San Francisco Classical Voice

Christmas Carol features an original score and songs by Karl Lundeberg, sets by Tony Award-winner John Arnone, costumes by Beaver Bauer, and choreography by Val Caniparoli. The adaptation is by Perloff and Paul Walsh. Music, Perloff says, is especially appropriate for the work because "Dickens is about transformation, and music conveys that economically and powerfully." Music suffuses Christmas Carol, with songs interspersed between 21 scenes. Lundeberg even gave characters their own theme music, a la the Wagnerian leitmotif. See www.act-sf.org.

Opera Center Singers in Concert

Some of the San Francisco opera world's brilliant young singers are participating in a "Basically British" recital in Old First Church, on November 19, directed and accompanied by John Parr, head of the S.F. Opera Music Department. The singers are former Merola Program participants and current Adler Fellows, such as soprano Nikki Einfeld (heard in the title role of Donizetti's Rita), countertenor Gerald Thompson (Rodelinda), tenor Thomas Glenn, (Doctor Atomic); Joshua Bloom, bass (Rodelinda). These singers will also appear in the final Adlers' concert, see next item. For information, www.geocities.com.

Adlers: "The Future Is Now"

The season's final concert by the San Francisco Opera Center's Adler Fellows will take place on Dec. 1 in Herbst Theater. "The Future Is Now" program features Jane Archibald, Kimwana Doner, Nikki Einfeld, Elza van den Heever, Gerald Thompson, Thomas Glenn, Sean Panikkar, Eugen Brancoveanu, Lucas Meachem, and Joshua Bloom performing selections from operas by Donizetti, Leoncavallo, and Wagner. Opera Center Director of Musical Studies Mark Morash leads members of the S.F. Opera Orchestra in this second annual concert. For information: www.sfopera.com.

Are Your CDs Spying on You?

San Francisco's Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) first blew the whistle on Sony BMG Music Entertainment for using copy-protection technology that can make computers vulnerable to hackers. Over the weekend, Sony promised to suspend the program, but the company defended the principle of using "XCP" technology as protection against illegal copying. "We also intend to re-examine all aspects of our content protection initiative to be sure that it continues to meet our goals of security and ease of consumer use," the Sony release said.

The antipiracy technology, which works only on Windows computers, prevents customers from making more than a few copies of a CD and also prevents them from loading a CD's songs onto Apple Computer's iPod portable music players. EFF says the Sony software can also slow down computers and make them susceptible to crashes and third-party attacks. As the program is designed to hide itself, users may have trouble diagnosing the problem. "Music fans should protect themselves from this stealth attack on their computer system," says an EFF senior staff attorney.

SFCV consulted several industry experts, and their consensus was to consider "XCP" in already-released compact discs to be dangerous to use. They called attention to the fact that even if Sony suspends use of "XCP," there is no recall planned. They say computer users who are concerned about XCP can take simple steps to help prevent problems: 1) Do not accept the EULA (end user's license agreement) that appears when such a CD is inserted into a PC; and 2) Hold down the Shift key when you insert a CD, disabling the autorun, then use your own software to play the CD. For more information, see www.eff.org.

East Bay: Music and Ideology

Oakland Opera and Berkeley Symphony are both preparing to make a Statement, with a capital S. In Oakland, the offering is Peace Through Song, an evening of anti-war compositions, including Kurt Weill's opera Johnny Johnson, excerpts from Robert Kurka's The Good Soldier Schweik, songs by John Jacob Niles, Hans Eisler, Pesach Kaplan, Oakland's Mary Watkins, and others. Performances in Oakland Metro are scheduled Dec. 2-4; see www.oaklandopera.org.

Oakland Opera Music Director Deirdre McClure leads the performances. During her tenure with the company, McClure has conducted Philip Glass' Akhnaten and La Belle et la B'te, Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, Tom Dean's White Darkness, and Virgil Thomson's Four Saints in Three Acts. The Johnny Johnson cast includes Will Meyer (in the title role), Lara Bruckman (Minnie Belle), Martin Bell, Eliza O'Malley, Axel Van Chee, Jennifer Lien, and others.

Berkeley Symphony's next program, also on Dec. 2 (in Zellerbach Hall), offers Schumann's Symphony No. 1, and the commissioned world premiere of Kurt Rohde's Bitter Harvest, with text by Amanda Moody. The oratorio, says the Symphony's announcement, is "a work that will challenge the audience to investigate the roots of hatred and what drives an individual to destructive behavior. It will use music to explore the economic, social, spiritual, and psychological effects of corporate agribusiness on the small family farmer." See www.berkeleysymphony.org.

Hungering for Opera, in a New Way

The London Observer reports that several Italian opera singers have gone on a hunger strike — some for two weeks now — to protest proposed major cuts in the country's arts budget.

La Scala soprano Barbara Vignudelli, for example, has had no solid food for two weeks. "I feel OK, but I'm dreaming of a mortadella sandwich," she told the Observer. "I'm doing this to try to shame our politicians. We have one of the most important cultural heritages in the world — it will be a disaster for Italy if these cuts are implemented."

Soprano Manola Colangeli from the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma has just endured a 10-day fast and has lost 12 pounds. "It was difficult, especially when I walked past the bar in the theater every day and smelled coffee," she said. "I've stopped now because I was getting really weak and it affects the voice."

Baritone Claudio Fantoni, who sings in the chorus of Florence's Maggio Musicale, lived on three cappuccinos a day for two weeks. He believes the funding crisis is politically motivated ahead of April's national elections. "I think the government is ready to sacrifice the performing arts sector because it is not strategic for electoral purposes," he said.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's coalition government has proposed a 35 percent cut to state funding for the arts — from 464 million euros to 300 million euros — in the 2006 budget as part of financial measures aimed at reducing Italy's annual deficit, which is above levels permitted by the EU. Reducing art support from the equivalent of $542 million to $350 million means, in a country of 58 million people, per-capita spending falling from $9 to $6 in direct public subsidy for the arts.

How does that compare with the U.S.? The National Endowment for the Arts budget is $121 million; National Endowment for the Humanities receives $138 million. The total amount given to those two major government arts endowments, in a nation of 300 million, represents per-capita spending of 86 cents, which looks mighty scrawny against Italy's even reduced outlay.

Last week, President George W. Bush greeted the 40th anniversary of the two institutions by saying that over that span of time, "the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities have strengthened our democracy by supporting our nation's ideals, institutions, and emerging talents. The NEA has provided support for music and dance, theater and the arts across our great country. It has helped improve public access to education in the arts, offered workshops in writing, and brought artistic masterpieces to underserved communities."

In a thrifty sort of way.

Menuhin Ousted from Father's Foundation

Gerard Menuhin was fired as head of the German branch of the music foundation set up by his father, the violinist and humanist Yehudi Menuhin, after comments he made in a newspaper run by Germany's leading far-right party. In an article written for German Voice, the newspaper of the National Democratic Party, Menuhin wrote that it was "not healthy" to hold Germany to war and Holocaust crimes it committed 60 years ago.

Leaders of the Düsseldorf-based foundation decided to remove Menuhin from office after he ignored a request to step down, "distancing [ourselves] completely from the content of the comments made by Gerard Menuhin, and sharply condemning the naming of our foundation and its activities in a media outlet that the Interior Ministry has said 'must be considered part of the extreme-right.'" The Yehudi Menuhin Foundation promotes contacts between cultures through art and encourages the teaching of music in schools.