SFO: The Third Spring Opera

The final program to be presented by San Francisco Opera (SFO) during its spring season will be a revival of George Frideric Handel’s HWV 27 Partenope. This had originally been scheduled for the summer of 2020 but had to be cancelled due to lockdown conditions in response to COVID-19. The production was also to serve as the American staged opera debut of countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński in the role of Armindo. Instead, Orliński came to the War Memorial Opera House in the fall of 2022 to sing (and break-dance) the role of Orpheus in Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice.

Andrew Lieberman’s set for Partenope (photography by Cory Weaver, courtesy of SFO)

This opera was staged by Christopher Alden for its first SFO production, which began on October 15, 2014. Rather than giving the opera an eighteenth-century treatment, he decided on a single-set staging in Paris shortly after the end of the First World War. This is the home of the title character (to be sung by soprano Julie Fuchs, making her American debut), named after the founding Queen of Naples. As might be guessed, Armindo (countertenor Nicholas Tamagna, making his SFO debut) is one of her four suitors. Handel’s score goes to great lengths to reinforce the character developed of both the heroine and her suitors; but, for all of its eighteenth-century rhetoric, the dispositions of just about all of the characters are unabashedly slapstick. Furthermore, both the sets and the costumes reinforce the time and place with coy references to leading post-War artistic figures such as Man Ray, Francis Picabia, and Nancy Cunard.

As has already been observed, this production will be given five performances at 7:30 p.m. on June 15, 19, 25, and 28, and 2 p.m. on June 23. The performances will take place in the War Memorial Opera House at 301 Van Ness Avenue on the northwest corner of Van Ness Avenue and Grove Street (across MTT Way from Davies Symphony Hall). Ticket prices range from $26 to $426, and a single Web page has been created for purchasing tickets for all of the above dates and times. Tickets may also be purchased at the Box Office in the outer lobby of the Opera House or by calling 415-865-2000. The Box Office is open for ticket sales Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Web page also includes a hyperlink to an Opera Previews Web site and a second Web page with information about pre-performance talks.

Yuja Wang in Vienna on Deutsche Grammophon

Cover of the album being discussed (courtesy of Crossover Media)

Many readers probably know by now that I have been following the work of pianist Yuja Wang for pretty much as long as I have been pursuing my current writing gig. Indeed, I filed my most recent article about her yesterday morning following her Great Performers Series recital in Davies Symphony Hall. While I continue to be impressed by the dexterity she can bring to massive quantities of notes, I have not always been convincingly satisfied by some of her approaches to interpretation. Indeed, my balance scales took a serious tip to the negative side about two years ago, when I cited her “slam-bang approach to Franz Liszt’s first piano concerto in E-flat major,” going as far as to described her as being a “partner in crime” with conductor Michael Tilson Thomas!

Things were not much better this week, when I realized that I had to turn to her encores to begin my article on a positive note! This morning, in hopes of a shift in context, I set aside time to listen to her latest Deutsche Grammophon album, The Vienna Recital. This provides a complete account of the music she performed at the Konzerthaus, Vienna on April 26, 2022.

The program was structured around two four-movement sonatas. The first of these was Alexander Scriabin’s Opus 23 (third) sonata in F-sharp minor. The other was the third of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 31 sonatas, composed in the key of E-flat major. As usual, most (if not all) of the notes were in the right place. Nevertheless, it was hard to get beyond what amounted to a sense of aimless wandering in her approach to Scriabin. The Beethoven account was delivered with more certainty but not much personality.

Woven among the sonatas were shorter compositions represented by three composers. The first of these was Isaac Albéniz with two of the movements from his Iberia collection. She returned to Nikolai Kapustin (whose music has interested her for the better part of her career) with two selections from his Opus 53, 24 Jazz Preludes. Those were complemented by two of the solo piano études by György Ligeti.

The remaining four tracks on the album accounted for the encores (a rather modest number when compared with Wednesday evening’s encounter). She continued the étude theme with the sixth in Philip Glass’ collection. She then turned to “Danzón No. 2,” which is probably the best known orchestral composition by Arturo Márquez. (This might be familiar to those that followed Mozart in the Jungle.) Her transcription was prepared by Leticia Gómez-Tagle. She then reverted to “old school” selections, an intermezzo by Johannes Brahms (the third in the Opus 117 set) and Giovanni Sgambati’s piano arrangement of music from Christoph Willibald Gluck’s opera Orfeo ed Euridice.

Taken as a whole, I would have to say that I was neither more nor less impressed with this recording than I had been with Wednesday evening’s recital.

Anton Baranov performing in the Biserica Piaristă church (screenshot from the video being discussed)

The latest OMNI on-Location video, created by the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts, is now available for viewing. It is a brief (roughly a quarter hour in duration) solo recital by guitarist Anton Baranov performing in the Biserica Piaristă church. The church was built in the town of Cluj-Napoca in Romania and was consecrated in 1724. Those that read the preview article for this screening were shown a photograph of the church’s exterior. As can be seen above, the video presents the interior, which is just as impressive!

As is frequently the case, the program provided me with, for the most part, a journey of discovery. There were four relatively brief selections, the last two of which were composed by Johann Kaspar Mertz. He was active in Vienna at the same time as other major guitar composers, the best-known of whom would be Mauro Giuliani (whose familiarity is due, at least in some part, to Andrés Segovia). The moods of those compositions were, respectively, introspective (“An Malvina”) and lively (“Tarantella”). As “first contact” experiences go, these made for a satisfying introduction.

Those selections were preceded by two arrangements. The first of these was the “Dance of the Blessed Spirits” from Christoph Willibald Gluck’s opera Orfeo ed Euridice, and the arranger was Michael Goldort. I suspect that this music has been arranged for just about any instrumental setting, but this offering was still decidedly engaging. It was followed by Sergey Rudnev’s arrangement of Anatoly Lyadov’s Opus 32, originally a solo piano composition entitled “Muzikalnaya tabakerka” (a musical snuffbox). This was another “first contact” experience; and, through Baranov’s interpretation, it was just as engaging as the Gluck offering.

Hopefully, Baranov will find his way to a North American tour sooner, rather than later; and, just as hopefully, that tour will bring him to San Francisco!

March to Conclude with Yet Another Omni Video

This has been a good month for viewing OMNI on-Location videos, created by the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts, on a Sunday morning. One was released at the beginning of this month on March 3, followed by a second release on March 24. Late yesterday afternoon it was announced that the month would conclude with one final offering.

Photograph of the church where this Sunday’s video was recorded (courtesy of the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts)

The new video will be a performance by Anton Baranov performing in the Biserica Piaristă church. This was built in the town of Cluj-Napoca in Romania. Construction began in 1718, and the church was consecrated in 1724. The “vintage” of the church will be acknowledge by the first selection on the program, an arrangement of the instrumental interlude from Christoph Willibald Gluck’s best-known opera, Orfeo ed Euridice. The arrangement was prepared by Michael Goldort. This will be followed by “Muzikalnaya tabakerka” (a musical offering), Anatoly Lyadov’s Opus 32, originally composed for solo piano in the key of A major. Sergey Rudnev prepared the arrangement of this music for guitar. The program will then conclude with two short pieces for guitar by Johann Kaspar Mertz, both taken from his Opus 13 Barden-Klänge (bard sounds), “An Malvina” and “Tarantella.”

