Money Problems for Labor and Management

Artists, staff, craftsmen . . . everybody at the San Francisco Opera is experiencing wage losses, even before new contracts make them official. The chorus, for example, started rehearsals at the end of April instead of the originally-planned date in February, and the season is to be trimmed by two weeks. The resulting loss of 10 weeks' employment means an approximately 25% reduction in salary against the originally planned performance and rehearsal schedule. Meanwhile, if you have to drive to rehearsals and performances, you're paying 25% more for gasoline than in the spring. Taking the MUNI? The cost of rides went up by 25% on September 1.

It's not easy for management either. Besides more than the $7 million deficit that occurred in Fiscal Year 2002, announcement of a multi-million dollar shortfall for Fiscal '03 is expected in a few days. The company is on tax extension, and accountants are working overtime, tinkering with amortizations and depreciation, while the administration is looking for new sources of revenue: see next item.

Seasons' Greetings from SF Opera, Symphony

On Saturday, the San Francisco Opera will OPEN its 81st season with Virgil Thomson's The Mother of Us All. It is unusual and brave for a large company to produce at all this short work, invariably described as "quirky," running a mere 100 minutes, although padded with an intermission here to a little over two hours.

But to present this "simple, spare music, evoking Puritan hymnody," with Gertrude Stein's libretto of "nonlinear, but deadly earnest meditation" on Susan B. Anthony SIX times in the 3,000-seat War Memorial, and as the opening night attraction is a real head-scratcher.

The success of this unusual programming is still in question, but it is certain that nothing like this happened at the Opera's previous 80 season-openers, a string of grand grand-opera war horses with their triumphant marches, tragic cases of consumption, Druids, and nobody sleeping in Beijing. Strangely too, especially out here in the open spaces of the American West, in eight decades, no American work received opening-night honors until now.

There have been very few exceptions to the rule of "big and safe" in the past, with such presentations as Henri Rabaud's Mârouf, savetier du Caire (in 1931) and Aribert Reimann's Lear (1981). For those interested in arcane lists, there is a complete record of the previous opening nights in the last item of this column.

There is no question about the commitment of the Opera to the production, which originated with Glimmerglass Opera and the New York City Opera. It will be conducted by music director Donald Runnicles, directed by Christopher Alden, and the cast features Luana DeVol in the title role (returning "home" after a 20-year absence, spent mostly in Europe), more than a dozen fine singers in small supporting roles.

Opera's Gay 'Outreach'

"We are pleased to announce," the San Francisco Opera Website (www.sfopera.com) trumpeted last week, "the Rainbow Series, a new subscription series tailored to the Bay Area's gay and lesbian community . . . As a Rainbow Series patron, you will also be invited to attend special pre- and post-performance social events and educational opportunities to complement your opera-going experience and help you connect with other opera lovers in the LGBT community.

Offering a 15% discount to the gay community, supposedly new to opera, the series includes "three of the world's most beloved and timeless operas by the great Italian masters, in both traditional and modern stage productions: Don Carlos on November 13, Il barbiere di Siviglia on January 15, and La bohème on June 16, 2004. There is a simple way to prove that you're qualified for student or senior discount; what's the proof of the pudding for the Rainbow Series?

Caetani: Abbreviated Debut

Oleg Caetani is making his San Francisco debut, conducting performances of The Magic Flute, beginning on September 9. Last week, the Opera announced that a scheduling conflict necessitates reassignment of the last three performances; those will be conducted by Donald Runnicles. Strangely, even at this writing, Caetani's own Website is showing him at "Opera di San Francisco" throughout the period.

This is the second change for the Russian-born conductor, who was originally engaged to lead Le coq d'or, cancelled because of budget difficulties. Caetani is the son of Igor Markevitch, a student of Nadia Boulanger, former chief conductor with the opera companies of Weimar, Frankfurt and Chemnitz. He has just been named chief conductor and artistic director of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, effective January, 2005.

Also on the Local Opera Scene

It's September in San Francisco, and you can attend performances of Così fan tutte and I Pagliacci. No, not in the War Memorial. Check the Calendar section of www.sfcv.org, and you'll find out what San Francisco Lyric Opera, Golden Gate Opera and other organizations are up to.

All the Operas Fit . . . to Open the Season

San Francisco Opera opening-night programs — 1923, Bohème; '24, Andrea Chenier; '25, Manon; '26, Martha; '27, Manon Lescaut; '28, Aida; '29, Rigoletto.

1930, Manon; '31, Mârouf; '32, Tosca; '33, Samson et Delila; '34, The Bartered Bride; '35, Das Rheingold; '36, La Juive; '37, Aida; '38, Andrea Chenier; '39, Manon.

1940, Le Nozze di Figaro; '41, Manon; '42, Aida; '43, Samson et Delila; '44, Aida; '45, Carmen; '46, Lohengrin; '47, Aida; '48, Falstaff; '49, Tosca.

1950, Aida; '51, Otello; '52, Tosca; '53, Mefistofele; '54, Rigoletto; '55, Aida; '56, Manon Lescaut; '57, Turandot; '58, Medea; '59, L'Amore dei Tre Re.

1960, Tosca; '61, Lucia di Lammermoor; '62, Boheme; '63, Aida; '64, Otello; '65, Andrea Chenier; '66, I Puritani; '67, La Gioconda; '68, Ernani; '69, La Traviata [Turandot opened the visiting San Francisco Opera season in Los Angeles].

1970, Tosca; '71, Manon; '72, Norma; '73, La Favorita; '74, Manon Lescaut; '75, Il Trovatore; '76, Thais; '77, Adriana Lecouvreur; '78, Otello; '79, La Gioconda.

1980, Samson et Delila; '81 [summer], Lear; '81 [fall], Semiramide; '82 [summer], Julius Caesar; '82 [fall] Un Ballo in Maschera; '83, Otello; '84, Ernani; '85 [summer], Das Rheingold; '85 [fall], Adriana Lecouvreur; '86, Don Carlos; '87, Il Barbiere di Siviglia; '88, L'Africaine; '89, Falstaff.

1990 [summer], Das Rheingold; '90 [fall], Suor Angelica/Pagliacci; '91 [summer], The Magic Flute; '91 [fall], La Traviata; '92 [summer], William Tell; '92 [fall], Tosca; '93, I Vespri Siciliani; '94, Macbeth; '95 [summer], Orphee et Eurydice; '95 [fall], Anna Bolena; '96 [summer], Boheme; '96 [fall], Prince Igor; '97, Tosca; '98, Turandot; '99, Un Ballo in Maschera; '00, Luisa Miller; '01, Rigoletto; '02, Turandot.