San Francisco Classical Voice

Opera GM Selection Near

A successor to Pamela Rosenberg as general manager of the San Francisco Opera may be named very soon, even if the actual change will not take place until after the 2005-06 season. The top contender, according to Chicago Tribune music critic John von Rhein is easily Matthew A. Epstein, who has just announced that he will leave as artistic director of the Lyric Opera.

Is that timing a coincidence? Not according to von Rhein's column on Monday. The writer goes more step, and not only hints at the possibility, but wholeheartedly endorses it: "If Epstein gets the San Francisco job, the company will have hired an experienced, progressive and musically knowledgeable executive who knows the ins and outs of the opera world as do few others."

Epstein, 57, was vice president of Columbia Artists Management, former chief of the Welsh National Opera. He is "known to be abrasive and outspoken . . . his support for cutting-edge, revisionist opera productions put him increasingly at odds" with the Lyric management, writes von Rhein.

Other sources indicate that San Francisco Ballet general manager Leslie Koenig has taken herself out of consideration. Another promising possibility, Houston Grand Opera general manager David Glockley, 59, has been courted for the position, but it's not at all clear if he wants to make the move after 32 eventful years at the helm of the company there.

Small Boys on Big Tour

Ian Robertson's San Francisco Boys Chorus is making some big plans for the summer, sponsored in part by All-Nippon Airways. The group plans to tour Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Osaka in July, then participate in a workshop and concert at "Chikyu Mura (The Earth Village)" in Tajimi city in Gifu, Japan; sing at the opening concert of a choral festival at the Aichi World Exposition in Japan.

The chorus on tour will perform the Fauré Requiem it recently sang in Grace Cathedral, Alleluias by David Conte and Randall Thomson, and Purcell's Come, Ye Sons of Art, the ode for Queen Mary's birthday in 1694. See www.sfbc.org or send e-mail to info@sfbc.org with the subject "Asia Tour 2005" to be placed on the mailing list.

ABS Singers Go 'Solo'

To be exact, of course, a chorus cannot sing solo, but the American Bach Soloists Chorus will, in fact, go it alone for the first time, giving a concert without the instrumentalists. The program, called "The Essential Choralists," will do ABS's usual rounds in Belvedere (January 7) / Berkeley (January 8) / San Francisco (January 9). On the program: Brahms, Britten and Bach's double-chorus motet Singet dem Herren. See www.americanbach.org.

Puccini Tripleheader in Berkeley

Berkeley Opera's 2005 season opens January 29, with the local premiere of the full, three-opera, Puccini cycle of Il Trittico in the Julia Morgan Theater, through February 6. It's been more than a half a century that Bay Area audiences could see Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi together, at the San Francisco Opera's 1952 production.

Company artistic director Jonathan Khuner and associate music director Jason Sherbundy take turns on the podium, and are responsible for stage direction. Projected set design is by Jeremy Knight. For cast and ticket information, see www.berkeleyopera.org.

Di Stefano Recovering

After an encounter with robbers in Kenya a month ago, and a brutal beating that left him in a coma, Giuseppe Di Stefano was flown home to Milan. The latest report about the 83-year-old tenor, who sang with Maria Callas on her last concert tour, is that his condition is stable, and two operations performed in Kenya probably saved his life.