The kids are alright. Every summer, about twenty under-thirty singers get selected after an arduous audition process to participate in the Merola opera program, a ten-week training camp with singing, diction and acting coaches from the SF Opera. This program has been the launch pad for many an illustrious career (see Netrebko, Anna; Hampson, Thomas; Graham, Susan; Racette, Patricia, etc.) Part of the boot camp involves showing off their stuff with the SF Opera orchestra conducted by Mark Morash in a couple recitals and a couple staged productions. This year, or rather, in this economy, Donizetti's Elixir of Love, performed with two alternate casts August 5th through 8th, instead of the typical mix of an offbeat modern and a classic repertoire pieces of years past.

We got to hear last week-end the Schwabacher recital, which will be re-performed for you free of charge at the Yerba Buena gardens on Sunday at 2pm. If you run a eight hours marathon, you'll be there right on time to stretch on the grass and enjoy some pretty darn good singing. We were blown away by them young vocalists. Bass Kevin Thompson came on stage in a scene from the Barber of Seville -the concert mix-and-matches bare-bonedly staged scenes from various operas - and we thought: here's a man singing with boys. His is a booming bottomless voice which filled up Herbst theater effortlessly. He was singing Rossini, but we were thinking: if he ever sings the Commandatore in Don Juan, he'd be hair raising and would really creep us out.