As most readers will probably expect by now, the performance will be streamed through the Omni Foundation’s YouTube channel. The specific YouTube Web page for this program has already been created. Those that visit this page now will see that it will become available for viewing at 10 a.m. on Sunday, March 31. There is no charge for admission, which means that these performances are made possible only by the viewers’ donations. A Web page has been created for processing contributions, and any visits made prior to the streaming itself will be most welcome.

SFO Announces 100th Anniversary Concert

1940s photograph of SFO founder Gaetano Merola conducting the SFO Orchestra (from the SFO Archives)

In addition to the three operas that San Francisco Opera (SFO) will present over the course of next month, there will be one final event to celebrate the Centennial Season. The Centennial Celebration concert, which launched the season this past September, will be complemented by a 100th Anniversary Concert, a musical account of SFO’s first century. The program will feature fifteen vocal soloists, the SFO Orchestra and Chorus, and three conductors.

Beginning with the conductors, Caroline H. Hume Music Director Eun Sun Kim will share the podium with former Music Director Donald Runnicles, and former Principal Guest Conductor Patrick Summers. The vocal soloists will be sopranos Karita Mattila, Ailyn Pérez, Patricia Racette, Nina Stemme, Heidi Stober, and Adela Zaharia, mezzo-sopranos Susan Graham and Daniela Mack, tenors Lawrence Brownlee, Michael Fabiano, Brandon Jovanovich, and Russell Thomas, baritones Lucas Meachem and Brian Mulligan, and bass-baritone Christian Van Horn. The current plan for the program (which is subject to change) is as follows:

• Prelude from Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Richard Wagner); San Francisco Opera Orchestra; Eun Sun Kim, conductor
• “Amour viens rendre à mon âme” from Orphée et Eurydice (Christoph Willibald Gluck); Daniela Mack; Donald Runnicles, conductor
• “Pur ti miro” from L’Incoronazione di Poppea (Claudio Monteverdi); Heidi Stober and Susan Graham; Patrick Summers, conductor
• “Odi il voto” from Ernani (Giuseppe Verdi); Russell Thomas; San Francisco Opera Chorus; Eun Sun Kim, conductor
• “Pierrot’s Tanzlied” from Die tote Stadt (Erich Wolfgang Korngold); Lucas Meachem; Donald Runnicles, conductor
• “Embroidery” aria from Peter Grimes (Benjamin Britten); Heidi Stober; Donald Runnicles, conductor
• “Vicino a te” from Andrea Chénier (Umberto Giordano); Michael Fabiano and Ailyn Pérez; Eun Sun Kim, conductor
• “Va, pensiero” from Nabucco (Giuseppe Verdi); San Francisco Opera Chorus; Patrick Summers, conductor
• “Ch’ella mi creda” from La Fanciulla del West (Giacomo Puccini); Brandon Jovanovich; Eun Sun Kim, conductor
• Act I finale from Tosca (Giacomo Puccini); Christian Van Horn; San Francisco Opera Chorus; Eun Sun Kim, conductor
• “Entrance of the Guests” from Tannhäuser (Richard Wagner); San Francisco Opera Chorus; Donald Runnicles, conductor
• “Batter my heart” from Doctor Atomic (John Adams); Brian Mulligan; Eun Sun Kim, conductor
• “Co chvila” from Jenůfa (Leoš Janáček); Karita Mattila; Donald Runnicles, conductor
• “Losing my mind” from Follies (Stephen Sondheim); Patricia Racette; Patrick Summers, conductor
• “Ah, je veux vivre” from Roméo et Juliette (Charles Gounod); Adela Zaharia; Eun Sun Kim, conductor
• “Ombra mai fu” from Serse (Xerxes) (George Frideric Handel); Susan Graham; Patrick Summers, conductor
• “Prosti, nebesnoye sozdanye” from Pique Dame (Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky); Brandon Jovanovich; 
• Donald Runnicles, conductor
• “Là ci darem la mano” from Don Giovanni (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart); Heidi Stober and Christian Van Horn; Eun Sun Kim, conductor
• “Cessa di più resistere” from Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Gioachino Rossini); Lawrence Brownlee; San Francisco Opera Chorus; Patrick Summers, conductor
• Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde (Richard Wagner); Nina Stemme; Donald Runnicles, conductor
• “Ave Signor” from Mefistofele (Arrigo Boito); San Francisco Opera Chorus; Eun Sun Kim, conductor

The entire program should last approximately three hours with one intermission.

This concert will be given only one performance, beginning at 6 p.m. on Friday, June 16. Ticket prices range from $30 to $350; and, depending on location, there is a facility fee of either $2 or $3 per ticket. All tickets may be purchased in the outer lobby of the War Memorial Opera House at 301 Van Ness Avenue or by calling the Box Office at 415-864-3330. Box Office hours are 10 a.m.–5 p.m. on Monday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesday through Saturday. In addition, there will be a livestream (no on-demand access) on the entire program; the charge will be $27.50. Web pages are available both for tickets to the Opera House and for the livestream. Finally, those going to the Opera House will have the option of purchasing dinner packages (which will be sold separately from the tickets for the performance). A single Web page has been created with hyperlinks for the different dinner options. Tickets may also again be purchased through the Box Office.

Gluck’s Opera Best Served by Conductor

This afternoon I returned to the War Memorial Opera House for a second viewing of the current San Francisco Opera (SFO) production of Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice. The first thing I need to do is correct an error in my first account of this production. The “Dance of the Blessed Spirits” is a ballet episode in ABA form, the middle section being the “Melody” that is popular with recorder lessons. That was the music performed during the current production. The music that is performed both before and after the “Melody” is the “Air,” which features  an elaborate flute solo is in the A section. In this production only the “Melody” is performed.

As far as the staging is concerned, I still feel that Director Matthew Ozawa was so preoccupied with his “Stages of Grief” and the projection of neural networks onto the platform on which most of the action takes place that any resemblance to the Orpheus myth was purely coincidental. In my own humble opinion, I found that my primary source of satisfaction was the conductor Peter Whelan. My seating this afternoon provided an excellent account of almost everything taking place in the orchestra pit. When the score called for an “echo” effect in the first act, Whelan realized it with a separate seating for a quintet consisting two violins, a clarinet, a viola, and a cello, which served the needs perfectly without overplaying the effect itself.

Nicole Heaston singing from a great height (photograph by Cory Weaver, courtesy of SFO)

In addition, where the music was concerned, I was definitely impressed by the vocal talents of the only soloists in the production, countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński as Orpheus, soprano Meigui Zhang as Eurydice, and particularly soprano Nicole Heaston, whose exquisite poise allowed her to portray Cupid suspended at a great height above the stage floor. To those vocal soloists one may add the full membership of the SFO Chorus directed by John Keene, whose scoring often established the dramatic tension of a scene.

In other words one had a full complement of vocal talent to account for everything required by Gluck’s score. Those forces could not have been supported better by the SFO Orchestra and the insights of Whelan’s conducting. Personally, I would have been perfectly delighted to experience all of those resources deployed in a concert performance.

SFO’s Disappointing Account of Gluck

Last night in the War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco Opera (SFO) presented the first of five performances of Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice. The production was directed by Matthew Ozawa, whose past engagements with SFO have included The Barber of Seville and Fidelio. (The former was the “drive-in” performance, which marked the first “live” performances following the closure of the San Francisco War Memorial & Performing Arts Center due to the COVID pandemic. The second took place in the Opera House the following October.) For this particular offering, Ozawa required a generous amount of choreography, conceived and realized by Rena Butler. The conductor for the production was Peter Whelan, making his SFO debut.

