“The Future is Now,” San Francisco Opera’s 2012 Adler Fellows present a gala concert of opera’s greatest hits— Friday, November 30, 2012, at Herbst Theatre
The 2012 Adler Fellows of San Francisco Opera’s distinguished Adler residency program for young artists. Photo: Scott Wall
In their final concert of 2012, the critically acclaimed Adler Fellows of 2012 will team up with San Francisco Opera Resident Conductor Giuseppe Finzi and the San Francisco Opera Orchestra to perform “The Future is Now,” a gala concert of well-known opera scenes and arias on Friday, November 30 at 7:30 p.m. at the Herbst Theatre in the War Memorial Opera Building, San Francisco. This night of unforgettable music will include well-known works by opera’s great composers, including Massenet, Mozart, Rossini, Tchaikovsky, Gounod, and Verdi. For those who have followed the young performers in the Adler program, it is celebration of their talent and accomplishment as many prepare to move on to professional roles the world’s leading opera houses. “It is the greatest opera fellowship program in the country,” said former Adler Patricia Racette, currently singing Floria Tosca to rave reviews in SFO’s Tosca.
“The Future is Now” features 8 singing Adlers and 2 coaching Adlers.
Sopranos include Marina Harris (Los Angeles, California) and Nadine Sierra (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) who most recently appeared in SFO’s Summer 2012 production of The Magic Flute as Papagena. In 2009, Sierra was the youngest performer to win the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and this May, at age 23, she had her debut at Carnegie Hall’s intimate Weill Recital Hall. a
Mezzo-sopranos include Laura Krumm (Iowa City, Iowa) who had her SFO debut and most recent appearance in this fall’s production of Rigoletto as Countess Ceprano and a Page, and Renée Rapier (Marion, Iowa) who had her SFO debut and most recent appearance in this fall’s production of Rigoletto as Giovanna.
The sole tenor is Brian Jagde (Piermont, New York), who is currently getting rave reviews as the painter Mario Cavaradossi in SFO’s Tosca and is also singing the role of Don Jose in SFO’s Carmen for Families, a two-hour version of the opera suitable for children 10 and above. Jagde was a baritone for ten years and then, 4 years ago, made the switch to tenor.
Baritones include Ao Li (Shandong, China), who is currently singing in Tosca as Sciarrone, and Joo Won Kang (Seoul, South Korea) who has been very this fall at SFO, performing in Rigoletto as Marullo, in Moby Dick as Captain Gardiner, in Lohengrin as Noble, and in Tosca as the Jailer.
The sole bass-baritone is Ryan Kuster (Jacksonville, Illinois), who is currently singing in Tosca as Angelotti.
Apprentice coaches Sun Ha Yoon (Seoul, South Korea) and Robert Mollicone (East Greenwich, Rhode Island) will also participate.
PROGRAM:
Manon – Massenet / “Je suis seul…Ah! fuyez, douce image…Toi! Vous!…N’est-ce plus ma main”
Manon – Nadine Sierra
Des Grieux – Brian Jagde
Un Ballo in Maschera – Verdi / “Forse la soglia attinse…Ma se m’è forza perderti”
Riccardo – Brian Jagde
Roméo et Juliette – Gounod / “Dieu! Quel frisson…Amour ranime mon courage”
Juliette – Nadine Sierra
Il Corsaro – Verdi / “Alfin questo Corsaro è mio prigione…Cento leggiadre vergini”
Seid – Joo Won Kang
Selimo – Ryan Kuster
Don Giovanni – Mozart / “Deh vieni alla finestra”
Don Giovanni – Joo Won Wang
La Cenerentola – Rossini / “Sì, tutto cangerà…Là del ciel nell’arcano profondo”
Alidoro – Ryan Kuster
Angelina – Laura Krumm
The Marriage of Figaro – Mozart / “Hai già vinta la causa…Vedrò mentr’io sospiro”
Count Almaviva – Ryan Kuster
Cendrillon – Massenet / “Enfin, je suis ici”
Cendrillon – Laura Krumm
La Clemenza di Tito – Mozart / “Parto, ma tu ben mio”
Sesto – Renée Rapier
Così fan tutte – Mozart / “Ah guarda sorella”
Fiordiligi – Marina Harris
Dorabella – Laura Krumm
Eugene Onegin – Tchaikovsky / “Puskai pagibnuya”
Tatiana – Marina Harris
Mignon – Thomas / “Légères hirondelles”
Mignon – Laura Krumm
Lothario – Ao Li
Il Signor Bruschino – Rossini / “Nel teatro del gran mondo”
Gaudenzio – Ao Li
More About the Adler Fellow Program: Named for the late great San Francisco Opera General Director Kurt Herbert Adler, the Adler Fellowship Program is the Princeton of performance-oriented residencies, offering exceptional young artists intensive individual training, coaching, professional seminars and a wide range of performance opportunities throughout their fellowship. The Adler Fellows have all been selected from the Merola Opera Program, a prestigious resident artist training program sponsored by San Francisco Opera and San Francisco Opera Center that has nurtured the development of more than 150 young artists since its inception.
There are currently ten 2012 Adler Fellows and thirteen new 2013 Adler Fellows were announced on September 26, 2012. That list includes continuing Adlers from 2012: Marina Harris, soprano; Joo Won Kang, baritone; Laura Krumm, mezzo soprano; Ao Li, baritone; Robert Mollicone, coach and accompanist; and Renée Rapier, mezzo soprano. New 2013 participants include: Hadleigh Adams, bass-baritone, from New Zealand; Jennifer Cherest, soprano, from Maryland; AJ Glueckert, tenor, from Portland, OR; Chuanyue Wang, tenor, from China; Erin Johnson, mezzo-soprano, from New Jersey; and Sun Ha Yoon, apprentice coach, from South Korea. Phillipe Sly, bass-baritone, from the Merola class of 2011 is also included. Unusually, he skipped a year, during which he became a winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and appeared in several Canadian Opera Company productions.
