Music News
UPDATE: July 24, 2008
Flicka to Retire
Frederica von Stade has chosen 2010 to say farewell to her singing career, Classical Voice has learned. The year 2010 also marks the 40th anniversary of her debut at the Metropolitan Opera. The IMG Management Agency is sending invitations to music organizations to notify the agency “of their interest.” San Francisco Opera, Symphony, and S.F. Performances are certain to be bidding for a chance to hear her for the last time.
Frederica von Stade
The mezzo, a longtime resident of San Francisco and Alameda, has starred in the top opera houses and recital halls around the world for the past four decades. She made her San Francisco Spring Opera debut in 1971 as Sextus in La Clemenza di Tito and sang on the main stage in the following year, as Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro. She has lent her name to and performed without fee for literally hundreds of music-education causes.
Ah, Promenades!
The longest, richest, most varied, and exciting of all summer music festivals, London’s two-month-long BBC Proms, has begun and runs through Sept. 13. Going to the Royal Albert Hall is not necessarily the best way to experience these exceptional concerts, especially if you are on the main floor, standing upright and sardinelike (however blissful that may appear to some who are sturdy of feet and free of claustrophobia). TV and radio in England make the festival accessible there on a daily basis, and via Internet broadcasts you can hear them everywhere. There are 76 concerts in Albert Hall and eight weekly chamber music recitals at Cadogan Hall.
Royal Albert Hall
When you first log on to the main Web site, expect — even with a high-speed connection — to wait a few moments while the contents load up. Another approach to the listing may be faster and better. Every Prom is broadcast live on BBC Radio 3, and then remains available on the BBC iPlayer for seven days. Hear and watch highlights of last year’s Proms here.
Jean-Guihen Queyras
Just a few examples:
- July 22, 7 p.m. (London time), Roger Norrington conducts the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (SWR), in the Haydn Cello Concerto No.1, with Jean-Guihen Queyras; Elgar’s Symphony No. 1, 10 p.m.; Missa Malheur me bat by Obrecht and Josquin Des Prez with Peter Phillips conducting the Tallis Scholars.
- July 23, 7 p.m., Jiri Belohlavek conducts the BBC Symphony in Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4, Brahms’ Symphony No. 2, and the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 with Lars Vogt.
- July 31, 7 p.m., Monteverdi, The Coronation of Poppea (in a new Glyndebourne production), conducted by Emmanuelle Haïm, featuring Danielle De Niese in the title role, Alice Coote as Nero, Tamara Mumford as Octavia, and Marie Arnet as Drusilla.
- Aug. 6, 7:30 p.m., George Benjamin conducts the BBC Symphony in his Ringed by the Flat Horizon; the orchestral version of Messiaen’s L’Ascension; Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto (with Carolin Widmann), and Ravel’s Pavane pour une Infante défunte and Boléro.
- Aug. 8 (opening day at the Beijing Olympics), 7 p.m., the premiere of former Chanticleer and Women’s Philharmonic composer-in-residence Chen Yi’s Olympic Fire (a BBC commission), Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Vaughan Williams’ Five Variants of ‘Dives and Lazarus’, and Symphony No. 6. with Leonard Slatkin conducting the Royal Philharmonic.
Danielle De Niese as Poppea
Photo by Alastair Muir
Carolyn Widmann
Chen Yi
Honors to Way, King
ODC/San Francisco founder-director Brenda Way has been honored with an American Academy in Rome Residency, and was also named a senior advisor to the winners of the Rome Prize. (Another San Franciscan, Kurt Rohde, received the Rome and Prize earlier this year.)
Brenda Way
Founded in 1894 and chartered by an Act of Congress in 1905, the American Academy in Rome is one of the leading American centers overseas for independent study and advanced research in the fine arts and the humanities.