Three of the six dancers performing in Orpheus and Eurydice (photograph by Cory Weaver, courtesy of SFO)

The title of Ozawa’s note for the program book was “The Stages of Grief.” The note made no mention of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, who had conceived the five-stage model of denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance; nor did it have anything to say about her stages. (Bob Fosse demonstrated a much clearer understanding of the concept in his film All That Jazz.) Indeed, Ozawa seemed more interested in examining brain images provided to him by the University of California at San Francisco. How that led to projections and choreography executed on a sometimes rotating circular stage was left to the imagination of the viewer, who may have been less puzzled than I was about what this all had to do with the Orpheus myth.

Indeed, Ozawa’s production almost relegated the vocal performances of Gluck’s score to the background. This was particularly disappointing for countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński, who had originally been scheduled to make his SFO debut in the 2020 revival production of George Frideric Handel’s HWV 27 Partenope, first performed in the fall of 2014. Mind you, he had to work with highly demanding requirements including not only choreography but also acrobatics. (His experience as a breakdancer clearly prepared him for those requirements.) Soprano Nicole Heaston, on the other hand, spent most of her time high above the stage itself, resorting to a circus swing as an alternative for the wings of Cupid (“Amore” in the cast listing). The role of Eurydice, sung by soprano Meigui Zhang, was relegated to the background; but that had more to do with the score than with Ozawa’s staging. Nevertheless, I was more than a little puzzled to find that the most familiar music from Gluck’s score, the “Melody” section of the “Dance of the Blessed Spirits” seemed to have been omitted last night, leaving enquiring minds to wonder why. Perhaps someone assumed that the music would reawaken painful childhood memories of recorder lessons.

Given that so little of this music is familiar and that a relatively straightforward narrative is stretched out over a duration of about 90 minutes, Ozawa probably felt a need to draw upon his own devices to keep the audience’s attention. On the basis of last night’s experience, I would give him credit for succeeding. Nevertheless, the musical side of my attention had a hard time focusing on both vocal and instrumental performances while being bombarded with so much eye candy.

SFO: A New Eurydice for Gluck’s Opera

Yesterday’s “busy weekend” article included the opening night for the San Francisco Opera (SFO) performances of Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata featuring new staging by Shawna Lucey on Friday, November 11. The following Tuesday will mark the opening night for the next SFO offering, Orpheus and Eurydice by Christoph Willibald Gluck. This will be only the second presentation of this opera in the War Memorial Opera House, the first having been given in 1959.

Soprano Meigui Zhang

When this production was being planned, soprano Christina Gansch was cast for the title role of Eurydice. However, she withdrew because she was expecting her second child. The role will now be taken by soprano Meigui Zhang, who will be singing that part for the first time. She will be joined by countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński, who will be making his SFO debut in the other title role of Orpheus. The only other soloist in the cast is the role of Amore (love), which will be sung by soprano Nicole Heaton en travesti. However, Gluck included a generous share of choral passages, which will be sung by the Opera Chorus, prepared by Chorus Director John Keene.

The creative team will be led by Director Matthew Ozawa, who will work with choreographer Rena Butler. Alexander V. Nichols has designed both sets and projections for the staging. Jessica Jahn is costume designer, and Yuki Nakase Link has designed the lighting. The conductor will be Peter Whelan, who will be making his American operatic debut.

This production will be given five performances at 7:30 p.m. on November 15, 18, and 26 and on December 1 and at 2 p.m. on November 20. Ticket prices range from $26 to $408; and, depending on location, there is a facility fee of either $2 or $3 per ticket. There will also be a livestream of the November 20 performance. Virtual tickets are currently being sold for $27.50, processed through the Web page for digital content. All other tickets may be purchased in the outer lobby of the War Memorial Opera House at 301 Van Ness Avenue or by calling the Box Office at 415-864-3330. Box Office hours are 10 a.m.–5 p.m. on Monday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesday through Saturday. There is also a Web page with hyperlinks for purchasing tickets for all five of the performances.

Opera Presented as Ballet with Vocalists

This past January I used my xfinity service to save a copy of a Great Performances broadcast of Christoph Willibald Gluck’s opera Orfeo ed Euridice (Orpheus and Eurydice). The performance was presented by the Lyric Opera of Chicago in collaboration with the Joffrey Ballet. John Neumeier served as director, choreographer, and production designer. Last night I finally set aside time to watch this program.

Like many in this country, I first became aware of Neumeier through the Stuttgart Ballet when its founder John Cranko brought the company on its first tour of the United States in 1969. Neumeier was one of the company’s leading male dancers with a specialty in narrative ballets. Indeed, while with Stuttgart he added a ballet version of A Streetcar Named Desire to the repertoire. In 1973 he moved to Hamburg to lead the Hamburg Ballet, creating the Hamburg Ballet School five years later. He became Ballet Director for the Hamburg State Opera in 1995.

Gluck’s opera was structured in three acts, but the libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi was relatively slim. (It also reworked the original myth to provide a happy ending.) As a result the narrative lends itself to “dance interludes,” giving Neumeier the opportunity to turn the narrative into a story about a lot of dancers, one of whom is killed in an automobile accident and comes back to life after her ballet master (and, presumably, lover) rescues her from the underworld. Other than the title characters, the only vocal part in Gluck’s opera is given to Amore (love), who basically coaches Orfeo’s efforts to recover Euridice.

The title roles on the video are sung by tenor Dmitry Korchak and soprano Andriana Chuchman, joined by soprano Lauren Snouffer singing the role of Amore. Led by conductor Harry Bicket, they deliver consistently convincing vocal performances, often joined by an out-of-sight chorus. Nevertheless, Neumeier never misses an opportunity to bring the corps de ballet on stage; and, unless I am mistaken, he appropriated additional Gluck music for a grand finale involving multiple corps.

The fact is that, regardless of approaches to staging, Gluck’s opera is relatively slim. (Those that remember Amadeus may recall that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart blew away a reference to Gluck with a single dismissive sentence. That may have been rude, but it had a ring of truth to it.) Neumeier certainly knew how to keep his dancers busy, even if there were signs of influence from Robert Joffrey, Gerald Arpino, and, for that matter, Alvin Ailey. The video direction by Matthew Diamond allowed the attentive viewer to appreciate the details in Neumeier’s choreography, the expressiveness of the three vocalists, and Neumeier’s inventiveness in working with a single abstract set. This is a video document that can probably hold up to multiple viewings.

George Li: Spectacle Without Substance

Last night’s Chamber Music San Francisco (CMSF) program in Herbst Theatre was supposed to be a solo piano recital by Ukrainian pianist Alexander Gavrylyuk. Unfortunately, COVID-19 prevented his coming to San Francisco to perform. He was replaced by another pianist, George Li, giving his first CMSF recital.

However, Li is no stranger to San Francisco. In September of 2017 he was the featured soloist in the annual All San Francisco Concert presented by the San Francisco Symphony (SFS), after which he performed a solo recital for the general audience of the SFS Great Performers Series. In addition to covering that concert, I have written about two of Li’s albums on Warner Classics, his debut album Live at the Mariinsky, released in October of 2017, and his first concerto album, a performance of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 23 (first) in B-flat minor with the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vasily Petrenko, released about two years later.

