The Opera Tattler

Reviews of Performances and their Audiences

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  • Danielle de Niese Interview

    Danielle de Niese, Decca / Chris Dunlop Soprano Danielle de Niese (pictured left, photograph courtesy of Decca / Chris Dunlop) will have her debut at San Francisco Opera today as Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro. Later this season she sings Despina in The Met's Così fan tutte, conducted by William Christie. In March de Niese will fulfill her dream of working with conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt, singing the title role of Rodelinda at Theater an der Wien. The Opera Tattler caught up with Danielle on Friday after a talk with students from the San Francisco School of the Arts and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music that followed the final dress rehearsal of Figaro.

    Where did you grow up in LA?
    Hancock Park.

    Do you still consider it home even though you live in the UK and your parents live on the East Coast?
    I do still think of LA as a big home for me, since I spent my adolescence there, in the 90s.

    Is your family musical? How did you find opera?
    My mother sang, not classical music, but she still always gets the final word on how I'm sounding. My dad's parents also sang. On the other hand, my brother is a pharmacist, and though I do have loads of cousins, 40 or so, but none of them are singers. My parents had me take tons of lessons, everything from dance to tennis to karate. I just took to singing like a duck to water. I remember when I was a kid I would look forward to taking my voice lessons on Saturday mornings; it was my favorite day of the week!

    Does it help to be pretty in this industry? Perhaps you can't say, since you've been pretty all along!
    [Laughs] That's so sweet of you to say, thank you! I wish I could give a yes or no answer to this one, but it is very grey. I think you have to have personality over looks, but you of course have to have a voice. Opera is about singing. I don't think it hurts to be beautiful, but it is more a plus than anything else. I know it sounds strange, but there are loads of pretty singers, so you have to have something more to give.

    You've performed in a lot of Baroque operas, what do you find appealing about this music?
    Baroque music is good for young voices, the orchestration is light. In Baroque music, you have the da capo aria, and as a singer you can compose your own ornamentation. It is only in Baroque music that you are allowed the freedom within the form this way. If you sing Mimì, Puccini's music is all written out, and though every performance is different, it is on the page in a way that something like Cleopatra is not.

    In 1988 you won Young Talent Time, an Australian television contest, singing a Whitney Houston medley. Do you have a favorite song from Whitney?
    The medley was of "I Wanna Dance with Somebody" and "Greatest Love of All," so I definitely love those two songs. "I Will Always Love You" is also one of my favorites, since I loved the movie The Bodyguard.

    What sort of dance are you trained in?
    Ballet, tap, jazz, modern, and folklorico. I concentrated most on modern, jazz, and tap though.

    What is on your ipod that isn't opera?
    I can't live without my ipod! Some of my favorite non-classical music includes Dave Matthews Band, Coldplay, and Beyoncé.

    What sort of cardio do you do?
    I used to run, because if you are pressed for time, running is very efficient. Unfortunately, I can't run right now because one of my knees is filled with fluid. So I've been on the multi-stride elliptical, which bounces and is easier on the joints. I'm even getting one for my house in England. I also swim and do some weight training.

    How many pairs of shoes did you bring to San Francisco?
    Let's see, 22 pairs? That's actually not too bad for me, I'm really my mother's daughter, and love shoes and handbags. But the weight restrictions are strict now, so my books outweigh my shoes.

    What makes Bob Ross so awesome?
    I just saw a re-run of Bob Ross on PBS, with his big gorgeous hair, exuding an effortless calm. He was just so sweet and I can't believe he is gone! Drawing is the one artistic thing I really can't do, and Bob Ross made it look so easy.

    Do you like cupcakes?
    Though I don't go out of my way to have them, I do like cupcakes.

    Which scene in Figaro would look best depicted with cupcakes as singers?
    Definitely the night scene of Act IV. I can imagine all the cupcakes peeking around the pines. You know they are half pines, right?

    Really?
    Yes, we have to pretend they go all the way around, but they are flat in the back!

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  • Ellen Hargis & Paul O’Dette at SFEMS

    Hargis_ODette * Notes * 
    The San Francisco Early Music Society recently presented soprano Ellen Hargis and lutenist Paul O'Dette in a concert of Barbara Strozzi, Alessandro Scarlatti, Antonio Cesti, and Alessandro Piccinini. I skipped the second half of Opera in the Park for the San Francisco performance, and did not regret it. Hargis has a pure, clarion tone. Her high notes are brilliant, only a few of her lower notes did not sound quite as lovely. O'Dette played cleanly, his rather dry technique suited the music and the singer. I especially enjoyed the rhythms of Strozzi's "Questa è la nuova."