Details: “The Future is Now” is Friday, November 30 at 7:30 p.m. at Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco. Tickets: $60 front orchestra; $50 box seats; $40 rear orchestra and dress circle. $15 student rush tickets will be available from 11 a.m. on November 30, subject to availability, upon presentation of valid identification, in person only at the San Francisco Opera Box Office (301 Van Ness Avenue at the northwest corner of Grove Street, San Francisco). All other tickets may be purchased in advance online (click here) or at the SFO Box Office which is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday.
review: Puccini’s “Tosca” with Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu singing Tosca and Massimo Giordano as Cavaradossi at San Francisco Opera—3 remaining performances for Gheorghiu, 4 for Patricia Racette
An intoxicating beauty, a lecherous villain, boldfaced treachery and murder, topped off by a spectacular suicide: Puccini’s Tosca delivers high drama with a supremely lyrical score that never fails to mesmerize. San Francisco Opera (SFO) closes its fall season with a marvelous Tosca, conducted by SF Opera Music Director Nicola Luisotti and featuring two renowned casts of principal singers, rotating between 12 performances. The role of Tosca is split between Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu and American soprano and former Adler Fellow, Patricia Racette —two very strong but different voices.
When Gheorghiu fell ill last Thursday (opening night) with an intestinal disorder, stand-in soprano Melody Moore—who opened SFO’s 2011 fall season as Susan Rescorla in the world premiere of Christopher Theofanidis’ Heart of a Solider—took over after the first intermission and reportedly did a splendid job. Gheorghiu was back for the Sunday matinee performance and sang magnificently through Act I bringing a sense of playfulness and flirtation to Floria Tosca as well as vulnerability and bravado. She had a natural chemistry with Italian tenor Massimo Giordano in his SFO debut as Mario Cavaradossi. (He splits the role with third-year Adler Fellow, American tenor Brian Jagde, paired with Racette.) Her Vissi d’arte, normally a moment for showing off, which requires her to use the range of her voice in full voice, was strained. She seemed tired, which is understandable after illness. She still managed to pull off some particularly fine lines and, after the intermission, was back in the driver’s seat for the less demanding Act III. She sang a particularly passionate duet with Giordano foretelling their future life far away from Rome. Her death leap from the parapet was rushed with far too little dramatic build-up. It seemed to parody what I imagined she must have been feeling: “I’m exhausted, let me get this over with.” She has sung this role splendidly many times and there is no reason to assume that she won’t rise to the occasion in full vocal luster when fully recovered.
In all, the star on Sunday was Italian tenor Giordano and the performance soared from the moment he climbed the scaffold in the church of Sant’Andrea della Valle and sang “Recondita armonia” while working on his portrait of Mary Magdalene. As he compares the fair beauty of Angelotti’s sister, the Marchesa Attavanti, upon whom the portrait is based, to that of his darker lover, Floria Tosca, he captured the audience. Giordano was well-matched with Gheorghiu as both are natural actors as well as consummate musicians and from their very first love duet, it was clear they had the chemistry that can ignite a performance. His voice! It’s powerful dramatic, impassioned and capable of great tenderness and he delivered them all in spades on Sunday. His solemn Act III aria “E lucevan le stille” (“And the stars shown”) sung while Cavaradossi waits on the roof of Castel Sant’Angelo for his execution, was fraught with apprehension. The aria was ushered in by a lovely clarinet solo by José González Granero, principal clarinet for the SFO Orchestra who also distinguished himself with a lush solo in last month’s The Capulets and the Montagues.
Italian baritone Roberto Frontali as Baron Scarpia, the evil police chief who is hell bent on using Cavaradossi’s republican sympathies and Tosca’s jealous nature to snare her for himself, sang with a rich voice that was so full of color, that it was hard to see him die. At the end of Act I, he passionately sang of his love for Tosca and his intentions of possessing her while the chorus sang a moving Te Deum while Luisotti expertly guided his orchestra—it was a grand musical moment. By the end of Act II, Scarpia fell dead, murdered by Tosca in one of the opera’s great dramatic moments. The success of Scarpia rests on being able to transform from being very genial one moment into an instrument of pure evil and depravity the next and Frontali’s singing, much stronger than his acting, certainly conveyed the requisite quixotic charm and hatred. (Frontali splits the role with Mark Delavan, who is paired with Racette).
Directed by former Adler fellow, Jose Maria Condemi, the production features a gorgeous series of tromp-l’oeil sets designed by Thierry Bosquet and inspired by a 1932 SFO production. The lush period costumes are also by Bosquet. His gorgeous gowns for Tosca feature exquisite embroidery and sensual bodices which fit the svelt Gheorghiu like a glove. In her crimson dress for Act II, she is gorgeously aflame…of course, it takes a certain attitude to really wear a dress like that and Gheorghiu’s just the diva to pull it off.
Sunday’s singing was backed up by Luisotti’s passionate conducting of the SFO orchestra and chorus and he drew the mood, musical intensity and emotion requisite for a compelling Tosca from them, clearly delighting the audience every step of the way. The final two performances will be conducted by Resident Conductor Giuseppe Finzi.
In 2009, Gheorghiu was invited to honor Grace Bumbry during the 32nd Annual Kennedy Center Honors, in Washington, DC. She performed “Vissi d’arte” in the presence of Barack and Michelle Obama and clearly had a great day—
Details: War Memorial Opera House is located at 301 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco. One of the last Beaux-Arts structures built in the United States, the Opera House seats 3,146, with 200 standing room places. Every performance features supertitles (English translations) projected above the stage, visible from every seat.
Remaining Performances: The seven remaining performances of Tosca are November 24 (8 p.m.), November 25 (2 p.m.), November 27 (8 p.m.), November 28 (7:30 p.m.), November 29 (7:30 p.m.), December 1 (8 p.m.) and December 2, 2012 (2 p.m.). Click here to see cast scheduling information. Tickets: $22 to $340 at the Box Office, 301 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco, by phone at (415) 864-3330 or purchase online here. Standing Room tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. on the day of each performance; $10 each, cash only.