Residents are eminent artists and scholars who are working in up to 18 disciplines, and who are invited by the Director to stay at the Academy for periods ranging from two to four months. Selected by invitation only, Residents in the Arts are asked to offer at least one Academy event, such as a concert, an exhibition or studio visit, a lecture or reading, or any other appropriate event.
ODC in flight
Photo by RJ Muna
Calling the invitation a “great honor,” Way went on to say:
I look forward to spending several months with the distinguished artists, thinkers, and scholars in residence at Janiculum Hill, not to mention the pleasure of absorbing the beauty and stimulation of Rome itself, its ancient art and architecture, the energy of contemporary Roman life, and the artistic activity at the Academy while I reflect on my personal artistic trajectory. Also, eating Italian!
Alonzo King, working with dancer Meredith Webster
Another local dance notable, Lines Ballet’s Alonzo King, has received the Jacob’s Pillow Creativity Award. The prize carries a $25,000 unrestricted cash gift. Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival Executive Director Ella Baff presented the award to King at the festival’s open gala in Becket, Mass. She said King and his company remain “under-recognized in America, and especially on the East Coast, where you have to be smack in the middle of New York to be noticed. This is to give Alonzo a boost because he’s very deserving. He’s moving ballet in a very 21st-century direction.”
The company is performing this week at the festival.
“People may find my work curious and not fully understand it at first, because it’s not something they’re accustomed to, but when they look at my work deeply, they realize this isn’t any different at all,” King said in response to the award.
Laurel Keen and Brett Conway of Lines Ballet
Photo by Marty Sohl
Prelude to a Hit
Music@Menlo’s International Program and the free concert Prelude concerts that the program’s student musicians perform are an especially important and attractive component of the festival. (For an excellent roundup of all the festival’s educational programs, see Bob Moon’s recent article.)
Attending the season’s first Prelude performance on Saturday at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, I was so carried away by the excellence of the young artists performance that co-artistic director Wu Han’s whispered comment between movements came as both a surprise and an important reminder. “This is the first time they perform together,” she said. “Imagine how they will sound by the end of the festival.”
Corelli performance at the Prelude Saturday night
Performing Corelli’s Concerto Grosso in D Major, Op. 6, No. 4; and Handel’s Concerto Grosso in A Major, Op. 6, No. 11, HWV 329; four violinists (Isaac Allen, Areta Zhulla, Bram Goldstein, Grace Park), two violists (Youming Chen and Angela Choong), three cellists (Dmitri Atapine, Sunny Yang, and Yuan Zhang), and harpsichordists Qing Jiang (in the Corelli) and Liza Stepanova (in the Handel) have already become a true, impressive ensemble.
Qing Jiang, harpsichord
As described in this review of the evening concert that followed the Prelude, there was a precedent-setting appearance of the young musicians in that concert when the Corelli Concerto from the afternoon was repeated, replacing a Bach Cantata, whose soprano soloist came down with laryngitis.
The evening performance was — to use a musicological term — hot, but in the afternoon, it was the smooth ensemble performance that was most impressive. First violinist Allen (in the Corelli) and Park (in the Handel) provided exceptional leadership, and the group rallied around them beautifully. Allen is an impressively mature and commanding artist, Park is stunning in her passionate performance; the sound emanated from her entire body, a big sound from a small, slender source.
Even if you don’t, or can’t, attend the evening concerts, keep an eye on these 6 p.m. events, which are free and promising. A free pass is required, to be requested at the Will Call table, starting one hour prior to the start of the performance. Seating is by general admission.
