Opera on the Spot Prepares Two Programs for the Summer

Opera on the Spot is a group of talented, young, classically trained singers that describes itself as “San Francisco’s pop-up opera troupe.” “Pop-up” means that the group has no set venue that serves as a base of operations. Instead, they choose less conventional places for performances, including bars, restaurants, and community spaces. For the summer months they have prepared two strikingly different programs, the first a “grand tour” of Europe through the art song repertoire and the second a double-bill of one-act operas.

The art song recital will be a house concert held under the auspices of groupmuse. The “grand tour” will traverse Germany (Clara Schumann), France (Cécile Chaminade, Claude Debussy, and Ernest Chausson), and Norway (Edvard Grieg), returning to the United States with Margaret Bonds, one of the first black composers to gain public recognition. The major song cycle on the program will be Debussy’s Ariettes oubliées (forgotten songs), a setting of a poem by Paul Verlaine in six movements. Six songs will also constitute Grieg’s Opus 48. The other “organized collection” will be Bonds’ three songs, which she called Dream Portraits.

This house concert will begin at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, July 21. The venue will be a home in the upper Civic Center. Admission will require a $10 minimum donation for the performers. Specifics are maintained on the groupmuse Web page through which reservations must be made. There will be a total of 45 spots available for reservation, and those accepted will receive specific information about the venue. All guest must be at least 21 years of age. Those who attend will be invited to bring a bottle of wine or snacks to share with other guests. The venue is wheelchair accessible.

The two operas to be presented as a double bill. The program will begin with Samuel Barber’s “A Hand of Bridge,” written with a libretto by Gian-Carlo Menotti. The second opera will be composed by Menotti, “The Old Maid and the Thief.” Both of these are social comedies, each involving only four characters. The first brings together two married couples at their weekly bridge game with each player wrapped up in his/her own idiosyncratic interior monologue. The first couple will be sung by baritone Sergey Khalikulov and soprano Jordan Amann, playing against tenor Kevin Gino and mezzo Claire MacKenzie. Menotti’s opera deals with the sexual frustrations of an old maid (mezzo Emma Lacenski) and the “thief” she encounters (Khalikulov). The other characters are the neighbor with whom the old maid gossips (soprano Aisha Campbell) and the old maid’s servant (soprano Emily Thebaut).

This production will be given two performances in two different venues, both beginning at 7:30 p.m. The first will be at the Center for New Music (C4NM) on Friday, August 4. The second will be held at the Caffe Delle Stelle restaurant on Monday, August 7. Admission at both venues will be $20 with a $15 rate for students. On Friday C4NM members will also be entitled to the reduced rate. C4NM is located at 55 Taylor Street, half a block north of the Golden Gate Theater, where Golden Gate Avenue meets Market Street. Caffe Delle Stelle is in Hayes Valley at 305 Hayes Street, on the southeast corner of Gough Street. Tickets may be purchased in advance online, for C4NM through a Vendini Web page and for Caffe Delle Stelle through an Eventbrite event page.

Finally, the vocalists will preview excerpts from both operas at the Monroe club in Jackson Square. They will also perform selected arias and art songs by both Barber and Menotti. This event will begin at 8 p.m. one week from today, Wednesday, July 19, and should last about 90 minutes. The Monroe is located at 473 Broadway, near the northeast corner of Kearny Street.

The Repertory Countertenor

Among the 2009 artists performing this summer under the auspices of the Merola Opera Program, the most interesting may be countertenor Ryan Belongie. When I attended the event at which each of the artists was subjected to a brief interview by way of an introduction to Merola supporters, Belongie had the advantage that the interviews were based on alphabetical ordering; but, unless I am mistaken, this is the first time a countertenor "made the cut" for admission to the Merola Program. Unfortunately, the interview shied away from the question that interested me the most: The Merola artists basically make up a repertory company, offering two full operas and two programs of excerpts. Just how much can such a group get out of having a countertenor in the company?

Last night's program of staged scenes at Herbst Theatre (which will be repeated tomorrow in a free outdoor presentation at Yerba Buena Gardens) provided an interesting answer. The only countertenor opportunity was provided by the first scene of the final act of Christoph Willibald Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice. This scene is the core of the tragedy, where Orfeo leads Euridice back to the land of the living while she protests that he is ignoring her. When he finally gives in and looks back, the bargain he struck to win her is abrogated; and she is reclaimed by Hades. This was Belongie's one effort to strut his stuff, both vocally and dramatically; and he scored high on both counts. As I had written when the San Francisco Opera performed Iphigénie en Tauride, Gluck had a keen sense of capturing dramatic tension in his music, even during the recitativo sections. This elevates Euridice above the mundane level of a selfish nag (duly elevated in the performance of Susannah Biller) and justifies Orfeo's predicament in making a deal that he cannot disclose. The catastrophic moment is not forced by the music (and Director Roy Rallo's staging recognized this); but it was one of the most effective presentations I have seen in the (regrettably) few productions I have witnessed.

Given the nature of Orfeo's bargain, it is ironic that Belongie's other significant performance last night was as a mute (which is certainly one way to compensate for a lack of other music for him to sing). This was his performance as Toby in the excerpt from the second act of Gian Carlo Menotti's The Medium that climaxed with the catastrophic moment of that opera. In this case Belongie had to rely entirely on his dramatic chops, and they definitely served him well. In most professional productions such non-singing roles tend to be given to dancers, but the Merola team had to work with what they had. Belongie was definitely instrumental in making the performance of this scene work as well as it did.

His final appearance could only be justified by tweaking the original stage directions. This was in an excerpt from the second act of Richard Wagner's Der Fliegende Holländer. According to the libretto, this act takes place in a large room in Daland's house, large enough to accommodate a hearth around which a chorus of women sit and spin, cultivating the household talents through which they hope to win husbands. Working with limited resources that could be adapted to all of the excerpts on the evening's program, Rallo converted this to a late nineteenth-century drawing room occupied by a chorus of detached and decadent observers. Since Wagner scored this chorus for sopranos and altos, Belongie could fit in as the only male in the bunch, which actually enhanced both the sense of decadence and Senta's alienation from the "real world" that motivated her obsession with the legend of the Dutchman. From a vocal point of view, Belongie's voice blended excellently with the other female voices; so again he scored both musical and dramatic points (even if, in this case, his dramatic contribution was very much secondary).

The answer to the question, then, is that there can be plenty for a countertenor to do in a repertory opera company provided that a little imagination is show in both choice and staging of the repertoire!