SFO Plans for Opening Weekend of 104th Season

Design for the SFO Web page for Simon Boccanegra

This week began with the announcement of the opening weekend festivities for the 104th season of the San Francisco Opera (SFO). As was reported last month, the season will begin, once again, with an opera by Giuseppe Verdi, Simon Boccanegra. The conductor will be Caroline H. Hume Music Director Eun Sun Kim, and this will mark the latest stage in the journey she has planned to account of the works of both Verdi and Richard Wagner.

From a personal point of view, I believe that my first encounter with the opera came from the soundtrack album of the film Carnegie Hall. Bass Ezio Pinza played a major role in that film, which included his singing “Il lacerato spirito” (the tortured soul) from the Prologue for Giuseppe Verdi’s score. Unless I am mistaken, SFO last presented the opera in the fall of 2008 with the title role taken by the Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky, performing with soprano Barbara Frittoli in the role of Boccanegra’s daughter Amelia. About a decade later, I visited the opera again through a Delos recording with those roles taken by Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Nadine Sierra.

The original staging for this opera at SFO was conceived by Claus Guth, and Katherine M. Carter will be the Revival Director. The title role will be sung by Mongolian baritone Amartuvshin Enkhbat, and soprano Eleonora Buratto will take the role of Amelia. Following the opening festivities on Saturday, September 12, there will be five more performances at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, September 16, Tuesday, September 22, and Friday, September 25, and at 2 p.m. on Saturday, September 19, and Sunday, September 27.

As has been the case for some time, the first performance will be both preceded and followed by the annual Opera Ball. This will take place in City Hall, which is on the other side of Van Ness from the Opera House. Festivities will begin with a cocktail reception at 5 p.m., followed by a buffet soiree at 6 p.m. After the conclusion of Simon Boccanegra, City Hall will host an After-Party beginning at 11 p.m. As usual, a Web page has been created for attending all of the opening night festivities (including the opera performance).

Finally, the weekend will conclude with the 51st anniversary celebration of Opera in the Park. The SFO orchestra will again be led by Kim. The “usual plan” is that the program will begin with an opera overture, after which it will accompany vocalists that will be performing during the fall season. The “Park” is, of course, Golden Gate Park. This is a vast expanse, and the venue for the concert will be the bandshell in Robin Williams Meadow. The performance will begin at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, September 13. As always, no tickets will be required.