    * Tattling * 
    Hargis made a paper airplane during "L'Astratto." The audience appeared quite elderly, and I felt younger than ever seated a few rows back from the front of St. Mark's Lutheran Church. A cellular phone rang during the first Adagio of Scarlatti's "Orfeo," but otherwise everyone was very attentive and supportive.

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  • General Director of LA Opera

    General Director Plácido Domingo renewed his contract with Los Angeles Opera through 2013.

    Press Release [PDF] | Official Site

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  • Cal Performances Fall Free for All 2010

    Postcard Front - Final Cal Performances opens the 2010-2011 season with an impressive array of free performances next Sunday, September 26th. Our beloved San Francisco Opera Adler Fellows Leah Crocetto, Sara Gartland, Brian Jagde, and Tamara Sanikidze are participating. Other performers include Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir, the Mark Morris Dance Group, Melody of China, the John Santos Sextet, the Pacific Mozart Ensemble, the Word for Word Theater Company, Teslim with Kaila Flexer and Gari Hegedus, the Diamano Couras West African Dance Company, the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra Ensemble, classical guitarist Marc Teicholz, singer/musician Melanie DeMore, and the UC Jazz Ensembles. The Opera Tattler is quite sad to miss this, but will be out of town.

    Fall Free for All | Official Site

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  • SF Opera’s Werther Media Round-Up

    Production Web Site | Press Photographs

    Performance Reviews: Financial Times | The Opera Tattler | The Reverberate Hills | San Francisco Chronicle | SFCV | San Francisco Examiner | SFist

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  • SF Opera’s Werther

    Vargas-sf-opera-werther * Notes *
    Werther, in a brand new production, opened yesterday evening at San Francisco Opera. The set, designed by Louis Désiré, involves a rather large platform with a grove of telephone poles meant to be trees, lots of stairs, a mountain of luggage, and a creepy basement downstage where Werther lives. Periodically one of two large rectangles would come down, suspended from the ceiling, to indicate the seasons. They seemed to be covered in cheap leaf-motive wallpaper or some chintzy seasonal cotton print. However, the lighting design, from Duane Schuler, pulled all these elements together. The overall effect was both curiously elegant and nightmarish. Francisco Negrin‘s direction seemed to concentrate on the psychology of Werther himself. The use of live video capture was restrained, and the doubles for Werther were intriguing. One appreciated that there were no projections or other distractions during the overtures.

    Emmanuel Villaume conducted the orchestra, which sounded shimmery and full. The strings and harp glimmered, and the brass was warm. It was startling to hear the alto saxophone, but probably only because one is not accustomed to hearing it in opera. The design of the set may have caused the balance to be off on the ground level, and instead of being supported by the instruments, the singers were often overwhelmed. Perhaps it sounded better in the balcony.

    Adlers Susannah Biller (Kätchen) and Austin Kness (Brühlmann) looked and sounded lovely in their small roles. Robert MacNeil and Bojan Kneževiċ were charming as Schmidt and Johann. Christian Van Horn, as Charlotte’s father, the bailiff, sounded clear. Brian Mulligan was robust as Albert. Heidi Stober (Sophie) chirped and fluttered nicely. Alice Coote made for a vaguely boyish Charlotte, perhaps because of the way she carries her shoulders and neck. Coote has a pleasant, warm tone. Ramón Vargas likewise has a pretty sound, though I did find him more sympathetic in a role like Nemorino than the melodramatic Werther.

    * Tattling * 
    I had the pleasure of greeting the San Francisco Opera Music Director at intermission, and also managed to find many friends in the press room. The audience was fairly subdued. There was at least one watch alarm at 9pm, and some squeaking from either microphones or hearing aids. Several people commented about how weird the production was, mostly in a negative way. The production team was booed.

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  • Werther Medallion Society Book Club Meeting

    Werther Book Club, photo from Cory Weaver and San Francisco Opera The Last Chinese Unicorn wrote up this piece about this recent event in the Littlefield Intermezzo Lounge of the War Memorial Opera House, pictured left, photo from Cory Weaver and San Francisco Opera.

    * Notes *
    Tonight is the opening of Massenet's Werther (pronounced Vair-tair). This past Saturday before the final dress rehearsal, the Opera Tattler and I attended the first book club meeting organized by the SF Opera for its Medallion Society members to discuss Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther (Die Leiden des jungen Werthers), the epistolary novel upon which the opera is based. We were surprised and delighted by the great turnout. Though most were grey-haired opera lovers, we did spot a few young people in their 20s. There was also a Goethe scholar in the mix who made some valuable contributions to the discussion. With this particular opera, because it is more of a psychological drama without an intricate plot, I found it very useful to revisit the literary text before watching the performance. It certainly helped make sense of the video element of the production. Here are some of the topics that we covered in the meeting:

    * Albert (rational, responsible, stable) being the antithesis of Werther (emotional, maudlin, reckless)
    * Jean-Jacques Rousseau & Romanticism
    * Parallels between Werther and Faust
    * Werther's descent into madness
    * Werther fever and copycat suicides
    * The role of Nature in the novel

    As for the production itself…stay tuned for the Opera Tattler's review of the opening night show. My lips are tightly sealed!

