SFO: The Third Spring Opera

The final program to be presented by San Francisco Opera (SFO) during its spring season will be a revival of George Frideric Handel’s HWV 27 Partenope. This had originally been scheduled for the summer of 2020 but had to be cancelled due to lockdown conditions in response to COVID-19. The production was also to serve as the American staged opera debut of countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński in the role of Armindo. Instead, Orliński came to the War Memorial Opera House in the fall of 2022 to sing (and break-dance) the role of Orpheus in Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice.

Andrew Lieberman’s set for Partenope (photography by Cory Weaver, courtesy of SFO)

This opera was staged by Christopher Alden for its first SFO production, which began on October 15, 2014. Rather than giving the opera an eighteenth-century treatment, he decided on a single-set staging in Paris shortly after the end of the First World War. This is the home of the title character (to be sung by soprano Julie Fuchs, making her American debut), named after the founding Queen of Naples. As might be guessed, Armindo (countertenor Nicholas Tamagna, making his SFO debut) is one of her four suitors. Handel’s score goes to great lengths to reinforce the character developed of both the heroine and her suitors; but, for all of its eighteenth-century rhetoric, the dispositions of just about all of the characters are unabashedly slapstick. Furthermore, both the sets and the costumes reinforce the time and place with coy references to leading post-War artistic figures such as Man Ray, Francis Picabia, and Nancy Cunard.

As has already been observed, this production will be given five performances at 7:30 p.m. on June 15, 19, 25, and 28, and 2 p.m. on June 23. The performances will take place in the War Memorial Opera House at 301 Van Ness Avenue on the northwest corner of Van Ness Avenue and Grove Street (across MTT Way from Davies Symphony Hall). Ticket prices range from $26 to $426, and a single Web page has been created for purchasing tickets for all of the above dates and times. Tickets may also be purchased at the Box Office in the outer lobby of the Opera House or by calling 415-865-2000. The Box Office is open for ticket sales Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Web page also includes a hyperlink to an Opera Previews Web site and a second Web page with information about pre-performance talks.