San Francisco Classical Voice

The two women are new here, Alexander Deshorties, from Montreal Canada, for Fiordiligi, and mezzo-soprano Claudia Mahnke (replacing the previously announced Magdalena Kozená) as Dorabella . This will be an important engagement for Deshorties, who is highly regarded, yet had a difficult time in her Met debut in 2003. Mahnke made her San Francisco debut as the Composer in the 2002 production of Ariadne auf Naxos. We know Richard Stillwell, the Don Alfonso, from way back, and he should be solid, as should Frederica von Stade in a surprise and uncharacteristic appearance as a soubrette, as Despina. The conductor, Michael Gielen, who has not been in the Bay Area before, has had a fascinating career with opera companies and symphonies, has a considerable reputation in contemporary music and is bound to produce an interesting performance.

La Traviata, opening on September 14, is likely to be a bright star this fall, what with Ruth Ann Swenson and Rolando Villazon (the fast-rising Mexican tenor with a sterling voice, appropriately for an Alfred, younger than Swenson) as the principals. Dmitri Hvorostovsky is Germont; Patrick Summers conducts, and the production is a welcome revival of the one John Conklin created here. The fine Billy Budd production that was used here twice is being “overwritten” by one from the Vienna State Opera, 2001, using a staff which has not previously worked here; it opens on October 1. Nathan Gunn, last season's Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia will be Budd; Philip Ens, a bass with Wagnerian experience, will be John Claggart; and Kim Begley, a British tenor not well known in this country, will be Captain Vere, with Donald Runnicles conducting.

The Tosca to open on October 13, was designed after the Agnini production that opened the Opera House in 1932, and will feature two artists who came up through the company, Carol Vaness and, as Scarpia, Mark Delavan. Thus this will be an unusual occasion in Pamela Rosenberg's tenure, something that celebrates the company's past. Donald Runnicles will be on the podium. The Cavaradossi of Miroslav Dvorsky will be one to anticipate, judging from the record of his career in Europe. There is no indication that he is related to another, older Slovak tenor, Peter Dvorsky.

Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre, opening October 29, is the major adventure of the year. It is the most “advanced” opera” ever performed on the major stage in San Francisco. The “theater of the absurd” libretto, much of which will be unintelligible to the ear and even elusive when read on Supertitles, is best absorbed by an audience aware of the style in advance. The score draws freely on earlier styles in sardonic and parodic fashion. The description provided in the Opera Guild's brochure: “A land on the verge of the Apocalypse is depicted by surreal and disjointed vignettes, over-the-top characters — including lovers, drunkards and hysterics — and plenty of sardonic humor . . .” the score: “ A collage of sonorities ranging from a symphony of car horns to ensembles of urban sounds, spoken word and snippets of manipulated Beethoven, Rossini and Verdi.” Ligeti wrote, “At last I had found a play about the end of the world, a bizarre, demoniacal, cruel and also very comic piece, to which I wanted to give an added dimension, that of ambiguity.”

A new production of Der fliegende Holländer borrowed from the Chicago Lyric Opera, opens on November 10, directed by the producer of the SF Opera's memorable Ring cycle (1983-85). Lehnhoff's description of Raimund Bauer's set is that “it symbolizes a ship or a coffin, where the two protagonists live and die . . . In order to enter Senta and the Dutchman's inner world, the set must ‘disappear,' to become transparent. The outer world seen through the eyes of Senta and the Dutchman becomes distorted, a science fiction existence with fleeting suggestions of cinematic fantasies, from Metropolis to Clockwork Orange.”

The only member of the cast familiar here is the estimable tenor, Christopher Ventris, as Erik. The Dutchman is the Finnish bass Juha Uusitalo, who has sung the role with the Boston Symphony Orchestra; the Senta is Nina Lifts Stemme, a Swedish dramatic soprano who has been doing the major Wagner roles, Senta in particular. The Daland is Walter Fink (aka Finch). Born in Bregenz, he has a solid career as a bass, and has sung many roles at the Vienna State Opera. Runnicles conducts.

Finally, Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin opens on November 24, in a production by Peter Pabst which originated at the Netherlands Opera. The two knowns are the Tatyana, Elena Prokina, the celebrated Russian soprano, who sang here last year; and the Olga, the Canadian-born mezzo Allyson McHardy, who came up through the Merola Program and the Western Opera Theater and gave a Schwabacher Recital, all with success. The others are new. The Onegin is Russell Braun, a high baritone, Canadian son of baritone Victor Braun, who counts Pelleas and Figaro among his roles. He replaced an ailing Thomas Quasthoff at this summer's Oregon Bach Festival. Lensky is Piotr Beczala, a Polish lyric tenor who has sung the role at the Zurich and Paris Opera and, judging by his other roles, would seem to have a high, bright voice. The conductor is Ilan Volkov, Israeli-born and of Russian descent, chief conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony.

The Opera's program this fall is full of promise, with many new voices, one major adventure, and no doubt, some surprises in staging.