Sadly, both the recital and the recordings seemed to be about little more than jumping through technical hoops. Mind you, that involved dealing with a prodigious number of demands; and Li’s focused execution left the impression that rising to all of those demands was a walk in the park. However, the idea that performance should rest on a foundation of rhetorical expressiveness never seemed to signify. If the notes were all there and they were all showered on the audience in their proper ordering, why should that audience ask for anything more?

To be fair, last night’s audience seemed perfectly happy with there being little more than an onslaught of technical skills. Those skills were certainly required for the music he had prepared. The first half of the program was focused on Robert Schumann’s Opus 17 fantasy in C major, with the Opus 18 arabesque serving to “warm up” the audience. In the second half Schumann’s fantasy was complemented by the epic proportions of Franz Liszt’s single-movement piano sonata. This was introduced, so to speak, by a selection from Frédéric Chopin’s Opus 28 set of preludes (which may have differed by the ones listed in the program). The Liszt sonata was followed by more Liszt for the first encore, “La campanella,” the third of Liszt’s arrangements entitled Grandes études de Paganini. The second encore then turned to the one instance of serenity in the evening, Giovanni Sgambati’s transcription of the “Dance of the Blessed Spirits” from Christoph Willibald Gluck’s opera Orfeo ed Euridice.

I suppose my reaction aligns with that familiar old saw:

People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like.

Personally, I prefer performers that appreciate the need for rhetorical expressiveness beyond just jumping through technical hoops. Some five years on, my feelings about Li do not seem to have changed very much.

The Decca Anthology of Monteux in Europe

1953 photograph of Pierre Monteux at the Metropolitan Opera with director Peter Brook (from the Cleveland Press, from Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

At the end of this past October, the Universal Music Group released a 24-CD box set of the complete recordings of Pierre Monteux in Europe released on the Decca label. Here in San Francisco Monteux is best known for having conducted the San Francisco Symphony from 1936 to 1952, after which much of his attention was devoted to the Metropolitan Opera in New York during the Fifties. However, Monteux began to shift his attention to Europe and the earliest of the recordings in this collection were made in 1956.

As I have done with other collections, I plan to examine this new release in a series of articles, organized by music history, rather than Monteux’ career during the last decades of his life. Like the collection itself, I shall begin with the First Viennese School as represented by Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Franz Schubert, along with two earlier composers (neither Viennese), Johann Sebastian Bach and Christoph Willibald Gluck.

The heart of this portion of the collection consists of all nine Beethoven symphonies in performances by both the London Symphony Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic. There is also a second recording of the Opus 55 (“Eroica”) symphony in E-flat major made with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in the early Sixties (before Queen Beatrix conferred the “Royal” title). Given that we are about to plunge into a one-year celebration of Beethoven’s 250th birthday, the timing of this release is appropriate. On the other hand many listeners are likely to feel swamped by the abundance of Beethoven recordings being released and the attention given to all nine of the symphonies.

It is therefore worth calling out the virtues of the Monteux recordings in this domain. He is clearly familiar with all nine of the symphonies, which should be expected of any conductor. However, his familiarity goes down to the details on the score pages and then rises above that level in seeking out just the right expressive rhetorical gestures to endow all of those details with more than enough significance to draw and maintain the attention of the serious listener.

The same can be said of the other composers in this group, all of whom are represented much more modestly. Schubert gets only the D. 759 (“Unfinished”) symphony in B minor and the D. 797 incidental music for Rosamunde. Having had to sit through what felt like an interminable account of D. 797 during a concert performance, I was much relieved to have Monteux remind me that there are many virtues in these pieces that had eluded me at my last encounter. Where Haydn is concerned, he sticks to two of the most familiar symphonies, Hoboken I/94 (“Surprise”) in G major and Hoboken I/101 (“The Clock”) in D major. Both of these are given crisp attention to phrasing that compensates for the oversized ensembles playing the music.

The Mozart selection, on the other hand, is sort of a “family vanity” piece. The K. 314 flute concerto in D major is part of an album featuring flute performances by Monteux’ son Claude. The other selections are the Bach BWV 1067 suite in B minor and the “Dance of the Blessed Spirits” from Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euricide opera. Here, again, Monteux is working with larger resources than would have been intended; but clarity is again his strong suit, allowing his son to shine in optimal light.

My guess is that there will be many readers that will take a nothing-new-here reaction to these selections; but, when it comes to appreciating a composition’s capacity for expressiveness, Monteux is up there with my other favorite conductors that consistently bring fresh perspectives to their interpretations.

Brandes Elevates Gluck over Ill-Conceived Staging

Yesterday afternoon at the Bridge Yard, West Edge Opera presented the first of three performances of Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, a three-act opera first performed in 1762 with a libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi based on the myth of Orpheus, one of the oldest narratives in the history of opera. The staging by KJ Dahlaw could not have been more steeped in the present and may have had something to do with the absence of the names of both composer and librettist in the program book. However, if Gluck was neglected on the stage, he was given more than due compensation from the instrumental and choral ensembles (both performing in front of the stage), conducted by Christine Brandes.

Brandes is probably best known to most readers as a soprano; but, on the basis of yesterday’s performance, her move to conducting has been a fortuitous one. Working with a modest ensemble suitable for the eighteenth-century repertoire, Brandes clearly knew how to bring out the clarity of every instrumental line, consistently blending them into crystalline sonorities. She even seemed to appreciate how both Gluck and the score for this opera play a significant role in music history.

Those who remembers Peter Shaffer’s play Amadeus (from either stage or screen) may recall Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart speaking dismissively of Gluck. However, Mozart’s music suggests otherwise. In Gluck’s opera Euridice does not get any substantial singing until the third act, when she takes the failure of Orpheus to look at her as a sign of infidelity. Gluck’s aria emerges as what is easily the most profound character study in the entire opera. In all probably, Mozart appreciated the merits of this opera; and the attentive listener will have no trouble detecting in “Che fiero momento” the seeds of many of the female arias that Mozart would later compose for texts by Lorenzo Da Ponte. That connection could not have been clearer under Brandes’ direction, and its vocal execution by soprano Maria Valdes was one of the few high points of the production.

Orfeo (Nikola Printz) surrounded by dancers (photograph by Cory Weaver, courtesy of West Edge Festival)

The low points, on the other hand, could all be traced back to Dahlaw, whose note for the program book began with the following sentence:

As a queer, non-binary dance artist, I am beyond thrilled to co-create this work that will place women and non-binary artists front and center.

This was clearly a director with an agenda. Sadly, that agenda was fulfilled through a plethora of devices, all of which did little more than distract from both Gluck and Calzabigi. Furthermore, many of those distractions had more to do with Dahlaw’s experience as a “dance artist” than with any fundamental conception of relations between text and music. There were long stretches of “dance art” performed by a corps of seven, none of whom seemed to have a secure connection to the technical foundations of ballet or any of the many different approaches to modern dance. It almost felt as if Dahlaw viewed the presence of Orfeo, Euridice, and Amore (Cupid), the only characters in the libretto, as a waste of both time and space.

As a result, while there is less than two hours of music in Gluck’s score, yesterday’s production felt as if it went on forever. One would have been better off watching Brandes’ conducting work and enjoying the rich blend of instrumental and choral passages. Among the soloists, only Valdes rose above the foolishness on stage. Soprano Shawnette Sulker made the best of bringing Amore into Dahlaw’s muddled dramatic context. Mezzo Nikola Printz, on the other hand, seemed to have consistent difficulty with Gluck’s passages for Orfeo, perhaps distracted from focus on the score by the staging directions.

