Results tagged “davidgockley”

In a gloomy economic projection, the SF Opera seemed skeptical about the impact of the economic recovery package being discussed right now in Congress. SF Opera announced yesterday that the New Great Depression would not end for another two years -- at least, that's what we take from the unveiling of the 2009-2010 season: it's an all-workhorse selection of operas by Verdi, Puccini, Donizetti, Verdi, Puccini, and for good measure, Riccardo Straussecco and Wolfganino Mozartini. The silver lining can be found in the all star casts assembled to sing those chestnuts. The production has been canned as planned, and their were rumors of a possible apparition of Janacek's Makropoulos Case, which faded away as fast as a 401(k).

When the SF Opera 08-09 season was announced, we were all excited by the weirder stuff, the Bonesetter's Daughter, or die tote Stadt. "Who needs another La Bohème?" we shrugged at the time.

Verdi's Simon Boccanegra is a story of curses, kidnappings and misplaced children. It mostly hinges on the love of Simon and Amelia, which some characters interpret as they're doing unspeakable things to each other in the cover of the night, while in truth it's as pure as spring: she's his secret daughter. Confused characters get angry, tragedy ensues. Simon (Dmitri Hvorostovsky) comes onstage in the prologue, set 25 years before the first act, wearing a Rambo headband, and looking as comfortable acting as Sly Stallone...

How is that for nice planning: Gay marriage becomes legal on June 16th, the day after the SF Opera premiered Ariodante for the first time ever. Check this out: Ginevra and Ariodante love each other, will get married. But Ginvevra is also courted by Polinesso, who in turn is the object of Ginevra's attendant Dalinda's unrequited attention. And all these roles are sung by women. How appropriate.

We will get to hear the microphone between the tits! Anna Netrebko, who kicked off her career in the US here in '96 (in Glinka's Ruslan and Lyudmila) will be back in La Traviata, the SF Opera announced today when unveiling their 2008-09 season. You'll want to see other, um, microphones too, as the darn sexy Angela Gheorghiu, who we were so smitten with in La Rondine, comes back for more Puccini with La Boheme. It's the 150th anniversary of the birth of Puccini this year, so you get two operas by him, Tosca being the other one. That's a bit lame, we say, since you typically get two operas by Puccini in any season. Say, La Rondine and Madama Butterfly, for instance. A true anniversary celebration would be to have all operas by Puccini, or even better, eleven different productions of Butterfly. That would rock.

Oh, those nifty New Yorkers; it's all about them. As usual. Why? Because David Gockley, General Director of the SF Opera, announced that the company will start producing HD broadcasts of performances for theaters all across the states. Lovely, right? But the NYT then turns it into some kind of pissing contest because they did it first. Hrumph.

This settles it for now. Wagner's Tannhäuser, the first new production ordered by SF Opera general director David Gockley, opened last night, initially making us a bit nervous. Why? Well, Gockley had announced the end of the fedora, and the return of glamorous period productions. Since last year’s most compelling production was Iphigenie en Tauride, a timeless rendition in a naked black cell, we fretted: is this season going to be the return of kitsch?

We saw Iphigénie en Tauride last Wednesday, and the curtain fell not only on the last opening of this season, but on the Pamela Rosenberg era. There are still three more performances of Iphigénie to attend (including one tonight; plus three Rosenkavalier and two Don Giovanni), so it’s not yet time to look back.

A controversy was brewing, surrounding the dismissal of Hope Briggs, who was originally scheduled to sing Donna Anna, and her replacement with Elza Van Den Heever, in the new SF Opera production of Don Giovanni, which kicked off the summer season on Saturday night. The explanation for the switch from the upper floors of the opera house was rather laconic, which left the door open to wild speculations. Was it, as this Berkely Daily Planet op-ed conjectured, due to the new media suite, which will record every performance on high definition from this Don Giovanni on and thus will put some demand on the singers to look good, conjectures the writer?

We hadn’t really opened last year’s Christmas gift yet: when David Gockley became general director of the San Francisco opera a year ago, we did not really know what was in the box. The second half of the 2006 season, and the 2006-2007 season operas were already booked by his predecessor. He was not the one who chose this rather uninspired selection of yet another Carmen, yet another Barber of Seville, yet another Rigoletto.

The atmosphere knob was turned all the way to "party" Saturday night at the Civic Center. We stopped by at the Madame Butterfly simulcast 15 minutes before tip-off, and found the square full of a joyful crowd. Where a few saw a half-empty glass of cool, windy weather and stayed home, quite many -- by the opera's count, there were 8,000 people -- saw an opportunity: no need to bring ice to chill the chardonnay. We were fortunate to have a toasty seat waiting for us inside the War Memorial Opera House, but this was a huge success, and we can safely predict more of these events in the future. As always, check out Civic Center for coverage of the plaza. David Gockley, in a few introductory words, reminded us that the first production of the Opera, in 1922, was held outside, at Stanford stadium in front of 15,000. Were they allowed to bring wine there too?

If you ever wished to stand up and stretch, or God forbid, leave, in the middle of attending an opera, the SF Opera is there for you. They don't provide you with concerts you want to run away from, but with a bunch of casual opportunities to appreciate the lyrical arts al fresco. They have a concert in Stern Grove (July 30th), they have the annual Opera in the Park in Sharon Meadows in the Golden Gate Park (September 10th). But those are mid-day, bring-your-sun-screen, let's-see-nature, mix-and-match-your-arias performances. It's fun, but it is not a whole opera, where you can follow the story from beginning to tragic end.

We went to the opera yesterday for the introduction of new SF Opera general director David Gockley, who officially succeeded Pamela Rosenberg on January 1st. Pamela Rosenberg was the director for the last five years, commissioned Dr Atomic and generally tried to shake things up a bit, so we were curious to see were Gockley stands.