Music News
Rózsa: Cinematic Centennial Celebration
Born in Hungary 100 years ago, and one of the greatest composers of Hollywood’s best years, Miklós Rózsa is about to have a festival of his films in San Francisco’s Castro Theater.
Acknowledged early in his career by Richard Strauss and Ernst von Dohnányi, Rózsa’s contemporaries in Hollywood included Erich Korngold, Elmer Bernstein, Alfred Newman, Dimitri Tiomkin, Franz Waxman, Victor Young, Bernard Herrmann … and, among the numerous composers Rózsa tutored: Jerry Goldsmith. What an incredible (if incomplete) list. Today’s roster would read: John Williams, Philip Glass, and Danny Elfman — you don’t need to be nostalgia-bound to say that it’s not like the good old days. (But look out for Anne Dudley — there is potential there.)
Rózsa, who died in 1995, will be honored on his centennial with a proclamation presented by the Hungarian Embassy on the Castro stage on Dec. 29. Participating in commemoration are Rózsa’s daughter, Juliet, and film historian Steve Vertlieb.
The programs:
- Dec. 26 — Spellbound, 1945 (Hitchcock; Bergman, Peck); Last Embrace, 1979 (Demme; Margolin, Scheider)
- Dec. 27 — The Killers, 1946 (Siodmak; Gardner, Lancaster); Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, 1982 (Reiner; Martin)
- Dec. 28 — The Strange Lives of Martha Ivers, 1946 (Milestone; Stanwyck); Madame Bovary, 1949 (Minelli; Jones, Heflin)
- Dec. 29 — Ben Hur, 1959 (Wyler; Heston)
- Dec. 30 — Ivanhoe, 1952 (Thorpe; E. Taylor, R. Taylor); Knight of the Round Table, 1953 (Thorpe; Garner, R. Taylor)
- Dec. 31 — Time After Time, 1979 (Meyer; McDowell); Private Lives of Sherlock Holmes, 1970 (Wilder; Lee)
- Jan. 1 — Double Indemnity, 1944 (Wilder; Stanwyck, McMurray); The Lost Weekend, 1945 (Wilder; Wyman, Milland)
- Jan. 2 — The V.I.P.’s, 1963 (Asquith; E. Taylor, Burton); The Story of Three Lives, 1953 (Minelli; Douglas)
- Jan. 3 — Lust for Life, Minelli; Douglas); Julius Caesar, 1953 (Mankiewicz; Brando, Mason)
- Opening night is likely to be Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra, with Dmitri Hvorostovsky in the title role
- Soprano Angela Gheorghiu, who made quite a splash last month in Puccini’s La Rondine, will return in Puccini’s La Bohème
- The long-awaited Korngold Die Tote Stadt is coming, featuring Emily Magee and Torsten Kerl in the cast
- Auditions have already been announced for the premiere of Stewart Wallace’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter, based on Amy Tan’s novel
Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman in Spellbound
Horne to Join Pauline Viardot and Friends
Retired from singing after a glorious half-century (a memorable portion of it in San Francisco), Marilyn Horne, 73, is returning to the city to narrate the U.S. premiere of Pauline Viardot and Friends, a tribute to one of the outstanding musicians of the 19th century.
The theatrical concert, which originated in the Bay Area, had its premiere in London’s Wigmore Hall and Paris’ Théâtre du Châtelet last year. The Herbst Theatre U.S. premiere, presented by San Francisco Performances on March 20, will feature the same cast as those concerts: Frederica von Stade, Melody Moore, and Vladimir Chernov. It was written by Georgia Smith, directed by former San Francisco Opera General Director Lotfi Mansouri, and produced by Marin County resident Judy Flannery for Prima Donna Productions.
Marilyn Horne
The Prince and the Classical Voice Founder
From Leah Garchik’s Dec. 10 column:
Japanese Consul General Yasumasa Nagamine hosted a soiree at his home last week in celebration of the birthday of the emperor of Japan, and the sushi, served when the speeches were over, was sumptuous. The program began with the singing of the national anthems of the United States and Japan by two gents who 50 years ago had traveled to Japan as members of the UC Berkeley Glee Club.
