Eric Owens in Berkeley

Eric Owens possesses a pleasingly stentorian speaking voice, with a warmth and welcoming tone behind its imposing depth and authority. That warmth has been magnified, in my mind at least, by his appearances during intermissions during the Met’s Live in HD broadcasts, where he somehow strikes that perfect balance between confidence and diffidence. Recent years have brought Owens’ to that point where he seems on the verge of achieving something big, especially since his appearance as Alberich in the Met’s recent Ring Cycle, where he delivered a performance (and interpretation) that others will be measured against for a long time.

Balance is a key element running through Owens’ career. In an Opera News feature from January 2012 he discusses appearing in new, contemporary works against those of more standard rep, trying to counter every appearance in an Adams opera with one by Verdi or Mozart in order to avoid being pigeonholed by directors and audiences.

In his recital with pianist Warren Jones last weekend on the UC Berkley campus, he took this balancing act to a more immediate and personal level in a bifurcated program of German and French composers, the first part of which was largely Sturm und Drang, followed by a second half of joie de vivre.

I arrived to the 3:00 PM concert slightly late (ah, BART, how I love thee), so I went upstairs to the viewing galley, where I almost stepped on a strange woman splayed out in the dark on a yoga mat with her eyes closed. Even by Berkeley standards this was a bit odd. She surrendered her occupation of the space with a bit of attitude, as if my late arrival was a rude intrusion- not to the performer, but to her yoga practice.

Owens, sporting a massive and mostly grey beard, stood stiffly before the piano and sung songs of Wolf, Schumann and Schubert with deliberate gravity that was undermined by an exceptionally stiff stage demeanor. As I mentioned, I was late, so if Owens introduced the material or said anything at all to the audience beforehand I missed it. What I saw was a succession of stoically delivered songs, without comment and with little acknowledgement of the audience. It felt stilted and uncomfortable to me, as if Owens, who can clearly sing this material and sing it quite well, was somehow struggling with how he wanted to come across as a performer.

After the intermission an altogether different Owens walked onstage, said “Hi” with a sheepish grin and a quick wave, and proceeded to talk with the audience a bit before launching into Debussy’s Three Songs. It was a bit of shock to see this fellow after the earlier one, and I liked this guy a lot more. Not only does he sing wonderfully in French, but he also looks like he’s enjoying himself a lot more than the dour guy who was onstage during the first half. With a little more work (or some coaching) Owens could be one of the most magnetic performers to grace a stage. The barrel-bodied man has incredible presence but he’s not capitalizing on it- at least on this afternoon, where the house was shockingly and inexplicably only about half-full (maybe it’s the 3:00 start times?).

Owens performed two encores, the first was Purcell’s “Music for a While” which he described as one of his favorite songs, which he followed with the spiritual “Shall We Gather by the River” which was simply marvelous, but served to illustrate how much potential was left unfulfilled by the afternoon’s performance.

The concert was presented by Cal Performances.

The Met/Lepage Gotterdammerung

Although it drew an almost universal chorus of disapproval from the first note of Das Rheingold which never let up until the world burned across its planks almost a year and a half and 15 hours later in Gotterdammerung, in the end the "Machine" proved its worth to the Met's new Ring cycle. This may not have been true for those seated in the house, who complained about creaks, squeaks and malfunctions, but if you saw it from the seat of a movie theater like I did during the HD broadcasts, what started out as an extravagantly expensive contraption became an icon by the time it was all over. I say that because alongside some gripping performances, it's the imagery of this Ring that rests firmly in the mind and was elemental to its most appealing moments. That's not to take anything away from the singers or the orchestra (whether conducted by Fabio Luisi or James Levine), but there are three things from this cycle that people will be talking about years from now: Eric Owens' amazing Alberich in Rheingold; Jay Hunter Morris' Siegfried; and the Machine, which was used to greatest effect in Gotterdammerung. At least that's how it came across in the theater (and I can't stress this enough), where the camera angles were dazzling and the sound was perfectly mixed, creating an experience wholly unlike that of those who heard and saw it in the house.