Prelude performances:
- Wednesday, July 23, St. Mark’s
- Ludwig Van Beethoven: Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 16 (Liza Stepanova, piano; Areta Zhulla, violin; Youming Chen, viola; and Dmitri Atapine, cello)
- Franz Schubert: String Quartet in D Minor, D. 810, Death and the Maiden (Hausmann Quartet: Isaac Allen, Bram Goldstein, violins; Angela Choong, viola; Yuan Zhang, cello)
Hausmann Quartet
- Friday, July 25, Martin Family Hall
- Franz Joseph Haydn: Piano Trio in C Major, Hob. XV:27 (Qing Jiang, piano; Grace Park, violin; and Sunny Yang, cello)
- Ludwig Van Beethoven: Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 16 (Liza Stepanova, piano; Areta Zhulla, violin; Youming Chen, viola; and Dmitri Atapine, cello)
- Tuesday, July 29, Martin Family Hall
- Johannes Brahms: Piano Trio in C Major, Op. 87 (Liza Stepanova, piano; Grace Park, violin; and Dmitri Atapine, cello); Piano Quartet no. 3 in C Minor, Op. 60 (Qing Jiang, piano; Areta Zhulla, violin; Youming Chen, viola; and Sunny Yang, cello)
- Thursday, July 31, St. Mark’s Cathedral
- Robert Schumann: String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 41, No. 1 (Hausmann Quartet)
- Johannes Brahms: Piano Quartet No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 60 (Qing Jiang, piano; Areta Zhulla, violin; Youming Chen, viola; and Sunny Yang, cello)
Supernumeraries Count, Too
“Extras” or “spear carriers” may not get much respect in life, but in opera houses, they are the life of the party. You can’t put up most grand operas without them, and to be a “super” is a whole lot of fun — rubbing shoulders with some great singers, being part of the show. As the San Francisco Opera prepares for its 2008-2009 season, the call is going out for volunteer supers of all ages, although those under 18 need a work permit. Auditions will take place from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on July 22. Call the Opera at (415) 565-3200, leave name and phone number, so that you may be placed on the list.
Besides all the glamor, there is hard work in being a super, and many
rules to learn.
Also for the fall Opera season, auditions will be held at the War Memorial Opera House, Oct. 22 – Nov. 15, for the boy treble role of Feodor (or Fyodor) in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov. No super he, Feodor is the Czar’s son (sung in some productions by a — young and small — mezzo), and he has a song about a parrot all to himself. Unlike the volunteer supers, this is a paid (AGMA) job. To set up an audition, e-mail Paul Hansen at phansen@sfopera.com for a copy of the audition music and the schedule.
Super-time in the San Francisco production of Macbeth
Merolini to Sing for You
They come from Korea, Russia, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, and from cost to coast in the U.S. to sing in San Francisco, to train for a career in opera — and to provide low-cost performances for opera fans here otherwise starved between seasons. (Think of culinary-academy fare for music fans.)
They are the Merolini, the 51st class of young singers, selected from among many hundreds of applicants, proud members of the San Francisco Opera Merola Program, ready to follow in the footsteps of Anna Netrebko, Susan Graham, Thomas Hampson, and many other divas and divos.
Anna Netrebko
Gaetano Merola was the founding father of the San Francisco Opera and became the first general manager in 1923. Kurt Herbert Adler (1905-1988) took over the job when Merola died in 1953 and ran the company for the next three decades, putting The City on the map of the opera world, placing San Francisco second in the nation after New York’s Metropolitan. In 1957, Adler created a training program for young singers, and named it for his predecessor.
Since then, the global village of opera has been enhanced by hundreds of these San Francisco-trained singers, many of whom get their first big breaks from local reviews. And now, 23 singers and five apprentice coaches are training, rehearsing, and performing for 10 weeks, and then appear at the Grand Finale concert at the Opera House on Aug. 16.
With a free Yerba Buena Gardens appearance (attracting thousands), and a Herbst Theatre concert (revealing a sensational soprano from Michigan, Leah Crocetto) already behind them, the Merolini performed at Fort Mason in Benjamin Britten’s comic opera Albert Herring last weekend.