While it is no longer the eighteenth century, there have been no end of opera productions that have no trouble drawing upon the past as a context for understanding the present. Dahlaw’s approach to Gluck is definitely not one of those productions. The agenda behind this staging should look for a better megaphone elsewhere.

Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen’s New Album with ABS

Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen on the cover of his new ABS album (from the Amazon.com Web page for this recording)

Those who follow this site regularly probably know by now that countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen was the recipient of this year’s Jeffrey Thomas Award, named after the Artistic and Music Director of American Bach Soloists (ABS). He was introduced to ABS audiences this past December 31 at a special concert entitled A Baroque New Year’s Eve at the Opera, a program of arias, duets, and overtures in which he was joined by soprano Mary Wilson. Since the beginning of this year, he has been featured on the stage of the War Memorial Opera House when San Francisco Ballet presented the world premiere of Yuri Possokhov’s latest ballet, “…two united in a single soul…,” in Herbst Theatre in the role of David when the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale performed George Frideric Handel’s HWV 53 oratorio Saul, and again at the Opera House for the San Francisco Opera production of Handel’s HWV 31 opera Orlando.

Cohen will not give his first ABS Subscription Series performance until this coming January. However, at the beginning of this month, ABS released its latest recording, which features Cohen as soloist. As of this writing, Amazon.com is distributing this album only through digital download; but those who still prefer physical media can purchase the CD through a Web page created for ABS.

As might be expected, the content includes selections from Cohen’s New Year’s Eve performance. As was the case at that concert, the featured composers are (in order of appearance on the album) Christoph Willibald Gluck, Antonio Vivaldi, and George Frideric Handel. Gluck is represented by only two arias, both on the New Year’s Eve program, the familiar “Che faró senza Euridice?” (what shall I do without Euridice) from Orfeo ed Euridice and the less well-known “Sperai vicino il lido” (I hoped that the harbor was close) from Demofoonte.

The major Vivaldi selection (which concludes the album) was not performed on New Year’s Eve. This is the most extended composition on the album, the RV 621 setting of the Stabat Mater hymn. Vivaldi is also represented by two opera overtures for, respectively, Farnace (RV 711) and La verità in cimento (truth in contention, RV 739). Finally, the album has four Handel opera arias, one of which, “Vivi tiranno, io t’ho scampato” (live tyrant, I escaped you) from HWV 19 Rodelinda, was performed on New Year’s Eve.

I made it a point to frame the content of this new album with my past concert experiences because I seldom have the opportunity to engage in such comparative listening. The fact is that Cohen has already cultivated a strong sense of stage presence, which, at the New Year’s Eve concert, held up just as well in his duet work with the more-experienced Wilson as it did in his solo performances. The recording, on the other hand, is “all about the music.” The good news is that Cohen’s solid and well-polished vocal qualities are as strong on recording as they have been on the stage. However, I would suggest that he still has a way to go before his “recorded presence” can capture rhetorical qualities as well as his physical appearance does.

There is, of course, a tendency to approach opera arias, particularly those preceding the Classical period, as static. The aria reflects the interior passions of the singer; and the “action” of the opera’s scenario is “put on hold” to allow those passions to reveal themselves. However, when the aria is performed out of context, the challenge is to convey some sense of the underlying dramatic qualities without requiring the listener to know all the details of that context. After listening to all of the selections on this album, I must confess that Cohen never quite disclosed rhetorical stances that would make listening a compelling experience, even when the rhetoric of the text was at its most blatant in the Stabat Mater setting.

Many, of course, may be content with this album, particularly as an introduction to the less familiar selections; but, personally, I had hoped for a more vigorous demand for my attention.

ABS Offers a Baroque New Year’s Eve Program

Last night in Herbst Theatre, American Bach Soloists (ABS) presented a special concert entitled A Baroque New Year’s Eve at the Opera. The operatic repertoire consisted of arias, duets, and overtures; and the vocalists were countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen (recently recipient of the 2019 Jeffrey Thomas Award) and soprano Mary Wilson. The program consisted primarily of arias and duets by George Frideric Handel and overtures by Antonio Vivaldi. However, there were also two arias by Christoph Willibald Gluck and overtures by both Jean-Philippe Rameau and Alessandro Scarlatti.

One of the advantages of living in a city that experiences so many staged and concert performances of Handel’s operatic music, not only in excerpts but also in complete presentations, is that one begins to develop a personal sense of the composer’s “greatest hits.” In my case two of those “hits” were sung by Wilson, “Piangerò la sorte mia” (I will cry my fate) from HWV 17 Giulio Cesare and (probably more popular) “Lascia ch’io pianga mia cruda sorte” (let me weep by cruel fate) from HWV 7 Rinaldo. For me the most familiar of Cohen’s selections was “Vivi tiranno, io t’ho scampato” (live tyrant, I escaped you) from HWV 19 Rodelinda.

Francesco Bernardo (who performed under the name Senesino), the first to sing “Vivi tiranno” (artist unknown, from Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

On the basis of my familiarity, I can say that both Wilson and Cohen delivered delightfully confident accounts of not only the basic thematic material but also the many challenging ornamental passages that Handel could deploy with such skill. Those three operas also provided the duet selections of the evening, and their shared sense of pitches in harmony was never short of ravishing. To be fair, early in the program Cohen had a bit of trouble with the timing of the entries of the ABS instrumentalists under Thomas’ leadership. This was most evident in the opening aria of the evening, “Sperai vicino il lido” (I hoped that the harbor was close) from Gluck’s Demofoonte; but those problems were resolved by the time he got to “Che faró senza Euridice?” (what shall I do without Euridice) from Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice.

I must confess that all of the overture selections were new to me. I was particularly glad to have a chance to listen to the overture to Rameau’s Pigmalion, since the original melodrama version of that work had been discussed at some length in the book by Ellen Lockhart, about which I wrote towards the end of last month. As might be guessed, the Vivaldi overtures bore a strong family resemblance to his violin concertos, particularly those overtures structured in three movements. For that matter, the overture to the RV 729 Ottone in Villa (Otho at his villa) featured two solo violin parts, suggesting that it might have originated as a concerto movement.

Towards the end of the evening, Thomas thanked the audience for attending and suggested that this might be the beginning of an ABS New Year’s tradition; I would certainly make that part of my own tradition were that to be the case!

Plans for West Edge Opera in 2019

West Edge Opera has established a solid reputation for looking at the art form of opera production through a new lens, re-imagining tradition to connect with a modern audience and create innovative experiences of the highest quality without compromising the spirit of the music and text being presented. Since 2017 the regular season of opera productions has been supplemented with Snapshot, a collaboration with the Earplay new music ensemble, to showcase the efforts of West Coast composers and librettists that may still be at the work-in-progress stage. Plans have now been announced for this season’s Snapshot program, as well as the three operas that will be produced for the 2019 Festival in August.