The Prologue featuring the Norns (Heidi Melton, Elizabeth Bishop, Maria Radner) weaving their rope of destiny was the only part of the production visually lacking. True, three women weaving a rope doesn't obviously lend itself as inspiration for a scene rife with dramatic tension, but many have found a way to do it. Luisi didn't pull the tension and dread from the score, and though each of the singers were fine (Melton especially), the scene was little more than perfunctory explication of the back story.

The first scene of Act 1 began with the only serious miscue as far as blocking- something which has plagued the other operas but seemed much better in Gotterdammerung- by having Brunnhilde and Siegfried make their entrances approaching one another from opposite ends of the stage. This is their "morning after" moment, so it doesn't make sense- where did Siegfried wander off to that he is now returning from? This underlines the one serious flaw in Lepage's production; he really doesn't have much insight into these characters and what to do with them. Luckily, this time around he's saved by the cast, who are fully invested in giving dramatic portrayals. However, one has to wonder what subsequent casting in future cycles will yield.

But for now, the issue remains in the background since there's so much visual splendor going on- and well, there's the music of course.

Deborah Voigt seemed to struggle with Brunnhilde more than in the earlier segments- perhaps because she was ill earlier in the week, but weak vocal moments aside I remain impressed by how fully she inhabits the role. Jay Hunter Morris' Siegfried was as visually and vocally exciting as he was the last time out. The lightness of his voice, probably more evident in the house, isn't an issue in the broadcasts and if there was ever an opera singer born to be on the big screen he's the one. When he waved to the Rheinmaidens the entire audience I was with guffawed in delight. Overall however, his impression was less powerful than in Siegfried and again I'll assign this to Lepage not knowing what to do with the character nor with a singer who seems like the most perfect fit for the role currently living. There was way too much silliness with striking poses with Notung. Waltraud Meier was excellent in the one superfluous scene of the opera, as were the all three Rheinmeaidens- Erin Morely, Jennifer Cano and especially Tamara Mumford, whose bewitching gaze seemed to reveal a palpable desire to have Morris all to herself, which was pretty amusing.

As the sibling pawns Gunther and Gutrune, Wendy Bryn Harmer and Iain Paterson faced the one of thee bigger challenge in making two almost faceless characters come to life without any direction and to their credit both succeeded, with Paterson especially making the most of it.

Although onstage for roughly only eight minutes, Eric Owens' Alberich was once again a perfect interpretation of the role vocally and dramatically.

Hans-Peter Konig's Hagen was a different story. His voice is fantastic- that's obvious, but his portrayal struck me as all wrong. Hagen should ooze menace visually and vocally from the moment we first see him and Konig has none. Add to this his towering physical presence over the other performers, and the heart of what makes Gotterdammerung so dramatically involving goes wholly missing. He's a huge bear of a man who is absolutely non-threatening. Strange, since he managed to give the opposite effect so easily as Hunding in Die Walkure. The moment when he summons the Gibichungs, which should be one of the most musically thrilling in the entire cycle, went flat, though the Met chorus sounded sensational.

Luisi led the orchestra in a rushed manner through the first two acts, and though he slowed it down a bit in the third, overall he didn't make the most of the score's lushness.

All of this hardly mattered in the end though, as the Machine created one gorgeous mise en scène after another. The Lepage Ring isn't insightful and it's certainly not bold (see Freyer for that) in its obstinately traditional approach, but it is quite beautiful to watch.

LA Opera's 2012-13 season: Bunt!

