SFO Announces Details for Year-End Concerts

Today’s holiday will be followed by the “final stretch” of fall season performances by the San Francisco Opera (SFO). As was already announced, this will include the five remaining performances of L’elisir d’amore. However, these offerings will be supplemented by the two annual year-end concerts that showcase resident artists, the SFO Orchestra, and the SFO Chorus.

The first of these will be The Future is Now: Adlers in Concert, which was conceived to introduce the next generation of opera stars. The vocalists will be sopranos Arianna Rodriguez, Mikayla Sager and Olivia Smith, mezzo-sopranos Gabrielle Beteag and Nikola Printz, tenors Victor Cardamone, Edward Graves and Moisés Salazar, and bass-baritone Jongwon Han. They will perform with the SFO Orchestra conducted by Ramón Tebar, who will provide the program with a suitable overture, the one composed by Vincenzo Bellini for his opera Norma. As of this writing, the selections to be performed are the following (subject to change):

• "Va, crudele … Vieni in Roma!" from Norma (Vincenzo Bellini): Gabrielle Beteag, Adalgisa • Moisés Salazar, Pollione
• "Che più t'arresti … Tacea la notte ... Di tale amor" from Il Trovatore (Giuseppe Verdi): Nikola Printz, Inez • Mikayla Sager, Leonora
• "Amor ti vieta" from Fedora (Umberto Giordano): Edward Graves, Count Loris
• "Ch'il bel sogno di Doretta" from La Rondine (Giacomo Puccini): Olivia Smith, Magda
• "Riez, allez" from Don Quichotte (Jules Massenet): Jongwon Han, Sancho
• "Sull'aria" from Le Nozze di Figaro (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart): Olivia Smith, Countess Almaviva • Arianna Rodriguez, Susanna
• "I was a woman" from prisoner of the state (David Lang): Nikola Printz, the Assistant
• "Sometimes th’ pain of missin' him" from Cold Sassy Tree (Carlisle Floyd): Victor Cardamone, Will Tweedy
• "Un dì, se ben rammentomi" from Rigoletto (Giuseppe Verdi): Edward Graves, the Duke of Mantua • Nikola Printz, Maddalena • Arianna Rodriguez, Gilda • Jongwon Han, Rigoletto
• "Scostatevi ... il Re giunge … Fin dall'età più tenera ... Salirà d'Inghilterra" from Anna Bolena (Gaetano Donizetti): Jongwon Han, Enrico • Mikayla Sager, Anna Bolena • Victor Cardamone, Percy • Edward Graves, Hervey
• "Giunse alfin il momento … Deh, vieni non tardar" from Le Nozze di Figaro (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart): Arianna Rodriguez, Susanna
• "Let me look around once more … To leave, to break" from Vanessa (Samuel Barber): Olivia Smith, Vanessa • Edward Graves, Anatol • Nikola Printz, Erika • Gabriella Beteag, Old Baroness • Jongwon Han, Old Doctor
• "Nessun dorma" from Turandot (Giacomo Puccini): Moisés Salazar, Calaf
• "Les Troyens … Je vais mourir … Adieu, fière cite" from Les Troyens (Hector Berlioz): Gabrielle Beteag, Didon • Nikola Printz, Anna • Jongwon Han, Narbal • Victor Cardamone, Iopas
• "Già che il caso ci unisce … Beva al tuo fresco sorriso" from La Rondine (Giacomo Puccini): Edward Graves, Ruggero • Olivia Smith, Magda • Arianna Rodriguez, Lisette • Victor Cardamone, Prunier • The Adler Fellows, chorus

The performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, December 2. The venue will be Herbst Theatre, whose entrance is on the ground floor of the Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Avenue, located on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. Ticket prices will be $69 for premium Orchestra and Box seating, $59 for Orchestra Rear, $49 for the Dress Circle, and $34 for the Balcony. Wheelchair seating is available in the Orchestra, Dress Circle, and Balcony. Tickets may be purchased in advance online through an SFO event page or by calling the SFO Box Office at 415-864-3330. [added 12/1, 12:05 p.m.:

The second program will be a concert of chamber music performed by members of the SFO Orchestra. The program will feature four different ensembles: string quartet, string trio, woodwind quintet, and brass quintet. As of this writing, only two works from the program have been identified. The less familiar of these will be George Enescu's "Aubade,"scored for string trio. The other work identified will be a string quartet by Joseph Haydn, his Hoboken III/5 string quartet in G major, the fifth of the six quartets in his Opus 33 publication. The performance will take place at the Calvary Presbyterian Church at 2515 Fillmore Street. This will be a free concert, but seating will be limited. A Web page has been created for advance registration, and its use is highly recommended.]

The third program will be San Francisco Opera Chorus in Concert. SFO Chorus Director John Keene will conduct; and, when necessary, accompaniment will be provided at the piano by SFO Associate Chorus Master Fabrizio Corona. The program will include both opera excerpts and selections of both sacred and secular choral compositions. As of this writing, the selections to be performed are the following (again subject to change):

• "Ave verum corpus," K. 618 (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
• Scenes from La Clemenza di Tito (Mozart)
• "Gondoliera," "Ich stand in dunklen Träumen" (Clara Schumann)
• "Morgengruß," "Im Wald" (Fanny Mendelssohn)
• "Cantique de Jean Racine," Opus 11 (Gabriel Fauré)
• "Sous bois," "Hymne au Soleil," "Soir sur la Plaine" (Lili Boulanger)
• "Poem of Praise,” "Resignation,” "Wander-thirst" (Florence Price)
• "The Road Home" (Stephen Paulus)

This performance will also begin at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, December 8. The venue will again be in the Veterans Building, but it will be up on the fourth floor in the Dianne and Tad Taube Atrium Theater. Seating will be general admission, and all tickets are being sold for $42. Unfortunately, as of this writing, wheelchair seating is not available. Tickets may again be purchased in advance online through an SFO event page or by calling the SFO Box Office at 415-864-3330.