Mary Zimmerman has another mesmerizing hit in the epic Chinese fable, “The White Snake,” at Berkeley Rep through December 23, 2012
Tony Award-winning director Mary Zimmerman returns to Berkeley Rep for the world-premiere production of “The White Snake,” which stars Amy Kim Waschke (left) and Christopher Livingston. Photo courtesy of mellopix.com
Told with puppets that come to life and magical special effects, Tony-award winning director Mary Zimmerman’s stirring adaptation of the ancient Chinese fairy tale, The White Snake, which has its world premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, is a must-see holiday treat. Suddenly, we’re all children again and we’ve been taken into a world of wonder where a glorious legend, as old as time and yet timeless, unfolds on stage before us. The epic fable is about a thousand-year-old white snake spirit who is so curious about the human world that she transforms herself into a human. She comes down from her contemplative life on a mountaintop with a friendly green snake who has also transformed herself into a woman and who serves as her friend and confidant. The White Snake finds true love with a man who has no reason to suspect she is not human. A meddling monk jeopardizes everything when he tries to break them up in order to enforce an age-old law declaring love relationships between spirits and humans an inappropriate violation of nature’s law. Of course, when the White Snake hides her true nature from her true love, there are bound to be repercussions.
Tony Award-winning director Mary Zimmerman returns to Berkeley Rep for the world-premiere production of “The White Snake,” which features Tanya Thai McBride as Greenie, the green snake spirit who is the indefatigable sidekick to Kim Waschke’s White Snake spirit. Photo courtesy of mellopix.com
This co-production with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival ran in Ashland through July 2012 and is the seventh Mary Zimmerman creation to grace the stage of Berkeley Rep. Like her other winners Argonautika (2008), The Arabian Nights (2008, 2010), it draws on a classic tale that has been re-shaped by her own distinctive vision to create a subtle exploration of love, deception, loss and survival.
Zimmerman’s plays are renowned for their stunning visual impact. Projection designer Shawn Sagady and set designer Daniel Ostling have collaborated again to employ the latest in video projection techniques mixed with simple touches such as streams of silken fabric that drop elegantly from the sky to represent rain and the artistry of hand-operated paper snake puppets. Particularly enchanting is the way the bamboo walls come alive when lines of ink projected on the walls seem to transform into lovely Chinese screens or when the floor becomes a river undulating with color. A wonderful set of wooden cabinets which opens to reveal a lovely bed is on stage for much of the production. When combined with T.J. Gerckens’ gorgeous lighting, it all comes together and builds into a mesmerizing visual tableau.
Honesty is essential for any love relationship to flourish. In Tony Award-winning director Mary Zimmerman’s production of “The White Snake,” Christopher Livingston plays the naïve herbalist, Xu Xian (left), who is deceived by his wife, played by Amy Kim Waschke, who does not reveal her true nature to him. Photographer: Mary Zimmerman
The visual magic is only half of the fun. The Chinese legend of the White Snake existed in oral tradition long before any written compilation, and was handed down from the Tang and Five Dynasties through the Ming and Qing Dynasties until it became a classical theme, its many versions inspiring Chinese operas, ballads, scrolls, novels, films and even TV series. (Click here for Berkeley’s Rep’s fascinating compilation of legend of the White Snake.) Zimmerman gives us a story that will delight a child but that has levels of meaning that lend themselves to multiple interpretations.
Amy Kim Waschke, who plays the White Snake, has the remarkable ability to project empowerment with vulnerability and scattered-brained behavior, making for a very interesting and down-to-earth White Snake. Once she has transformed herself into a human, she begins to experience the fulfilling joy and pain of the human experience. She will do anything to preserve her marriage except reveal the truth of her snake nature to her husband.
The White Snake’s loyal gal-pal “Greenie” (Tanya Thai McBride ) is there for her and understands her and they have a fabulous on stage chemistry that resonates much more than that between Waschke and Christopher Livingston, who plays Xu Xian, the naïve herbalist that White Snake is smitten with. Tanya Thai McBride is a natural cut-up and it’s a real treat to watch her blossom in human form in the many humorous scenes that occur.
Jack Willis, revered for his longstanding role as the Ghost Jacob Marley in A.C.T.’s much-loved annual production of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, is much scarier here as the cunning Buddhist monk, Fa Hai, who feels he must, at all costs, break-up the happy bi-species relationship.
Jack Willis (left) is Fa Hai, the evil Buddhist monk and Christopher Livingston is Xu Xian, the naïve herbalist and bridegroom in Mary Zimmerman’s production of “The White Snake,” at Berkeley Rep through December 23, 2012. Photo courtesy of mellopix.com
Composer/sound designer Andre J. Pluess’ enchanting original score is performed by Michal Palzewicz (cello), Tessa Brinckman (flutes), and Ronnie Malley (strings and percussion).
Creative Team: Adapted and directed by Mary Zimmerman; Designed by Daniel Ostling (sets); Mara Blumenfeld (costumes); T.J. Gerckens (lighting); Andre Pluess (sound); and Shawn Sagady (projections). Music performed by Tessa Brinckman, Ronnie Malley, and Michal Palzewicz
Cast: Keiko Shimosato Carreiro, Gina Daniels, Richard Howard, Cristofer Jean, Emily Sophia Knapp, Vin Kridakorn, Christopher Livingston, Tanya Thai McBride, Lisa Tejero, Amy Kim Waschke, and Jack Willis
Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes (no intermission)
Details: The White Snake ends December 23, 2012. Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s Rhoda Theatre is located at 2015 Addison Street, Berkeley (near the intersection of Addison and Shattuck Avenue), Berkeley, CA 94704. Performances: Tuesday-Sunday, with matinee performances on weekends and additional matiness at 2 PM on Thursdays 11/29 and 12/13. No performance Thanksgiving. Tickets: Tickets: $29-$99 call box office at 510-647-2949 or purchase online at www.berkeleyrep.org
Parking: paid parking is readily available at over 5 parking garages as close as one block from the theatre. The Allston Way Garage, 2061 Allston Way, between Milvia and Shattuck, offers $3 parking Tuesday–Friday after 6 PM or all day on Saturday or Sunday when your garage-issued parking ticket is validated in the theatre lobby.
