Reviews of Performances and their Audiences
Katarina Dalayman (pictured left) will replace Deborah Voigt as Brünnhilde in tonight's performance of Götterdämmerung at the Met. Dalayman was already scheduled to sing this role on April 24, 2012 in the Met's second Ring cycle, which runs from April 26 to May 3, 2012.
According to the press release reproduced below, Nicola Luisotti (pictured left, photograph by John Martin) is the new Music Director of Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Italy, effective immediately. Luisotti is already Music Director of San Francisco Opera and Principal Guest Conductor of the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra.
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February 6, 2012 — Nicola Luisotti has been appointed Music Director of Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Italy, effective immediately. The news was announced over the weekend by General Director Rosanna Purchia and the Board of Directors of the Teatro di San Carlo Foundation following a meeting where the unanimous decision was taken. Maestro Luisotti succeeds former Principal Conductor Maurizio Benini and Music Director Jeffrey Tate. Born and raised in Tuscany, the 50-year old Luisotti is currently Music Director of San Francisco Opera and Principal Guest Conductor of the Tokyo Philharmonic.
The oldest theater in Europe and one of Italy’s most prestigious opera houses, Teatro di San Carlo is renowned not only for its beauty but for its legendary acoustics. Founded in 1737, many of opera’s most famous composers spent significant time at the theatre, including Rossini, Donizetti and Verdi. In 2010, the theater was reopened after an important period of restoration where the magnificent five-level horseshoe of boxes which are upholstered in red and decorated in gold leaf, frescoed ceiling and beautifully painted stage curtain were renewed to their original glory.
Full details of the appointment will be announced at an official ceremony and press conference on March 7th when Maestro Luisotti will be at San Carlo to begin rehearsals for Verdi’s I Masnadieri, in a production directed by Gabriele Lavia.
“I have spent a good deal of time abroad in the last ten years of my career. My heart fills with joy at the thought of spending so much more time in my home country with such a prestigious appointment,” said Maestro Luisotti speaking from Philadelphia where he is leading concerts with the Philadelphia Orchestra. “And the joy is even greater when I think of how deeply this Theatre was influenced, in recent years, by the presence of a man such as Riccardo Muti, with whom I had the honor of working at La Scala.”
General Director Rosanna Purchia commented, “Nicola is young and enthusiastic and has had a bright career that took him to the most important theatres in the world, from Covent Garden to the Met, from La Scala to our San Carlo. In the United States he is recognized as one of the best interpreters of Italian opera. With his appointment, we want the San Carlo to aim higher and higher.”
Naples Mayor Luigi de Magistris, the foundation president, expressed his satisfaction: “We chose Luisotti because he is a high profile conductor, young, Italian…and this is a source of great pride for us. We are sure he will contribute to the success of this great theatre both in Italy and the rest of the world.”
"We at San Francisco Opera are thrilled that Nicola Luisotti has been appointed music director of the San Carlo, one of the world's great lyric theaters," said San Francisco Opera General Director David Gockley. "This announcement is a tribute to his musical talent and leadership." Nicola Luisotti’s position as San Francisco Opera's music director began in September 2009 and continues through the 2015-16 season.
Maestro Luisotti has been called “both an original thinker and a great respecter of tradition” by Opera News, which featured him on the cover of the July special issue on conductors. Since his international debut in 2002, Luisotti has garnered enthusiastic praise from both audiences and critics at venues throughout the world. His leadership of Puccini’s rarely performed La fanciulla del West at The Metropolitan Opera, following critical successes conducting Tosca and La bohème, was hailed by the New York Times as a “distinguished performance.” In conjunction with these 100th Anniversary performances Luisotti was awarded the Premio Puccini Award.
Luisotti’s third season at San Francisco Opera’s Music Director of San Francisco Opera continues in June with a new Gabriele Lavia production of Attila, co-produced with Teatro alla Scala. In addition to I Masnadieri and concerts with the Orchestra del Teatro di San Carlo in late March, Maestro Luisotti’s operatic engagements this season include a return visit to La Scala for Turandot in April. Critically acclaimed for his orchestral conducting, Luisotti will also make appearances with six great orchestras this season including his own San Francisco Opera Orchestra presented by Cal Performances, the Berliner Philharmoniker, Orchestra del Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Madrid’s Orquesta Nacional de España and the orchestras of Cleveland and Philadelphia.
