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SF Opera Survey 2010

Sf-opera-inside This year's subscriber survey from San Francisco Opera was a little bit boring, so here are the funniest ones, with answers from the Opera Tattler filled in, of course. To be perfectly honest, I should have checked all of the boxes for question 6, but somehow that did not seem helpful, so I picked ones that I would consider going if I were normal, and did not go to all the operas at San Francisco Opera. I find it particularly alarming that none of the operas that I listed were ones in questions 5 or 6.

 

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4. Please name up to five operas you would most like to see in the near future.
Monteverdi's L'Orfeo
Gluck's Armide
Mozart's La finta semplice
Vivaldi's Orlando Furioso
Berg's Lulu

5. To help us plan for future seasons, please indicate which of the following operas you would be extremely interested in attending in the next five years. Please check all that apply.
Rigoletto (Verdi)
The Flying Dutchman (Wagner)
Lohengrin (Wagner)
x Don Giovanni (Mozart)
x Tales of Hoffmann (Offenbach)
x Die Meistersinger (Wagner)
Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti)
The Magic Flute (Mozart)
x Peter Grimes (Britten)
The Barber of Seville (Rossini)
Il Trovatore (Verdi)
Aida (Verdi)
Elektra (R. Strauss)
x The Trojans (Berlioz)
Carmen (Bizet)
x Porgy and Bess (Gershwin)
Turandot (Puccini)
La Traviata (Verdi)
The Marriage of Figaro (Mozart)
Die Frau ohne Schatten (R. Strauss)
A Masked Ball (Verdi) Madama Butterfly (Puccini)
Così fan tutte (Mozart)
Der Rosenkavalier (R. Strauss)
Norma (Bellini)
Cavalleria rusticana (Mascagni)
x Nixon in China (John Adams)
Falstaff (Verdi)
La Bohème (Puccini)
Tosca (Puccini)

6. To help us plan for future seasons, please indicate which of the following works you would CONSIDER ATTENDING. Please check all that apply.
The Dialogues of the Carmelites (Poulenc)
Attila (Verdi)
West Side Story (Bernstein)
Eugene Onegin (Tchaikovsky)
Les Misérables (Claude-Michel Schönberg)
x Julius Caesar (Handel)
x Jenůfa (Janáček)
Pagliacci (Leoncavallo)
Susannah (Carlisle Floyd)
x From the House of the Dead (Janáček)
x Xerxes (Handel)
Carmina Burana (Orff)
King Roger (Szymanowski)
Show Boat (Jerome Kern)
I Puritani (Bellini)
La Cenerentola (Rossini)
Manon (Massenet)
Lucrezia Borgia (Donizetti)
x Moby Dick (Jake Heggie)
Adriana Lecouvreur (Cilea)
x Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (Shostakovich)
I Capuleti e i Montecchi (Bellini)
x Ainadamar (Osvaldo Golijov)
Mefistofele (Boito)
Florencia en el Amazonas (Daniel Catán)
Andrea Chenier (Giordano)
Don Quichotte (Massenet)
Nabucco (Verdi)
Cendrillon (Massenet)
The Portrait (Weinberg)
X Rusalka (Dvořák)
Sweeney Todd (Stephen Sondheim)
x Mosè in Egitto (Rossini)
x Ernani (Verdi)

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27 responses to “SF Opera Survey 2010”

  1. Adam Avatar
    Adam

    Some of the choices they give you in no. 6 seem somewhat…suspect.

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  2. sfmike Avatar
    sfmike

    The fact that you didn’t vote for “King Roger” makes your entire aesthetic completely questionable, though you did mitigate your public choices with the perfect “if I were normal…”

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  3. Not For Fun Only Avatar
    Not For Fun Only

    Yes, I am a bit concerned about some of that repertoire selections too. “Carousel” could be in that list. And if they are giving you King Roger as a choice, then why not Zimmerman’s Die Soldaten as well?
    As much as I love Monteverdi, & think the house is simply too big for him, even though I heard excellent productions of Poppea & Ulisse in the 90s.

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  4. Randy Jackson Avatar
    Randy Jackson

    Can we put a ban on opera houses doing West Side Story??? I had the unfortunate luck of being in Milan when West Side Story was at La Scala… Nothing like that shrine to music being brought down a couple of notches!

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  5. The Opera Tattler Avatar
    The Opera Tattler

    I am most concerned by Les Misérables.

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  6. The Opera Tattler Avatar
    The Opera Tattler

    My aesthetic is highly questionable! I tried to only choose a few, based on gut reaction. I knew nothing of King Roger, other than the name until just now, but you are right, I should have checked that box.

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  7. The Opera Tattler Avatar
    The Opera Tattler

    I cannot say I enjoy this particular piece, but I have never heard it live.

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  8. Doug Avatar
    Doug

    Les Miserables? Really? Why not Cats and Phantom if we’re going there? It is curious that they surveyed only subscribers (presumably). I would think one might ask such things of single ticket buyers, too, since some of us are presumably potential subscribers. I know I will be again if the seasons become more interesting.

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  9. John Marcher Avatar
    John Marcher

    While I can support the idea of doing musicals (yes, including WSS)with enthusiasm, the inclusion of Les Mis and Carmina Burana are alarming.
    Surveying what the audience wants is exactly what destroyed Cleveland Opera btw- they programmed the top 3 audience picks and then were surprised when no one showed up. Programming is part what Gockley and the administration is paid to do and if that’s the complete list of what they think subcribers would “consider attending” they are really lost.

