* Notes *
Orpheus hosted an event with Gregory Henkel, San Francisco Opera's Director of Artistic Adminstration yesterday evening at Credo. Henkel certainly has quite a C.V., having worked at Los Angeles Opera and the Lyric Opera of Chicago. He also was a guest judge at the Met auditions this year.
For this talk, he spoke about his job, about how casting comes about, and how we induce singers to come out all the way to San Francisco. We got a first hand account of how Molly Fillmore, currently singing in Die Walküre, flew in from Arizona to fill in for Nadja Michael. Fillmore had never performed the role before, and though she had some rehearsal time before the opera opened in San Francisco, she was, of course, not completely prepared. We also heard about how Andrea Silvestrelli sang for Peter Rose when the latter went to the UK for his father's funeral service. Silvestrelli had to learn all that English dialogue with in a very short period of time.
It was most interesting to hear Henkel's impressions of the best up and coming talent. He praised our current and former Adlers highly, especially Leah Crocetto, David Lomelí, Ryan Belongie, Daveda Karanas, and Heidi Melton. As far as other singers under 40, he mentioned Albina Shagimuratova, Heidi Stober, Stephanie Blythe, Stephen Costello, Brian Mulligan, and Quinn Kelsey, all of whom we will hear in coming seasons. It was mentioned that Costello's wife, Ailyn Pérez, had no rehearsal time with the orchestra before her one Traviata performance last summer.
* Tattling *
The audience was engaged, quietly snacking on fried olives and other hors d'œuvre. After the talk, Henkel mingled with the guests before taking a taxi to the fourth performance of Faust.
The Opera Tattler 
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