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.