Three Memorials

Matthew Farruggio, a vital presence on the Bay Area musical theater scene, died March 11, at age 86. One of only 33 recipients of a San Francisco Opera Medal award in the company's 82 years (in 1981, the same year Birgit Nilsson was honored), Farruggio worked for decades at the War Memorial in many capacities, including production supervisor and house stage director. He was particularly involved with the S.F. Opera Center, whose Merola Program has held Matthew Farruggio Day celebrations. His work with opera extended to many regional companies, such as West Bay Opera, where he was director, stage coordinator, and choreographer (he began his career as a dancer). Longtime S.F. Opera Chorus singer Tom McEachern commented on Farruggio's passing by saying, "He was an incredibly fair, talented, and generous colleague. I was the AGMA rep during his tenure, and he was truly wonderful to work with. A great loss."

A musical celebration of the late music critic Philip Elwood will be held Sunday, March 19, the day marking his 80th birthday. Elwood, who wrote about pop, rock, and jazz for four decades in the Examiner, and later the Chronicle, died on January 10 of this year. The free event will be held in San Francisco's Great American Music Hall, beginning at 8 p.m. The evening of music and reminiscences will be broadcast on KPFA-FM as part of the station's Phil Elwood Day.

Vincenzo Giannini, composer, choral conductor, and founder of the San Francisco Polyphonic Chorale, died last month in Daly City, at age 92. Originally from Italy, he conducted in many European and South American venues, and became chorus master of the San Francisco Opera in 1959, holding that position for a decade, during the Kurt Herbert Adler era. Later on, in the 1970s, Giannini served for three years as chorus master of Iran's opera company in Tehran, still under the Shah's rule. A funeral service will be held in Livermore on March 16, to be attended by several current members of the S.F. Opera Chorus, who worked with Mr. Giannini during the decade when he headed the organization. He is survived by his wife of more than 40 years, Gloria Giannini, and three sons, all residing in Italy.

Conductors Out of Commission

Following a fall as he was leaving the stage on March 1, Boston Symphony Music Director James Levine has canceled concerts with the orchestra as well as all his engagements during the current season at the Metropolitan Opera. Doctors advised Levine not to use his injured shoulder for a while, and, apparently, the habitually overworked maestro will take it easy for some time.

Levine's withdrawal from the concert halls is reminiscent of last week's conductors' musical chairs here in San Francisco. Neeme Järvi had been named to replace Kurt Masur, who bowed out of his March 12 performance with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at Davies Symphony Hall, owing to recent illness. Järvi also withdrew shortly thereafter, and conductor Roberto Minczuk stepped into the breach, leading the performance of the Khachaturian Violin Concerto, featuring violinist Sergey Khachatryan, and Mahler's Symphony No. 1. (See review in this issue.)

Music of the Silents

As part of the upcoming 49th annual San Francisco International Film Festival (April 20-May 4), live musical programming will span three distinct genres to accompany film screenings. In addition to original performances by London-based group Addictive TV and local avant-pop favorite Deerhoof, Alloy Orchestra will perform at Castro Theater screenings of the 1925 The Eagle, with Rudolph Valentino, and during an evening called Not So Quiet Silents, featuring Buster Keaton and Fatty Arbuckle films.

S.F. Symphony to Visit East Coast

Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony will tour the East Coast, April 19-22, giving concerts in Carnegie Hall, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, and at Washington's Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Soloists for the concerts include soprano Celena Shafer (in excerpts from Berg's Lulu) and mezzo Lorraine Hunt Lieberson (in Mahler's Rückert Lieder).

Tan Dun, Zhang Yimou to the Met

Chinese director Zhang Yimou and composer Tan Dun produced Hero in 2000, a brilliant film about China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, who unified the nation in the third century B.C. Now, the two will take up the same subject in an opera called The First Emperor, Zhang to direct Tan Dun's opera at New York's Metropolitan Opera in December. In the title role: Placido Domingo. Zhang made his opera debut in Beijing in 1998, directing Puccini's Turandot in the Forbidden City. Tan Dun, who will also conduct the opera, cowrote the libretto with novelist Ha Jin.

(Janos Gereben is a regular contributor to San Francisco Classical Voice. His e-mail address is janosg@gmail.com.)