* Notes * Alonzo King Lines Ballet opened a new season at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts last night. Though I enjoy contemporary dance and have walked past the Lines Ballet space countless times on 7th Street, I had not seen this company until now. It took an opera singer, of course, to get me to this performance. Despite the "ballet" in the name, there was not a tutu in sight, and the dancing eschewed mere prettiness, and it was well worth the effort to experience.
The opening piece, Art Songs, is a world premiere and features live music sung by mezzo-soprano Maya Lahyani (pictured left with Yujin Kim and Michael Montgomery, photograph by Quinn B. Wharton) with accompaniment from pianist Efrat Levy and violinist Lisa Lee. The songs include three Baroque pieces — a Bach cantata and arias by Handel and Purcell — plus Schumann's "Stille Tränen." It isn't rep I associate with Lahyani, who was an Adler at San Francisco Opera in 2010 and 2011 and is a regular at the Met these days. But she sounded fine, especially in the Dido's Lament that ends the piece. There were a few tiny froggy moments in a low note or two, but Lahyani was ill, and did remarkably well considering.
The choreography has a raw, exposed quality to it that works really nicely with the singer on stage. I loved that there were no supertitles and there was no escaping the music or the dancing. The dancers are alive in the movement, even if they are only standing or walking. The piece was even disturbing, particularly the fourth part with soloists Yujin Kim and Michael Montgomery, there was much falling, and the pair looked more like an awkwardly beautiful many-limbed creature than ballet dancers engaged in a duet.
The second piece was Meyer, with recorded music from bassist/composer Edgar Meyer, and again the dancing had a wonderful brutality at odds with classical ballet. The female dancers wore pointe shoes, yet there were many times when they were not en pointe, or flexed their feet when their legs were aloft. The piece features an elaborate water machine with streaming jets in the background which was used to great effect. It was hard to look away from this one, even when images turned dark, as with the fifth part "Cards," in which a rather frantic dancer piles and moves pieces of paper, at times licking one or two.
* Tattling * The audience was quiet. Some of my opera fanatic friends left at intermission after hearing Maya, as they were much more interesting in the music rather than the dancing.
By Charlise Tiee Oct 28 2016 | Updated Sep 19, 2024
Heklina, host of SF Opera Lab’s ‘Drag Queen of the Opera’ pop-up event at Oasis. (Photo: José Guzman-Colon)
A spectacularly-adorned creature — all glitter, lashes, hair, and curves — commands the stage with her bearing alone. Watching Trannyshack founder Heklina open her mouth and unleash a booming sound that can’t be ignored as she belts out an anthem she wrote about self-expression entitled “Live My Life,” one can’t help but notice how the famed San Francisco drag queen so effortlessly captures the essence of many an opera diva.
So it seems fitting that Heklina is hosting Drag Queen of the Opera at her club, Oasis, in collaboration with singers from San Francisco Opera (SF Opera). Appealing to the “opera-curious,” the Sunday, Oct. 30 offering from the company’s hip new audience outreach arm SF Opera Lab promises to be popular among fans of both drag and opera, as well as newbies. Heklina is encouraging audience members to come in costume, drink cocktails, and enjoy arias performed by young singers. And there’s a DJ dance party afterwards.
The lineup includes Julie Adams (who aced the U.S. opera world’s biggest competition in 2014, the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions) and Brenton Ryan, hot off his acclaimed SF Opera debut in The Makropulos Case, as well as additional vocalists and a pianist. There’ll be ample gender-role bending. And in keeping with the onrush of Halloween, looming large will be witches, devils, and coming back from the dead. The ringmistress of all of this operatic mayhem, of course, is Heklina, setting up the scenes and keeping the audience focused with the sharp and bawdy humor for which she’s known.
San Francisco Opera has hosted two previous pop-ups at Public Works and The Chapel. (Photo: Kristen Loken/San Francisco Opera)
Popping her opera cherry
Heklina herself is no opera insider. She’s never actually experienced an opera performed live on stage, though she’s going to get a chance to pop her opera cherry when she goes to see SF Opera’s Madame Butterfly next month. “I’m not sure why I’ve never been, maybe I thought it would not resonate,” Heklina says. “Like most people who aren’t familiar with opera, the word conjures images of a heavyset man belting out songs in Italian or Bugs Bunny dressed up like a valkyrie.”
