SF Opera 2010 The Makropulos Case

Opera is full of strange stories, but Janacek’s 1926 opera,  The Makropulos Case comes close to winning the Gold.  It is the last Fall offering of the San Francisco Opera season for 2010-11.  Even to  give a synopsis would spoil the fantastical mystery of the opera…so it’s best to come to be entertained by the great soprano Karita Mattila as Emilia Marty (a diva to end all divas) and just let the story unfold.   Mattila has become a Janacek specialist and San Francisco has had the chance to see her magnificent performance  in Kat’a Kabanova. She has also widely perfomed Jenufa.  This opera premiered in the same year as Puccini’s Turandot,  but that is the only thing these two operas have in common.  Here is the great soprano, Anja Silja as Emilia Marty.

Jonas Kaufmann in Recital LA Opera!

Just announced:  Jonas Kaufmann will make his debut with Los Angeles Opera in a recital on March 11, 2011.  Hold your breath and watch the upcoming announcements for Cal Performances 2010/11 season.  Kaufmann just might be headed to Berkeley.  If not, get to LA.!!

Kaufmann at the Paris Opera 2010 as Werther:  Pourquoi me reveiller

SF Opera 2010 Cyrano de Bergerac

Franco Alfano is best known as the composer Toscanini asked to finish Act 3 of  Turandot following Puccini’s untimely death in 1924.  Poor Alfano has been bashed ever since as the hack who ruined Puccini’s masterpiece,  paying little attention to what the great maestro had intended.  As a result and/or  in spite of the “hack job”,  Turandot today is one of Puccini’s most popular if not greatest works, and most of us love Alfano’s ending.

Franco Alfano (1875-1954) also composed 8 of his own operas in the first half of the 20th century.  All had fallen into obscurity until Placido Domingo resurrected Cyrano de Bergerac (1936) as a vehicle to sing as he approaches 70.  Since that time a few other tenors have followed his lead adding Cyrano to their repertoire.

Will Alfano’s work remain  in the standard repertoire once Domingo drops the role in the next decade? Probably not. Domingo is the star here and the opera is secondary.  These performances will be memorable and legendary and most likely sell out. They’re not making Domingos anymore!

SF Opera 2010: Madama Butterfly

Butterfly Again? It fills the seats, and it’s Puccini;  so it’s not all bad.   Patricia Racette has been a pretty spectacular Butterfly here for the last several outings,  so 2010 brings us 2 new unremarkable casts for this run with the exception of the return of  Daniela Dessi to San Francisco Opera in the role of Butterfly.

Dessi was recently fired by Franco Zefferelli from the Rome production of  Traviata because she was too old and “fat”.  You would think that Zefferelli,  who is far too old himself and whose productions are always HUGE, would have a sweet tooth for large sopranos,  having worked with, fawned over and  hired many in his day.  Or perhaps,  his comments only state the obvious about Dessi,  skirting what he really thinks.  Perhaps…just perhaps,  she can’t sing???

San Francisco will have the chance to see for themselves as this Italian cult legend arrives to portray a 15 year old geisha.  If the voice is close to what it has been in the past,  she’ ll triumph.  If not, this Butterfly may well become a legendary camp performance.  See what you think:

SF Opera 2010: Nozze di Figaro

It will be good to have a Mozart masterpiece, The Marriage of Figaro, back at San Francisco Opera. I would have preferred the less often heard and,  in my opinion, ultimate Mozart opera: La Clemenza di Tito; however, the success of both operas depends on a great cast of Mozartian singers.

The Marriage of Figaro shows promise first and foremost with the Figaro of  Bass-Baritone, Luca Pisaroni, a singer of elegance and vocal beauty. I still have not made a decision about soprano Danielle DeNiese (Susanna).  I have not heard her live, and her Euridice in Orfeo ed Euridice in the Met HD broadcast a couple of years ago offered too little to tell.  Her CD’s and You Tube offerings, however, are less impressive than her looks, always suggesting to me an operatic conflict of interests. 

I look forward to experiencing soprano, Ellie Dehn as the Countess and baritone Lucas Meacham as the Count. Both are relatively unknowns who early on are showing signs of great potential. The pressure will be on Dehn, especially,  to prove her worth in such an iconic role.  Be aware that this cast is scheduled only through 10/5 with several changes for the last several performances.

Here are Pisaroni and De Niese in the opening duet from The Marriage of Figaro:

Opera in el Mercado….What Fun!

So many of you have sent me this clip, I thought I’d like to share it too.  Just watch the joy that opera brings in the most unsuspecting places!

2010 San Francisco Opera Recommendations: WERTHER

The second opera of the 2010 season is Massenet’s tragic Werther which is infrequently performed, at least in this county. It’s good to see it on the roster,  for I have never seen this opera live.  It has the most impressive cast of the season: Ramon Vargas, tenor as Werther and Elina Garanca as Charlotte.  Vargas is among the top 5 tenors  today,  and we had a chance to hear him in San Francisco in 2008  in L’elisir d’amore.