The Italian conductor made his critically acclaimed international debut leading a new production of Il trovatore at the Stuttgart State Opera and he has subsequently performed with nearly every major opera company across the globe, including the Metropolitan Opera, London’s Royal Opera at Covent Garden, Paris Opera, Milan’s La Scala, Vienna State Opera, Genoa’s Teatro Carlo Felice, Venice’s Teatro La Fenice, Munich’s Bavarian State Opera, Dresden State Opera, Frankfurt Opera, Madrid’s Teatro Real, Los Angeles Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Seattle Opera, Bologna’s Teatro Comunale, and Teatro di San Carlo in Naples. He made his debut in Japan, where he serves as Principal Conductor of the Tokyo Symphony, with a semi-staged production of Tosca at Suntory Hall and has since returned for Turandot, La bohème, and the Mozart/Da Ponte trilogy of Don Giovanni, Le nozze di Figaro, and Così fan tutte.
Maestro Luisotti has also led many of the world’s most acclaimed orchestral ensembles including the Berlin Philharmonic, London Philharmonia, San Francisco Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Tokyo Symphony, NHK Symphony, Dresden’s Staatskapelle, Munich’s Bavarian Radio Orchestra, the orchestra of Rome’s Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Torino’s Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI and the orchestras of Hamburg, Budapest, and Zagreb. In conjunction with the 2008 Olympic Games, Luisotti led special concerts in Beijing featuring artists Renée Fleming, Sumi Jo, Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Ramón Vargas.
The conductor’s discography includes a complete recording of Stiffelio (Dynamic) with the orchestra of Trieste’s Teatro Verdi and the critically acclaimed Duets (Deutsche Grammophon), featuring Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón. He is also on the podium of a DVD recording of the Met’s La bohème, starring Angela Gheorghiu and Ramón Vargas (EMI).
* Notes *
The Alexander String Quartet (pictured left with Jake Heggie and Joyce DiDonato, photograph by Brian Byrne) celebrated 30 years with a new commission presented by San Francisco Performances. Yesterday's performance at Herbst Theatre began with mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato singing Hahn's Venezia, accompanied by Jake Heggie on piano. DiDonato sang these evocative songs with a beautiful legato line. Alexander String Quartet took the stage next with Debussy's String Quartet in G minor, Op. 10 (1893). The playing was balanced, and second movement Scherzo was especially charming.
After the intermission came the world premiere of Jake Heggie's Camille Claudel: Into the Fire, for mezzo-soprano and string quartet. The music was pretty and often wistful. DiDonato enunciated clearly and was clearly moved by the songs. The fifth song, The Gossips, was, for this listener, most striking. The quartet played all together here, and the rhythms were attractive. The encore was Richard Strauss' "Morgen!" with DiDonato accompanied by not only the string quartet, but by Heggie on piano again.
* Tattling *
Members of the audience only occasionally whispered, most were quiet. I seemed to be seated next to the music historian-in-residence of San Francisco Performances and his date. It was entertaining to hear exchanges between the former and his various friends. At one point Italian was spoken, and this ended with someone saying "Spaghetti!" and someone else responding "Meatball!"
* Notes *
Ensemble Parallèle held an open rehearsal of The Great Gatsby (Marco Panuccio as Jay Gatsby and Susannah Biller as Daisy Buchanan pictured left, photograph by Steve di Bartolomeo) at the Kanbar Performing Arts Center in San Francisco yesterday. The opera opens next Friday, and though the rehearsal process is always chaotic, the cast and crew have made great progress thus far. We heard and watched Act II, Scene 4; Act I, Scene 4; Act I, Scene 3; and Act II, Scene 2. Keisuke Nakogoshi accompanied the singers on piano. The chorus and many of the principal singers were present. Director Brian Staufenbiel worked out the staging and Maestra Nicole Paiement made sure the singers were on beat. As Staufenbiel focused on certain specifics, Paiement would address us, revealing that one of her favorite parts of the opera is when Gatsby and Nick meet in Act I, Scene 3.
After the rehearsal Susannah Biller, Jason Detwiler (Nick Carraway), Marco Panuccio, Daniel Snyder (Tom Buchannan), Julienne Walker (Jordan Baker), Jacques Desjardins, Staufenbiel, and Paiement answered questions about working on this opera. The work is cut, runs 2 hours and 10 minutes, and Paiement takes speedy tempi for the dialogue. All the cuts had to be approved by the composer, John Harbison.
* Tattling *
Some members of the audience whispered throughout, and a few cellular phones were heard.
