Music News
Hello, Farewell!
At this time of a significant calendar turnover, it’s especially apt to say hello to Farewell My Concubine. Just three months after its premiere in Beijing, Xiao Bai’s opera is making its first appearance in the U.S.
Beginning at the San Francisco War Memorial Jan. 12-13 (yes, this weekend, sort of out of the blue), the production described as the “first Western-style interpretation of the classic Chinese opera” then moves on to Pasadena, Washington, D.C., New York City, Houston, and Dallas for one or two performances at each venue. The tour also marks the inaugural appearance of the Central Opera House of China company in the U.S.
The plot — a love story about the warrior Xiang Yu, and his concubine, Yu Ji — is the same that inspired many works through the centuries, including Chen Kaige’s 1993 Ba wang bie ji, which focused on the lives of Peking Opera performers through China’s recent upheavals, climaxing in the brutal Cultural Revolution.
Scene from Farewell My Concubine
The music is the result of “Xiao Bai laboring for 18 years to rescore a Western version of the story.” The result, judging by a 10-minute video excerpt, is a kind of Soviet-Verdian music, in Mandarin, and with all the visual splendor of Peking Opera.
Xiao Bai and librettist Wang Jian, the announcement says, “have developed a new Western-style production distinct from traditional Beijing-style opera (incorporating instrumental music, vocal performance, pantomime, dance, and acrobatics). This version captures the framework of a classic Italian opera, but is sung entirely in Mandarin with English subtitles.”
First Western style interpretation of Chinese opera? Probably not. San Francisco’s own Grand Seducers: Don Giovanni Meets Xi-men Qing certainly came before Concubine, and in some ways Tan Dun is certainly in the picture, especially with The First Emperor. Also, in a related field, let us remember The Yellow River Piano Concerto, with its “westernized Chinese sound.”
Along with its sudden appearance (the announcement came just 10 days before the premiere, which was originally to be three performances, but now cut to two), Concubine may also be handicapped by setting ticket prices high, from $50 to $200.
Ruan Yuqun, singing Yu Ji in Farewell My Concubine
The Best Is Yet to Come
As a preview of SFCV’s upcoming feature about the best concerts to see this spring, here is a compendium of the most promising San Francisco performing arts attractions in early 2008 — in no particular order and obviously from a subjective point of view.
- The San Francisco Ballet, celebrating its 75th year, will have many special events, including a festival of new works by 10 outstanding choreographers, April 22 through May 6: Julia Adam, Val Caniparoli, Jorma Elo, Margaret Jenkins, James Kudelka, Mark Morris, Yuri Possokhov, Paul Taylor, Stanton Welch, and Christopher Wheeldon. The season begins on Jan. 23, with a Diamond Gala Celebration.
- Among San Francisco Symphony concerts conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas, two recommendations: Jan. 9-13, works by Beethoven and Oliver Knussen, soprano Deborah Voigt singing Richard Strauss’ Four Last Songs and Barber’s Andromache’s Farewell, and Jan. 17-19, the music of Bach, Schubert, and Iannis Xenakis.
- San Francisco Opera doesn’t begin the second half of the 2007-2008 season until May, but the Opera Center’s Schwabacher Debut Recital Series starts up on Feb. 3, in Temple Emanu-El, featuring tenor Philippe Castagner.
- Visiting guest orchestras to Davies Hall include Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw, one of the world’s finest, in two appearances directed by Mariss Jansons: on Jan. 27, performing Debussy’s La Mer and Berlioz’ Symphonie fantastique, and on Jan. 28, Richard Strauss’ Don Juan and Mahler’s Symphony No. 5.
- At the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, always a ready source of free or inexpensive performances by students and faculty, pianist Seung-Mi Paik’s alumni recital is scheduled at the school’s Osher Salon on Jan. 5; there is a Young Artists Concert of 12 piano duos, from grades 6-12, in the Recital Hall on Jan. 13; and a senior recital by soprano Kara Masek in the Recital Hall on Jan. 19.
- San Francisco Performances offers top-notch chamber music at Herbst Theatre and dance companies at Yerba Buena Center. Of particular interest: Tenor Ian Bostridge sings Schubert lieder on Jan. 22 (Herbst), and the San Francisco debut of Spain’s Compañía Nacional de Danza, Feb. 20-23 (Yerba Buena).
- The Lamplighters, the City’s venerable temple to Gilbert & Sullivan, starts the 2008 portion of its 55th season not with a G&S musical, but with the Lucy Simon-Marsha Norman Secret Garden, based on Frances Hodgson Burnett’s novel. It will run in Yerba Buena, Jan. 18-20, before going to Walnut Creek’s Lesher Center for the Arts, Jan. 31 — Feb. 3.
