This past Thursday San Francisco Opera (SFO) announced that three operas will be released this month through the Opera is ON streaming process. As with the previous offerings, each will become available on Saturday at 10 a.m.; and free access will expire and the end of the following day. Each video will then be added to the archive available to subscribers and those that have donated $75 or more. Specifics for the three new offerings are as follows:
October 10: The first offering will present the 2014 revival of Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca. Production Designer Thierry Bosquet chose to work with the set and costume designs conceived by Armando Agnini for the first staging of this opera in the War Memorial Opera House in 1932, and the staging itself was directed by Jose Maria Condemi. This particular performance marked the SFO debut of Armenian soprano Lianna Haroutounian, as well as her first performance in the title role. The other two sides of this “eternal triangle” narrative were taken by tenor Brian Jagde as Tosca’s lover Mario Cavaradossi and the baritone Mark Delavan as the Baron Scarpia. The conductor was Riccardo Frizza and Ian Robertson prepared both the SFO Chorus and the San Francisco Boys Choir for the large-scale “Te Deum” scene that concludes the first act. Running time will be about two hours.
October 17: If Tosca is one of the most frequently performed operas in the SFO repertoire, Giuseppe Verdi’s Attila was only presented for the second time in June and July of 2012. (The first time was in November and December of 1991.) The title role was sung by Ferruccio Furlanetto, and the conductor was Nicola Luisotti. The opera is set in 452, the year in which Attila destroyed the city of Aquileia to prepare for his attack on Rome. One of the more interesting decisions by Director Gabriele Lavia was to cast bass Samuel Ramey in the role of Pope Leo I, since Ramey had sung the role of Attila in 1991. Once again Robertson prepared the SFO Chorus. Running time will be about one hour and 50 minutes.
October 24: The final offering will present the SFO debut of Director Robin Guarino in a staging of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 492 opera The Marriage of Figaro. If the Tosca narrative is based on an “eternal triangle,” K. 492 works with a far more complex set of relationships. (Take notes, since there will be a quiz to follow!) The title character (bass-baritone Philippe Sly) serves as valet to the Count Almaviva (bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni). In The Barber of Seville (both the play by Pierre Beaumarchais and the opera by Gioachino Rossini), Figaro had assisted Almaviva in wooing and marrying Rosina, whose is now the Countess Almaviva (soprano Nadine Sierra). Figaro is now preparing to marry Susanna (soprano Lisette Oropesa), who is servant to the Countess. Unfortunately, the Count has grown tired of married life and has been directing his lusts elsewhere, particularly towards Susanna. Meanwhile, Rosina had been the ward of Doctor Bartolo (bass-baritone John Del Carlo), whose designs on marrying her were thwarted by Figaro; and he joins forces with Marcellina (mezzo Catherine Cook) to thwart Figaro’s marital plans. If that were not enough complexity, Cherubino (mezzo Kate Lindsey) has his own passionate designs on both the Countess and the servant girl Barbarina (soprano Maria Valdes). No wonder that it takes four acts to establish and then resolve all of these relationships, but Guarino directed them all with a sure hand and a keen sense of comedy. Patrick Summers conducted, and Robertson again prepared the SFO Chorus. Running time will be about three hours.
Access to free streaming is enabled through the SFO home page. For those interested in viewing any of the Opera is ON productions after free access has been terminated, there is a log-in Web page for donors and subscribers. There is also a Web page for those interested in becoming donors in order to benefit from full access to all available videos.
No comments:
Post a Comment