Marina Poplavskaya

If you ever played Little League baseball, surely you remember some parental troll in the bleachers yelling "A bunt's as good as a hit!" But everyone on the field knew that wasn't the truth- nothing feels better than a solid hit. LA Opera announced their next season today, and it's definitely a mixed bag, the programming equivalent of a bunt- good enough to keep the game going, maybe even score a run or two, but it seems like the safe way out- and disappointing in the long run. With the exception of the Verdi rarity I Due Foscari, the season is wall-to-wall warhorses. Well-cast warhorses for the most part, but there's something dispiriting about a season in which the most intriguing thing on it is an opera by Verdi. Don't get me wrong- the notion of Domingo, Marina Poplavskaya and Franceso Meli in a Verdi opera no one around these parts has seen in forever is tantalizing to be sure, but after that? Lots to see, but little to be truly excited about except for Sondra Radvanovsky as Tosca, which is somewhat undermined by having Domingo conduct.

On the plus side, none of these productions have previously been seen in LA, though I've seen a couple of them here in San Francisco, so let's begin with those.

Raimund Bauer's set design for Die Fliegende Hollander was one of those productions people either loved or loathed, and I loved every minute of it and would happily see it again. So this is a plus, though I also really liked the Julie Taymoor Dutchman I saw in LA a few years back and would have been pleased to see the original version make a return. As for the cast, Jay Hunter Morris as Erik is obviously a good thing, though Elisabete Matos as Senta is an unknown quantity, as is Tomas Tomasson, whom I saw in SFO's production of The Queen of Spades, but frankly I don't remember much about his performance.

The other SFO production is Butterfly- not the most recent, which was imported from Chicago I think, and a total disaster, but the Michael Yeargan production which was seen so many times in SF that it needed to be retired from sheer exhaustion. But it's a good one if you've never seen it. The cast is an embarrassment of riches and can I just say right now that it's something of a travesty to see a singer as fine as Eric Owens cast in the role of Sharpless? Mr. Owens, fire your management team- you should be headlining operas world-wide- not taking secondary roles in warhorses. The magnificent Brandon Jovanovich is Pinkerton (he's great in this role) and Oksana Dyka should make for an interesting Butterfly.

LAO's production of Don Giovanni in 2003 with Erwin Schrott (conducted by Nagano) was as good as it gets, so we'll have to see if Ildebrando D'Arecengelo in this production from Chicago can eclipse that. Having Soile Isokowski as Donna Elvira will certainly go a long way toward making that happen and it's nice to see the phenomenally talented Joshua Bloom return to the West Coast. Go on a night when Conlon is conducting.

I know nothing about the cast or production for La Ceneretola, but LAO has a good track record with Rossini these past few years and though it's too bad Nino Machaidze isn't on the schedule this season (what's up with that, by the way?), I'd say based on the recent past this is a safe bet since Conlon's on the podium. If any company can make a claim to doing right by Rossini in recent years, it's LAO.

So that brings us to Tosca. On the one hand it has Radvanovsky in it, along with the excellent Marco Berti as Cavaradossi. This alone is reason to be excited, but I sure wish Conlon was at the helm of this one. Still, Sondra is Sondra, and how can you miss this?

Overall, it's the cautious programming being seen almost everywhere, but at least in this case what's on the stage promises to be good. A step back for what has been an adventurous company in recent years, but not a mis-step. 

San Francisco Opera: the 2012-13 season

Interior of the War Memorial Opera House. Photo by David Wakely

San Francisco Opera's General Director David Gockley has done the improbable and created an upcoming season I'm actually excited about for the first time during his tenure. Eight operas are scheduled for 2012-13 (I'm not including the world premiere co-production with Cal Performances of The Secret Garden since that's being staged at Zellerbach), and though the season largely follows Gockley's established pattern of presenting a stable of recently staged warhorses, he's also included two premieres of contemporary, English-language operas, with another on the way the following year (based on Stephen King's Dolores Claibourne). That's a bold move in the current climate and the riskiest thing he's done in San Francisco so far. After the two premieres, the appeal of 2012-13 is in the well-cast standard rep not seen locally for a long time. It's the best schedule SFO has announced since Rosenberg's era and hopefully it works as well onstage as it looks on paper.