Interview: Joyce DiDonato talks about “Drama Queens,” her new concert of Baroque arias, featuring great and powerful queens—at Weill Hall tonight, Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Mezzo soprano Joyce DiDonato performs “Drama Queens” at Weill Hall on November 20, 2012.
Crowned with a Grammy Award for her last album, “Diva, Divo” and just named Musical America’s Vocalist of the Year, Joyce DiDonato enchants audiences everywhere she performs. This mezzo soprano from Kansas has a special charm for those of us in the Bay Area though. In 1997, she distinguished herself in San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program with her performance as Rossini’s Cenerentola and gave an unforgettable Schwabacher Debut Recital. She returned in 2009 with a breathtaking mastery of lesser-known Spanish and Italian songs and then delighted us all last month as Romeo in SFO’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi. Her relaxed and personable vibe, combined with that amazing voice, which seems to channel the very soul of her composers, makes for a mesmerizing diva who is also very down to earth. DiDonato will present “Drama Queens,” her electrifying program of 17th and 18th Century arias from queens and female royals throughout history at the Green Music Center’s Weill Hall this evening (Tuesday, November 20, 2012).
Performed this past weekend at Carnegie Hall to a sold-out audience, the recital is a selection from her bestselling new CD, Drama Queens. She is joined by the Italian orchestra, Il Complesso Barocco, led by the dynamic first violinist Dmitry Sinkovsky. This is their only West Coast appearance in a program that includes songs by composers as famous as Handel and Vivaldi and as little known as Orlandini and Porta. The female royals represented are Berenice, Orontea, Octavia, Semiramide, Ifgenia, Armida and Cleopatra. Didonato literally inhabits these characters bringing them to life and interacts with the orchestra and they with her to co-create something that feels spontaneous and magically alive. I interviewed DiDonato about this exciting program—
How did the idea for “Drama Queens” come about and what’s the particular appeal of this music for you at this stage in your career? What was your research like and how did you go about finding some of the more obscure songs on the album?
Joyce DiDonato: I knew I wanted to return to the world of Baroque music, because I find that it gives me the freedom to employ everything that I am as an artist. It requires great technical command, but that is only at the service of laying out grand emotions – something that I think audiences are dying to experience. Alan Curtis, the conductor on the album and founder of Il Complesso Barocco, did the majority of the scouring of old music scores in order to unearth some of these long-forgotten gems, and I’m so grateful that he did.
What is it about the Baroque period that particularly appeals to you as a singer? Were any of the songs in the program that you’re singing originally sung by castrati?
Joyce DiDonato: Johann Haase’s Cleopatra (in Antonio e Cleopatra ) was written for and premiered by the most famous castrato of all, Farinelli. It’s fascinating, because the Antonio (Anthony) in that opera was played by the Florentine contralto, Vittoria Tesi (“La Fiorentina” 1700-1775), so it somehow seemed to balance out the gender issue! One thing I love about this music is the contrast between the pyrotechnic arias, full of dance rhythms and percussive elements, contrasted with the long, languid, limpid melodies that seem to make time mystically stand still. (Hasse’s “Morte col fiero aspetto” from Antonio e Cleopatra (1725) is performed on the Drama Queens program and CD.)
Did the “Drama Queens” program evolve as a collaboration with Il Complesso Barocco and violinist Dmitry Sinkovsky from the start? How did these practiced Baroque musicians inspire your performance?
Joyce DiDonato: It was conceived with maestr Alan Curtis, whom I have worked with for over 10 years. I’ve been singing with this orchestra for that long, as well, and so we have been inspiring each other on many exciting projects. It’s wonderful to work with a group of 15 musicians, because everyone must listen, invest, and participate in a very active way, which gives way to a very committed performance for the audience. (Maestro Alan Curtis and Il Complesso Barocco received the prestigious ECHO Klassik Award 2012 for best recording of the year in opera of the 17th and 18th Centuries, for “Gluck: Ezio” (Virgin Classics).
If given the chance, who’s the composer from the Baroque period you most like to travel back in time to meet and sing for? Would you have any particular questions for him about the music on the program?
Joyce DiDonato: It would have to be Handel, which is probably the obvious answer, but what I would love to know from him is how he could have such a deep, comprehensive understanding of the female psyche. I’ve never known another composer who understood the fierce strength, but deep vulnerability of a woman.
Many of us were privileged to hear you sing I Capuleti e i Montecchi last month at SF Opera. It is fun getting to step into another gender to sing a pants role? Does it present any particular challenges? What’s the funniest thing that happened during that production?
Joyce DiDonato: It’s fabulous! I get permission to step far outside the boundaries of my normal life and step inside these extraordinary characters who are allowed to suffer and love and emote in ways often frowned upon in modern society! It is important that I believe 100% in what I’m doing so that the character can be believable ~ if I am not convinced in myself, it will never be convincing for the audience.
I know this past summer you were in Burgundy and sang at the Festival Musique & Vin au Clos Vougeot and tasted some exquisite wines from Aubert de Villaine’s famed Domaine de Romanée Conti vineyard. And now you are in the heart of the Wine Country…What do you feel about the relation between great music and great wine? And do you ever have a glass of wine before singing? Will you be able to take advantage of your appearance in Sonoma County to try any special wines while you’re here? (or.. did you do that while you were here at SF Opera last month?)
Joyce DiDonato: Oh – the experience this summer was off the charts! It was lovely to pair the world of great music with extraordinary wine – somehow representing the best of what is possible. It was lovely to see people from all over the world gather in the middle of Burgandy and share wine, food, music and laughter! I cannot drink before a performance, but I absolutely look forward to taking advantage of my time in Sonoma to remind myself of what is exceptional about California wine.
I understand you are very interested in photography and I’ve seen some of your wonderful photos online. With so many people looking at you and taking your picture, do you find that photography helps to take the focus off of yourself? What/who do you like to photograph? Also, has pursuing this art form somehow contributed to your understanding of music?
