Photo du Jour 516
Welcome Back! Um, Why Are You at Work Today?
Tiger Woods In "Serious" Condition After Car Crash
-thumb-110x110-461569.jpg)
Photos from Black Friday
Builder of Oakland's Fox Theater Once Imprisoned For 'White Slavery'
We hadn’t really opened last year’s Christmas gift yet: when David Gockley became general director of the San Francisco opera a year ago, we did not really know what was in the box. The second half of the 2006 season, and the 2006-2007 season operas were already booked by his predecessor. He was not the one who chose this rather uninspired selection of yet another Carmen, yet another Barber of Seville, yet another Rigoletto.
Gockley had made changes, some good like moving the subtitles back to the top; some great like the live videocast on the civic center plaza; some so-so, like the redesign of the visual identity back into the 19th century (if we could find it, we would link to the genius who claimed the program now looks like a medical magazine); some that are question marks, like the termination of the excellent conductor Donald Runnicles’ tenure as music director and the hiring of an Italian repertoire specialist, Nicola Luisotti as his replacement. Should we brace for less Wagner (Runnicles’ specialty) and many more Traviatas? Yesterday was Gockley’s opportunity to put his imprint on the place for real by unveiling the 2007-2008 season.
Boy are we in for a treat! We now bow lowly in front of David Gockley and pledge endless, unlimited adoration. This is the most exciting opera season since, well 2005-2006 and Dr Atomic, but that vintage was exceptional already.
We were wrong to think Philip Glass was minimalist because his piano was missing most keys. His Appomattox opens on October 5th. Photo by Annie Leibovitz, courtesy of SF Opera.
If you remember how great the orchestra sounded for Tristan and Isolde, then you should get ready for not one, but two Wagner operas, with Runnicles conducting both: a new shiny production of Tanhauser, and the opening of the already announced spanking new Ring Cycle, with Das Rheingold.
If you remember how exciting the world premiere of Dr Atomic was, then prepare yourself for some renewed excitement, with another premiere from another legendary American composer, Philip Glass and his Appomattox.
If you remember Robert Lepage’s immensely poetic and creative one man show, La Face Cachée de la lune, which played at Zellerbach hall a couple years back (and if you have been there, you do), then you are impatiently awaiting his directing Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, conducted by Runnicles.
There will be a company premiere of Haendel’s Ariodante, and some classics, to quiet the conservative faction: a Magic Flute, a Lucia di Lammermor and your Verdi (McBeth) and Puccini (La Rondine), but all in productions that you have not seen before, some new, some borrowed from other opera house. There’s only one show that they will get out of the giant set fridge they must have somewhere and reheat in the microwave.
The list of singers is like an opera all star team, with Natalie Dessay, Angela Gheorghiu, Susan Graham (she'll be Iphigenie this season already), or Ruth Ann Swanson on the ladies side, and Eric Owens or Thomas Hampson for the men. The season will open on September 7th with Camille Saint-Saens’ Samson and Delilah.
For more info, check the SF Opera website.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
and at the end of the season: the little prince!