Rigoletto brings back Michael Yeargan's well-worn production ('06, '01, and '97) for 12 performances. The title role is shared by Zeljko Lucic and Marco Vratogna. His daughter Gilda will be performed by Aleksandra Kurzak and Albina Shagimuratova.  Lucic was good the last time the company staged Verdi's La Forza, but the presence of David Lomeli in the role of the Duke of Mantua makes my choice the cast led by Vratogna. On the other hand, Kurzak recently won great accolades in LA Opera's Cosi, so one probably can't go wrong with either cast. It's a dark and claustrophobic production which I've enjoyed the previous times I've seen it. My one question for director Harry Silverstein is will there be breasts this time- or  is the San Francisco audience too provincial? Luisotti conducts one of Verdi's very best.

Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi (The Capulets and the Montagues) has only been seen on the War Memorial stage once before in 1991. Conductor Riccardo Frizza (last year's Lucrezia) returns  to lead an excellent cast featuring Joyce DiDinato, Eric Owens, Saimir Pirgu (another singer well-reviewed in LA's Cosi) and Nicole Cabell, who seems poised for the next level. The presence of DiDonato and Owens are reason enough to attend, even if a Bel Canto version of Romeo and Juliet isn't necessarily your thing.

Jake Heggie's Moby-Dick makes its local debut after receiving a tremendous reception at its world premiere in Dallas. Ben Heppner and Jay Hunter Morris (Siegfried) share the role of the obsessed Captain Ahab. While Heppner's the more more established singer, the quickly-rising Morris is the one to see. Depending on the state of Heppner's voice, Morris may well end up performing more than the two performances for which he's scheduled. Patrick Summers conducts.

Puccini's Tosca was last staged here in 2009 and its the same Thierry Bosquet set and costumes seen previously for what seems like the last 100 years, but is in fact only the fifth time since 1997. Should still seem fresh, right? Twelve performances with two casts and a battle of the divas between Patricia Racette and Angela Gheorghiu in the title role. Racette's the local favorite, but Gheorghiu's appearances are rarer and she strikes me as the more interesting of the two in the role, which neither have sung in San Francisco before. So personally I'd go with Angela, assuming she actually shows up, but if you've never seen Tosca go with Racette- the supporting cast of Brian Jadge and Mark Delevan certainly trumps Massimo Giordano and Roberto Frontali. Luisotti conducts all performances.

Wagner's Lohengrin hasn't seen the War Memorial stage since 1996 and it returns with what may end up being the strongest cast of the season. The marvelous tenor Brandon Jovanovich sings the title role for the first time. The presence of Kristinn Sigmundsson, Petra Lang, and Brian Mulligan in the tale of the lustful knight all bode well, and though Camilla Nylund is an unknown in these parts, she'd have to muck it up pretty badly to keep this from being first-rate all the way around. The production is new to San Francisco and the only iffy thing about it is whether or not Luisotti can conduct Wagner. He did very well with Strauss two years back, so that's a good omen of what will come from the pit.

The allure that Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann) holds for many has thus far eluded me, but I've never seen it performed before. This should be an excellent introduction- Natalie Dessay plays the four loves of Matthew Polenzani's title character, with Alice Coote and Christian Van Horn along for the telling. Conductor Patrick Fournillier ably led Cyrano recently and Laurent Pelly's productions are usually a delight (La Fille du Regiment).

Cosi Fan Tutte is the one opera of Mozart's I absolutely love, so who cares if this is the same production from way back in 2005. It was great then and with a young, vibrant cast featuring Ellie Dehn, Heidi Stober, Susannah Biller and Phillipe Sly, it should be quite fun. Luisotti hasn't convinced me yet that he has any facility with Mozart, but if there's one opera where he can prove himself, it's Cosi.

The world premiere of composer Mark Adamo's The Gospel of Mary Magdalene is bound to be somewhat controversial- or at least it should be if it's done well. Mary has a strong cast featuring Sasha Cooke finally appearing on the other side of Grove Street in the title role, barihunk Nathan Gunn as Jesus, and William Burden, whose singing was the only thing I found worthwhile in last year's Heart of a Soldier, as Peter. Everything else is new, including conductor Michael Christie, making his SFO debut. Everything except the story, that is.

