Friday, September 21, 2018

Opera with Long SF History Gets New Staging

Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca has an extensive and impressive history in the programming for the San Francisco Opera (SFO). It was part of the very first season in 1923, and it was chosen as the opening night production when SFO moved into the War Memorial Opera House on October 15, 1932. Appropriately enough, the Company honored its 50th anniversary with its first new production of the opera, staged by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle. My own “first contact” with an SFO Tosca took place in 1997, when the Opera House was reopened after seismic retrofitting. The return to the Opera House was celebrated with a recreation of that original 1923 production.

The beginning of next month will see the premiere of the latest new production of this Puccini favorite. The director will be Shawna Lucey, who made her SFO directorial debut almost exactly a year ago in last season’s production of Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata. On that occasion she reconstructed a staging originally conceived by John Copley, so Tosca will be her very first ab ovo production. New sets have been designed by Robert Innes Hopkins. In the orchestra pit British conductor Leo Hussain will be making his SFO debut leading the SFO Orchestra and Chorus, the latter prepared, as always, by Ian Robertson.

Robert Innes Hopkins’ design for the first act of Tosca (photograph by Scott Wall, courtesy of the San Francisco Opera)

Italian soprano Carmen Giannattasio will be singing the title role for the first time in her career, also making her SFO debut. The role of Tosca’s lover, the painter Mario Cavaradossi, will be taken by tenor Brian Jagde, who last sang the part when Lianna Haroutounian (currently singing Nedda in “Pagliacci”) made her SFO debut on October 23, 2014 as Tosca. Baron Scarpia will be sung by Scott Hendricks, who made his SFO debut in another Puccini opera, La Bohème, in which he sang the role of Marcello. His first performance took place on June 5, 2004.

Tosca will be given nine performances, which will take place at 7:30 p.m. on October 3, 11, 17, 20, 23, 26, and 30 and at 2 p.m. on October 7 and 14. The libretto will be sung in Italian with English supertitles. The approximate running time will be two hours and 45 minutes with two intermissions.

The War Memorial Opera House is located at 301 Van Ness Avenue, on the northwest corner of Grove Street. Single tickets are priced from $26 to $398. Tickets may be purchased online through an event page on the SFO Web site. Tickets may also be purchased at the Box Office in the outer lobby of the Opera House. The Box Office may also be reached by telephoning 415-864-3330. Standing room tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. on the day of each performance. They are sold for $10, cash only.

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