heever (kneeling) and Charles Castronovo (right)
in Don Giovanni
Photo by Terrence McCarthy
3. From the Greater Rosenkavalier Collective
At the final San Francisco Opera Der Rosenkavalier on July 1, there were no stars, just fine contributions, and a united effort to serve the music. There are other ways to approach this work, but Donald Runnicles’ quiet, subtle, and shimmering Strauss was as enchanting as if Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and some of her greatest contemporaries had populated the War Memorial stage.With great singing stars, you get numbers and moments. In Runnicles’ execution, there was three-and-a-half hours of spellbinding music — a more than fair exchange. It was a mellow and romantic, but not a saccharine-sprinkled performance. It was the kind you don’t ever want to stop, with long lines unfolding, shining, warming the heart. It was the orchestra’s Rosenkavalier: The musicians played superbly on this last of a monthlong marathon of performances, and — as in the previous night’s Don Giovanni — they supported the singers consistently.Runnicles must share credit for this true ensemble performance with the singers, who could have botched it all up for the sake of individual glory. Great contributions of restraint, upholding the priority of music, came from such principals as Joyce DiDonato, whose Octavian adjusted generously (and effectively) to Martina Serafin’s pretty, wise, and appealingly simple but less than (vocally) exceptional Marschallin. Kristinn Sigmundsson’s tremendous Ochs, the Icelandic giant (with a voice to match) played a nasty pussycat — no, tomcat — instead of Golem-in-breeches, and was more indefatigably amorous than just obnoxious, not for a moment huffing, or puffing, or blowing down the walls.His wishful waltz at the end of Act 2 was downright endearing. In the case of the wonderful Sophie, Miah Persson, it’s hard to say if what we heard was her real voice or the one adjusted for this toned-down performance. But it didn’t matter. Her interaction — dramatic and musical — with DiDonato and Sigmundsson was joyously believable.Only one cast member came close to breaking out of this Runnicles-and-self-imposed mold of a “serene” Rosenkavalier. Adler Fellow Heidi Melton (the goddess Diane in Iphigénie en Tauride) took the last-minute assignment of Marianne (when Elza van den Heever became the postdress Donna Anna). She produced a duenna with Frederica von Stade’s charm and Birgit Nilsson’s voice — if you can hold those two ideas simultaneously. And yet, there is no criticism here: Melton, too, held back and fit into the production. But it was impossible not to sit up and take notice of that powerful voice in a brief and minor role. The permanent smile on the face of the listener this afternoon only deepened upon observing the moment that will be remembered as “when Melton sang Marianne.”
Der Rosenkavalier, Heidi Melton on the left
Photo by Terrence McCarthy
Honor Thy Local Opera Connections
Globe-trotting opera fan Ed Gordon writes that San Francisco Opera’s “musical quality-control this summer was at a very high level. Often, there is a dud among the three. Not so this time.”
But at the same time, Gordon wonders about what he sees as the long-standing avoidance of “integrating Bay Area-related culture into some of the programming.” His suggestion:
I’ve seen two productions of Ernest Bloch’s Macbeth, and I find it to be a powerful work, undeservedly neglected except for in some European theaters. The Vienna production I saw will remain fast in my memory because of Susan Bullock’s Lady Macbeth and (surprisingly) the Macbeth of Donnie Ray Albert; he had a brilliant success in the role. If nothing else, San Francisco audiences deserve to hear Susan Bullock, a new face in the hoch-dramatische field. And there’s nothing wrong with inviting Donnie Ray Albert back after his run of Porgy many years ago.The Bay Area connection here is a musical one: Bloch, of course, was on the Berkeley faculty, from 1940 to 1952, and he taught at the S.F. Conservatory in 1924. Another item is the only opera (to my knowledge) that is actually set in San Francisco: Franco Leoni’s 1905 L’Oracolo, which uses our Chinatown as a locale and which had a successful and long run at the Metropolitan — 55 performances over 13 seasons, all with Antonio Scotti. Tito Gobbi made a recording of it late in his career with Joan Sutherland. It’s one act, and would go well with another one-act verismo work for a high-voltage evening.
For what little Old World culture that remains in this country, the locals should have an idea of just what this area has produced in the past. But I stop short of campaigning for a reprise of Angle of Repose.