Ranking them in order of personal anticipation, top to bottom:
Lohengrin
Moby-Dick
The Gospel According to Mary Magdalene
I Capuleti e i Montecchi
Les Contes d'Hoffmann
Cosi fan tutte
Rigoletto
Tosca

The new Met/Lepage Das Rheingold

Yesterday I attended my first Met Live in HD broadcast because I just had to see what the new "Das Rheingold" looked like. It doesn't disappoint. On the other hand, while this production establishes a new level of stagecraft for the opera world, the other elements involved are pretty traditional. The Met and Lepage are trying to have it both ways- satisfy the codgers who want horned helmets and those who are aware it's 2010- and I think they've succeeded in coming up with a production that should satisfy both, though probably won't leave the latter group ecstatic.

The broadcast began with some behind the scenes footage of the Rheinmaidens being introduced to "the Machine" and learning how to perform upon it in harnesses. During this sequence, the expression on Lisette Oropesa's face is the definition of apprehension while Tamara Mumford looks really excited. The pay off is when the Rheinmaidens make their entrance and you see how much hard work went into their efforts and it paid off so handsomely. I can only imagine that these Rheinmaidens were what Wagner was envisioning. Mermaids, swimming in water, bubbles billowing behind them, it's a beautiful scene. Mumford, Oropesa and Jennifer Johnson are excellent and Lepage does some choreography here that really makes the scene work incredibly well- it just flows.

Eric Owens' Alberich- dreadlocked and sporting a codpiece that looks stolen from a Mad Max sequel, plays his initial attempts to have his way with one of the Rheinmaidens in the manner we've come to expect except for one key component in his characterization that eventually profoundly impacts the entire production. Owens' Alberich may be a dwarf, but he's not the lecherous, petty, grubby Nibelung usually found in this role. This Alberich is smart, angry and determined. He's also the most fully-realized character onstage in this production. When he steals the gold, it's with a sense of coming retribution. This is a star turn for Owens, who easily makes the largest impact in this superbly cast production with his fantastic singing and indelible stage presence. And to think David Gockley over at San Francisco Opera decided to cast Owens as Ramfis instead of Amonasro in that company's upcoming Aida. Boob-of-month award winner-Gockley wins again!

As Scene 1 ends, the Rheinmaidens forlornly lie on the bottom of the Rhine in a beautiful tableau, complete with shifting sands beneath them. It's scenes like this which make the production such a visual success. The transition scenes are where Lapage's Machine has the most impact (at least until the spectacular ending). As the planks rise they create a visual where the audience feels like it too is rising from the river, leaving the Rheinmaidens in the river below. The thing about the Machine is it takes the audience with it into every scene in an uncanny way.

There are a couple of problems with this production and they become apparent pretty quickly in Scene 2. Bryn Terfel's Wotan is sung with strong technique but his character conveys no authority at all. His Wotan is a thug, not a god and with his long greasy hair covering his missing eye and gold breastplate covering his gut he looks like a Comic-Con attendee in line to get the most recent edition of Thor autographed. Even worse, Stephanie Blythe's superbly sung Fricka comes across as Wotan's mother, not his wife. Looking at the costumes, you can't reconcile these two are appearing in the same opera, much less that they are supposed to be husband and wife.

This is a lesser problem with Donner and Froh because in the second scene they have little to do, not an issue at all with Freia, and the giants Fasolt and Fafner are positioned on the machine to create a formidable presence though their physiques are not enhanced beyond parts of a fat suit being placed on them here and there.

Richard Croft's Loge however, is serious problem. He looks like Liberace in a straitjacket. One of the most effective and rewarding choices Achim Freyer made for his Ring cycle at LA Opera was making Loge the center of Rheingold and it worked brilliantly. Of course that was Freyer's choice and it's just fine to make Wotan the center as usual, but it really only works well if Wotan is authoritative and Loge is the instrument to carry out his machinations- here, what should be the most scheming character onstage is little more that just a toady who somehow wandered into Valhalla via a Vegas psyche ward.