Next up: Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Mozart’s doomed antihero is sung by baritone Austin Kness (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), soprano Rena Harms (Santa Fe, New Mexico) is Donna Elvira, soprano Amanda Majeski (Gurnee, Illinois) is Donna Anna, and soprano Joélle Harvey (Richburg, New York) is Zerlina. Mexican bass-baritone Carlos Monzón (Guadalajara) sings Leporello and his countryman tenor David LomelÌ (Monterrey, Mexico) is Don Ottavio. Gary Wedow conducts and famed soprano Catherine Malfitano is the stage director.
Catherine Malfitano
A Mansouri Anniversary
Former San Francisco Opera General Manager Lotfi Mansouri’s innovation of supertitles in opera houses is now a quarter century old, and is celebrated in a New York Times article, entitled “So That’s What the Fat Lady Sang.”
Lotfi Mansouri
Short Season for Berkeley Opera
According to unconfirmed reports, Berkeley Opera’s 2009 season will consist of only two operas — Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffman and Douglas Moore’s The Ballad of Baby Doe — and a fund-raising gala. See the company’s audition notice.
A Music Movie for Our Time
The new film version of Mamma Mia, directed by Phyllida Lloyd, has an important message: No matter how vapid the ABBA music, regardless of the insipid story and script by Catherine Johnson, when you crank up the volume to the max and have a lot of people jump up and down against spectacular (if irrelevant) scenery, most of the audience will get what they came for. And that would be: a sappy, meaningless story, something on the order of Gidget Goes to Greece, but perhaps inferior to the Sandra Dee standard.
Poor, dear Meryl Streep is Donna, the happily vacuous, latent hippy, who slept with three men 20 years ago, and now doesn’t know — or seem to care — who the father is of the daughter about to get married.
The girl, played by the resolutely cheerful Amanda Seyfried, is getting married (to somebody utterly uninteresting), and she invites her three potential fathers in troop in troop — of all people — Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, and Stellan Skarsgård. They are hidden from Donna, discovered, and then thrown out by her. Why? It’s not really clear, but then nothing else is, and none of it matters.
Everybody sings, dances, and emotes, and soon enough there is a happy ending. A good time is being had by some, but what do they take away from Mamma Mia? Possibly some dolce far niente, and I’d say that in Greek, but that won’t do much good. The German is turteln, (whispering sweet nothings); the Hollywoodese is “big-budget, big-hype money-maker.” Take on the first weekend: $27 million. Mamma mia!
Amanda Seyfried
New General Manager for S.F. Ballet
Returning to the San Francisco Ballet after eight years of involvement with some of the top dance companies in the country, Napa-born Debra Bernard is the company’s new general manager, succeeding Lesley Koenig (who has become assistant manager of the Metropolitan Opera).
Bernard worked in San Francisco in a variety of artistic and production positions from 1988 through 2000, then left for the East Coast, where eventually she became company manager of the New York City Ballet.
“Debra is a friend as well as a former colleague, and I look forward to working closely with her in the near future. Her in-depth knowledge of the Company is a great asset, and I have full confidence in her abilities,” said San Francisco Ballet Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson.
Bernard’s early training included a full scholarship to the school at Dance Theatre of Harlem. Upon graduation from UC Davis, Bernard pursued a professional dance career. From 1984 to 1988, Bernard was assistant technical administrator for the San Francisco Opera, assisting in managing technical department budgets, and acting as company liaison for more than 250 union stagehands and production personnel.
From 1988 to 1991, Bernard served as San Francisco Ballet’s associate to the general manager for production, where her responsibilities included managing all financial, technical, and design elements for all new works. For eight years, until 2000, Bernard was the personal assistant to the artistic director and later, artistic administrator for the Company, managing part of the department operations and serving as the point person for the artistic director in all internal and external communication.
As company manager for New York City Ballet, Bernard was responsible for all tour logistics for more than 200 artists. Bernard also participated in labor contract negotiations and, as human resources manager, oversaw payroll and benefits administration for up to 400 union and nonunion employees each season.
Janos Gereben (janosg@gmail.com) is a regular contributor to San Francisco Classical Voice.
©2008 By Janos Gereben, all rights reserved.