I should begin by apologizing for allowing the Pocket Opera 2022 Season to fall off my radar. All I can do is get back on track with this year’s season, whose performances in San Francisco will begin on the first Sunday of next month. General Director Nicolas A. Garcia has prepared the usual set of four productions, all of which will be sung in English. Each opera will have its own Music Director and Stage Director, and each will cast its own set of vocalists. For many, those will be “first contact” encounters with most, if not all, of the vocalists. All of the performances in San Francisco will take place in the Gunn Theatre on the lower level of the Legion of Honor Museum, beginning at 2 p.m. on Sunday afternoons. The operas and their dates will be as follows:
April 2: Strictly speaking, the season will begin with an operetta, Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss II. However, just about every “serious” opera company that I have encountered has brought Fledermaus into its repertoire, often performed on New Year’s Eve. Indeed, the plot revolves around a decadent party, whose events all unfold during the second act, meaning that the other two acts of the opera basically account for “before” and “after.” (Spoiler alert: Much of the “after” portion involves hangovers.) This wild scenario will be staged by Madeline Abel-Kerns, and the Music Director will be Paul Dab.
April 30: The second opera also involves decadent behavior but in an entirely different setting. Benjamin Britten’s Albert Herring is about Victorian moral standards at their most extreme and the undoing of the only virtuous young man in the small English town of East Suffolk. This is another three-act opera, whose “core action” takes place in the second act. (The spoiler alert for this one involves Britten appropriating some familiar music by Richard Wagner.) The other two acts then establish both “before” and “after.” Garcia himself will direct the staging, and the Music Director will be David Drummond.
June 25: The comedy of decadent behavior then continues with the third opera, Orpheus in the Underworld by Jacques Offenbach. This one takes a serious episode from classic mythology (made into a serious opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck) and turns it on its head. Staging will be by Bethanie Baeyen, working with Music Director Frank Johnson.
July 30: Ironically, after all those comedies, the season will conclude with one of the most intense tragic operas composed by Giacomo Puccini. That opera is Tosca, and it would be fair to say that no character in the narrative comes away with a happy ending. Elly Lichenstein will direct the staging, and the Music Director will be Mary Chun.
There are several options for purchasing tickets. The price of the full season subscription is $250. One can also select three operas for a reduced season, whose price is $195. These are available for sale either by phone or by mail. Business hours are from noon to 4 p.m. on Monday through Friday, and the telephone number is 415-972-8934. Purchase by mail requires downloading an order form. After the form has been completed, it can be sent to Pocket Opera at 469 Bryant Street; San Francisco, CA 94107-1316. A Web page has been created with hyperlinks for purchasing all single tickets.
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