Nagamine described that 1957 trip as the first postwar tour of Japan by a university musical group. The crown prince, who was 24, attended, “and that crown prince is now His Majesty the emperor of Japan, whose birthday we are celebrating.” (At this point in his speech, someone’s cell phone rang, playing a number of measures of Mozart’s Sonata in C before it was turned off. That Mozart always was the kind of nervy guy to horn in on a party that had nothing to do with him.)
The director of the glee club on that trip was Robert Commanday, who years later became The San Francisco Chronicle’s classical music critic. Commanday, who spoke Japanese, had worked as a translator during World War II. The trip “was wonderful,” he recalled at the birthday party, “because Japanese glee clubs from major universities sang at our programs, too. There was a great fellowship.”
Robert Commanday and Crown Prince (now Emperor) Akihito
Opera 2008: The Known and the Speculative
There is lots of news from the San Francisco Opera (see further below), but not yet about the programs for 2008, except for the summer, set as part of the 2007-2008 season: Wagner’s Das Rheingold, June 3-28; Handel’s Ariodante, June 15-July 6; and Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, June 17-July 5.
Looking around on artists’ Web sites, pieces of information are emerging, based on which safe predictions can be made:
Dmitri Hvorostovsky in Simon Boccanegra
N.Y. Philharmonic to Play in North Korea
After long and complex negotiations, agreement was reached on Monday between the U.S. and North Korea about the New York Philharmonic’s visit to Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, in February.
The trip, at the invitation of North Korea, will be the first significant cultural visit by Americans to that country, and it comes as the United States is offering the possibility of warmer ties with a country that President Bush once consigned to the “axis of evil.”
2008 Adler Fellows Named
San Francisco Opera Center has announced the names of 11 recipients of the 2008 Adler Fellowship, a resident artist training program usually made available to the best of the Merola Program participants. It has nurtured the development of more than 130 young artists since its inception in 1982.
Sopranos Heidi Melton (Spokane, Wash.), Ji Young Yang (Seoul, South Korea), and mezzo Katharine Tier (Sydney, Australia) are returning for the second year. New fellows are sopranos Daveda Karanas (Mandeville, La.), Daniela Mack (Buenos Aires, Argentina), Tamara Wapinsky (Pottsville, Pa.); tenors Andrew Bidlack (Chambersburg, Pa.), Alek Shrader (Alva, Okla.); and bass Kenneth Kellogg (Washington, D.C.).
Pianist Matthew Piatt (Victoria, Kan.) continues his Apprentice Coach fellowship, and is joined by first-year Apprentice Coach Lara Bolton (Bluffton, Ohio).
Outgoing 2007 Adler Fellows are sopranos Rhoslyn Jones, Melody Moore, and Elza van den Heever; mezzo Kendall Gladen; tenors Matthew O’Neill and Noah Stewart; and bass-baritone Jeremy Galyon.
In addition to performances on the main stage of the War Memorial Opera House, selected Adler Fellows are also featured in the Schwabacher Debut Recital Series, created to showcase singers who have participated in the programs of the San Francisco Opera Center. In 2008, current Adler Fellows will be featured in two of the series’ four performances: Daniela Mack on April 6, and Heidi Melton on April 27, both accompanied by John Parr.
The 2008 Adler Fellows’ season culminates on Dec. 6, 2008, with “The Future Is Now: Adler Fellows Gala Concert.” The event will feature the singers in an evening of opera scenes and arias with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra at the War Memorial Opera House.
Bohlin: Hallelujah to Messiah
Close to three centuries old and performed umpteen times, everywhere, mostly around Christmas, Handel’s Messiah remains the most beloved oratorio around the world. Why? First, because it’s thoroughly lovable — a work of beautiful melodies, grand choral numbers, and shimmering orchestral passages. Second, because it is a masterpiece of depth, is endlessly repeatable, and still yields new joys and treasures.
“It is grand, beautiful music,” says Ragnar Bohlin, the new San Francisco Symphony choral director, who conducts its performances Dec. 12-14. The Swedish maestro quotes Handel about composing the work: “I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God himself.” Contemporaries report hearing Handel weep aloud while composing the music describing Christ’s life and death, an oratorio that was completed in the white heat of inspiration during 24 days and nights of work.