Joyce DiDonato: Well, it simply lets me exercise a different set of senses, which somehow feels very balancing and nourishing to me. It has made me a better observer of life, which I think then translates into how I am able to interpret complex emotions on the stage. I do love the silence of it – and the magic of trying to capture a single moment in time that will never be repeated in the exact same way – much like a musical phrase. It drives home the idea to live fully in the present moment, which is always a welcome reminder to me.
Details: Joyce DiDonato “Drama Queens” is Tuesday, November 20, 2012, at 8 PM, at Weill Hall, Green Music Center, Sonoma State University, at the intersection of Rohnert Park Expressway and Petaluma Hill Road, Cotati, CA.
Tickets are $90 to $35 and can purchased online (click here) OR by phoning the Box Office at (866) 955-6040. Box Office hours: Monday–Thursday 8 a.m. to 4:40 p.m. and Friday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. OR In Person at the Green Music Center (same hours as above).
Parking for this Green Music Center performance is included in ticket price. Enter via Sonoma State University’s main campus entrance or its Rohnert Park Expressway entrance (closer to GMC). Park on campus in lots L,M,N and O. For more information, visit gmc.sonoma.edu or phone 1.866.955.6040.
Joyce DiDonato performs “Drama Queens” at Green Music Center’s Weill Hall on Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Mezzo soprano Joyce DiDonato performs “Drama Queens” at Weill Hall on November 20, 2012.
Crowned with a Grammy Award for her last album, “Diva, Divo” and just named Musical America’s Vocalist of the Year, mezzo soprano Joyce DiDonato will present “Drama Queens, an electrifying program of queenly arias from the 17th and 18th centuries at the Green Music Center’s Weill Hall on Tuesday, November 20, 2012. The recital is a selection from her bestselling new CD, Drama Queens (Virgin Classics). She is joined by the Italian orchestra, Il Complesso Barocco, led by first violinist Dmitry Sinkovsky. This is their only West Coast appearance in a program that includes songs by composers as famous as Handel and Vivaldi and as little known as Orlandini and Porta. The queens represented are Berenice, Orontea, Octavia, Semiramide, Ifgenia, Armida and Cleopatra. As DiDonato says: “High drama, profound emotion, fearless vocal writing, time-stopping passages, historical significance and real discovery … What more could I ask for?” Stay tuned to ARThound for an interview with Joyce DiDonato.
Details: Joyce DiDonato “Drama Queens” is Tuesday, November 20, 2012, at 8 PM, at Weill Hall, Green Music Center, Sonoma State University, at the intersection of Rohnert Park Expressway and Petaluma Hill Road, Cotati, CA.
Tickets are $90 to $35 and can purchased online (click here) OR by phoning the Box Office at (866) 955-6040. Box Office hours: Monday–Thursday 8 a.m. to 4:40 p.m. and Friday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. OR In Person at the Green Music Center (same hours as above).
Parking for this Green Music Center performance is included in ticket price. Enter via Sonoma State University’s main campus entrance or its Rohnert Park Expressway entrance (closer to GMC). Park on campus in lots L,M,N and O. For more information, visit gmc.sonoma.edu or phone 1.866.955.6040.
New Italian Cinema: Italian film actress Laura Morante’s Directorial Debut “The Cherry on the Cake”
In Laura Morante’s “The Cherry on the Cake,” Morante stars as a woman who may suffer from “androphobia,” an inability to be happy with a boyfriend.
The New Italian Cinema film festival closes Sunday, November 18 with Laura Morante’s directorial debut, the romantic comedy The Cherry on the Cake (La Cerise sur le gâteau), followed by a festive closing night reception at a nearby locale. The veteran Italian film actress Morante stars as Amanda, a slightly neurotic fifty-something woman in Paris whose current relationship is tanking. When she meets the cultured Antoine (Pascal Elbé) at a New Year’s party, she’s convinced he’s gay. As their relationship blossoms, he feels romantic feeling for her, but gets the strange sense that she just wants to be friends. Add Amanda’s meddling sister Florence (Isabelle Carré) and her psychologist husband to the mix, and the recipe for a savory comedy of compounding errors is complete. With rapid-fire dialogue and a speedy pace, The Cherry on the Cake is a piquant portrait of a woman’s search for her perfect match. (Screens Sunday, November 18 9:15 PM)
Details: New Italian Cinema is November 11-18, 2012 at the Landmark’s Embarcadero Center Cinema. Tickets are $13. www.sffs.org
Puccini’s “Tosca” opens Thursday, November, 15, 2012 at San Francisco Opera with two different casts—Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu and American Patricia Racette will split the lead role of Tosca
Romanian soprano, Angela Gheorghiu (left) and American soprano, Patricia Racette (right) will split the lead role of Tosca, the hot-blooded beauty, who commits murder for the man she loves, and then plunges to her death in SF Opera’s “Tosca,” which runs November 15-December 2, 2012 at SF Opera. Photo: Ken Howard (Gheorghiu) and Scott Suchman (Racette)
An intoxicating beauty, a lecherous villain, boldfaced treachery and murder, topped off by a spectacular suicide: Puccini’s Tosca delivers high drama with a supremely lyrical score that never fails to entertain. San Francisco Opera (SFO) closes its fall season with what looks to be a marvelous Tosca, conducted by SF Opera Music Director Nicola Luisotti and featuring two renowned casts of principal singers, rotating between 12 performances, as was the case with Rigoletto, which opened SFO’s fall season. Splitting the role of Tosca, Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu and American soprano and former Adler Fellow, Patricia Racette—two very strong but different voices—promise to enliven the production. Directed by former Adler fellow, Jose Maria Condemi, the production features a gorgeous series of tromp-l’oeil sets designed by Thierry Bosquet and inspired by a 1932 SFO production. Also starring are Italian tenor Massimo Giordano, in his SFO debut, and third-year Adler Fellow, American tenor Brian Jagde as Mario Cavaradossi, and Italian baritone Roberto Frontali and Mark Delavan (former Merolini Woton in recent SFO’s 2011 Ring Cycle, as Baron Scarpia. The final two performances will be conducted by Resident Conductor Giuseppe Finzi.
Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu opens the opera on Thursday, singing beside Massimo Giordano as Mario Cavaradossi and Roberto Frontali as baron Scarpia. Gheorghiu returns to SFO following her highly praised 2008 appearance as Mimi in La Bohème. Gheorghiu, known for her theatricality and fiery temperament is well suited for Tosca, one of the great diva soprano roles that not only requires powerful singing but convincing acting as well. For the opera to really succeed, Tosca needs to seduce not only those men on stage but the entire house too. Gheorghiu has previously sung Tosca at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden and Deustche Oper Berlin. She made her SFO debut in 2007 as Magda in Puccini’s La Rondine, a role she reprises this season at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden.
American dramatic soprano Patricia Racette is up on Friday, singing beside Brian Jagde as Mario Cavaradossi and Mark Delavan as Baron Scarpia. She is known for her spectacular suicide leap, which Tosca takes from a castle parapet at the end of the opera. Racette garnered accolades and headlines for the role of Tosca in 2010 when she in stepped in on late notice to make her Met role debut and has since reprised the role at Washington National Opera, the Ravinia Festival and again at the Metropolitan Opera.
Racette also continues her more than 20-year relationship with SFO which she began as a college senior when she won first prize in the Merola Opera Program auditions. She made her debut with the San Francisco Opera in 1989 as the voice of the priestess in Aida. She sang several more roles with SFO while in the Merola program, including Alice Ford in Falstaff, Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus, Sister Osmina in Suor Angelica, and Freia and Helmwige in The Ring Cycle. In 1991, she was made an Adler Fellow which led to several more performances at the SFO over the next two years, including Micaëla in Carmen, Dunyasha in War and Peace, the First Lady in The Magic Flute, and Mimì in La bohème. She most recently appeared at SFO in 2010, as Marguerite in Gounod’s Faust and in 2009 as each of the three heroines in Puccini’s triptych Il Trittico. She has performed in 29 mainstage productions with the Company.
In SFCV interview with Jason Serinus on 11/6/2012, Racette said “My teacher calls it my ‘glove opera.’ My voice is so very, very happy doing this part. It really likes to function just the way this role does….I love that he (Puccini) gives her (Tosca) these magnificent, soaring passages. I don’t feel like I’m singing when I’m doing it. It feels like completely raw emotion riding on music, as though I’m saying things or screaming things. And that’s what’s so masterfully presented in the score. When she drops into the lower part of her voice, there’s more of a maturity to her. It’s unlike any of Puccini’s other roles.”
This production, which was first conceived by opera impresario and stage director Lotfi Mansouri in 1997, is a re-creation of Armando Agnini’s Tosca production that opened the War Memorial Opera House on October 15, 1932 and featured the acclaimed Italian soprano, Claudia Muzio. The national anthem and first act of the opera were broadcast nationally and the opera and the house were given accolades. What better way to kick-off the holiday season than in this historic building with this dramatic and endearing opera.
Jose Maria Condemi’s staging is always interesting and innovative but true to Puccini’s very detailed staging instructions. For SFO’s June 2009 Tosca production, he was praised for cleverly moving the chorus members/extras on the stage so that they had real presence despite their non-speaking roles.
Masestro Luisotti always delights in his passionate conduciting of the SF Opera Orchestra and promises to be one of the highlights of the this production.
Run time is 2 hours and 40 minutes with two intermissions.
Details: War Memorial Opera House is located at 301 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco. One of the last Beaux-Arts structures built in the United States, the Opera House seats 3,146, with 200 standing room places. Every performance features supertitles (English translations) projected above the stage, visible from every seat.
Performances: The twelve performances of Tosca are November 15 (7:30 p.m.), November 16 (8 p.m.), November 18 (2 p.m.), November 20 (8p.m.), November 21 (7:30 p.m.), November 24 (8 p.m.), November 25 (2 p.m.), November 27 (8 p.m.), November 28 (7:30 p.m.), November 29 (7:30 p.m.), December 1 (8 p.m.) and December 2, 2012 (2 p.m.). Click here to see cast scheduling information. Tickets: $22 to $340 at the Box Office, 301 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco, by phone at (415) 864-3330 or purchase online here. Standing Room tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. on the day of each performance; $10 each, cash only.
Henry Woronicz breathes new life into an ancient classic—“An Iliad,” at Berkeley Rep through November 18, 2012
An ancient tale comes roaring back to life at Berkeley Rep when Henry Woronicz stars in Obie Award-winner Lisa Peterson’s visceral new version of “An Iliad.” Photo courtesy of kevinberne.com
The Trojan War has never been more vital than in the capable hands of Obie-winning theatre director Lisa Peterson and Tony Award winning actor Denis O’Hare whose stage adaption of Homer’s Iliad is now being performed as a one man show by Henry Woronicz, at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. If ever there were a time to cross the Richmond Bridge for culture, this is it. An Iliad, which runs through November 18, 2012, is an experience in storytelling that instills a sense of wonder in the spoken word and in the harrowing gore and visceral glory of the Trojan War. The 9th year of the 10-year-long Trojan War is the focus and Woronicz tells the story of its two great opposing warriors—Hector, leading the Trojans, and Achilles, leading the invading Greek army.
If you read portions of Homer’s epic, back in high school or college, and found them less than enthralling; put that experience aside. This story is told as it was meant to be told—by a masterful storyteller, Henry Woronicz, former head of the Oregon Shakespeare Theatre, who makes it a living, breathing tour de force. He uses contemporary colloquial and classical language to deliver a story that is timeless but oozes new pain each time it is told.
In adapting Homer’s epic, Peterson and O’Hare drew on Princeton comparative literature professor Robert Fagle’s acclaimed translation. Fagles received many awards for his translations of Greek classics and was unrivaled in creating a sense of rhythm and images that carry the story forward. Peterson and O’Hare zeroed in a starting point, decided what got told, what got hinted at, and what was untold. Working with this foundation, Woronicz brings the very nature of the characters to life, exposing their motivations, irrational impulses, and frailty.