Franz-Josef Selig's Fasolt is superbly sung and performed. His isn't the usual dumb, love-struck giant, but a being whose obsession has the better of him. I don't think I've ever heard anyone sing or perform this role with as much intelligence as Selig brings to it. Hans-Peter Konig's Fafner is also well sung.

The transition to Scene 3's Nibelheim is another set-piece of stunningly well-executed stagecraft via the Machine as we actually watch Wotan and Loge descend down Alberich's lair. The anvils were gorgeous and what is usually handled as an awkward "hmm, how do we this moment?" became a central moment both visually and aurally.

This scene is always the most problematic in Rheingold because of the dragon/frog silliness and it wasn't done this time in a manner that's going to set a new standard for how to handle this awkward bit in a convincing way and save it from being unintended camp- which is how it always turns out. In this production that silliness if magnified because of Owens' Alberich- he simply isn't gullible enough to fall for this trap- and yet he must, because that's what Alberich does. Gerhard Siegel's Mime was superb. I certainly hope he'll be back in the role for Siegfried. His was another Nibelung who possessed an intelligence not typically portrayed in the role and his was a standout among the strong cast.

Going back to Valhalla's threshold for Scene 4, Owens delivers his best moments as he expresses his shame at being bound and shackled before his slaves. I haven't seen this discussed in anyone else's reviews or commentary, but I have to add my own thought that this scene has a heightened power and poignancy because Owens is black and Terfel looks like a redneck straight out of a horror movie. We've seen this scene in many other guises, but here, especially in the current political climate in this country, I can't get say there's no meta commentary to be found here if you want to look for it. Patrica Bardon's Erda, the most unthankful role in all of opera, was spot on from her first note through her last, though in HD the weird red/pink make-up around her eyes made me wonder why they wanted to make Erda a blonde Morticia Addams.

I found the only moment where James Levine's conducting let me down was the conclusion of Alberich's curse on whomever wears the ring- oddly, here the orchestra lacked enough power to make those terrifying bars sound as terrifying as they ought. Otherwise, I'd have to say Levine (who looked terrific) and the orchestra were fantastic from start to finish with Levine usually opting for faster tempos than he's chosen in the past which never sounded rushed, an bringing everything in Wagner's score to a shimmering glow through the entire afternoon.

Dwayne Croft's Donner was certainly a bit of luxury casting and having a mature singer of his caliber in this smaller role brought a depth to it not usually seen in Rheingold. He too, was superb, and if his hammer blow wasn't as thrilling a moment as one could have hoped from a dramatic point, he sung his part with a confidence and conviction the role never gets when filled by younger singers as is the usual.

By now everyone who cares about these things already knows that on opening night there was a glitch which prevented the Machine to work as planned, thus the gods' entry into Valhalla via the Rainbow Bridge was aborted or abandoned. It's hard to have any sympathy for the opening night crowd ,but in this case I actually do because they didn't get to experience what was in my mind the finest bit of stagecraft I've ever seen. Like the Rhine scene, I can't imagine Wagner himself thinking it could be done better than this. It was beautiful, breathtaking, and the most thrilling execution of the myriad challenges posed in adhering to the Ring's crazy stage demands. The final ten minutes alone was well worth the price of admission, but I found the entire production on the whole to be greatly satisfying, though not earth-shaking. It represents the cutting of what can be done on the opera stage, even if it doesn't have the intelligence or depth of the Freyer Ring nor the brilliant imagination on display in Lepage's own debut production for the Met, La Damnation de Faust.

One last comment. The schedule for the remaining broadcasts doesn't include a dud in the bunch. I was apprehensive about the whole idea of attending these screenings, but having now done so, the quality of the sound, the staggeringly brilliant camerawork and the immediacy of watching a live performance as it takes place make this method of presentation well worthwhile. I'll be seeing many more of these broadcasts this season.

