Agnes Varis and Karl Leichtman bought $500,000 worth of prime orchestra seat tickets for Doctor Atomic at the Met. These tickets will be resold for $30 apiece. The opera opens on Monday.
The Opera Tattler
Reviews of Performances and their Audiences
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Before I forget, La Fille du Régiment was mentioned as an opera to be performed at San Francisco Opera in the next few years. Also, William Friedkin is to work on a La Scala/San Francisco Opera co-production of Mefistofele. Earlier this year we heard that Peter Grimes, La Fanciulla del West, Il Trovatore, Il Trittico, The Makropoulos Case, Salomé, and Moby-Dick are also on deck.
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I finally had my film developed from last April's Berlin trip.
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New York City Opera has commissioned a new work, entitled The Perfect American, from Philip Glass. To be performed during the 2012-2013 season and based on Peter Stephan Jungk's novel Der König von Amerika, the opera is about Walt Disney.
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Apparently Deborah Voigt, Susan Graham, and Patricia Racette sang "Nessun dorma" at the Domingo Gala last night. One can imagine Susie or Pat in a tuxedo, but Debbie looks pretty smart there as well.Leave a comment
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* Notes *
The season opener, Simon Boccanegra, closed at San Francisco Opera last night. The first half still remained somewhat unfocused, but the second half did come together nicely. The chorus and the orchestra were synchronized. Vitalij Kowaljow (Jacopo Fiesco) and Patrick Carfizzi (Paolo Albiani) were consistently strong. Marcus Haddock was less stiff as Gabriele, and he sang "Sento avvampar nell'anima" beautifully. Barbara Frittoli did better with "Come in quest'ora bruna" but her wide vibrato compromised her pitch a few times. Her voice is quite pretty and in the end I preferred her to Ana María Martínez. Dmitri Hvorostovsky's breaths were not as noisy this time around, I only really noticed his loud breathing during "Plebe! Patrizi! Popolo!"The staging seemed gutted to me, perhaps just knowing that there had been elements that were taken out and not replaced was a factor in this. However, much of the movement on stage was not well motivated, some of the entrances and exits simply seemed random. I was particularly bothered by near end of the prologue, some supers walk across the stage perfectly with the music but for no real dramatic effect. Fiesco also leaves the scene at one point for no particular reason.
* Tattling *
Often I forget we live in such permissive and self-indulgent times, my friends! I really need to remember not to go to the closing performances, although more than 99% of the audience is able to behave properly, there is that pesky less than 1% that can ruin an evening. I was very happy to not be in the boxes, as a middle-aged woman in Box B kept standing up right in the middle of the box. One of the problems with a box is if one is not in the first row, it can be difficult to see the whole stage. If one were to stand in one's box, perhaps it would be more socially acceptable to stand at the back of the box. Maybe it would be nice if one were to remain standing the entire time, rather than getting up and down again and again. I would imagine it would be distracting to have someone hovering over you, but the person in question seemed to have no qualms about this.Despite my love of tattling, there are times that even I become exhausted enforcing other people's behavior. There was much whispering during the opera, and the Italian couple next to me in standing room were even talking during much of the singing. I did not hush them, though I should have, and simply tried to ignore their speech. Finally during Act II I turned to the man who was speaking and merely raised my left eyebrow at him. The pair were silent for the rest of the performance.
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* Notes *
The second performance of Die Tote Stadt at San Francisco Opera only served to solidify my opinion on this work, which surely deserves to be part of the standard repertoire. Willy Decker's production, directed by Meisje Hummel in this revival, has its own complete conception and is consistent throughout. Instead of trying to recapture a fossilized past, the staging is fairly bizarre, to be sure. This does not detract from the music, particularly because most of the action takes place within a nightmare.Certainly, the set was not perfect. Hardly anything can be seen from the back of the house, I was impressed, actually, how much I had missed during the first performance. I suppose this is an argument for OperaVision, but personally I think it might be nicer to have productions that work for our opera house. The set was also pretty noisy during Act II, again, and someone's voice was heard from back stage. John Singer Sargent's Portrait of Miss Elsie Palmer is a poor choice for the purposes of the production, it just looks a cartoon blown up, as the painting is somewhat loose. From closer up, the images looked a little tawdry, though they read well from afar.
The sound is better in the back of the balcony, Torsten Kerl was especially dampened when listening from orchestra standing room. The staging does not help in this regard, much of the singing happens upstage. This physical distance from the audience makes the singers lack immediacy, though one can see how it would work better in a smaller house.
The choreography was strong among the Adler Fellows, for instance, Ji Young Yang and Daniela Mack had their cute dancing kicks perfectly together.
* Tattling *
There were a few empty seats in the orchestra, and I stood behind someone I happen to know. Needless to say, she was well-behaved. Bloggers were out, Cedric of SFist stopped by to say hello, and I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Not for Fun Only at intermission.Emily Magee did not lose her wig this time, at least, not when she was not supposed to.
