Next month the Opera is ON service presented by San Francisco Opera (SFO) will continue with four new opera streams, one for each weekend. In addition, the second of those weekends will include the next operatic drive-in event presented at the Fort Mason Flix Drive-In. Because there are only four opportunities to attend the Fort Mason screening, while Opera is ON offerings can be viewed any time over the course of the weekend, the Fort Mason event will be described first.
The SFO performance to be screened at Fort Mason will be a production of Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca. This had originally been planned for December, but was postponed in response to the stay-at-home order imposed after a rise of COVID-19 cases. The opera was one of the offerings in SFO’s opening season, first presented at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, October 2, 1923. The video capture was made during the spring season in 2009. Staging was directed by Jose Maria Condemi, and the conductor was Marco Armiliato. The leading characters were performed by soprano Adrianne Pieczonka as Floria Tosca, tenor Carlo Ventre as Mario Cavaradossi, and Georgian baritone Lado Ataneli as Baron Scarpia.
The video will be displayed by a 40’ X 20’ LED screen. The running time of the opera will be approximately two hours. Screenings will take place at 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Friday, February 12, and Saturday, February 13. Tickets for all four of these events may be purchased through a single SFO Web page or by calling the Box Office at 415-864-3330. General admission will be $49 per car with a $5 handling fee. The entrance to the Fort Mason Center for the Arts & Culture is located at 2 Marina Boulevard.
Viewing the Opera in ON programs is more flexible. The selection for each weekend will become available on Saturday at 10 a.m.; and free access will expire at 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 four February offerings are as follows:
February 6: The month will begin with the first streaming of an opera by Richard Wagner, Lohengrin. The production, which was shared with the Houston Grand Opera and the Grand Théâtre de Genève, was conceived by Daniel Slater, working with designs by Robert Innes Hopkins. The performances took place during the fall 2012 season. Music Director Nicola Luisotti conducted, and Ian Robertson prepared the rich choral work performed by the SFO Chorus. Tenor Brandon Jovanovich made his role debut as the title character. Lohengrin’s bride (remember, the Wedding March is probably the best-known selection from this opera), Elsa von Brabant, was sung by soprano Camilla Nylund. The “nemesis” characters of the sorceress Ortrud and her husband, Count Friedrich of Telramund, were taken by dramatic soprano Petra Lang and baritone Gerd Grochowski, respectively. Running time will be approximately three hours and 40 minutes, but Slater’s staging is very effectively well-paced.
February 13: The second offering will be Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 588 opera Così fan tutte (all women do it). This was the third and last of the Mozart operas that used a libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte; and, while each of those operas tends to be classified as “comic,” each has its own “dark side” in addressing the nature of infidelity. The narrative involves two couples: Fiordiligi (soprano Ellie Dehn) and Guglielmo (bass Philippe Sly); and Dorabella (soprano Christel Lötzsch) and Ferrando (tenor Francesco Demuro). The cynical philosopher Don Alfonso (bass Marco Vinco) suggests that the men put their partners’ fidelity to the test by disguising themselves and then having each woo the partner of the other. He is abetted by Despina (soprano Susannah Biller), who serves as maid to the two women (who are sisters). The production was conceived by John Cox, who set the narrative in a Mediterranean beach town shortly before the onset of World War I; and the production was shared with the Opèra de Monte-Carlo. The San Francisco staging was realized by Condemi for performance in 2013. There will be no “spoilers” about how everything concludes; and “for the record,” Da Ponte’s libretto provides no explicit resolution of the plot. Once again the conductor will be Luisotti. Running time is about three hours.
February 20: While Tosca is one of Puccini’s most-performed operas, La rondine (the swallow) received much less attention. It was first performed in 1917, after which it was revised by the composer in 1920 and 1921, resulting in two completely different endings. Unfortunately, Puccini died before settling on a final version. Once again, the plot is about love, with the courtesan Magda de Civry (soprano Angela Gheorghiu) as the principal character. Concealing her identity, Magda falls in love with Ruggero Lastouc (tenor Misha Didyk), whom she meets in a café. The staging was conceived by Nicolas Joël for a production shared with the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse and the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden. The SFO performance, which took place in 2007, was directed by Stephan Barlow, working with conductor Ion Marin. Running time is about two hours.
February 27: The month will conclude with Giuseppe Verdi’s final opera, Falstaff. As had been the case for his previous “Shakespearean” opera, Otello, Verdi worked with a libretto by Arrigo Boito, who, in turn, organized his narrative around three of William Shakespeare’s plays, the two parts of Henry IV and The Merry Wives of Windsor. As might be expected, the narrative is dominated by the title character, sung by bass-baritone Bryn Terfel. From a musical point of view, the conclusion of the opera provides one of the few opportunities to appreciate the composer’s skill at writing a fugue. Olivier Tambosi created the staging for the Lyric Opera of Chicago; and the SFO performances took place in the fall of 2013, conducted by Luisotti. Running time is a little over two 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.
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