|
MUSIC SHORTS
News Briefs
May 1, 2001
|
By Janos Gereben
McGegan Unreduces
Philharmonia Baroque music director Nicholas McGegan, reported in recent months as wanting (or being told) to reduce his involvement with the orchestra to the point of part-time or "emeritus" limbo, is back as if he'd never left, which of course he didn't. With surprisingly frank references to "difficult" and "painstaking" negotiations, Philharmonia board president Fred Matteson announced that McGegan will remain with the orchestra for another three years — as "principal conductor" next season and back as music director through 2004. McGegan, in his 15th year with Philharmonia, said he was delighted, a sentiment shared by Bay Area music fans.
In case the partial layoff took place, McGegan would not have been out of work — far from it: He has been named Baroque Series director for the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and his contract as music director for the International Handel Festival in Göttingen has been extended for an additional three years, in addition to other frequent guest appearances and requests for recording projects. The Philharmonia's gain is the Philharmonia's gain.
Comings and Goings at S.F. Opera Lotfi Mansouri — who has told SFCV that he will remain a San Francisco resident when he leaves the job of general manager — did something verrry interesting just three months before Pamela Rosenberg takes the helm of the Opera officially. Mansouri created two new top positions in the administration and then, in an unprecedented move, he specified that the appointments are for three-year terms, meaning three years beyond his regime. Kerry King, senior director of finance, is named executive director for business and operations, Thomas J. Gulick, senior director of marketing and development, will be executive director for development and marketing. Rosenberg, the announcement said, "has endorsed the appointments." Unlike the new tenured positions, other offices are being cleared out in a stream likely to pick up speed once the summer season ends. For starters, one of the longest-lasting and best publication managers in the difficult business of editing opera programs, Koraljka Lockhart, is retiring. The good news is that she will remain affiliated with the company as its official archivist. Jerry Sherk — production stage manager for 21 years — is leaving on July 1 to join Opera Philadelphia. Previously announced:Christina Scheppelmann is to be replaced by Brad Trexell as artistic administrator.
De Cou's Departure Back in the Opera House, but at the other company — the San Francisco Ballet — there is also news of change: Emil de Cou, acting music director since 1998, and conductor since 1993, is leaving the company after the Ballet's tour to Paris this summer. De Cou will conduct several symphony orchestras this year and next, including the National Symphony Orchestra at Virginia's Wolf Trap and at Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in addition to accompanying the orchestra on its national and international tours. The Ballet is still without a music director, something that might have hastened de Cou's otherwise amicable departure.
The Singers of Calisto The greatly talented young artists of the San Francisco Opera Center are holding forth these days in Cowell Theater, with exciting performances of Cavalli's ancient and grand opera, but that's not all. Take Fury No. 2, for example: Carolyne Worra is up for the big time this summer, singing the role of the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro and the title role of Agrippina in Glimmerglass. Lisa van der Ploeg, singing Nature, has returned to the Opera Center after time off to give birth to twin boys a year ago. Josemaria Condemi, Calisto's assistant director, is heading to Theater Artaud as the director of Hector Armienta's River of Women world premiere, May 10–13. Katia Escalera, singing Diana in Cowell, in her first appearance in a soprano role, is also in the cast of Women. Matthew Trevino (Sylvano) is one of the 2001 Merola Program participants, and this is his Bay Area debut. Brian Anderson (the hilarious Linfea) is a first-year Adler Fellow, and he will sing in the company's upcoming Simon Boccanegra, Rigoletto, and Der Meistersinger. Elena Bocharova (Endimione), a second-year Adler Fellow, will also appear in those main-stage productions.
The Orchestra of Calisto New York City Opera chorus master Gary Thor Wedow is presiding over a remarkable small ensemble in Cowell Theater. They play so well (and the orchestra is small enough) that we can do something not done often enough — list the entire group: Robert Galbraith and Carol Kutsch (violins), Emil Miland (cello), Richard Savino and Paul Binkley (guitar, theorbo, and chitarrone), Monica Vanderveen (harpsichord, along with Wedow's own accompaniment, and a small keyboard she made sound like a very big pipe organ), Patrick Klobas (bass), Judy Linsenberg and Kit Higginson (recorder), John Burgardt percussion). Bravi all around.
Verdi Goes to the Movies The San Francisco Film Society and San Francisco Opera present films featuring the music of Giuseppe Verdi, at the Castro Theater, May 25–31, and at Landmark's Park Theater in Menlo Park, June 1–7. The series, compiled by Doug Jones, presents 14 features, documentaries, comedies, and shorts from among the many works in the genre since Leopoldo Fregoli, a pioneering Italian filmmaker, made the first Verdi film in 1898. The program includes Franco Zeffirelli's La Traviata, with Teresa Stratas and Plácido Domingo, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, and the Marx Brothers' A Night at the Opera. (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 |