James Conlon's weekend in San Francisco

L.A. Opera Music Director James Conlon hopped on a plane to San Francisco in between gigs with the L. A. Phil and the L.A. Opera to conduct the San Francisco Symphony for three performances and address the Wagner Society of Northern California. If you think that sentence is confusing, imagine how it must feel to actually live it.

I should disclose that I am a huge admirer of Conlon, and thus predisposed to look on him favorably no matter what he does or says. I really wish we had him coming here instead of Nicola Luisotti. But I also wish Pamela Rosenberg was still here and that Runnicles wasn't going anywhere.

I also wish Conlon hadn't given so many musical examples and talked so much before leading the SFS through a rowdy and very loud suite he created from the music of Shostakovitch's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk on Friday night at the 6.5 performance.

It was like an hour long spoiler alert. He literally had the orchestra sample all of the best parts, in hefty doses, during the pre-performance "talk." It kind of ruined a pretty hot performance for me because I wanted more. It was like a stripper who walks out onstage completely nude. I mean, what's the point of sitting through the rest of the show when you can see all the good stuff right up front? Where are going to go after that? Right- it's a bit boring. And that's too bad because the man truly knows what he is doing. The suite really does contain all the musical high-points from this great opera and if you've never heard it, it contains music you can never forget once you have, even though some sections always make me think of that crazy party scene in Citizen Kane.

Before the intermission, Jean-Yves Thibaudet performed the Liszt Piano concerto that has no movement breaks but does have that funny grunting-elephant-sounding section in the first movement. Thibaudet played with amazing speed, as if he was well aware Martha Argerich was up here last weekend and she was just phenomenal and how the hell was he going to keep up with her? I like Thibaudet, but I'm not that fond of Liszt, so even though I've heard many people (including Conlon) claim him to be one the three musical geniuses of the 19th century I just don't see it. Though I'll admit the duet between the cello and piano was gorgeous.

Thibaudet did look a little odd however, and I couldn't figure out if he was signalling with his wardrobe whether he wants to be the next Liberace or an American Idol. He needs some help on this front. His hands however, flew over the keys with incredible speed through this challenging work. Still, Argerich's performance from the prior week was much more memorable in another piece I think is also kind of second-rate as far as piano concertos go.

Saturday Conlon addressed the Wagner Society, and again talked for half an hour longer than he should have, but this time I was happy he did so. He offered his viewpoints on a number of topics, including regie, which he disdains and thinks is a terrible plague throughout Europe. He also wouldn't comment on the current production LA is mounting of Das Rheingold and it was fun/frustrating trying to parse out meaning from his words on what a lot of people may consider to be a Eurotrash-sort of production. However, Conlon emphasized that a production can be daring or challenging as long as it relevant and expands the meaning or our understanding of the work and just doesn't try to provoke or shock people. Based on that definition, my guess is Conlon is extremely pleased with Achim Freyer's production and he should be- it's excellent.

The next speaker, Dr. Katherine Syer, discussed the various Rings that have been or are currently produced in the 21st Century and if I understood her correctly, she gently suggested that we may be experiencing a golden age of Wagner in performance due to the sheer explosion and variety of Rings taking place around the world. I heartily concur with this idea and enjoyed her talk and accompanying videos quite a bit.

I was also very pleased to get to meet Patrick Vaz in person and to get an opportunity to re-introduce myself to the Opera Tattler, both of whom write blogs I enjoy and encourage you to read.

If I could have only dragged myself to see the remake of "The Last House on the Left" the weekend would have been perfect.