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Production Web Site | Press Photographs
Reviews of San Francisco Opera's 2008 Performances: The Opera Tattler (Music) | The Opera Tattler (Production) | Civic Center | Out West Arts | Not For Fun Only | San Francisco Chronicle | San Francisco Classical Voice | Inside Bay Area | Financial Times
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* Notes *
Nearly 88 years after the world premiere, Die Tote Stadt finally opened in San Francisco yesterday evening. The work is certainly a very pretty synthesis of Wagner, Strauss, and Puccini. It is nostalgic, but also prefigures Korngold's work in film scores. The music sounded effortless under the direction of Donald Runnicles, the orchestra did not overwhelm the singers and the tempi were rigorous. The chorus sounded perfectly lovely as well.All of the smaller singing roles were filled by Adler Fellows, some familiar to the War Memorial stage, such as tenor Andrew Bidlack, soprano Ji Young Yang, and mezzo-soprano Katharine Tier. The other two, mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack and tenor Alek Shrader, had their main stage debuts. They all did well, sounding and looking the parts. Tier was particularly fine as Brigitta, the maid, her diction was clear and her voice is quite promising.
Former Adler Lucas Meachem was convincing as both Frank and Fritz, his acting strong and his volume good. He sang "Mein Sehnen, mein Wähnen" splendidly and without strain. Tenor Torsten Kerl was palatable enough as Paul, there were times when his voice did not quite cut through the orchestra, though he was always audible. On the other hand, Emily Magee's voice soared over the orchestra, she gave a vocally exquisite performance as Marie/Marietta. For the most part her acting was persuasive, though she does not quite have a dancer's self-possession as far as movement is concerned. However, overall the music was gorgeous and everything seemed to come together beautifully.
As I was unable to see much of the production in the balcony, I have little to say about it. From what I could see, it appeared sleek and tasteful. Clearly the set was meant for a different space, and it was annoying when singers' heads could not be seen. The shrine to Mariette was not in evidence as there was almost no furniture, only scattered and badly cropped reproductions of a portrait by John Singer Sargent. The painting of Miss Elsie Palmer looks rather grotesque when blown up to the dimensions necessary for the stage, but was used effectively in the various nightmare sequences. I very much enjoyed the little houses that were moved around upstage, apparently if such stagecraft is used in a dream, it is not considered Eurotrash.
* Tattling *
There were many empty seats in the balcony, giving me nothing to tattle about as far as audience behavior. However, I did notice, much to my chagrin, that my name appears in the program.There was a fair amount of banging and crashing as the set was changed, though the aforementioned houses were silent. Emily Magee lost her wig in Act I as she took off her hat, but remained calm, simply smoothing it back onto her head with aplomb.
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Yesterday evening Kip Cranna moderated a panel discussion on Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Die Tote Stadt, which has a San Francisco premiere tonight. The panelists included baritone Lucas Meachem (Fritz, Frank), the revival director Meisje Hummel, and conductor Donald Runnicles. The discussion was one of the more informative, and it is too bad San Francisco Opera neglected to put the talk on their monthly calendar. As such, the audience had an even higher percentage of donors than usual, perhaps because as the talk was listed on the membership cards.The panelists were asked how they each became involved in this co-production of the Vienna State Opera and the 2004 Salzburg Festival. Meachem is debuting his two roles in the opera this evening, but is engaged to sing in Die Tote Stadt again at Teatro Real in 2010. Ms. Hummel was the assistant to Willy Decker, the original director, and worked on the production at the Salzburg Festspiele, the Wiener Staatsoper, the Nederlandse Opera, and the Gran Teatre del Liceu. Runnicles conducted the work in Salzburg and Vienna, but had not known it previously, with the exceptions of "Mein sehnen, mein wähnen" and "Glück das mir verblieb."
Runnicles did get into the history of this opera, explaining that Korngold was the son of Julius Korngold, a vicious music critic who also happened to be an arch-conservative. It was Korngold's father that wrote the libretto, based on Georges Rodenbach's novella Bruges-la-Morte. The fiendishly difficult music is certainly late Romantic, influenced by Mahler and Strauss, both of whom agreed that Korngold was a genius. Strangely enough, the opera debuted simultaneously in Hamburg and Cologne, so great was the demand for this world premiere.
The production itself sounds vaguely Regie, despite all of the promises for no Eurotrash. Both Meachem and Runnicles adore it, saying it is both emotional and cerebral. Meachem mentioned it was his favorite except for the Pique Dame we had a few years ago, and I immediately thought of the oversized skeleton in that production and how much I had to stifle my laughter. Runnicles believes this production is in the top five of the ones he's been involved with for the last 20 years, and that the playing is better with this orchestra compared to Salzburg and Vienna. In any case, this is the only opera besides Idomeneo that I've been truly looking forward to, despite my disdain of Late Romanticism.
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The Opera Tattler 
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