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IN Music News THIS WEEK:
Meacham's Big Week
Goodbye '04, Hello '05 in the War Memorial
Pacific Society Awards to Young Musicians
Salonen: the Scoop from LA
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By Janos Gereben
Global Baroque
At a time when the world's largest orchestras are struggling with the daunting challenges of touring, something that has become
unprofitable and even a financial liability, a gutsy "medium-sized" Bay Area organization is going places in a big way. Nicholas
McGegan's Philharmonia Baroque is launching its first-ever international tour in the coming year. Beginning with a logistical
nightmare of a New York-Los Angeles doubleheader in 48 hours (something that must have been dictated by the limited availability of
those venues), the orchestra will play in Carnegie Hall on February 23, and in Disney Hall on February 25.
After participation in the week-long International Handel Festival in May, in Göttingen, Germany, Philharmonia will take part in
London's BBC Proms in August, going on to Aldeburgh's Snape Maltings, and — tight scheduling again — the orchestra will
hop across the Channel overnight, to appear in Amsterdam's Concertgebouw. Named Musical America's 2004 "Ensemble of the Year,"
Philharmonia seems to be thriving: it is now the largest period-instrument ensemble in the US, and the fifth largest orchestra (by
budget) in California, and it has just released its 25th commercial recording. For the orchestra's schedule, see www.philharmonia.org.
Meacham's Big Week It was a week of significant "firsts" for baritone Lucas Meachem: on Wednesday, he sang in the SF Opera's first Adler Fellowship Program orchestral concert in Herbst Theater; on Thursday, he got the call to sing that evening the title role of Eugene Onegin, replacing Russell Braun, who is recovering from a back injury. According to reports from the War Memorial, it was a highly successful performance. Five of the eight singers who make up the Class of 2004 will remain Adler Fellows for another year: Meachem, Jane Archibald, Joshua Bloom, Nikki Einfeld, and Thomas Glenn (who had his activated-"cover" turn too, singing the Steersman in the mainstage Flying Dutchman). They will be joined for the next year's program by Eugen Brancoveanu (baritone), Kimwana Doner (soprano), Sean Panikkar (tenor), Gerald Thompson (counter-tenor) who had a success with his mainstage SFO debut this fall as Prince Go-Go in Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre, and Elza van den Heever (soprano).
Goodbye '04, Hello '05 in the War Memorial Plans for the next season of the San Francisco Opera will be announced in January, but there are certain items that the Secretary of Defense would classify of "what we know we know . . . and what we don't know we know (but suspect)." Of great certainty: the 2005 summer operas that are really part of the current season, and the next season-opener. Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades runs June 12 through July 7. Bizet's The Pearl Fishers is scheduled June 14 through July 9. The former — not seen here since Leonie Rysanek's farewell performance as the Countess — will be conducted by Donald Runnicles, the production is by Richard Jones. In the principal roles: the debuts of Katarina Dalayman and Misha Didyk (Lisa and Gherman), Hanna Schwarz (Countess), and John Hancock (Prince Yeletsky). The Merola grads head the Pearl Fishers cast: Nora Amsellem as Leila and Charles Castronovo as Nadir. William Dazeley makes his local debut, as Zurga, and Mark Coles sings Nourabad. The conductor is Sebastian Lang-Lessing (debut). Andrew Sinclair directs Zandra Rhodes' production. Before that, in the spring, look out for the SF Opera's Adler Fellows, a particularly impressive group this time (listed earlier in this column), to perform a trio of operas about weak husbands and strong women: Pergolesi's La Serva Padrona, Donizetti's Rita, and Milhaud's Le Pauvre Matelot. Christopher Alden stages the operas, and Sara Jobin is likely to conduct. Performances, in Cowell Theater, are March 11-20. The 2005 season proper opens on October 1 with the world premiere of the SF Opera-commissioned Dr. Atomic, by John Adams. Lorraine Hunt Lieberson is expected (hoped) to be in the cast, but that's not official yet. Peter Sellars directs, Runnicles conducts. The rest of the fall season: Rossini's L'Italiana in Algeri, with Vivica Genaux; Beethoven's Fidelio, with Christine Brewer or Karita Matilla; Verdi's La Forza del Destino; Bellini's Norma; and Handel's Rodelinda. Probably during the 2006 portion of the season: Puccini's La Fanciulla del West and Verdi's Joan of Arc. Either the summer or the fall of 2006: Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, with Ruth Ann Swenson.
Pacific Society Awards to Young Musicians On its way to the century mark, just six years away, Pacific Musical Society will give its 2004 young-musician awards tonight at a Fairmont Hotel gala. The event honors one of the Society's most important activists, soprano Olivia Stapp. (Previous such honorees include Yehudi Menuhin, Leon Fleisher, and Jess Thomas.) These are the top honors to students: James Denver Gary Awards to NiuNiu Teo (piano), Mindy Chen and Zenas Hsu (violins); M. Alan Neys Awards to Philip Jung (piano) and Andrea Segar (violin); Chrysanthy Leones Award to David Ko (piano); Junior Vocal Awards to Alexandria Rackages (mezzo) and Fortunato S. Yabut (tenor). On the juries: Thomas Schultz, Robert Schwartz, Arndt Hansen (piano); Joseph Gold, Jean-Michel Fontaineau, Thomas Elliott (instruments); Helen Dilworth, Marcelle Dronkers, Marcie Stapp (voice).
Salonen: the Scoop from LA While attendending the Los Angeles Philharmonic's wondrously-performed "Tristan Project" last weekend, three concerts, presenting the opera act by act, I gathered accidental (but highly reliable) information about Essa-Pekka Salonen's future with the orchestra. Next year, his 14th at the head of the orchestra, will be the last on his contract, and there has been some speculation if he will extend it. (Across the street from Disney Hall, Los Angeles Opera has lost Kent Nagano, but gained James Conlon as its music director.) Asked directly about Salonen, our Unimpeachable (if nameless) Source said, short and simple: "He will sign a contract extension," adding: "however much he would like to spend more time composing... but there will be time for that, later." This is very good news for the Philharmonic, which has become a world-class orchestra, quite without the ups and downs of the pre-Salonen years. Other news from Disney Hall: in a pre-concert lecture, Peter Sellars said the Tristan Project is a 10-year-long venture, and he will keep working on it, as the opera goes from LA to Paris, then back to LA, and "on to New York." No details. Ten years of tweaking Tristan? A sobering thought as Sellars' visual tinkering with Wagner already handicapped a musically superb production. A long film of an impersonal, "all the way" strip-tease close-up in Act I and Tristan's body dissolving, startlingly like a six-foot-long Alka-seltzer by way of the Liebestod only distracted from the performance, certainly did not add anything.
(Janos Gereben, a regular contributor to www.sfcv.org, is arts editor of the
Post Newspaper Group. His e-mail address is janosg@gmail.com.)
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