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NEWS STORY
Pamela Rosenberg, The S.F. Opera's Future
January 9, 2001
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By Robert Commanday
The San Francisco Opera dropped the other shoe with a bang Tuesday morning when its general director-designate Pamela Rosenberg finally met the press and announced the season ahead and a five-year plan entitled "Animating Opera." A concept that may well be innovative in opera season programming, "Animating Opera" entails pursuing seven themes and series that would be traced through the coming seasons.
Twenty-five operas are already chosen in the five-year plan, among them, the American staged premiere of Messiaen's Saint François d'Assise (2002/03) as one of three annual "Seminal Works of Modern Times"; a complete staging of Berlioz' Les Troyens (2004-05) as part of the "Composer Portrait: Janácek/Berlioz"; Berlioz' La Damnation de Faust (2002-03) and Busoni's Doktor Faust (2003-04) as part of "The Faust Project" that will include Gounod's Faust, Boito's Mefistofele and a commissioned "American Faust."
Rosenberg had been under wraps since her appointment last year while she worked at her current position of co-intendant of the Stuttgart Opera and at the San Francisco Opera in preparation for her directorship here. Introduced Tuesday by the Opera's chairman, Franklin Johnson, Jr., as their first and unanimous choice for a post that President and search committee chairman William Godward , described as CEO/General Director, Rosenberg immediately established her authority and point of view. Her most significant single announcement was the extension of the music director Donald Runnicles' contract four years beyond its current expiration in 2002 and her affirmation of their close working partnership. That stood in contrast to the strained relationship that has existed between Runnicles and Lotfi Mansouri who retires as General Director on July 31.
Next year's season, planned by Mansouri with unspecified modifications by Rosenberg offers 89 performances of 11 operas including the premiere of the original version of Tigran Chukhadjian's Armenian opera Arshak II,(6 performances, September 8-30), new productions of Wagner's Die Meistersinger (7 performances, October 10-28) and of Lehar's The Merry Widow to a new translation by playwright Wendy Wasserstein, (12 performances, November 27-January 19, 2002), and new here, a production of Janácek's Jenufa (7 performances, November 19-Dec. 9).
The complete season for 2001/02 consists of:
Verdi's Rigoletto (Sept.7-29)
Casting, exact dates and other details may be found on the Opera's web site, www.sfopera.com.
The "Animating Opera" themes and series thus far include:
Seminal Works of Modern Times
Saint François d'Assise (2002/03)
The Faust Project (described above)
Composer Portrait: Janácek/Berlioz
Janácek's Katya Kabanova, Berlioz' La Damnation de Faust
(2002/03)
Women Outside of Society
Puccini's Turandot, Janácek's Katya Kabanova
Metamorphosis: From Fairy Tales to Nightmares
Humperdinck's Hansel und Gretel,
Utopia In The Age Of Enlightenment
Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio (2002/03)
Outsiders or Pioneer? The Nature of the Human Condition
Britten's Billy Budd, Verdi's Macbeth
(Robert P. Commanday, the editor of San Francisco Classical Voice, was the music critic of The San Francisco Chronicle, 1965-93, and before that a conductor and lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley.) ©2001 Robert P. Commanday, all rights reserved |