But Heklina has been enjoying her nascent relationship with the young, classically-trained singers she’s collaborating with at Oasis. “After working with these guys for the past few weeks, I am very intrigued,” she says. “For the uninitiated, the pop-up will be a great intro to the opera world.”
Opera and the queer community
Opera has a huge fan base among the Bay Area’s queer community. SF Opera even has a subscription program dubbed the “Rainbow Series” for LGBT patrons, complete with rainbow colored lights and exclusive receptions.
“For me, a part of the intersection of queerness and opera definitely came out of a feeling of ‘otherness’ I had growing up,” says soprano Emma McNairy, who identifies as a lesbian. “This related to me feeling queer in some way, as well as me being so obsessed with opera as a child and teenager. My peers did not really understand this about me, but opera gave me such an amazing world and outlet for intellectual endeavors, languages, and then just plain emotion.”
With the mass popularity of TV shows like Transparent and the once-niche but now prime-time RuPaul’s Drag Race, gender fluidity is much more out in the open in our culture at large. This makes it a good time for the traditionalist, institutional art form of opera and the free-flowing, underground world of drag to finally get a joint coming-out party.
For its part, SF Opera hopes the show at Oasis will engage a younger, more diverse crowd — just like the two other more experimental events the Lab has put on since being founded last season. “Drag shows and opera are similar in melodrama, grandness, and the pomp and circumstance,” says Sean Waugh, the artistic planning manager at SF Opera and the producer of all of the company’s pop-up events thus far. “I like pushing us more and more out of our comfort zone, especially the performers. We are hoping to find a connection to the drag and LGBT community, especially the younger people.”
Cross-dressing not new to opera
Cross-dressing in opera is as old as the art form itself. Women’s roles were originally sung by castrati — male singers whose testicles were removed before puberty — as seen in the 1994 movie Farinelli. These days castrated singers are hard to come by, so the parts in 17th and 18th century operas are sometimes taken by male countertenors who sing in falsetto — or just as often, if not more often, by pants-wearing female performers.
Opera’s gender fluidity isn’t just part of ancient history. You can trace a clear line from Mozart’s casting of a woman in the role of the boy Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro, through Richard Strauss’ making Octavian a female part in Der Rosenkavalier, and on to Thomas Adès using a soprano for the gender-neutral spirit Ariel in his 2004 version of The Tempest.
Fans get their opera on at a recent SF Opera Lab event in San Francisco. (Photo: Kristen Loken/San Francisco Opera)
While less common, men occasionally take on female roles in opera, most notably the Gingerbread Witch in 19th century composer Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel. Though the role was originally written for a mezzo-soprano, the witch is also routinely sung by a tenor, as in the Metropolitan Opera’s high-def film production in 2008.
“Queer culture and opera have been inextricably intertwined since the days of Monteverdi,” says Michael Strickland, a gay opera fan and cultural blogger who lives in San Francisco. “Why are so many queers into musical theater? I really don’t have a clue, other than they have an inclination towards escape, art, and fabulousness.”
‘Drag Queen of the Opera’ gets underway on Sunday, Oct. 30, at Oasis in San Francisco. Tickets and information here.
Tattling * The audience was very enthusiastic about the performance. On the other hand, my opera companion insists that he won't go to another Mozart opera at West Bay.
The incoming 2017 Adler Fellows are soprano Sarah Cambidge; tenor Amitai Pati and Kyle van Schoonhoven; baritone Andrew Manea; stage director Aria Umezawa; and apprentice coaches John Elam and Jennifer Szeto. They join current Adlers Amina Idris, Toni Marie Palmertree, Pene Pati, Brad Walker, and Ronny Michael Greenberg. The outgoing 2016 Adler Fellows are Julie Adams, Zanda Švēde, Nian Wang, Edward Nelson, Matthew Stump, Anthony Reed, and Noah Lindquist.
* Notes * With a monstrous but charismatic narcissist as protagonist, last night's revival of San Francisco Opera's The Makropulos Case felt timely. It was difficult to not compare our lead, soprano Nadja Michael, with the previous star in the role, Karita Mattila, especially since the latter was so recently here in the nearly perfect Jenůfa over the summer.