A look back at San Francisco Opera's 2008-09 season

San Francisco Opera has just concluded its season so now is a good time to take a look back and review the last year, which brought the end of Donald Runnicle's seventeen year tenure as Music Director and was the first season bearing the full stamp of General Director David Gockley's vision. I didn't see every production, though I have no regrets on my final score of seeing 7 of the 11 performed by the company. The reviews and opinions I read and heard justified my initial hunch that there were a few things this year that weren't worth the time nor the money. Having said that, there were four excellent productions, and given the overall success of La Traviata (based on the performances of Netrebko and Perez) which I didn't see, and some people's positive response to The Bonesetter's Daughter (again, I passed), the season had a failure rate of 50%. Or if you're a glass half-full type, there was plenty to like up on the stage of the War Memorial.


The season began with Runnicles conducting Simon Boccanegra- one of Verdi's finest and most under-appreciated operas and a personal favorite of mine. In my opinion Boccanegra ranks with Otello, Don Carlo, Ballo and Rigoletto as being among the composer's finest works. The cast was excellent across the board, featuring Dmitri Hvorostovsky in the title role, Barbara Frittoli alternated with Ana Maria Martinez as Amelia and Vitalij Kowaljow and Marcus Haddock gave solid performances. In hindsight, Kowaljow had an impressive year on the West Coast, going on to triumph as Wotan in L.A. Opera's magnificent productions of Das Rheingold and Die Walkure.





The production was the same one seen last time around, with some silliness removed, but it was the singing and the orchestra under Runnicles' superb conducting which made this one very special. For me it was one of Runnicles' finest moments, delivered with a superlative cast. Hvorostovsky is incredible in this role. A+.


The Bonesetter's Daughter- besides blatant pandering to San Francisco's large Asian population, was there another reason to commission and stage this? Methinks not. Pass.

Die Tote Stadt:

Without a doubt, this was the highlight of the season. Runnicles once again taking the orchestra to a new level in this rarely performed Korngold masterpiece. Another strong cast, and while some had issues with the strength of Torstern Kerl's Paul, Emily Magee shone bright as Marie/Marietta and Lucas Meacham and Ji Young Yang left great impressions in their supporting roles. Add to this a provocative production and you had a mesmerizing, unforgettable experience. Too bad we aren't destined to see more productions like this in the future. This is the kind of opera I live for. Absolutely fantastic across the board. A+, and then some.
Idomeneo: A Mozart opera whose popularity I really don't comprehend at all. The only reason I attended this was because of the amazing quality Runnicles and the orchestra brought to Boccanegra and Die Tote Stadt. Alas, it was still the same boring, ridiculous story and production I saw ten years earlier. If this was my first opera I would never, ever have gone back. Alice Coote's long-awaited return was for naught, Kurt Streit bored me to tears and the whole thing was a three and a half hour bore. How the Opera Tattler, whom I respect and admire, had the stamina to endure every performance of this is beyond my comprehension. Then again, that's opera, folks. Fail.
Boris Godunov: After thinking it couldn't get worse then Idomeneo, I was really looking forward to seeing Samuel Ramey in this role. Besides, I like Russian opera. So what the hell was this piece of crap? I left halfway through the dress rehearsal, traded in my regular tickets for Elixir, which originally I had no intention of seeing, and am happy to say I have never made a better decision on exchanging a ticket in my life. This was junk. Sad. Failure on a massive scale. Worst of the season- worst I've ever seen and heard, bar none.
The Elixir of Love: This was really the surprise delight of the bunch. After having seen Ramon Vargas' debut here in '99 I became a huge fan and eagerly awaited his eventual return. That enthusiasm waned once I saw hin as the Duke in Rigoletto at the Met a few years later- he came off as pompous and seemed to be sashaying through the part in a way that wasn't pleasant to watch nor hear, nor had anything to do with the role. He was coasting on his laurels since he was now a regular lead at the Met. But here was the Vargas I saw in '99- and he was fantastic.
Inva Mula, in her SF debut, was terrific, as was Ji Young Yang in a production that brought out all the sparkle of Donizetti's score. It looks like we are in for a lot more of this sort of thing in the Gockley/Luisotti era and if they can keep it at this level of quality I may have to eat some crow. It was terrific light opera and I loved every moment of it. Kudos to conductor Bruno Campanella- bring this guy back anytime. Solid A.
La Boheme: Count me among the opinionated who think if you don't like Boheme you really don't like opera and may as well give up and go back to whatever it was you were listening to before. La Boheme is one of the five best operas ever written- period. Too bad it's used as a cash-cow at most houses and once one has seen it a few times it becomes tedious to endure productions that lack imagination and the passion the work deserves. Often, as was the case here, a star or two in the cast is deemed an acceptable reason to stage this beyond the obvious box-office allure.
Angela Gheorghui was this year's Mimi and it was supposed to be a big deal. Having been unimpressed with her turn in La Rondine in the previous season, I was eager to see if she could deliver this time around. Count me unimpressed with one of the most regarded sopranos of the moment. She simply didn't impress at all, and Piotr Beczala, who has impressed in the past, was not impressive either. In other words, the whole thing was... unimpressive. Add to this the sad fact that SFO has been using the same old production for the last fifteen or so years, and this was a Boheme that didn't thrill and didn't bring a single tear to the house. How can this be, when it has three of the best arias ever written showing up back-to-back in the score? Apathy, my friends, and this is what I fear we are in for much more of under Gockley's reign of the safe, sure and proven. Luisotti, our own house Italian Stallion, was completely unimpressive in this outing that supposedly should have showcased his strengths. Oh dear, it looks like we are really going to miss Runnicles if this was an example of what the future holds in store for SFO. Grade it a D, with only Puccini's incredible score keeping it from failing completely, and that just sucks for opera lovers.
Summer:

