As a prelude to the big event, the world premiere of Appomattox next Friday at the opera house, composer Philip Glass was hosting a night of chamber music at Herbst Theater last night. It was also the opening concert for SF Performances's 28th season (the official Dolce Vita-themed kick-off Gala happens October 12th). We are as excited as anyone about the upcoming opera, so we were pleased to see Glass not only introduce the music and chit-chat genially from the stage, but also perform some of his pieces. So he turned 70 and here comes this guy on the stage who looks like he's in his 50s, fit, spry. We want to be like that when we're that age. We read that he does pilates and we're so taking that up.

There were three performers: Glass himself at the piano, cellist Wendy Sutter and percussionist Mick Rossi. The last two were actually much more respectful of the music than Glass himself, who took some liberties with his oeuvre. His playing was debonair while the other guys were super focused and super serious.

Video of Philip Glass at home, playing Metamorphosis I, which opened his concert at SF Performances last night

MTT's conducting of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde is so good, it should be recorded and kept for the posterity. But wait! It was! The series, which concludes tonight, will be taped and processed, and included in the Mahler recording cycle, the on-going endeavor to put all of Mahler's symphonic work onto a CD.

MTT's take on Mahler, a forcefully engaged and expressive rendition, has been observed here quite a few times. We expect to be blown away by the orchestra. We actually demand it. But the surprise came from Thomas Hampson. Das Lied von der Erde is written for two singers, a baritone and a tenor. The tenor, Stuart Skelton, did not impress us as much. Our companion on Wednesday night, SFist Rita, liked him because she found him endearing, being drunk all the time. And truth be told, out of the three songs Skelton did, one is the "Drinking Song of the Earth's Sorrow" and another "the Drunkard in Spring." Skelton was the most comfortable in the last one, "Of Youth" where he could display a more melodic tone in a folk-ish tune. As a drunk, he came off as wobbly and overmatched by the orchestra. He did have the drunkard body language pinned down, though, turning the pages of his sheet music like he was throwing a punch, with a don't-mess-with-me game face that had us wondering how comfortable he was up there, and how immersed in the music he was.

Post title totally stolen from rroseselavy's comment here. Picture of Thomas Hampson.

We got word that 27,000 people made a reservation to attend this Friday's Opera at the Ballpark. 27,000! And there are still tickets left! Tonight is the last day to see Barry at AT&T park, but plenty of other divas, plenty of other big guys with supernatural powers will be on stage in the stadium this Friday, as the SF Opera presents Samson and Delilah on a giant High Def video screen with a live simulcast of the performance from inside the opera house.

Samson gets his strength from his lustrous hair, and if there is cream involved, it's a balm from the vidal-sassoon lab, nothing from balco. Well, Olga Borodina's voice is pretty creamy too. And if juiced baseball players have shriveled balls, Samson and Delilah offers a nice, if metaphorical, scene of castration. So reserve your seat, and get yourself to AT&T park on Friday. 27,000 plus! That's going to be quite a party.

Or you can go to the Philip Glass Wendy Sutter performance at Herbst theater. Oh, tough choice, tough choice.

Picture Terrence McCarthy/SF Opera

The SF Symphony Gala last Wednesday night, is one of the poshest events of the year -- a must-attend for anyone who’s anyone who has the right to live, breathe, receive adequate healthcare in SF. We were lucky to tag along for the ride. The performance of its annual opening is an afterthought, and we were not sure if there wasn't some subtle subversion going on. We mentioned already the choice of the Fanfare for the Common Man (inspired by a left-leaning speech by Roosevelt’s ex-vice president Henry Wallace), but looking back, we see that, except for one short Gounod excerpt, all the pieces where from after 1900. That is provocative! Way to backhandedly smack the bourgeoisie attending your opening, MTT! It’s no wonder that a significant chunk of the patrons only came back from intermission after a few glasses of freely flowing champagne, missing some fine singing by Renée Fleming.

To be honest, even though it was mainly 20th century stuff, it wasn't the most avant-garde music. You can ruffle feathers (or more accurately, mink furs) only so far. It started with three instrumental pieces, and MTT asked us to consider them as a whole, even though they spanned fifty years and three composers. Copland’s aforementioned fanfare was performed very deliberately and very LOUDLY. The common man must have poor hearing. Then an Andante for Strings by Ruth Seeger, where the string instruments undulate slowly around a key center, not unlike the sound of a fly in slow motion.

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

We were wrong. Thank God. And the allusion to fedoras was not a dig at the previous general director (even though she indulged in them) but to last year’s LA opera production of the same Tannhäuser, also with Peter Seiffert and Petra Maria Schnitzer. You can check out that one here, but we like ours better, thanks.

This show blew us away, on all counts. Stage production, singing, orchestra were all magnificent. The set was (like in Iphigenie) bare-bone and claustrophobic. The set resembled a post-nuclear war subway station so much so that we expected Tannhäuser to return to earth from Venus' underground lair via an elevator. (He did not; instead a child alter-ego goes through a vagina-shaped tree contraption to symbolize his re-birth.)

Stage director Graham Vick uses the most out of the terse backdrop: it remains the same for all three acts, all four hours of the performance, and we never tired of it.

Link to OutWestArts by way of Sid, we believe. Pictures courtesy of SF Opera/Terrence McCarthy, above the chorus and Peter Seiffert, below Peter Seiffert, Petra Lang, Petra Maria Schnitzer respectively.

The SF Symphony returned from its trip to Europe and kicks off its 2007-08 season tonight, with a sold out opening night gala featuring MTT and Renée Fleming. We find it ironic that they will play Aaron Copland’s "Fanfare for the Common Man" -- a piece riddled with leftist political overtones -- to SF’s high society. Well then, it looks like the SF symphony is more subversive than we give them credit for this time. Good for them.