There’s little embellishment in this pared down production. Woronicz enters a near empty stage wearing a ratty trench coat and carrying a bottle of booze. Were he not on stage, he might be dismissed as homeless, invisible. When he opens his mouth, spouting this epic tale, he’s a curious mix of tortured madness and brilliance, reminding us of the fine line between the two. (Making us aware of our discomfort with modern society’s seemingly unsolvable problems while providing powerful entertainment is Berkeley Rep’s forte.)
At Berkeley Rep, bassist Brian Ellingsen accompanies Henry Woronicz’s searing performance in a visceral new version of An Iliad. Photo courtesy of kevinberne.com
Woronicz brings certain peripheral characters into the spotlight— Andromache, Hector’s wife, and King Priam, Hector’s grief-stricken father—and compassionately relates their stories balancing the mythic with the everyday grieving of mortals. He also embellishes—there’s an explosive listing of civilization’s conflicts from antiquity to Afghanistan and the Syria of today, reminding us of war’s timeless nature.
The experience is enlivened further by New York composer Mark Bennett’s emotion-stirring score, played and plunked by bassist Brian Ellingsen from the balcony.
The sheer intensity of this 100 minute oration left me with plenty of raw energy to unload after the performance. This is one that is best seen with a wise friend—what better way to end an evening than by deconstructing Homer.
An Iliad, by Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare, adapted from Homer’s Iliad, translated by Robert Fagles
Starring Henry Woronicz (The Poet) with bassist Brian Ellingsen
Directed by Lisa Peterson, Designed by Rachel Hauck (scenic design), Marina Draghici (costume design), Scott Zielinski (lighting design), and Mark Bennett (original music/sound design)
Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes (no intermission)
Details: An Iliad ends November 18, 2012. Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s Thrust Stage, located at 2025 Addison Street, Berkeley (near the intersection of Addison and Shattuck Avenue), Berkeley, CA 94704. Performances: Tuesday-Sunday, with matinee performances on weekends. Tickets: Tickets: $14.50-$77 call box office at 510-647-2949 or purchase online at www.berkeleyrep.org
Parking: paid parking is readily available at over 5 parking garages as close as one block from the theatre. The Allston Way Garage, 2061 Allston Way, between Milvia and Shattuck, offers $3 parking Tuesday–Friday after 6 PM or all day on Saturday or Sunday when your garage-issued parking ticket is validated in the theatre lobby.
New Italian Cinema starts tomorrow with a special tribute to Valeria Golino, November 11-18, 2012
Valeria Golino stars in KRYPTONITE!, playing at New Italian Cinema, November 11-18, 2012, at Landmark’s Embarcadero Center Cinema in San Francisco. Image courtesy SFFS.
The New Italian Cinema film festival, now in its 16th year, opens on Sunday, November 11, 2012, with a four film tribute honoring Italian actress Valeria Golino, who will make a special guest appearance, and promises to tantalize audiences with Kryptonite! (2011), her directorial debut which is a quirky family drama set in in 1970’s Naples. Kryptonite! director Ivan Cotroneo is expected to attend as well. Seven terrific features by up-and-coming directors are featured in the City of Florence Award competition. The films in this year’s program include delightful coming-of-age stories, an intense war drama and one very memorable road trip. For the first time in many years, the festival is also presenting a documentary, the delightfully personal Hit the Road, Nonna. Closing out the program is Laura Morante’s directorial debut, the romantic comedy The Cherry on the Cake, followed by a festive closing night reception at a nearby locale. (Stay tuned to ARThound for festival coverage.)
Details: New Italian Cinema is November 11-18, 2012 at the Landmark’s Embarcadero Center Cinema. Tickets are $13. www.sffs.org
Review: In Carey Perloff’s riveting production of Sophocles’ “Elektra,” Academy Award winner Olympia Dukakis and A.C.T.’s fabulous René Augesen enliven this age old tale of justice—at A.C.T. through November 18, 2012
L to R: René Augesen is Elektra, Olympia Dukakis is the Chorus Leader, and Allegra Rose Edwards is Chrysothemis (Elektra’s sister) in Sophocles’ “Elektra,” directed by Carey Perloff at A.C.T. Photo by Kevin Berne.
With American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) and Berkeley Rep, the Bay Area’s two most prominent theatres, staging revitalized Greek dramas this November, there’s no escaping the enduring power of the ancient Greek classics. A.C.T. presents A.C.T. Artistic Director Carey Perloff’s production of Sophocles’ Greek tragedy Elektra — featuring a specially commissioned new translation by Olivier Award–winning British playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker, an original score by Pulitzer Prize–winning composer David Lang and Academy Award winner Olympia Dukakis. Across the Bay, the Berkeley Repertory Theatre has extended its run of An Iliad, performed by Henry Woronicz and adapted from Homer by Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare with a compelling translation by Robert Fagles. An Iliad provides an unforgettable
oral overview of the battles and main characters of the Trojan War, which transpired some 3,200 years ago. Elektra is set later and focuses on the fall-out from one of those ancient wars and is a cause and effect case study in the ideas of justice and vengeance, pitting truth and deception against each other. Sophocles left it up to the audience to ferret out the ethics of avenging a strike to the family bloodline with more murder. Timberlake Wertenbaker distills the story brilliantly in her adaptation with poignant and, at times, very humorous passages which are enlivened by René Augesen in particular.
A.C.T.’s Elektra is a must-see for the exceptional women it brings together on stage— René Augesen, Olympia Dukakis, Caroline Lagerfelt and Allegra Rose Edwards. Watching A.C.T. core actress René Augesen over the past 11 years has been transformative—she just keeps digging deeper to deliver astounding character performances (she’s done over 30) that have come to anchor entire productions from Hedda in Hedda Gabbler (2007) to Esme in Tom Stoppard’s Rock–n-Roll (2008) to Ruth in Harold Pinter’s Homecoming (2011) to Beverly in Bruce Norris’ Clybourne Park (2011). She always good but when she gets on stage as Elektra, Agamemnon’s grief-stricken grown daughter, it is like watching some sort of primal creature emerge. She readily delivers an Elektra who cannot shake the traumatic memory of her father’s murder by her mother Clytemnestra (Caroline Lagerfelt), an Elektra who is so obsessed, so stuck in grief, that she is incapable of moving forward in her own life. Augesen credibly sinks to the lowest suffering imaginable showing the heroic and tragic nature of her character. She is addicted to pain and we can all somehow relate to that.