Yuri Possokhov
Philippe Castagner
Laura Sanders and Jack Gorlin in the Lamplighters’ Secret Garden
Photo by David Allen
Verdi Requiem in Oakland
Oakland East Bay Symphony’s next concert, on Jan. 25, will present the Verdi Requiem. Conducted by Michael Morgan, the oratorio will feature Lynne Morrow’s Oakland Symphony Chorus, soprano Jonita Lattimore, mezzo Patrice Houston, tenor Dan Snyder, and bass Kirk Eichelberger.
Kirk Eichelberger (as Nick Shadow in West Bay Opera’s The Rake’s Progress)
Photo by Lucinda Surber
NEA Funding Increased
The National Endowment for the Arts received a $20.3 million budget increase for fiscal 2008, taking it to a total of $144.7 million. At a time of administration efforts to reduce expenses, this is an accomplishment for the often beleaguered agency. But in comparison with other developed countries, it’s still a neglected stepchild. Against the $2 per-capita national support for all the arts in the U.S., recent figures show public-sector arts expenditure that is 10 times higher in Britain, 20 times or more in the Netherlands, France, and Germany, and nearly 30 times that in Sweden.
The NEA budget was part of a general spending bill that combined 11 annual federal funding measures. Congressional Arts Caucus co-chairs Louise Slaughter (D-NY) and Chris Shays (R-CT) led the campaign in support of the NEA, and Interior Appropriations Committee Chairman Norm Dicks (D-WA) championed NEA funding as a priority issue.
Rep. Norm Dicks
Britten in Sacramento
Sacramento Opera has scored a coup in engaging Emily Pulley, a fiery, nationally known soprano, to sing the role of the Governess in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw, to be performed at the Sacramento Community Center Theater, Feb. 22-26.
Emily Pulley
Timm Rolek conducts the Sacramento Philharmonic, and Chuck Hudson is the stage director. Maria Jette, an acclaimed oratorio singer (and Prairie Home Companion regular) is Flora. Thomas Glenn, familiar to San Francisco audiences from his recent Merola and Adler years, is Quint; Fenlon Lamb sings Mrs. Grose; Antoni Mendezona is Flora; and Brooks Fisher is Miles.
Unlike the sky-high cost of opera elsewhere, the Sacramento company is charging within a reasonable $15-$110 range for single tickets ($45 in some orchestra sections), and less on a subscription basis.
Thomas Glenn in Doctor Atomic
Photo by Terrence McCarthy
Season 13 for Other Minds
The 13th annual Other Minds Music Festival will be held March 6-8 in the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, featuring composers Michael Bach (Germany), Dan Becker (U.S.), Elena Kats-Chernin (Uzbekistan/Australia), Keeril Makan (U.S.), Åke Parmerud (Sweden), Dieter Schnebel (Germany), Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith (U.S.), Morton Subotnick (U.S.), and Frances-Marie Uitti (U.S./Netherlands). Performers include the Adorno Ensemble, Anthony Brown (percussion), the Del Sol String Quartet, Lisa Moore (piano), David Shively (percussion), and Kathy Supové (piano). Preconcert discussions will be led by Other Minds Executive and Artistic Director Charles Amirkhanian.
Michael Bach
New Position for de Waart
Former San Francisco Symphony Music Director Edo de Waart, now artistic director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic and chief conductor of the Santa Fe Opera, has been named the next music director for the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. De Waart, 66, will succeed Andreas Delfs after the next season.
During his San Francisco Symphony tenure (1977-1985), de Waart led the inaugural concerts in Davies Hall and conducted the San Francisco Opera Ring cycle, both in 1980. Since then, he has led orchestras in Minnesota, Sydney, and his native Netherlands.
Edo de Waart
Opera North, Opera South
San Francisco Opera’s season announcement is due next Wednesday (to tell what else to expect in addition to our predictions), but Seattle and Los Angeles have already shown their hands.
In Washingon State, the current season offers Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, Jan. 12-26; Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman, Aug. 4-25; Gluck’s Iphigenia in Tauris, Oct. 13-27; Puccini’s Tosca, Feb. 23-March 9; and Bellini’s I Puritani, May 3-17.
Seattle’s next season opens with Verdi’s Aida, Aug. 2-23, alternating Andrea Gruber and Lisa Daltirus in the title role, and continues with Richard Strauss’ Elektra, Oct. 18-Nov. 1, with Janice Baird and Jayne Casselman; Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers, Jan. 10-24, 2009; a double bill of Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle (John Relyea, Malgorzata Walewska) and Schoenberg’s Erwartung (Susan Pierson), Feb. 21-March 7; and Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, May 2-16.