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  10. The Opera Tattler Avatar
    The Opera Tattler

    This survey was for subscribers, whose numbers are dwindling. I have no idea if they sent it to every single subscriber or not. As for single ticket buyers, it does make sense that they should want data on them as well, but perhaps using a somewhat different survey.

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  11. The Opera Tattler Avatar
    The Opera Tattler

    I don’t see how getting data from subscribers is dangerous, as we obviously have no insight what they will do with the results. It isn’t as if it is a vote, nor is it presented that way in the survey. The seasons for the next five or so years are already scheduled, and many of the operas listed are co-productions we are committed to (Moby-Dick, I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Adriane Lecouvreur, and Mefistofele among them). Attila, Carmen, Don Giovanni, Turandot, and Xerxes will all likely be in next season, and are all listed here.

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  12. John Marcher Avatar
    John Marcher

    Sounds dreadful!

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  13. Doug Avatar
    Doug

    I agree. I think asking subscribers (and, separately, single ticket buyers) gives useful information that can be used as the company sees fit. I think Gockley has a clear vision for the company, even though I don’t like it, and yet it can’t hurt to take the community pulse beyond ticket sales once in a while. The head of marketing is very skilled and I have faith that this information will be used in prudent ways even if any impact probably wouldn’t be what I might hope.

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  14. Matthew Felix Sun Avatar
    Matthew Felix Sun

    I would love to see “Tempest”, “Minotaur”, “Handmaid’s Tale” and “Rienzi”

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  15. CruzSF Avatar
    CruzSF

    I’m surprised at how much overlap there is between my choices and the Opera Tattler’s (I did receive the survey, BTW). The overlap isn’t complete, but substantial.
    Re: West Side Story. I HAVE seen it live, in a touring production visiting SF (although, not the most recent one). I enjoyed it very much, so I think this work is pretty sturdy. That said, I don’t want to see it in an opera house.
    With which other companies does the SFO share “I Capuleti e i Montecchi”?

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  16. Jim McDaniels Avatar
    Jim McDaniels

    You must really get to know King Roger. It is truly one of the most ravishingly sensual scores of the 20th century. It sounds like no other opera. It would certainly be in my top 5 of the greatest 20th century operas.

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  17. The Last Chinese Unicorn Avatar
    The Last Chinese Unicorn

    Musicals, great! What’s next? Hip hop concerts with 50 Cent and G Unit?

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  18. Suzanne Avatar
    Suzanne

    John,I think you meant to refer to “Opera Cleveland”. When the Director of “Cleveland Opera”, David Bamberger, retired after over 28 years with the company(2004), it was left with a nice, fat surplus in the bank. By the way, his Musical Theatre productions were wildly successful too!
    Then the company merged with “Lyric Opera Cleveland” (2007), became “Opera Cleveland” and began the downhill slide into financial ruin.Mismanagement has deprived this city of am opera company, although, thankfully, a World Class orchestra remains….

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  19. patty Avatar
    patty

    Please oh please let those musicals be a joke. I’m actually a fan of the stuff (okay, I’m a fan of playing them, not attending them), but it’s not what I want to hear by the SF Opera.

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  20. Hank Avatar
    Hank

    Re: Musicals.
    I do like them, but I never go to them because they are always AMPLIFIED.
    I absolute HATE amplified music in theaters.
    Two years ago, in NYC, I spent $300 for two mezzanine tix to WSS. I was horrified to discover that the whole &(&()-ing thing was ampli-bloody-fied!
    So maybe SF Opera should do the more operatic of the musicals (‘The Most Happy Fella’ comes to mind), just so we can hear them without amplification.
    But what I’m afraid would happen in just the opposite: the would use amplified sound for the musicals (‘because that’s what people are used to’) and then start slipping it into the operas.
    Everybody under fifty is so used to amplified music that they don’t know the difference, and everybody under forty has had their hearing is wrecked by rock concerts and iPods turned up to the max, so that even the musically sensitive among them can’t hear the difference.
    Never thought I’d see a day when having GOOD hearing was a sign of age.
    I’ll subside now…

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  21. The Opera Tattler Avatar
    The Opera Tattler

    I’m very curious about Rienzi too.

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  22. The Opera Tattler Avatar
    The Opera Tattler

    The co-producer of I Capuleti e i Montecchi is Bayerische Staatsoper.

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  23. The Opera Tattler Avatar
    The Opera Tattler

    I hope we do have it in San Francisco, but I will definitely try to hear this one if the chance presents itself.

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  24. The Opera Tattler Avatar
    The Opera Tattler

    Yes!

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  25. The Opera Tattler Avatar
    The Opera Tattler

    I don’t think I mind musicals as long as they aren’t amplified. Definitely fun to play though!

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  26. The Opera Tattler Avatar
    The Opera Tattler

    Amplified music really bothers me, I think my hearing is very sensitive. The John Adams piece at the symphony last week had my ears ringing the next morning even.

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  27. upstairs tenor Avatar
    upstairs tenor

    Giving Les Mis the full operatic treatment could actually work, I think. I just don’t want to see it here.
    Sweeney Todd on the other hand, works quite well with a full cast of Opera Sisngers, though I would hire more of an “Actress” for Mrs. Lovett.
    West Side Story? Dear God, NEVER. Not an opera.

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