San Francisco Classical Voice

IMG boss Barrett Wissman (who founded both the Italian and Napa Valley festivals) told the opening-night audience in Lincoln Theater about the facts of life, although without mentioning IMG. Booking artists such as these usually takes years, but he and his wife, the cellist Nina Kotova (the festival's artistic director), managed this launch in less than a year. Not a trick to try at home, especially with musicians who are not in your stable.

There was one startling exception to the global management of difficult travel schedules. Festival del Sole, which is a combination of music, arts, literature, food and wine, is featuring Ana Corbero's large "Lagrimas" exhibit, and she was to attend the opening on Sunday. Instead, the Spanish artist, who lives in Lebanon, sent a message that Israeli air strikes on Beirut prevented her from flying out from there or traveling to Damascus for an alternative departure. The paintings — shipped earlier — did arrive, and the exhibit opened without the artist attending.

The opening concert in the recently renovated 1,200-seat Lincoln Theater had a reported attendance of 950. The theater is located on the grounds of the Veterans Home, a 550-acre facility used without interruption since it was founded in 1884 to serve veterans of the Civil War. The $22 million reconstruction, managed by Michael Savage — also responsible for fixing up the Napa Opera House and supervising the $92 million War Memorial Opera House restructuring before that — resulted in a glossy finish over what is still obviously a simple, boxy structure, with the addition of an impressive lobby.

The theater has superb acoustics, doing justice both to solo voices and to large orchestra. However, it's difficult to say what was natural sound and what appeared courtesy of what the theater's opening press release called "Meyer Sound's MAPP Online Pro acoustical prediction program, with M2D array coverage to fit the moderately reverberant, 'symphony-friendly' architectural design of Auerbach and Associates."

If anything, the sound is too good, in that almost every forte from the 80-member orchestra sounded fortissimo, and overtures to both The Marriage of Figaro and Carmen made me wonder if Mozart and Bizet — an unlikely pair — were both writing music for a Red Square parade. It was a welcome surprise when the program-closing Tchaikovsky Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture came across smooth as silk, with appealing work from the strings. The thought arises that perhaps this piece received more rehearsal than the others ... or somebody prevailed upon the Online Pro to be more "symphony-friendly."

The orchestra dropped off the radar during the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, so dominant and mesmerizing was the soloist. Joshua Bell's big and yet mellow and warm "voice" and his flawless, elegantly full-bodied playing engaged the listener completely. Granted that the Tchaikovsky is a recognized exception to the no-applause-between-movements rule, Bell, the orchestra, and some of the audience (a minority) were taken aback by the (majority) standing ovation, which said, in effect, that the music stops here. With some difficulty, Bell and Gilbert reclaimed the hall to execute the composer's whim, adding to the "perfect ending" a canzonetta and the finale.

Von Otter's opening Voi che sapete might have served the artist better as a backstage warm-up; it was far from her usual form. È amore un ladroncello,, from Così fan tutte, was an improvement. But the real von Otter didn't turn up until the second half, with two knock-'em-dead arias from Carmen, easily soaring over the big boom-boom of the brass and percussion. Phrasing and diction nonpareil here, the von Otter showmanship found its exemplary vehicle.