The current Los Angeles season comprises Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, Jan. 19-Feb. 10; Verdi’s Otello, Feb. 16-March 9; a double bill of Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg and Ullmann’s The Broken Jug, Feb. 17-March 8; Puccini’s Tosca, May 17-June 21; and Puccini’s La Rondine, June 7-28.
Los Angeles’ next season: Puccini’s Il Trittico, Sept. 6-26; Howard Shore’s The Fly, Sept. 7-26; Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Oct. 2-18; Bizet’s Carmen, Nov. 15-Dec. 14; Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Jan. 10-25; Walter Braunfels’ The Birds, April 11-26; Verdi’s La Traviata, May 21-June 21; in a new production of Wagner’s Ring, Das Rheingold, Feb. 21-March 15, and Die Walküre, April 4-25.
ASCAP Awards to Del Sol, sfSound, Earplay
The Del Sol String Quartet received yet another honor last week, at the Chamber Music America National Conference in New York: an ASCAP award for adventurous programming. The category was chamber ensembles/ mixed repertory; second place went to the Western Wind Vocal Ensemble of New York.
Del Sol String Quartet
The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers awards recognize ensembles, presenters, and festivals that have demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to 20th- and 21st-century music, in particular works written in the past 25 years. In addition to considering originality, the independent panel of judges also looked for innovative presentation and audience-development strategies. The award to Del Sol praises “programs (that) put traditional and new music on equal footing, with performances in both traditional and alternative venues.”
In the chamber ensembles/new music category — behind the first-place Seattle Chamber Players — the second award was shared by San Francisco’s sfSound and Earplay.
Other awardees were the Concert Artists Guild of New York, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Monadnock Music (of Peterborough, N.H.), and the Greenwich (Conn.) Music Festival.
Del Sol has also received a $12,000 grant from the Argosy Foundation’s Contemporary Music Fund for the quartet’s Pacific Rim project.
MTT Featured on PBS Documentary
San Francisco Symphony Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas is among those featured in an upcoming Public Broadcasting System series of three two-hour TV documentaries titled The Jewish-Americans. Besides MTT, actor Fyvush Finkel, playwright Tony Kushner, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, author Julius Lester, leading feminist author Letty Pogrebin, University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann, historian Jonathan Sarna, and Home Depot cofounder Bernie Marcus are being interviewed as the history of Jews in America is traced from the 17th century first settlement to the present. For the telecast schedule, see KQED’s program information.
S.F. Chamber Orchestra: Too Much Success?
San Francisco Chamber Orchestra reports that at its free year-end concerts, much touted by this column, some 800 people had to be turned away as the venues filled up well before the beginning of each event. Better get up early in the day to get in these (also free) concerts:
“Virtuosi,” Jan. 24-27, will offer the premiere of former Empyrean Ensemble codirector Yu-Hui Chang’s Concertino for Flute and String Orchestra. Conducted by SFCO Music Director Benjamin Simon, the Jan. 24-27 concerts will feature Tod Brody (flute), Rufus Olivier (bassoon), and Bill Barbini (violin).
On the programs: Jean Francaix’s Divertisement for Bassoon and String Orchestra, Schubert’s Rondo for Violin and String Orchestra, and the Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings. Venues include Old St. Mary’s Cathedral (Jan. 24), Herbst Theatre (Jan. 25), Palo Alto’s St. Mark’s Episcopal Church (Jan. 26), and Berkeley’s First Congregational Church (Jan. 27).
Assad to Conservatory Faculty
Sérgio Assad, an internationally acclaimed guitarist, has joined the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, joining chair David Tanenbaum and the Guitar Department faculty of Marc Teicholz, Lawrence Ferrara, and Richard Savino. The Brazilian artist, along with his brother Odair, has played a major role in creating and introducing new music for guitar.
Composers writing for the brothers include Astor Piazzolla, Terry Riley, Radamés Gnatalli, Marlos Nobre, Nikita Koshin, Roland Dyens, Jorge Morel, Edino Krieger, and Francisco Mignone; they have performed with Yo-Yo Ma, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Fernando Suarez Paz, Paquito D’Rivera, Gidon Kremer, and Dawn Upshaw. Tanenbaum said of the appointment: “In hiring Sérgio, we of course get one of the top names in the guitar world, a brilliant guitar player and musician, a terrific composer, one of the best arrangers in our field, and a wonderful teacher.”
Sergio Assad
Janos Gereben (janosg@gmail.com) is a regular contributor to San Francisco Classical Voice.
©2008 By Janos Gereben, all rights reserved.