San Francisco Classical Voice

2005 Adler Fellows, Programs

Five of the San Francisco Opera's Adler Fellows (three from Canada) return for one more year: sopranos Jane Archibald (Nova Scotia) and Nikki Einfeld (Manitoba), tenor Thomas Glenn (Calgary), baritone Lucas Meachem (Carthage, NC), and bass Joshua Bloom (Melbourne, Australia). New fellows, all from the Merola Program, are soprano Kimwana Doner (Detroit), Elza van den Heever (Johannesburg), tenor Sean Panikkar (Bloomsbury, PA), counter-tenor Gerald Thompson (Pocahontas, AR), and baritone Eugen Brancoveanu (Romania).

Wagnerian 'Tripleheader'

The Wagner Society of Northern California offers a "Wagnerian Doubleheader" on Saturday, November 6, at the Laurel Heights Conference Center, beginning at 10 a.m. The event concludes at 1, enabling the audience to triple their pleasure by attending the 2:30 dress rehearsal of The Flying Dutchman in the War Memorial. At the Society event in the morning, British lecturer Paul Fryer's presents Carl Froelich's 1913 silent film biography of Richard Wagner, updated with English intertitles and with a new film score by Barry Seeman — the first showing in the US. Then, following the film, Seattle Opera General Director Speight Jenkins will preview the 2005 Seattle Der Ring Des Nibelungen. (See next item.)

Seattle Ring

THE West Coast Wagner Ring event of next year, Seattle Opera's production of the cycle, has its dates and cast set. The first cycle will run August 7-12; the second, August 15-20; the last one, August 23-28. Tickets go on sale on November 15. See www.seattleopera.org.

'From Puccini to Miss Saigon'

Celebrating the centenary of Puccini's Madama Butterfly, PALM, the San Francisco Performing Arts Library & Museum, charts the history of the "Butterfly story" from Pierre Loti's novel all the way to the Broadway musical Miss Saigon. The exhibition — in the War Memorial Building through January — also surveys ballet versions of the story by Sir Frederick Ashton and Stanton Welch; films ranging from Mary Pickford's silent version to Sayonara; David Henry Hwang's play M. Butterfly. Admission is free, gallery hours are Tuesdays-Fridays, 11 to 5; weekends, 1 to 5. See www.sfpalm.org.

Agler to Wexford

David Agler, closely associated with the San Francisco Opera in the 'Eighties, has been named new artistic director of Ireland's famed Wexford Festival, which specializes in the revival of neglected or even forgotten operas. The next season, Wexford's 54th, when Agler succeeds Luigi Ferrari, will present Donizetti's Maria di Rohan, Fauré's Pénélope, and Carlisle Floyd's Susannah. See www.wexfordopera.com.

Agler — Music Director of the Vancouver Opera, Principal Conductor of the Australian Opera, associated with the Spoleto Festival, Oper der Stadt Köln, and the Syracuse Opera — was musical supervisor and resident conductor at the War Memorial between 1979 and 1984, conducted Spring Opera productions, and numerous mainstage performances, including Incoronazione di Poppea, Pikovaya Dama, The Rake's Progress, and the US premiere of Tippett's The Midsummer Marriage.

SFS Chorus: No News Is Perhaps Not Good News

The San Francisco Symphony and AGMA have gone to meditation (with Joel Schaefer of the Federal Mediation Service) three weeks ago, and there has been no word from either side since then, but sources report little or no progress in contract negotiations, which have started and stopped over several months now. AGMA has the support of the American Federation of Musicians (which represents the orchestra musicians) and the Bay Area Labor Council, both organizations stating their willingness to participate in a labor stoppage if nececessary.

Opera Broadcasts: Chicago, Houston, New York, and So On

With all the complaints about lack of opera broadcasts in the Bay Area (see next item), it's interesting to note the news from Chicago, where the musicians of the Lyric Opera Orchestra has voted to allow WFMT-FM (www.wfmt.com) to tape and hold for future broadcast performances from Lyric Opera's current season. Houston Grand Opera, of course, has been spearheading a major effort to make its productions available; see www.houstongrandopera.org. The Metropolitan Opera carries on, even after losing the major sponsor for its broadcasts: see www.metopera.org for information about the season that begins on Dec. 11. In the US and around the world, opera houses manage to broadcast their productions, and local FM stations carry them regularly — neither is happening here.

Opera Broadcasts: Not Here

As it's been repeated here, over and over again, except for brave but tiny KUSF-FM, 90.3, San Francisco has no on-air access to the Met broadcasts (or NPR's "World of Opera" or many other broadcasts series), leaving local fans at the mercy of the Internet. An even more lamentable fact is that the San Francisco Opera stopped broadcasting its productions years ago, allowing scores of important performances to disappear forever. (The last season of consecutive broadcasts from the War Memorial was 1982; local broadcasts ended in 1987, with two exceptions: Rusalka live, on KDFC, 1995, a taped Madama Butterfly on KALW, 2002.)

