Opera Parallèle to Conclude Glass Trilogy

Jean Marais as the Beast in Jean Cocteau’s 1946 film Beauty and the Beast (from a YouTube video clip provided by OP)

In a little over a month’s time, Opera Parallèle (OP) will conclude its twelfth season by also concluding the trilogy of operas by Philip Glass that were all based on films by Jean Cocteau. This project began in 2011 with a production of Orphée (Orpheus). This was followed by a staging of Les Enfants Terribles (the terrible children) in 2017. The final opera, La Belle et la Bête, is based on Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast film.

Glass himself gave a performance of this particular score in May of 2013, when he and the Philip Glass Ensemble visited the Lam Research Theater at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts as part of the Philip Glass at 75 “mini-festival” presented by San Francisco Performances. HIs group was joined by four vocalists in the orchestra pit, where they provided accompaniment for the screening of the film. For next month’s performance, OP Director Brian Staufenbiel has followed the approach of synchronizing the staging to the screening of Cocteau’s film. However, that staging will be augmented with choreography by Yayoi Kambara with costumes designed by Aline Bokovikova.

As was the case in the Glass production, the dialog on the film will be replaced by a performance by a vocal quartet. This will consist of two sopranos (Vanessa Becerra and Sophie Delphis) and two baritones (Hadleigh Adams and Eugene Brancoveanu). Instrumentation will include four saxophones, the members of the MANA Quartet: Michael Hernandez (soprano), Michael Mortarotti (alto), Eric Barreto-Maymi (tenor), and Thomas Giles (baritone). Nicole Paiement will conduct the vocalists and this quartet along with three keyboardists: Keisuke Nakagoshi, Kevin Korth, and Jaymes Kirksey.

This production will be given four performances. They will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, July 14, Friday, July 15, and Saturday, July 16, and at 3 p.m. on Sunday, July 17. Ticket prices will be $55, $75, $95, and $125 at all performances except on Saturday, when the prices will be $65, $85, $105, and $135. The venue will be the Miner Auditorium of the SFJAZZ Center, located at 201 Franklin Street, on the southeast corner of Fell Street. SFJAZZ has created a single Web page with hyperlinks for all ticket purchases.