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IN Music News THIS WEEK: December 11, 2001
SF Opera Plans: If and When
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By Janos Gereben
SF Opera Plans: If and When
During SF Opera general manager Pamela Rosenberg's 2002-'03 season-announcement press conference last week, she prefaced replies to questions about long-range plans with variations on "if I am still here." Finally, she was asked outright why she is using that qualifier repeatedly. Her reply:
"I have a five-year contract, and I find it a bit dicey for plans and contracts to be laid and made beyond that point. Who knows? I may not want to stay longer or the board may not want me to stay longer. I could lay out a 10-year plan... but it's difficult because there are so many opera houses now that plan way out in advance. I tried to get some singers for as far away as 2005 and they were not free. Barcelona is already talking about 2007. If I say, OK, I want somebody in 2006, I have to say `we'll do this project then,' it makes me nervous to set those in stone."
One specific conditional response was about Wagner's Ring, which has been produced at five-year intervals in the War Memorial. Rosenberg gave an emphatic NO, within that five-year framework. The one fairly certain long-range news she disclosed was for a 2004 production of György Ligeti's much-talked-about Le Grand Macabre, a work the composer calls an "opera" in quotation marks. San Francisco will present Kasper Holton's Copenhagen production of the 1997 version, rather than Peter Sellars' from Salzburg, due next in Covent Garden, in 2003.
Le Grand Macabre is a bizarre piece, which uses musical instruments to simulate non-musical effects such as car horns and doorbells. The plot has been called "retro-Dada" — Piet the Pot, a forever tipsy professional wine-taster, is abducted by Nekrotzar, the Great Macabre, a personification of death. The story includes court astrologers with sado-masochistic tendencies, a confused Prince Go-Go, who reigns in Breughelland, a place where the two political parties have no differences at all. (It's all fiction, OK?) Ligeti's "anti-music" is cacophonous and occasionally surprisingly classical, such as in the concluding Passacaglia, but otherwise long segments of super-loud, squawking sprechtstimme dominate, along with grunting, squealing, and unfunny satire. If this take from a fellow Hungarian seems too harsh, you should check on some other descriptions.
Houston Opera Cuts Back on Heggie, Others Citing a 10% drop in subscription sales since September 11, Houston Grand Opera general manager David Gockley is tightening the purse strings in the city where the bankrupt Enron Corporation used to rule the roost. The premiere of Mark Adamo's Lysistrata, the Nude Goddess, already postponed to 2003, is now on hold indefinitely, unless a co-producer can be found. Budgeted at $1.2 million, the Adamo work will be replaced on the Houston schedule with Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio, costing about half. Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking, scheduled for the next season, will be replaced by something "happier" and more revenue-producing: Lehar's The Merry Widow. HGO's summer production, in Hermann Park, is cancelled, saving the company some $400,000. Speaking of Enron, HGO has just made an extraordinary announcement. Acknowledging "the generosity of Enron employees to the Opera," Gockley this week offered free renewal to Enron subscribers who have been laid off for the next season, as "thanks for supporting our work over the years."
The Knight's Magic Flute On Wednesday, Dec. 12, the inevitable will come to pass in Buckingham Palace, and once he rises from the proper kneeling position, it will be Sir James Galway. It's about time, Galway implied in his response to the announcement by thanking his parents, friends, and teachers, and saying: "I only wish more of them were alive to witness this day." After his rendezvous with the Queen, Sir James flies to New York to record Christmas Glory, for ITV in St. Thomas's Church on 5th Avenue.
OPERA America Awards OPERA America is inviting nominations for its 2002 awards programs, the winners to be honored at the organization's 32nd annual conference in Toronto, April 20-24, 2002. The categories: Bravo Awards (to recognize corporations and business leaders), Success Awards (to opera companies engaged in innovative projects), and Spotlight on Opera Awards (for media support of opera). Nominations must be received by January 14, 2002. Information, nomination forms, etc. are available from (202) 293-4466 or by e-mail: Jamie@operaamerica.org or Peggy@operaamerica.org. The Website is www.operaamerica.org. (Janos Gereben is arts editor of the Post Newspaper Group and technology editor for www.the451.com. You can contact him at janos451@earthlink.net.) ©2001 Janos Gereben, all rights reserved |