The season has plenty of highlights coming up, starting a week from today with Das Lied von der Erde, which will be recorded as part of the Mahler recording project, code named Mahtlert. The project originally focused on the symphonies, but Mahler wrote only nine and a half. They were quickly running out of material, so it has been expanded to include Das klagende Lied, the Rückert Lieder, Songs of a Wayfarer, songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn, and MTT reading from the 1893 train schedule to Mahler’s vacation hut in Steinbach am Attersee. Next week’s soloist is the excellent baritone and an SF Opera Merola program alumni, Thomas Hampson.

Youtube clip of Gustavo Dudamel in the same program he'll conduct, with the same orchestra, on November 4th at Davies Symphony Hall.

[Update: you can see a live simulcast of this opera for free at PacBell Stadium on Sept. 28. Information here!]
While we expected a sense of deja vu at last Tuesday’s performance of Saint-Saëns’ Samson and Delilah -- we had seen Olga Borodina in this very role, sung in that very set, on that very stage back in 2001 -- we didn't. Why? Because the set manages to be both impressive, and, well, forgettable. Sure, it has some striking features, like a giant mill wheel and statue of the God Dagon (or is the Dog Gadon), which resembles a 20-foot chihuahua. Still, it fits a McOpera period style that is appropriate, luxurious but kitsch and not particularly inventive. We did remember the spectacular final collapse of the temple (oops, we spoiled it, didn’t we?), and good thing we did. A curtain malfunction at our performance kept the spectacular effect from working.

On the other hand, Olga, how could we not recognize you! Sure, these six years have changed you, like all of us. Plus, last time we saw you, it was a comedy and the mood was lighter. But the attitude remains regal, confident, and strong. The deep mezzo voice came off assured in every ranges: rich, velvety, luscious. It was sensual enough to hint at the eroticism of the lyrics, which in Act I have all the subtly of a stoned street walker’s advances.

Above, Olga Borodina and Clifton Forbis as Delilah and Samson. Below, the Act III Bacchanalia. Pictures by SF Opera/Terrence McCarthy.

What does SF Opera music director Donald Runnicles do when he's not conducting Wagner at the War Memorial Opera House? He's conducting Wagner in London. What does SF Symphony music director Michael Tilson Thomas do when he's not conducting Mahler at Davies Symphony Hall? You guessed it: he's conducting Mahler in London. We knew that addicts to Mahler or Wagner existed. But to think that they live in our own backyard? Well, that's just spooky.

In our haste on Tuesday, we forgot to mention that you could hear more MahTlerT (MTT and Mahler have become so imbricated that we had to create a shortcut) here (links to sound file of Mahler's 7th symphony). This is a performance at the Royal Albert Hall, which happened on 9/2. And the difficult to please London reviewers chime in here. (Dang, these commenters are harsh! Worth a look.)

MTT and the SF Symphony orchestra had two Proms performance, the other one the night before (click for music, program and reviews/comments) was pretty much the Bon Voyage! concert they gave here prior to leaving on this trip.

The Mahler cycle must go on. Expanded from the original scope of recording the symphonies to include, well, pretty much any orchestral work by Mahler, the cycle now welcomes the addition of das klagende Lied, released today. Technically speaking, it is not a new recording: it’s a remastering of the 1997 recording, re-issued under the SF Symphony label. The cover art has been updated, from a MTT in a black turtleneck with wavy hair to, well, MTT in a black turtleneck with wavy hair. MTT looks a bit thinner nowadays, a favor that those ten years did not grant us.

Das klagende Lied is a three movement cantata, in which two brothers set out to find a flower that we'll allow one of them to marry a princess. The kind brother finds it, upon which the evil one goes all OJ on him to steal the flower and the promised bride. Part II sees a minstrel finding one of the slain brother's bones, and making a flute of it, which sings the tale of part I. Oh sorrow, woe! Oh, sorrow! indeed. The musician rushes to the princess' castle in part III, whereupon the remaining brother plays with the fateful flute, and brings upon more sorrow and more woe.

More after the jump

We don’t dabble in national politics much, except when a gay Republican senator is outed in a Minneapolis airport (fun!). But we relate to the Two Americas theme of Democratic primary candidate John Edwards’ campaign: there is an America which will go to the SF Opera tonight, and another one which will go to Opera in the Park on Sunday. The first one, tuxedoed and bejeweled, cheered up by a cocktail reception, will enjoy a performance of Camille Saint Saens Samson and Delilah, followed by a “lavish post-performance dinner” and dancing. The other (ok, let’s be honest, us) will get arias selected from the upcoming season, preceded by Phil Bronstein’s stand-up routine, while drinking two buck chuck.

Inequality might be rising, but who’s to complain? There’s opera for everybody.

Actually, aside from tonight’s opening gala, there are affordable tickets for all performances (and if history is our guide, discounted tickets will be offered during Opera in the Park). The free Opera in the Park concert starts at 1:30pm in Sharon Meadows, in the Golden Gate Park. Plastic tarps ruin the grass, so bring a blanket instead, okay?

You can also catch Samson & Delilah for free at PacBell SBC the Giants stadium, on a giant high-def screen for a live videocast of the September 28th performance. You’ll need a ticket to get in, but the tickets for both field and stands seating are free! Garlic fries and opera, a match made in heaven. We hear that the singers will be wearing Giants uniforms and that Barry Bonds will sing in the chorus.

After the jump, our preview of the opera season. Picture from SF Opera web page