Caroline Lagerfelt (left) is Clytemnestra, Elektra’s mother, who was unfaithful to her husband, King Agamemnon, when he was away fighting the Trojan War and then conspied with her lover to kill him when he returned home. René Augesen (right) is Elektra who seeks to avenge her father Agamemnon’s murder. Photo by Kevin Berne.
As the entire chorus, boiled down to one character, Olympia Dukakis is formidable. The Academy-Award winning actress (Moonstruck), now 81, seems born dispensing wise counsel. At times empathetic, at times burning with intensity, she urges the distraught Elektra to justice, knowing full-well the blood that will be shed. Clothed in a dark gray tunic with an ornate metallic scrolling on the front (all costumes are by Candice Donnelly), Dukakis dramatically entered to the very minimalist music of Pulitzer Prize winning David Lang, which successfully evoked the sense of ancient rhythms and tones as they might have existed in that very time. As cellist Theresa Wong began keening and wrapping on her instrument, it was as if she was calling up the ancient spirits. As Dukakis took to the stage, she transfixed the audience and held them in her grip for the next 90 minutes. Her natural rapport with Augesen is palpable.
And lithe Caroline Lagerfelt, as Clytemnestra, Elektra’s adulterous murderer of a mother, is a model for glorious aging. She wears the trappings of queen hood well—exquisite jewelry and eloquent flowing gowns—and she feels justified in killing Agamemnon. Is she? Her daughter, Iphigenia, was murdered, in a deal that her husband Agamemnon cut with the goddess Artemis to save the Greeks in the Trojan War. As morally reprehensible as she is, she has a case, adding complexity to the drama. In fact, many of the characters feel justified in their actions in this play—Clytemnestra needs to extract justice on Agamemnon for the death of her daughter; Orestes needs to kill his mother Clytemnestra for killing his father; and Elektra feels bound to kill Clytemnestra and her new husband Aegisthus, but as woman, she needs her brother Orestes to carry out the revenge. With no divine intervention, Sophocles leaves the question of justice squarely on his audience.
Allegra Rose Edwards (left) is Chrysothemis and René Augesen is Elektra in Sophocles’ Elektra. Photo by Kevin Berne.
Elektra’s sister, Chrysothemis is cast perfectly in Allegra Rose Edwards (A.C.T. Master of Fine Arts Program class of 2013), who has survived by living with the imbalance in the universe. Dressed in a ridiculous white dress haut couture dress looks like one of the impossibly impractical numbers that gets a full page spread in Vogue, she engages authentically with Augesen throughout the play, acknowledging that Elektra has justice on her side but she prefers to go with the flow. In one of the play’s most touching passages, Elektra finally persuades her to offer a prayer at their father’s grave that Orestes will return and avenge their father’s death.
Orestes (Nick Steen), Elektra’s brother, and true heir to the throne, was the weak link in the play. From the moment Orestes spoke, it seemed as if his lines were not deeply felt. Of course, he is younger and hasn’t suffered the way Elektra has. When he was very young, Elektra feared for his life and took him to live with King Strophius of Phocis, who raised Orestes with his own son Pylades (Titus Thompkins), who accompanies him to the oracle at Delphi. Then, with Pylades, and his Tutor (Anthony Fusco), Orestes travels in disguise to his former home to avenge his father’s death by killing his mother and her lover. Another Orestes might have brought more to the production.
Run time is 90 minutes
Cast: René Augesen, Elektra, Olympia Dukakis, Chorus Leader, Caroline Lagerfelt Clytemnestra, Anthony Fusco, the Tutor, Nick Steen, Orestes, Allegra Edwards, Chrysothemis, Steven Anthony Jones Aegisthus.
Creative Team: music by composer David Lang, cellist Teresa Wang, scenic design Ralph Funicello, costume design Candice Donnell, lighting design Nancy Schertler, and sound design by Cliff Caruthers.
InterACT Programming for Elektra: InterACT events are presented free of charge to give patrons a chance to get closer to the action while making a whole night out of their evening at the theatre.
Audience Exchanges: Sunday, November 11 at 2 PM, Wednesday, November 13 at 8 PM, and November 14 at 2 PM. Learn firsthand what goes into the making of great theatre. After the show, join A.C.T. on stage for a lively onstage chat with the cast, designers and artists who develop the work onstage.
Wine Series: Tuesday, November 13, 8 PM. Raise a glass at this wine-tasting event featuring leading sommeliers from the Bay Area’s hottest local winderies.
PlayTime: Saturday, November 17, 12:30 PM. Get hands on with theatre and the artists who make it happens at the interactive preshow workshop.
Details: Elektra’s limited run ends on Sunday, November 18, 2012 at the American Conservatory Theater, 415 Geary Street, San Francisco. Performances: Tuesday-Sundays at 8 PM, with several 2 PM matinee performances, including Saturday, November 10, Sunday November 11, Wednesday November 14, Saturday November 17, and Sunday, November 18, 2012. Tickets (starting at $20 to $150) are available at or at act-sf.org or by calling the A.C.T. Box Office at 415.749.2228
Olympia Dukakis narrates SF Symphony’s holiday performance of Peter and the Wolf
Delight your children with San Francisco Symphony’s annual presentation ofPeter and the Wolf including festive holiday songs for the whole family to sing—perfect for music lovers of all ages. Donald Cabrera conducts The San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra as it performs Prokofiev’s charming tale with Olympia Dukakis narrating. Approximate length is 1 hour. Saturday, December 8, 2012 at 1 PM and 4 PM at Davies Symphony Hall. Tickets are $27-$57 for adults and $13.50 to $28.50 for Children. For more information and tickets: www.sf.symphony.org
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