Here’s Werther’s famous and beautiful aria,  Pourquoi me reveiller, from the opera…Ramon Vargas. (You Yube won’t allow this to be enabled elsewhere,  so copy the URL below and paste it in to hear Vargas…it’s worth the effort:     Wow!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mes7MIYEJY

Elina Garanca is one of the leading mezzo sopranos today and her star is rising rapidly.  So congratulations to San Francisco  for snagging her in a plum dramatic role.  Garanca is just finishing her triumphant run at the Met as Carmen (currently in HD at the Rialto) and she  has it all: Voice, Looks, Acting and a Passion for Opera that imbues the characters she portrays. We will see  and hear lots more from her in the coming years, so catch her early and see her as much as possible.

Elina Garanca:  Mon coeur s’ouvre a toi voix from Samson et Dalila by Camille Saint Saens.

Watch for More Opera Recommendation upcoming.

San Francisco Opera Fall 2010 Season Recommendations

With its announcement of the 2010 season,  San Francisco Opera continues  to focus on bringing the greatest  singers to San Francisco,  many of whom will be heard in unusual repertoire choices.   Here’s a first look at the season and what promises to be exceptional and what you probably can skip. This is the first of several posts that will cover all of the 2010 Fall Season’s  Operas.

AIDA (Verdi):  Aida opens the opera season in September with the first cast and closes it in December with the second cast. The question here is why bother when no great Aida or Radames currently exists  in the world? ( Of course,  I mean a soprano and a tenor who can join the list of greats of the past in these roles i.e Price, Tebaldi, Milanov, Corelli )   The Met in HD this year presented a ho-hum Aida with the unsuitable Violetta Urmana in the title role, the serviceable Marcello Giordani as Radames and Dolora Zajick as Amneris. Only Zajick has the voice for this opera,  and she will be Amneris in the first cast in San Francisco in September.  Giordani will appear as Radames (we could do a lot worse) and Aida is Micaela Carosi.

Carosi has made a name for herself in Europe in many of the spinto roles. The only soprano who would be an exciting addition to the cast, however in my opinion,  would be Sondra Radvanovsky, the sensational Verdi soprano who opened the 2009 season in San Francisco as Leonora in Il Trovatore.  She’s singing Aida next fall in Toronto.  Here’s Micaela Carosi in Parma last year as Tosca..Vissi d’arte with an encore!!

Opera & Movies: A Single Man

For those of you who love movies and especially movies that feature opera in some form, I highly recommend  Tom Ford’s A Single Man starring Colin Firth and Julianne Moore. Both turn in sterling performances in this excellent film based on Christopher Isherwood’s short novel of the same name.

Set in the 60′s in Los Angeles, it follows the last day in the life of Geroge Falconer, a 52 year old British closeted gay college professor  whose partner of 25 years has been killed in an automobile accident. 

At one point in the story, an aria sets the mood for George’s actions as he prepares for his suicide. The aria almost steals the show.  Ebben ne andro lontana  from the opera La Wally by Alfredo Catalani is among the most beautiful and haunting arias ever composed (1892).  In the aria the young woman, Wally, describes with great nostalgia how she must leave her home rather than marry a man she doesn’t love.

Miriam Gauci is the soprano whose recording is used in A Single Man. Gauci was an all time favorite of mine in the early 90′s and whose Suor Angelica remains my favorite to this day. Her disc of opera arias is well worth acquiring as is her recording of Puccini’s  Suor Angelica. She is no longer singing, so it was a joy to hear her once again at the movies. 

Here is Gauci’s recording of Ebben ne andro lontana…. and by the way, you may remember the French  movie DIVA from the ?70′s that prominently featured this same aria sung by Wilhelminia Fernandez who portrays a Diva in the movie.

Opera 101

James Sokol and I have been teaching opera in Sonoma County at Santa Rosa Junior College now for a combined 20+ years. I have made it a point never to teach the same subject twice in the past 11 years,  and we both enjoy creating new and exciting opera topics  for our six weeks courses. A number  of you have taken all  of these classes,  and many more have taken some of them. However, I still hear from many potential students who would like a course that teaches the basics.  Well here’s your chance. Opera 101

For those who have taken our classes before,  call your friends who haven’t and let them know that they can start fresh at the beginning.  And for those who have taken previous classes, James will be certain to enhance what you already know.  And besides, whether James is  teaching the basics or graduate level intensives,  he’s  just plain entertaining and his Passion for Opera is infectious.

Opera is more popular than ever.  Don’t be left without a clue as to what’s really going on  and don’t sit at home wishing you knew enough to attend the opera.  Call Santa Rosa Junior College and enroll now for James’s class that starts 2/11/20 thru 4/1/10,   6 Thursday evenings from 7-9 p.m. in Newman Auditorium, SRJC.  Tuition is $90.  Call 527-4371 to enroll and for more information go to: (click on or copy and paste)

https://busapp02.santarosa.edu/CommunityEducation/ListCourse.aspx?CourseVrsnNbr=01036101&ID=2010353

See you at the Opera.