San Francisco Classical Voice

Arshak II Comes First

If you believe Armenian Websites which are selling tickets for the gala (and why shouldn't you?), Tigran Tchoukhadjian's Arshak II will be the San Francisco Opera's season-opener on September 8. (The San Francisco Opera has not itself announced that). The premiere of Arshak II will be followed by five more performances in the work's first North American professional presentation by a resident company - following a precious few touring presentations. Politically inclined observers note that the San Francisco company may just as well open its third-millennium retro programming with an opera from 1868 in a year that will see a United States administration dominated by Vietnam-War era politicians.

Arshak II was a Fourth Century Armenian king, whose downfall at the hands of clan chiefs and barons signaled Roman and Persian invasions that partitioned Armenia and terminated the country's independence in 387. (Arshak III died in 389, but after the Peace of Acilisene, he was only a figurehead.) The opera's musical language is similar to Verdi's, nationalist to the hilt, and with a great deal of folk-music influence.

The San Francisco production is being made possible with the help of substantial contributions from Armenian community groups. A decade-long campaign to make Arshak II happen was spearheaded by notables such as Lili Chookasian and Lucine Amara (Lucy Armagenian), along with several string players in the SFO orchestra itself.

French music for free

To mark the true fin de siècle, San Francisco's free Noontime Concerts will present French music every Wednesday, beginning January 10, in St. Patrick's Church, across the Mission Street from Yerba Buena Gardens. On the program: Fauré, Debussy, Ravel, Milhaud and more. Let the buyer beware: "Noontime" is the name for the 12-year-old series, but the concerts begin at 12:30.

Singing Glass

Oakland resident John Duykers, long associated with the performance of contemporary music, such as Nixon in China and Way of How, has just completed, in Seattle and Chicago, a 120-performance run of the Philip Glass' opera, In the Penal Colony, and he talked of his experience:

"Of all the contemporary works I have done, the only music that requires me to count bars and beats is Philip's. I would find myself breathing with the measures: two in, two out, etc. Breathing (very important at all times) is a real compass in Philip's music. On a couple of occasions I forgot my next words, I went blank, and even though I had done the show 40 times by then, it took me several bars to recognize where I was. So the exercise is to not get lost, and not getting lost meant really memorizing a series of tasks, events, gestures, whatever, taking me from the beginning to the end of the work. For example: sing phrase one, initiate inquisitive gesture to machine on downbeat of next measure, build looking gesture for four bars, stop on bar 5-6, look again on bars 7-10, etc. For 90 minutes, it's a very complex choreography."

Bach in Albany

"Bach and His Models" is the title of the early music ensemble Musica Pacifica's January 12 concert in St. Alban's Church in Albany. The group (composed of such early-music notables as violinist Elizabeth Blumenstock, recorder player Judith Linsenberg, and gambist David Morris) will present music by some of the Bach contemporaries who influenced his writing style - Vivaldi, Buxtehude, Telemann, and Corelli.

(Janos Gereben is arts editor of the Oakland, CA, Post Newspaper Group and technology editor for www.the451.com.)

©2001 Janos Gereben, all rights reserved.