During the composer’s lifetime (1685-1759), and ever since, Messiah underwent many changes. One set of variations comes from Handel’s own performances, between 1742 and 1759, and the other from the so-called synthetic approach, which builds the work from its component parts. Most contemporary conductors, including Bohlin, opt for the latter.
And yet, while not following the order of one of Handel’s own performances, Bohlin resists the “temptation to give Messiah a new twist, to make it different for the sake of being different.” He intends to honor the oratorio’s “dramatic, varied structure.” Bohlin is in excellent company for the Messiah performances: The San Francisco Symphony and Chorus are joined by such noted soloists as soprano Camilla Tilling, mezzo Tove Dahlberg, tenor Shawn Mathey, and bass-baritone Patrick Carfizzi.
Bohlin, a product of the Royal Academy of Stockholm and a well-established choral conductor at a young age (42), has large shoes to fill: He succeeds Vance George, who headed the SFS Chorus for 23 eventful, memorable years of multiple Grammy Awards, until he retired in 2006. Bohlin, who had previously visited San Francisco on a Swedish-American Foundation travel grant to all major American symphony choruses, returned here when the position became available, and pretty much aced the audition.
Both his parents are musicians. Born in Uppsala, Bohlin was educated in Lund — at first he considered a singing career and studied with the great Swedish tenor Nicolai Gedda. Although he has moved to San Francisco, Bohlin’s family is still in Sweden: His wife is a cellist with the Royal Opera Orchestra, and they have two sons ages 9 and 10. After Messiah, Bohlin is heading to Stockholm for a family holiday.
Symphony Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas greeted Bohlin’s appointment by saying that he “embodies the great choral tradition of his native country … He is a commandingly gifted musician who also has an intimate understanding of the human voice, with its unique powers of expression.”
Ragnar Bohlin
Symphony More Than Breaks Even
After recent predictions of a possibly substantial deficit, the San Francisco Symphony announced at its annual meeting on Monday that it had completed fiscal year 2007 with an operating surplus of $454,000 on a budget of $58.3 million.
“These results were due to the SFS meeting its aggressive ticket sales goals, better than anticipated growth in contributed revenues, and rigorous expense controls,” the Symphony statement said. “Financial forecasts indicate that the Symphony’s annual operating budget will remain balanced for the next several years through an expanding revenue base and ongoing expense controls.”
The 2006-2007 season, Michael Tilson Thomas’ 12th season as Music Director, featured a year of performances for audiences at home and around the world. The SFS performed at Europe’s most venerated concert halls on two European tours, with performances in Vienna, Prague, London, Berlin, and Lucerne, among others, as well as a tour of the East Coast, including the orchestra’s annual appearances in Carnegie Hall.
The season marked the continuation of the John Adams commissioning project, with the U.S. premiere of the SFS-commissioned A Flowering Tree, with staging by Peter Sellars. The season was capped with a festival dedicated to the music of Sergei Prokofiev, which featured a rare opportunity to hear all of the composer’s piano concertos. The SFS Youth Orchestra celebrated its 25th anniversary, with a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the SFS Chorus and soloists.
Newly elected to the board of governors were Janet W. Lamkin, president, Bank of America California; Patricia Sughrue Sprincin, vice president, Sprincin Companies; Matt Cohler, vice president of strategy and business operations, Facebook; Carlos A. Garcia, superintendent, San Francisco Unified School District; Gorretti Lo Lui, director, Cresleigh Management, Harbor View Investment, and Stanford Hotels; John H. Hammergren, chairman, president, and CEO, McKesson; Tony Trousset, managing director and head of global software investment, Lehman Brothers.
Re-elected for three-year terms were John S. Chen, Dr. Yanek S. Y. Chiu, Nancy R. Conner, Mrs. Robert A. Corrigan, Patricia C. Dunn, Mrs. William S. Fisher, Elizabeth J. Folger (chair elect, Volunteer Council), A. John Gambs, Priscilla B. Geeslin, John D. Goldman, Anette L. Harris, James C. Hormel, F. Curt Kirschner Jr., Raymond K.Y. Li, Nan Tucker McEvoy, William F. Meehan III, Mrs. John F. Nicolai, David J. O’Reilly, Carl F. Pascarella, Genelle Relfe, Mrs. George P. Schultz, Robert R. Tufts, and Anita L. Wornick.