Jim Dean, of Sunnyvale, CA, responded to our last complaint here about KDFC-FM, which quit both the Met broadcasts and opera in general three years ago, by pointing to KQED-FM, the area's major public radio station: "Opera board members need to put some force on KQED to broadcast opera. KQED-FM rebroadcasts everything, so they have plenty of time for music coverage. It would help the sale of opera tickets here . . . and they are sure asleep about broadcasting from the War Memorial."

Another message places the blame on the Musicians' Union: "The AFM collective bargaining agreement with the San Francisco Opera provides for each orchestra member (whether or not they actually play; think tuba) to be paid $171 per broadcast. According to an ISCOM (International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians) survey, the San Francisco Opera Orchestra has the highest broadcasting fee in the industry."

Reader Harvey Lehtman sees larger issues in all this: "The lack of regular over-the-air broadcasts and the dumbing down of the music on KDFC can only lead to problems down the road for the development of new audiences for the Opera and Symphony." Lehtman says "the [broadcast] situation is even worse in the mid-Peninsula and South Bay where I live," and acknowledges opportunities on the Internet: "Last year, I listened to Met broadcasts via KUAT in Tucson (128K MP3 transmission), WBBA in West Lafayette, Indiana (192K Windows Media Player), WRTI in Philadelphia (176.4K Real Player) among many others. Lower bandwidth transmissions are available on a regular basis from, for example, BBC3 (which had wonderful live broadcasts of all of the Proms concerts this summer.) I have also been able to listen to live broadcasts from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the Bayreuth Festival, and live performances from Vienna and Paris."

'K-Mozart' No More?

KMZT, 1510-AM, which calls itself "K-Mozart," tried classical-music programming, including extensive opera programs on Saturdays, but suddenly over the last weekend, it went to a nondescript ("middle-of-the-road") pop content. Calls to the station went unanswered. Wilson Broadcasting's K-Mozart 105.1 FM in Los Angeles is still providing classical programming, but its AM sister station, KSURF, 1260, switched to "Golden Oldies" this summer.

From Inside Macabre

An Internet posting from San Francisco Opera Chorus member Tom Reed provides an insider's view of Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre:

Before the curtain rises, when the announcer tells the audience to switch off their cell phones, they should also tell them to switch off the left side of their brains. In this opera you just have to go with the flow. It makes no sense whatsoever, except as a political cartoon. In that regard it mirrors our society perfectly, which is to say again that it makes no sense whatsoever.

It's a charming story about Death with a capital D. Going by the name of Nekrotzar, Death just wants to be taken seriously by the citizens of Breughelland. He figures he can get their attention by destroying the world. But the citizenry has other things on its mind. In the first scene the chorus reacts in horror at the appearance of Nekrotzar as he rides up from the grave on an escalator. To maintain the required "Quasimodo in Hell" postures throughout the long scene, some resort to a simple acting technique: tightening every muscle on just one side of the body. Though difficult at first to hold, these tortured postures and expressions get easier as the scene progresses, due to the tendency of muscles to lock once they cramp. Thereafter no effort is required, except backstage when it comes time to pry loose.

In one of the most shocking and disgusting scenes of the evening, the chorus enters to discover several tables spread with food. At first they approach the feast with caution, but gradually they lose all sense of decorum, eventually shoving, grabbing and wallowing over each other in a gluttonous feeding frenzy. And all this takes place during intermission in the basement employee lounge right in front of the lovely lady volunteers of the Opera Guild who had intended the refreshments for the members of the orchestra. Disgraceful! Later on stage they do it again! After attending a raucous political convention the chorus breaks into a banquet like a swarm of locusts and devours everything, even the fake stuff. It requires no less than the Grim Reaper himself to drive them off! What is it about singers and food?

Remembering Robert Merrill

Mike Richter, whose Website (www.mrichter.com) has been providing unusual opera material for almost a decade now, has two special sites honoring the great baritone, who died last week: www.operas-are.us/merrill and www.mrichter.com/opera/rm_pag.rm.

Santa Rosa Symphony Appointment

Tim Beswick has been named artistic operations director of the Santa Rosa Symphony. Beswick has a degree in violin performance from San Jose State University School of Music, he has taught instrumental music programs in the San Jose area, and worked as a freelance musician. He was with the Midsummer Mozart Festival in the 1980s, and then active with the San Jose Symphony.

Dr. Atomic Under Development

Next fall's San Francisco Opera season-opener, the world premiere of John Adams' Dr. Atomic, to be directed by Peter Sellars, received a workshop reading last week, with both composer and director in attendance. A report from the workshop said the opera contains some of Adams' "most visceral music."