The Snapshot performance will take place next month. This season the performance will include soprano Marnie Breckenridge as a special guest artist. Four operas will be showcased as follows:

1. Ivonne is a monodrama inspired by an abandoned Sears building. The title character is the head secretary of a steno pool with a strong sense of order and structure. Her routine is disrupted when one of her staff has a medical emergency. This role will be performed by Breckenridge, singing the music of Nathaniel Stookey setting a libretto by Chicago playwright Jerre Dye.
2. The Road to Xibalba is a hybrid music theater piece with music by Cindy Cox, currently Chair of the Music Department at the University of California at Berkeley, and text by John Campion. The text is based on the Popol Vuh, the creation narrative written by the K'iche' people before the Spanish conquest of Guatemala. Xibalba is the name of the underworld; and the narrative is about two athletic brothers traveling there to challenge the god of Death. The performance will involve not only song but also dance, spoken word, and soundscapes.
3. Zheng is a new opera about mezzo Zheng Cao, familiar to San Francisco Opera audiences as an Adler Fellow with a promising future. Her career was cut short by lung cancer; and, after four years of treatment, she died at the age of 46. Her story has been documented by librettist Tony Asaro working with composer Shinji Eshima, who is also a member of the bass section of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra.
4. Medicus Mortem is also an opera about terminal illness. Andrew Rechnitz has written a libretto that explores the limits of compassion through the story of a doctor struggling to ease the suffering of his terminally ill daughter. The music has been composed by Beth Ratay.

Staged excerpts from these four operas will be performed in San Francisco on Sunday, January 20, at 3 p.m. The venue will be the Diane and Tad Taube Atrium Theater, which is located on the fourth floor of the Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Avenue on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. All tickets are being sold for $40. They may be purchased in advance online from a Tix event page.

The Bridge Yard Building (courtesy of West Edge Opera)

Once again the 2019 Festival will have an exciting new venue. This will be the spacious Bridge Yard Building, formerly known as the Interurban Electric Railway Bridge Yard Shop. It was built in 1938 as a repair facility for rail cars that used to travel over the Bay Bridge. It is located at 210 Burma Road near the East Bay landing of the Bay Bridge. The length of the building will be suitable for proscenium seating, and the grounds will include a festival pavilion for outside dining and post-show receptions. There will be plenty of parking for those driving and a shuttle service from the West Oakland BART station. The three operas to be presented are as follows:

1. Bertolt Brecht described The Threepenny Opera as a “play with music.” However, because his collaborator was the composer Kurt Weill, this work has been presented in settings for both operas and musicals. The leading role of Macheath (known more familiarly as “Mack the Knife”) will be sung by tenor Derek Chester, making his West Edge debut. Soprano Maya Kherani will sing the role of Polly Peachum, Macheath’s latest amorous conquest, while mezzo Catherine Cook will sing the role of Polly’s cynical mother. The plot also involves two of Macheath’s previous conquests, Lucy Brown (soprano Erin O’Meally) and Jenny (mezzo Sarah Coit). The English translation of Brecht’s text will be directed by Elkhanah Pulitzer, and David Möschler will conduct from the piano. Surtitles in English will be provided.
2. A far more positive examination of the nature of love will be found in Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice with its libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi. The advance material for this production announced that the production will be conducted, directed, choreographed, designed, and performed by women as “perhaps a small correction to our male dominated art form.” The soprano for the role of Euridice has not yet been announced. However, the role of Orpheus will be sung by mezzo Nikola Printz, and Amore will be performed by soprano Shawnette Sulker. Christine Brandes, best known as a soprano, will conduct; and both staging and choreography will be by KJ Dahlaw. The opera will be sung in Italian with English surtitles..
3. Missy Mazzoli’s Breaking the Waves will be given its West Coast premiere. As the title suggests, the libretto by Royce Vavrek is based on the film by Lars von Trier. The central role of Bess McNeill will be sung by soprano Sara LeMesh. Her husband Jan, who becomes immobilized from a work accident and asks Bess to have sex with other men, will be sung by baritone Morgan Smith. Other vocalists will be mezzo Kindra Scharich as Bess’ sister-in-law and tenor Alex Boyer as Dr. Richardson. The staging will be by West Edge General Director Mark Streshinsky, and Jonathan Khuner will conduct. The opera will be sung in English with English surtitles.

Each of these operas will be given three performances, one on a Sunday afternoon and the other two in the evening, as follows:

1. The Threepenny Opera: 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, August 3, and Thursday, August 15, and 3 p.m. on Sunday, August 11
2. Orfeo ed Euridice: 3 p.m. on Sunday, August 4, and 8:30 p.m. on Friday, August 9, and Saturday, August 17
3. Breaking the Waves: 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, August 10, and Friday, August 16, and 3 p.m. on Sunday, August 18

Tickets are not yet on sale. Series tickets for all three operas will be available on April 1 with prices from $129 to $339. Single tickets sales will begin on June 1 with prices from $19 to $125. The $19 tickets will be the new “bronze” rate. They will not be available to buy as a series. Once tickets are available, they may be purchased online through the West Edge Opera Web site.

ABS Awardee Cohen to Perform for New Year

Regular readers may recall that, as was announced by the American Bach Soloists (ABS) this past September, the recipient of the 2019 Jeffrey Thomas Award was countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen. (Given the delightful impact that countertenor Anthony Ross Costanzo has had in this city, particularly in his performance of George Frideric Handel’s HWV 27 Partenope with the San Francisco Opera, I am beginning to wonder whether or not performing under three names bodes well for a countertenor.) At the time of that announcement, it was also noted that the first time to listen to Cohen in performance would be on New Year’s Eve at a special ABS concert entitled A Baroque New Year’s Eve at the Opera.

The program will be a festive conjunction of arias, duets, and overtures. Cohen will be joined by ABS favorite, soprano Mary Wilson. The program will account for six operas by Handel (Partenope will not be one of them), three by Antonio Vivaldi, two by Christoph Willibald Gluck, and one by Jean-Philippe Rameau.

The interior of Herbst Theatre, showing a few of its frescoes (courtesy of ABS)

As has already be announced, this program will begin at 4 p.m. on Monday, December 31. The performance will take place in Herbst Theatre, which is on the ground floor of the Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Avenue on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. Ticket prices are $125 (Premium Orchestra), $90 (Orchestra and Boxes), $65 (side Orchestra and Dress Circle), $50 (rear seats in center Orchestra and Dress Circle and front seats in Balcony), and $25 (remaining seats in all sections). Tickets may be purchased online through a City Box Office event page, which includes a floor plan that shows the sections in which seats are still available.

Anderson & Roe Launch CMSF Summer Series

Greg Anderson and Elizabeth Joy Roe (courtesy of Chamber Music San Francisco)

Last night in Herbst Theatre, Chamber Music San Francisco (CMSF) launched its Summer Series, a mini-series of three concerts, all of which will be presented this month. The opening recital was given by the Anderson & Roe Piano Duo, whose members, Greg Anderson and Elizabeth Joy Roe, presented an engaging repertoire of music for both two pianos and four hands on a single keyboard. The first half of the program was devoted to the more serious selections, while the second half served up the more diverting offerings.

Almost all of the program consisted of arrangements, most of which were joint efforts by the two pianists. However, the first half featured two works, both of which were composed for two pianos. The more familiar of these was Maurice Ravel’s own arrangement of the original orchestral version of his “choreographic poem” (which is what he called it), “La Valse.” The other was Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Opus 5, the first of his two four-movement suites for two pianos.

Considering that “La Valse” was one of Ravel’s most imaginative uses of orchestral resources, one might think that a two-piano version would not rise to the same heights. However, those who have encountered Igor Stravinsky’s four-hand version (for either one or two pianos) of his score for the ballet “The Rite of Spring” probably know that the attack properties of a piano can bring sharper clarity to individual notes, even when they are embedded in the thickest of textures. Ravel probably knew about that version; and it may well be that his piano arrangement of “La Valse” was intended for those serious listeners who wanted to know what was really going on behind all those dark clouds that Ravel had concocted through his instrumental techniques.