Tosca: give me a reason to have seen this stale Monsouri-era production which has been presented here at least five times in the past twelve years and I may have gone. I love Tosca, but I hate being milked. The SFO debut of Adrianne Pieczonka wasn't enough of a draw for me. PASS.
Porgy and Bess: This was the triumph of Gockley's tenure thus far. Too bad he didn't have the smarts to add extra shows to the sold-out run, which was one of the hottest tickets in town. People were genuinely excited about this and it generated a buzz about SFO I haven't seen in a long time. It was excellent on every level and complete success for all involved. Eric Owens had a star-making turn as Porgy, Laquita Mitchell was a terrific Bess and it featured one the finest choruses I've ever seen and heard. See my post here for details. A solid A. Why not a plus? Because the Gershwins opera ain't perfect- but it was perfectly done.
La Traviata: For the shows with Netrebko in them, these were the hottest tickets in town. So much so that when someone offered me more than triple what I paid for my orchestra seats, I took the offer- and skipped the standing room alternative. My compatriot bloggers seemed of unanimous opinion that Netrebko was fantastic, the supporting cast somewhat lacking, the B-cast worth seeing, and the Marta Domingo jazz-era production kind of lame. Not the sort of thing to erase the memories of the perfect production on view the last time around with Ruth Ann Swenson, Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Rolando Villazon, but good enough for Gockely's vision. I passed with no regrets and a significant profit.
So what about next year? The programming is the safest and most conservative I've ever seen in this house. It has little to be enthusiastic about for the seasoned fan, but will probably be a delight for newcomers to the house. Of course there will be great surprises and sad disappointments- but that's inherent to the art, wouldn't you agree?
My prediction is this:
The season's highlights will be Salome and Die Walkure. Abduction and Otello will be the disappointments for the devoted, and Il Trittico will be what everyone talks about. The sleeper will be Fanciulla and no one will remember Faust three days later- kind of like a Michael Bay movie- which is what SFO is looking increasingly like in its current state. Oh snap!
Trovatore is the dark horse- it has a great cast in an opera that never seems to work well on stage. Advance word on the production is that this one figures it out. We'll see- my fingers will be crossed.