Michael's Emilia Marty was certainly very frightening, as befits a jaded person who has had 300 years of youth and cannot find meaning in anything. The soprano has a powerful voice but lacks an ethereal quality that was so impressive in Mattila's performance six years ago. Michael's movements are also very floppy, one would expect more of a cat-like slinkiness from the libertine Marty, though Michael is certainly flexible.
The rest of the cast was fine. Adler Julie Adams was a sweet Kristina, the aspiring opera singing daughter of Kolenatý's clerk. Matthew O'Neill ably reprised his role as Count Hauk-Šendorf as did Dale Travis as Dr. Kolenatý.
Baritone Stephen Powell's Baron Prus was not as subtly drawn as Gerd Grochowski's the last time around. In his San Francisco Opera debut, tenor Charles Workman had a squeaky start as Albert Gregor, but he recovered well and his voice has a lovely timbre.
Mikhail Tatarnikov's conducting was straightforward, there were slight mishaps in the brass at the beginning, but nothing terrible. The orchestra, however, did not achieve the unearthly beauty that we heard over the summer and in 2010 when playing Janáček.
* Tattling * The house was not full, and there were lots of seats in the back of the balcony, which is ideal for standing room but not great for the opera company. It's a shame since the piece is gorgeous and the stylish staging, with its rotating set and looming clocks, is elegant.
* Notes * After an absence of over thirty years from the War Memorial stage, a new production of Don Pasquale opened Wednesday at San Francisco Opera. Inspired by Italian comedic movies from the 50s and 60s, the slapstick staging from Laurent Pelly features a charming turntable set (Act II pictured left, photograph by Cory Weaver) and extensive choreography that the superb singer actors pulled off immaculately.
Everything came together, the clever set and the pantomime style movement of the singers were not overwrought and always very funny. All the singing was great too, and the design of the set seemed to help project the voices.
Maurizio Muraro is hilarious in the title role, as is Lucas Meachem as Dr. Malatesta. Their duet in Act III, “Cheti, cheti, immantinente,” was delightful. Heidi Stober certainly makes for a vicious Norina, the metallic tang of her voice adds to this reading of the character (which comes from the director, incidently). She can sing and pirouette perfectly, and one should note that she hurt her ankle in rehearsals, making it all the more amazing.
The big draw of this run is the San Francisco Opera debut of tenor Lawrence Brownlee, and he did not disappoint as Ernesto. His sound is unmistakable, very sparkling and agile, and with a certain tautness at the top. He sang in a closet, with his head against a wall, and on a ladder, but none of this seemed to effect his voice.
The orchestra was lively under Maestro Giuseppe Finzi, not always perfectly synchronized, but always full of energy. The trumpet solo at the beginning of Act II from Adam Luftman was particularly beautiful.
* Tattling * The last few rows of the balcony were nearly empty, making standing room ideal. This production looks great from the back and all the movement reads clearly.
Twitter indicates that there was a lot of bad behavior in the audience, but I only noted that the person in Row L Seat 108 took her shoes off and that the woman in Row L Seat 126 crumpled a wrapper as Heidi Stober sang in the beginning of Act III.
It is too bad that SF Opera isn’t putting on an Opera for Families version of this Don Pasquale. I know my son would adore the set because it has so many goofy sight gags involving doors, chairs, and light fixtures. Speaking of which, it would be fun to see the narrated set change that SF Opera periodically does during intermission for this one.
Reviewers of San Francisco Opera’s Dream of the Red Chamber (Pictured left with Pureum Jo as Dai Yu, photograph by Cory Weaver) agree that the singing is great.
In Act III Scene 2 of Un ballo in maschera, Amelia pleads with Gustavus to flee, but he says “As long as you love me, Amelia, I care nothing for my fate!”
Art prints of this painting and three others are for sale at Modern Mouse in Alameda, along with some small format original works.
San Francisco Opera has announced the cast for its next Ring cycle (Die Walküre pictured left, photograph by Cory Weaver), which runs from June 12 to July 1, 2018.
June 12–July 1, 2018
Evelyn Herlitzius is Brünnhilde, Greer Grimsley is Wotan, Daniel Brenna is Siegfried, and Karita Mattila is Sieglinde. Maestro Donald Runnicles returns to conduct this revival of Francesca Zambello's production, first seen here in 2011.
* Notes *
The Opera Tattler 
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