Last night’s performance thus served up a far starker account of what those dark clouds concealed. One could more readily imagine a large chamber in Vienna filled with ballroom dancers. However, since the ball was being held shortly after the conclusion of World War I, any of those dancers who had not lost one or more limbs were suffering from severe cases of post-traumatic stress disorder (known in those days as “shell shock”). Furthermore, the chamber itself was barely a shell in the bombed-out remains of what had been a playroom for Hapsburg elites.

Under the four hands of Anderson & Roe, every one of Ravel’s phrases carried its own sinister qualities. Every effort to revive the nostalgia of a three-beat rhythm is prematurely interrupted and blown away by a sinister wind that still bears traces of chlorine gas. If the “poem” itself has a narrative, it is one of nervous breakdown, which is finally achieved in the final measure of a cadence that sounds more like a collapse.

Far more upbeat was the Rachmaninoff selection. Opus 5 was originally titled Fantaisie (Tableaux), suggesting (in the composer’s own words) “a series of musical pictures.” Each of the movements was inspired by a different poet (Mikhail Lermontov, Lord Byron, Fyodor Tyutchev and Aleksey Khomyakov); but the musical interpretation has more to do with emotional tone, rather than explicit passages of text.

Opus 5 tends to receive far less attention than the second (Opus 17) suite. Opus 5 was one of the first works that Rachmaninoff completed after his graduation from the Moscow Conservatory; and the sense of an emerging effort may account for why it is not performed very often. (Ironically, it was played in Davies Symphony Hall just this past January by Daniil Trifonov and his former teacher Sergei Babayan.)

One can appreciate that Rachmaninoff has yet to find his mature voice, particularly in the first three movements, each of which is so saturated with Lisztian excesses that it feels as if it is going on forever. Nevertheless, the combination of wildly pealing church bells and fragments of Russian Orthodox chant breathe a bit more arresting rhetoric into the final (“Easter”) movement. Rachmaninoff seems to have been clever enough to leave his listeners with his best impressions!

The most unique offering on the program was the opening. “Grand Scherzo” was an innovative four-hand arrangement of music from the Finale to the first act of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 588 opera Così fan tutte. Purists might chafe at this, pointing out how many first-rate pieces Mozart wrote for both four hands on one keyboard and two pianos. (They would also note that nothing in this piece really counts for being a scherzo.)

Nevertheless, particularly for those familiar with the opera, this turned out to be a delightful recap of the rich and full extent of hysterical action that concludes this work’s first act. Vocal colors may have been lacking; but remember that Mozart himself prepared instrumental versions of “greatest hits” from his operas. He was in it for popular appeal, so nobody dast blame Anderson & Roe for going for the same brass ring. They came up with a splendid way to seize and hold audience attention from the very first gesture.

Things got much more relaxed during the second half. Arrangements of three pieces by Astor Piazzolla were played on a single keyboard. However, they involved a fair amount of activity away from the keyboard (particularly within the body of the instrument), as well as some elaborate patterns of arm-crossing. The arrangement of the “Dance of the Blessed Spirits” from Christoph Willibald Gluck’s opera Orfeo ed Euridice, often published as “Mélodie,” provided a welcome calm after Piazzolla’s storm. This music was originally written for two flutes and strings, but the Anderson & Roe arrangement had no trouble capturing its serene qualities.

The program concluded with a wild and wooly fantasy based on Georges Bizet’s Carmen. Curiously, the Anderson & Roe version opened with the “Danse bohémienne” from another Bizet opera, La jolie fille de Perth (the fair made of Perth); but, hey, gypsies are gypsies, right? Given how saturated the repertoire is with versions Carmen selections for just about any instrumentation (Anyone remember The Naked Carmen? My guess is that John Corigliano would prefer to forget it!), adding another version might be taken as little more than chutzpah. However, this version also had more than a bit of activity away from the keyboard and was definitely diverting, if not absorbing.

Stage activity also surfaced during the encore selections. Their version of “America” from Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story managed to take both four-hand and two-piano playing into account. Paul McCartney’s “Let It Be,” on the other hand, served up some of the best give-and-take playing across the two pianos. I would like to believe that both Anderson and Roe brought some personal improvisations to their account, since their approach to playing that song certainly encouraged such practices.

An Emerging Composer Deserving Attention

Front cover of the book behind the title of last night’s concert (from Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

Last night at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble (LCCE) continued its 25th anniversary season with a program entitled Sonnets to Orpheus. However, it was the one composition on the program that lacked an “Orpheus connection” that stole the show. That was the winner of LCCE’s 2017 Composition Contest, a ten-minute work for solo piano by Chiayu Hsu entitled “Rhapsody Toccata.” This piece was played by Katy Luo, currently based in Honolulu but with past connections to LCCE.

“Rhapsody Toccata” was true to its name. From the very opening gestures, the listener could sense a ghostly presence of Franz Liszt as the first round of phrases disclosed themselves. However, because the strings at both extremes of the piano had been prepared, the emerging sonorities established that the composer was doing far more than trying to channel Liszt. Indeed, the very sense of “rhapsody” was far more expansive, perhaps with a nod or two to Johannes Brahms and a few rather more obvious evocations of George Gershwin.

Where the rest of the title was concerned, Luo played Hsu’s score with a sense of spontaneity, which made it clear that she had established a firm command of all the marks on paper. If composers like Liszt and Gershwin were lurking behind the “rhapsody” noun, the spirit of toccata could be traced all the way back to keyboard music that displayed Johann Sebastian Bach at his most impetuous. The result was a wild ride through keyboard legacies, all delivered with rapid-fire focus by Luo’s capacity for technical command. This is music that definitely merits more exposure, and LCCE has done the music world a serious solid in acknowledging the capacity of an emerging composer deserving of further attention.

The title of the program was that of a cycle of 55 sonnets written in German by the Bohemian-Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke. The second half of the program was devoted entirely to a song cycle by Eric Moe, which set six of those sonnets. This was complemented by the first half, which presented reflections on the Orpheus myth realized in music by Claudio Monteverdi, Christoph Willibald Gluck, Aida Shirazi, and Luiz Bonfá. All of these pieces featured solo flute work by Stacey Pelinka with string support provided by violinists Anna Presler and Ilana Thomas, violist Phyllis Kamrin, and cellist Tanya Tomkins.

The Monteverdi and Gluck selections were excerpts from their respective operatic settings of the Orpheus myth. Of these two, the Gluck performance came closest to the original instrumentation, although the “Dance of the Blessed Spirits” was originally written for two flutes. However, the accompaniment was strictly by strings; and one-to-a-part playing offered more intimacy than would be encountered with a larger ensemble. Pelinka’s command of the solo line was confident; and the group, as a whole, offered far more than adequate justice to Gluck’s legacy.

Monteverdi did not fare quite as well. In this case the instruments were not quite the right fit to the composer’s own approach to instrumentation, and doling vocal lines out to instruments usually does favors to neither the notes intended for voice or the instruments selected to play them. The title of Shirazi’s piece, which was being given its world premiere, was “Vestiges;” and it was clear from her remarks to the audience that these were reflections of memories of both of these Orpheus operas in a contemporary setting.