    * Tattling * 
    Two young ladies with interesting head accessories came strolling in late. One even had the audacity to march up front and sit right next to the moderator. What a shameless lass!

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  • Next Interview

    Though the Opera Tattler may have secured an audience with Danielle De Niese, Marco Vratogna, and Nicola Luisotti, we are wondering who you, gentle readers, would like us to interview next. It may be easiest if we limit this to those who are here in San Francisco now for the opera. Below are some suggestions, feel free to pick these or others.

    Aida: Micaela Carosi | Dolora Zajick | Marcello Giordani | Christian Van Horn | Leah Crocetto

    Werther: Emmanuel Villaume | Ramón Vargas | Alice Coote | Heidi Stober | Brian Mulligan

    Figaro: Luca Pisaroni | Ellie Dehn | Michèle Losier | Lucas Meachem

    Previous Interviews: Zandra Rhodes | David Lomelí | John Copley

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  • Opera in the Park 2010

    Operainthepark2010 * Notes *
    San Francisco Opera's 37th Opera in the Park event was Nicola Luisotti's second as music director. The performance is entertaining every year, and this was no exception. The afternoon began with the overture to Le Nozze di Figaro, and gave us a preview of how this will sound when the latest revival opens on Tuesday September 21st. In keeping with this, Michèle Losier sang Cherubino's "Non so più," followed by Luca Pisaroni in "Non più andrai," and Danielle de Niese in "Giunse alfin il momento…Deh, vieni, non tardar." Dolora Zajick sang "La luce langue" from Macbeth stridently and Brian Mulligan sang "Avant de quitter ces lieux" from Faust sweetly. Marco Vratogna sang the Act III aria "Nemico della Patria" from Andrea Chénier, which David Gockley says we will hear soon enough at the War Memorial. "Pourquoi me réveiller" from Werther was sung by Ramón Vargas, and this opera opens for the first time in perhaps 25 years at SF Opera on Wednesday. The first half closed with David Lomelí, Leah Crocetto, Heidi Stober, and Brian Mulligan singing the famous quartet from Rigoletto, "Un di se ben rammentomi…Bella figlia dell'amore."

    I had to leave at intermission, but I did hear the rehearsal of this performance earlier in the day. The second half started with the overture to Il barbiere di Siviglia, followed by Lucas Meachem in the famous "Largo al factotum." One does look forward to his Count in Le Nozze di Figaro and his fellow cast members Luca Pisaroni and Danielle de Niese, who sang "Là ci darem la mano." David Lomelí performed "La donna è mobile." Then there was much Puccini with Micaela Carosi singing "Vissi d'Arte," Leah Crocetto and Brian Jadge "Bimba, dagli occhi pieni," and Marcello Giordani in "Nessun Dorma." The performance ended with the usual "Libiamo ne'lieti calici" from La Traviata. I believe the encore must have been "O Sole Mio," sung by David Lomelí, Brian Jadge, Ramón Vargas, and Marcello Giordani.

    * Tattling * 
    The day started off rather foggy and cold, and the Maestro wore his white sweater instead of having it draped in his normal fashion. The Maestro sang a respectable "Non più andrai," whilst rehearsing the orchestra. The sun did come out, and I was able to convince Axel Feldheim to come to the park and sing the National Anthem with me for the second time in 24 hours.

    General Director David Gockley was in his usual spot on stage much of the time and introduced groups of pieces. He inadvertently skipped over the two Mozart pieces after Cherubino's aria, and Luisotti teasingly said that Gockley "didn't know the season."

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  • 2011 Adler Fellows

    Ao Li, photo by Kristen Loken The incoming 2011 Adler Fellows are Nadine Sierra, Daniel Montenegro, Ao Li, Ryan Kuster, and David Hanlon. They join current Adlers Leah Crocetto, Susannah Biller, Sara Gartland, Maya Lahyani, Ryan Belongie, Brian Jadge, and Tamara Sanikidze. Outgoing 2010 Adler Fellows are tenor David Lomelí, baritone Austin Kness, and apprentice coach Allen Perriello.

    Press Release [PDF] | Official Site

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