San Francisco Opera’s 88th season started on September 10, 2010 and finished on July 3, 2011. Ten operas were performed in 66 performances. The Company concluded Fiscal Year 2010-11 (FY 11) with a deficit of $1,801,417 on an operating budget of $71,094,620. Total operating revenue for FY 11 grew from $27,113,297 to $35,947,397, with income from ticket sales increasing 32% to $24,633,817. Contributions to the annual fund were $33,345,806 from approximately 11,350 donors.
Press Release | Official Site | Audited Financial Results [PDF]
* Notes *
Yesterday evening’s opening performance of the 2012 season at San Diego Opera was Salome. Seán Curran’s production (pictured left with Irina Mishura as Herodias and Lise Lindstrom as Salome, photograph by Ken Howard) was seen in San Francisco two years ago, with the same sets and costumes designed by Bruno Schwengl, and elegant lighting by Christopher Maravich. There were some differences from the earlier performances in 2009, most notably in Salome’s dance. The San Diego version sounded strong, the orchestra seemed restrained under Steuart Bedford, the brass only a bit ragged.
The principals were all impressive. Sean Panikkar sang Narraboth with a painful loveliness. Greer Grimsley gave a powerful performance as Jochanaan. Allan Glassman acted and sang the role of Herodes with complete conviction. As Herodias, Irina Mishura was both visually and vocally complementary to Lise Lindstrom in the title role. Lindstrom was viscerally disturbing, with devastatingly gorgeous high notes. Her movements were rather girlish, and her dancing, aside from a slight awkwardness with her second veil, was graceful.
* Tattling *
There was some limited whispering from the audience. Two chirps were heard when Salome was singing without much accompanying orchestration.
* Notes *
Harpsichordist Richard Egarr (pictured left, photograph by Marco Borggreve) is currently conducting Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in a program entitled "Masters of the English Baroque." The performance last night in San Francisco started with Händel's Symphony from Saul. The concertmaster and the first oboe played well together in the Larghetto. The oboe solo in the Allegro seemed quite difficult. Egarr addressed the audience a good deal after the opening work, happily claiming Händel as English and introducing the second piece, Locke's Music from The Tempest. We were told the music had a "touch of the Monty Pythons" and was like "Stravinsky gone wrong." The music was rather descriptive, being rather stormy at beginning and end, more lilting in the middle. The dynamics employed were dramatic. Before intermission came Purcell's Suite from The Fairy Queen, which Egarr described as his "favorite bits from the show." The playing was utterly delightful, the dances especially vivid without being overly springy. The oboe duet was charming and remincent of birdsong.
The second half of the program started with Arne's Concerto for Harpsichord No. 5 in G minor. Egarr's playing was deft and it is always interesting to watch a soloist both play and conduct. As the harpsichord was placed perpendicular to the stage for Lawes' Consort Sett in Six Parts No. VII in C major, Egarr admitted the piece was for 6 gambas rather than violins, violas, and celli. The playing was together and clear. We ended with Händel's Concerto Grosso Op. 3, No. 5 in D minor, HWV 316 followed by "Arrival of the Queen of Sheba" from Solomon.
* Tattling *
PBO's new executive director, Michael Costa, appeared on stage before the performance to inform us someone's wallet had been found and requested that all electronic devices be silenced. The audience was more or less quiet, only a few murmurs were heard.
Anthony Roth Costanzo (pictured left, photograph by Ken Howard), who has been singing Ferdinand in the Metropolitan Opera's The Enchanted Island this season, will replace David Daniels as Prospero in tomorrow's performance of that opera. Jeffrey Mandelbaum will in turn replace Costanzo as Ferdinand. Daniels, who is ill, was also replaced for part of the January 12 performance, and all of the January 14 performance.
October 19 – November 10 2012: La bohème
October 26- November 11 2012: L’italiana in Algeri
January 18- February 10 2013: Show Boat
January 25- February 10 2013 : Don Giovanni
April 18- May 5 2013: Tristan und Isolde
April 26- May 11 2013: Il Trovatore
September 29- October 31 2012: Il Trovatore
October 4- November 3 2012: Die Fledermaus
January 29- February 23 2013: Tristan und Isolde
February 3-22 2013: Clemenza di Tito
April 17- May 24 2013: Lucia di Lammermoor
April 21- May 22 2013: Salome
May 8-25 2013: Dialogues des Carmélites
The Opera Tattler 
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