Reviews of Performances and their Audiences
September 12-30 2009: L'Elisir d'Amore
September 26- October 17 2009: Siegfried
November 21- December 1 2009: Tamerlano
November 29- December 19 2009: Il barbiere di Siviglia
April 3-25 2010: Die Götterdämmerung
April 12-24 2010: Die Gezeichneten
May 29- June 26 2010: Der Ring des Nibelungen
Nathan Gunn stars in L'Elisir with Rolando Villazón and in Il barbiere with Juan Diego Flórez and Joyce DiDonato. Plácido Domingo and Bejun Mehta sing in Tamerlano.
Press Release [PDF] | Official Site
Oh my god. That is an excellent season, and, excitingly, I may actually be able to see Tamerlano and Barbiere.
Do you know when
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Sorry, typo. Meant to say, Do you know when San Francisco is announcing their season?
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Do my eyes deceive me? An LA Opera season with NO Puccini? And no Verdi (though I do like some Verdi)? And nary a Carmen in sight either! My faith in the company is tentatively restored, but the words “Robert Wilson” will smash it easily enough.
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SF is announcing their season on the 26th at 11AM, according to their website
I am very disappointed by LA’s upcoming season, and it looks like I won’t be making that trip, except for the Shreker, perhaps, and maybe the odd Ring opera. Would love to see Villazon again (since Gockley says he can’t get him here in SF), but to my ears C-lister Nathan Gunn ruins everything he touches – his Barber here was absolutely disgraceful in terms of understanding period style, and his intonation leaves much to be desired. Yes he is handsome. BFD. And Domingo should stay away from all early music up to the classical era, which he does not understand!!! I have heard him in Idomeneo (DC) and Iphigenie (Met) and it was very, very painful.
Thank God our upcoming season – from what I can tell based on Tattler’s research – has so much interesting stuff.
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Actually, Die Walkure is being performed this coming April, and Gotterdammerung will be in April of 2010.
I go down to LA a couple of times a year now because what they are doing if often really great. I would even go so far as to say that LA Opera is now more interesting and offers more stimulating and exciting programming than what Gockley is giving us in SF. The only problem is the Dorothy Chandler is a poor place for opera.
Sure, the Fly was a total disaster, the worst opera I’ve ever seen bar none, but it was at least a much more interesting idea than The Bonesetter’s Daughter.
Thankfully, the Trittico they put on simultaneously was terrific on every level. The Recovered Voices program has included at least one masterpiece in “The Dwarf” and LA was also where I first saw Erwin Schrott as Don Giovanni as well as the Julie Taymor production of the Flying Dutchman.
I’m very much looking forward to the LA ring, and will be attending Das Rheingold this Feb and Walkure in April (with Domingo as Siegmunde).
Meanwhile, LA continues to outpace us; they have Dudamel to look forward to at Disney Hall, we get Luisotti replacing Runnicles at the War Memorial- hardly an equal start of “exciting new eras” for classical music fans).
Gockley’s constant yammering on about his commitment to “singers” looks pretty weak when we have yet to see Schrott, Villazon was last here under Rosenberg, Domingo is nowhere to be seen, ditto for Fleming, Rene Pape, Terfel, and the list goes on and on.
This year we had a wonderful Boccanegro, Die Tote Stadt was superb and Elixer was really good. As for the rest?
Bah- it was not that much to brag about- including Boheme (can I just say right here that we are really, really, really going to miss Runnicles very very much).
Ned, if you had seen Gunn in the excellent Billy Budd presented a few seasons back, perhaps you would reconsider your snarky comments.
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I did see it.
But I wouldn’t expect you to understand, since if there is one “star” singer lower in my estimation than Gunn it is definitely Schrott. You are “listening with your eyes”, as a friend of mine in LA likes to say.
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Finally, the “Gezeichneten” is scheduled. I noticed, though, that it’s playing in rep with “Gotterdammerung”. The Schreker will be without cuts so that’s ca. 165 minutes of music. Boy, that orchestra is going to be exhausted–I expect a lot of fluffs from the brass. 🙂 Except for the Schreker and the two Wagner’s, the rest is “avoid at all costs” territory for me, due to my intense loathing of bel canto and baroque opera, so that’s money saved then. Too bad the premiere of Daniel Catan’s “Il Postino” got bumped.
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sorry, but nathan gunn IS c-level. you can barely hear his voice in… well, any house. nice guy but boring, tiny voice.
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I could hear him fine way up in the third level of the Barn-like Dorothy Chandler when he did Papageno this month…not a great ascoutic spot. He was very good.
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I see most of what is done at both companies. While LA has its failures and overly repetitious greatest hits programming, it has become the far more interesting company. SF productions all too frequently are either simply boring or aggresively idiotic. The current LA Magic Flute, utilizing the same production seen in SF, is done far better in almost every respect, even including the lighting, in LA. I found the recent SF Boccanegra a bore. San Diego did it far better not that long ago. Die Tote Stadt didn’t come anywhere close to meeting my expectations. Having seen Gunn numererous times over the last ten years, including his current Papageno, his Billy Budd, and his recent Chicago Zurga, I can reach no other conclusion than that he is a nondescript singer. As for LA’s next season, I am pleased and intend to see everything. BTW, the really bad seats in LA are those on the main floor. The more you pay, the worse they are.
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fyi MN Opera’s 2009-2010 season http://www.twincities.com/ci_11544624
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Well, we are making up for it here in San Francisco, I guess. We’ve had two Puccini operas a year since Gockley started.
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