How well Shirazi succeeded in her goal cannot be assessed on the basis of a single listening experience. It was not easy to recognize the sources behind the vestiges, so to speak; but that is not necessarily to the detriment of the composition. Suffice it to say that this music certainly deserves more listening opportunities.

The first half of the program concluded with Bonfá’s “Manhã de Carnaval” (morning of Carnival), which figured significantly in Marcel Camus’ film Black Orpheus. (For the record, Monteverdi’s opera was written for performance during the celebration of the pre-Lenten Carnival in Venice.) Composer Nick Benavides (who is also LCCE Managing Director) created an arrangement played by Pelinka, Presler, and Tomkins. Benavides did not try to go for Bonfá’s distinctively Brazilian rhetoric (the other composer contributing to the film was Antônio Carlos Jobim); but his arrangement definitely evoked a satisfying spirit of jamming among three players who clearly enjoyed each other’s company as much as the music.

For all of the engaging features of the first half of this program, Moe’s composition emerged as a serious disappointment. Much of the problem may have had to do with the fact that his understanding of his source text (which was not, strictly speaking, Rilke but came from Stephen Mitchell’s translations into English) seldom (if ever) involved any features that went deeper than the surface. As a result, the listening experience seemed to suggest that the composer had done little more than hang some awesomely impressive virtuoso work for a soprano vocalist on a string of syllables that seemed right for the occasion.

Nevertheless, if we put literary criticism aside, it is hard to ignore the awesome talent that soprano Nikki Einfeld brought to accounting for all of those syllables. If disregarded the text, one still had a highly imaginative creation of chamber music for soprano, oboe, piano, and string quartet. One might argue that Moe did not have quite enough imagination to extend over more than half an hour (which was the composition’s duration). However, when one encounters a work for the first time, one learns to take what one can get. As a journey through provocative sonorities rendered with the best of virtuoso skills, Moe’s Sonnets to Orpheus had much to offer; but it probably would have been more satisfying as a somewhat shorter instrumental suite with a vocalizing soprano.

LCCE to Honor Orpheus Next Month

The title of next month’s offering in the 25th anniversary season of the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble (LCCE) will be Sonnets to Orpheus. Orpheus is probably the first character in the corpus of Greek mythology to be honored as a “working” composer and performer. It should therefore be no surprise that he has been honored by composers dating at least as far back of the Renaissance and all the way up to the present day.

Sonnets to Orpheus is, itself, the title of a song cycle composed by Eric Moe late in the twentieth century. Moe scored this piece for soprano, oboe, and string quartet; and it will be one of the compositions featured on LCCE’s program. The program will also include an arrangement of the “Dance of the Blessed Spirits” from Christoph Willibald Gluck’s 1762 opera Orfeo ed Euridice, along with a selection of excerpts from the even earlier opera L’Orfeo by Claudio Monteverdi and a new arrangement of music from the 1958 film Black Orpheus, a setting of the Orpheus myth taking place during the annual Brazilian Carnival. Antônio Carlos Jobim, João Gilberto, and Luiz Bonfá all contributed to the soundtrack of that film. Finally, to take things to the immediate present, the program will present a new work commissioned by LCCE, an instrumental impression of the Orpheus myth scored for flute, violin, viola, and cello by Iranian-born composer Aida Shirazi.

Luiz Bonfá, one of the composers for the film Black Orpheus (photograph by Harry Pot, from Wikimedia Commons, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license)

The program will also include “Rhapsody Toccata” by Chiayu Hsu, the winner of LCCE’s 2017 Composition Contest, which will be performed by guest pianist Katy Luo.

The San Francisco performance of Sonnets to Orpheus will take place in the Recital Hall of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM). SFCM is located at 50 Oak Street, between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin Street and a short walk from the Van Ness Muni station. Tickets will be sold at the door for $35 for general admission and $18 for those under the age of 35. However, if the tickets are purchased in advance through a Vendini event page, the prices will be $30 for general admission and $15 for those under the age of 35. (The discount is applied after the number of tickets to be purchased is specified.) Those requiring further information may call 415-617-5223 (LCCE).

LCCE Announces 25th Anniversary Season

The 2017–2018 season will mark the 25th anniversary of the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble (LCCE); and it will run from this October to May of next year. Here in San Francisco, all performances will be held in the Recital Hall of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM), with the exception of one special chamber opera program, which will be given two performances at Z Space. All SFCM concerts will be held on Mondays at 7:30 p.m., and the chamber opera program will be given both an evening and a matinee performance. As in the past, each concert will have its own thematic title. Details are as follows:

October 9, SFCM, A Garland for Weinberg: This program will begin with Mieczysław Weinberg’s Opus 28 sonata for clarinet and piano. This piece will be followed by the world premieres of two pieces composed as tributes to Weinberg by Julie Herndon and Stephen Blumberg, respectively. Weinberg was born in 1919 to a Jewish family in Warsaw. He graduated from the Warsaw Conservatory in 1939, around the time when the Nazis were descending upon Poland. He thus fled to the Soviet Union and settled in Minsk. The program will conclude with a Polish composer that remained in Poland, Krzysztof Penderecki. The LCCE string players will perform his “Leaves of an Unwritten Diary,” composed for string quartet and bass.

Saturday, November 4, 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, November 5, 2 p.m., Z Space, Death and a Knight: Kurt Rohde’s chamber opera “Death With Interruptions,” based on the novel by José Saramago, will be given a new production that will be performed by the original cast, which includes cellist Leighton Fong, soprano Nikki Einfeld, baritone Daniel Cilli, tenor Joe Dan Harper, and the Volti chamber choir. The program will begin with Rohde’s most recent chamber opera, “Never was a knight…,” a singspiel based on vignettes from the text of Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote and scored for tenor and small ensemble.

February 5, SFCM, Visions de l’Amen: Eric Zivian and Sarah Cahill will team up for a recital of music for two pianos. The program is named after the major work to be performed, a suite of seven pieces by Olivier Messiaen. There will also be world premiere performances of two other compositions for two pianos by Christopher Castro and Philip Acimovic, respectively.

March 12, SFCM, Sonnets to Orpheus: This program takes its title from a composition by Eric Moe scored for soprano, oboe, string quartet, and piano. Two other composers inspired by the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice will also be represented. There will be excerpts from Claudio Monteverdi’s opera L’Orfeo and the “Dance of the Blessed Spirits,” an instrumental interlude from Christoph Willibald Gluck’s opera Orfeo ed Euridice. The program will begin with the world premiere of a new work for strings and flute by Aida Shirazi.

May 21, SFCM, A Rare Serenade: The season will conclude with Arnold Schoenberg’s Opus 24 serenade for voice and seven instrumental parts (clarinet, bass clarinet, mandolin, guitar, violin, viola, and cello). This piece will be coupled with the world premiere of another serenade for small ensemble. this one composed by LCCE Managing Director Nicolas Lell Benavides. The program will begin with a trio for violin, viola, and guitar by Sándor Jemnitz.

Subscriptions for the full season are currently available for $125 for general admission and $105 for seniors. This amounts to a savings of up to $25 per ticket if tickets are purchased individually. There is open seating for all concerts. Tickets may be purchased online through a Vendini event page. Subscriptions are available for $50 for students and those under the age of 35. These apply to currently enrolled high school and college students. School representatives may contact Managing Director Nick Benavides for further details. Information is also available by sending electronic mail to the Box Office. Single tickets will be sold at the door for $35 for general admission and $18 for those under the age of 35. The hyperlink for the online purchase of single tickets has not yet been activated.