Behold the Grotrian Duo Grand
In this world of “the bigger the better,” it’s hard to beat the Grotrian Duo Grand, which consists of two grand pianos unified by a soundboard bridge and a double-size lid. It was shown, admired, and even played Monday evening at Kohl Mansion. The occasion: the first international piano duo festival in America, to honor Milton and Peggy Salkind, and featuring musicians from the Baltic States, Russia, Eastern Europe, Australia, and the U.S.
Kohl was the setting for the closing concert of the festival. The Tosheff Duo, Duo Pianistico di Firenze, the Oleyuria Duo, the Angelo Duo, Veri and Jamanis Duo, and the Riga Duo performed works by Carl Czerny, Manuel de Falla, Anton Rubinstein, Aram Khachaturian, George Gershwin, Manuel Infante, George Cables, and William Bolcom.
The really big Grotrian Duo Grand
42nd Street Moon’s Big Gala
Robert Commanday reports:
Good old Maimonides had it right: “If you are not for yourself, who will be for you … and if not now, when?” That grand San Francisco institution, 42nd Street Moon, now in its 14th year, stood up for itself with a vengeance on June 27 at the Alcazar Theater, and it smothered its devotees with a marathon gala, which was a fundraiser, of course.By marathon, I mean three-and-a-half hours and 47 tunes from 42 different Broadway musicals and revues. If the gala could have used an editor and a writer, it was hardy an imposition. First, because all there were true believers, fans, followers, aficionados, addicts, and buffs. Second, where else would you hear such treasures as “Never Will I Marry” from Frank Loesser’s Greenwillow, which was sung by one of the evening’s five guest stars, the dynamic Marcus Lovett (from the Broadway casts of Phantom, Les Mis, Carousel)? Where else would you hear, distinctively sung by guest Andrea Marcovici, “It never entered my mind” or “Little girl blue” from Rodgers and Hart’s Higher and Higher and Jumbo?
Don’t know or remember those shows? Chances are most of the other musicals represented by single jewels last Monday wouldn’t ring a bell either. That’s 42nd Street Moon’s business: keeping alive, and thereby preserving the great American tradition of the Broadway musical by presenting staged concert performances of the 1920s through the 1970s.
It is the second-oldest company in the world with this specialty, and one of four active in this country. 42nd St. Moon has been doing it in San Francisco’s Eureka Theater since 1993, at the rate of five to 10 productions a year. A few of those dozens of classics here saw their first light of stage since their original Broadway runs. One was an actual premiere, Jerome’s Kern’s long lost Three Sisters given here in 1934, 61 years after it was created.
A guiding guru who chose most of the music for this was its cofounder and coartistic director Greg MacKellan, the evening’s director, occasional emcee, and singer. MacKellan is a lifelong collector and fancier of the genre. In fact, as he revealed, while in his 30s, he shared his discoveries with a neighbor, Andrea Marcovici, at the dawn of her cabaret career. Together with him, Stephanie Rhoades, his partner as cofounder and coartistic director, led the Moon veterans in last Monday’s gala, singing “Something for the Boys” (Cole Porter’s show of that name) with another of the company’s early birds: Caroline Altman plus Nina Josephs. They sang “Why Was I Born” (from Kern-Hammerstein’s Sweet Adeline and, with MacKellan, led off the gala finale, “Experiment” (from Cole Porter’s Nymph Errant).
A guest star of remarkable presence and projection was Klea Blackhurst singing “Why Oh Why” and “Hallelujah” (from Vincent Youman’s Hit the Deck). Debbie De Coudreaux (Moulin Rouge in Paris, Show Boat, Grand Hotel) sang affecting performances of “Thief in the Night” (from Schwartz-Dietz’ At Home Abroad) and “Right as Rain” (from Arlen/Harburg’s Bloomer Girl). Guest Judy Butterfield (”Judy Sings Judy,” recording) made a good contribution with Bob Merrill’s “Henry, Sweet Henry.”
The company cast of 16 was top-notch, led by other veterans such as Bill Fahrner, from way back, Darlene Popovic, and Kelly Houston. Supporting most performances was the company’s remarkable, live-wire music director/pianist, with fine assists by the visiting guest pianist Shelley Markham. Both were backed much of the time by the excellent bassist Daniel Fabricant. It was a night to be treasured. If only it had been recorded.
Janos Gereben (janosg@gmail.com) is a regular contributor to San Francisco Classical Voice.
©2007 By Janos Gereben, all rights reserved.