Claire N. Barnes was re-elected for a one-year term as chair of the Volunteer Council. Anthony W. Miles was re-elected for another one-year term as chair of the Youth Orchestra. Ramon C. Cortines, Barry H. Sterling, and Donald T. Valentine were elected as life governors.
Musae Concerts
Musae (”Ladies of Song”), a San Francisco women’s vocal ensemble, is giving a varied program this weekend around the Bay, singing Tomás Luis de Victoria’s Duo Seraphim, Conrad Susa’s Carols and Lullabies From the Southwest, motets, a Kenyan folk song, and pretty much everything in-between.
Led by Artistic Director Natasha Hoehn, the group has just released its second CD, Alegría y Placer: A Musae Christmas. The roster of Musae: Sabrina Adler, Evan Angle, Haley McNamara Cohn, Kirstin Cummings, Amy Hayes, Natasha Hoehn, Katie Innes, Colleen O’Hara, Abby Ramsden, Katherine Robinson, Rayanne Truesdell, and Emily Wynbrandt. Concerts are scheduled for Berkeley (Dec. 15), San Francisco (Dec. 16), and Tiburon (Dec.19). For information, see Musae’s calendar.
Musae
Wagner Selling Samsung
The article below is from Cellular News. It’s a story more about the G800 than an attempt to explain the role of technology in the opera. Also, three weeks of performances in the Staatsoper and an audience of only 1,000? Wonder what that’s about — is it a show in the lobby or something like that?
Samsung Mobile Phone Stars in the Opera Nibelungenring
The Samsung G800 mobile phone is playing a key role in the opera Wagner’s Nibelungenring for Children. It is the first time a mobile phone is playing a key supporting role in an opera and is even mentioned in the official casting list.
Nibelungenring for Children has been playing at the Vienna State Opera from November 17, and has already attracted an audience of 1,000. It is planned to run until the end of this year.
The opera was initiated by Matthias von Stegmann, a young and talented director, librettist, and theater producer. Nibelungenring for Children had its premiere at the New National Theatre Tokyo (NNTT). The German version, created for the Vienna State Opera, provides children and teenagers an insight into Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen in just 60 minutes.
“This independent play is meant to spark children’s interest for Wagner’s world. With Samsung’s unique camera phone we’re able to give a mobile phone an active role in an opera for the first time and thus create a link from virtual mythology to today’s reality,” said Matthias von Stegmann.
Konrad Mayr-Pernek, a marketing director at Samsung Electronics Austria, also said the cooperation with the Vienna State Opera and Matthias von Stegmann offers a “unique” opportunity to Samsung Mobile in Austria.
“We are very proud to contribute Samsung G800 to Nibelungenring for Children, an exciting and educational opera for children and family. SGH-G800’s variety and sleek design fits into the opera seamlessly and truly shines in its new supporting role.”
The SGH-G800 fulfills several roles in the play: It takes a picture of the sleeping Bruennhilde, it shows the picture to Siegfried, and is therefore essential for the progression of the story.
Beltrán Faces Jail Term
Chilean tenor Tito Beltrán, a resident of Sweden for many years, may face up to four years in jail for attempting to rape a minor, it was reported over the weekend. The singer, featured in the San Francisco Opera between 1996 and 2001, is currently under arrest in Malmö, charged with sexual assault of the 16-year-old nanny of actress María Lundqvist. The tenor told reporters that “All of this is a lie. It’s a farce. They are trying to tarnish my name, my person, and my career.”
Tito Beltrán
Janos Gereben (janosg@gmail.com) is a regular contributor to San Francisco Classical Voice.
©2007 By Janos Gereben, all rights reserved.
The Miklos Rozsa Violin Concerto performed by Anastasia Khitruk has just been nominated for a Grammy
Posted by Michael Pochna on December 13, 2007 at 5:20 am