Fred Matthews in SF Opera's A Rake's Progress
The Cavalcade of Stars means a shower of show tunes and classics and folk from SF Opera chorister turned producer Fred Matthews. It's to benefit the children he passes on his gifts to at Coleman Elementary. The year has had a glorious start with two of his students singing at the inauguration with the San Francisco Boys Chorus. Indeed, I awoke to angels singing at 7:00 a.m. Pacific time—the boys chorus ringing out God Bless America as Fred predicted. This is the chorus that trains singers for the San Francisco Opera.
However Fred teaches and performs all year round. He simultaneously performs at engagements outside the opera where he has been since 1983. Recently with the help of performing friends he started producing his own extravaganza. The Cavalcade of Stars is a benefit for the arts program at Coleman Elementary in San Rafael. The Cavalcade of Stars comes up February 28 this year. Meanwhile Fred calls recess intermission and says being so busy teaching is like being on the A list. He can’t say no.
This year Fred has asked to volunteer for this third Cavalcade of Stars:
Kay Stern, violin
Virginia Pluth, soprano
Mary Finch, soprano
Mimi Ruiz, soprano
Melodi Dalton, soprano
Richard Walker, tenor
Sally Fletcher, harpist
Folk group, All Folked Up
The Marin Girls Chorus
Bill Welburn, piano
The tenor Richard Walker comes from the San Francisco Opera, a fellow chorister. The Cavalcade will feature a Rigoletto quartet paraphrase and a duet from Pearl Fishers or Verdi’s Don Carlo. Fred is still deciding.
The performance ranges from classical to Broadway to what he calls light and easy, which means the acoustic group All Folked Up. However Fred hates the banjo. It’s a legitimate instrument and he’ll teach it since kids need to know. However if you hate opera that’s okay too but you have to tell him why.
On that note I remember lounging in the canteen at the opera when the subject of the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival came up. Ian Robertson the choir master of the Boys Chorus had joined a little group who happened to be playing as the Opera Dukes in the morning. The group includes David Gockley the director of the opera. Ian was trying his best to grasp the concept of bluegrass . . . grass that is blue . . . but he was doing as good a job as one can imagine. Even I thought the choristers were joking just to tease Ian, a Scotsman. It turned out to be true.
Similarly, Fred says stage managing and singing in the Cavalcade the first year almost killed him. A slow and unnatural death. So now he picks and chooses what he will do.
The opener is a salute to kids. Last year it was Tonight from West Side Story. This year it’s going to be the rousing tune from Bugs Bunny. On with the show, this is it!
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Fred also likes From this Moment On and then for the closer, the drinking song from La Traviata. The San Francisco Opera features La Traviata this summer. Fred will also have a swing band in the lobby of the Marin Theater for Cavalcade this year. The musicians are San Rafael High students so the performance shows the audience the result of their donations. Fred raised $8,500 just for the arts. He says Cavalcade began since the goverment continues to make huge cut to our public school system. But Fred knows people in the arts so he asks the performers to volunteer.
My fear was that the arts would be on the block first. If you have an elite school but also kids who arrive who need to learn English, the school scores lower and gets less money. So the arts are in trouble because of these cuts.
This Sunday Fred will perform in Gualala. It’s a quartet, for the fifth time, at the Gualala Arts Center at four p.m. For more information go to GualalaArts.org.
Porgy & Bess an American classic
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A Rake's Progress (Stravinsky) photo courtesy
of John F. Martin, www.jfmdigital.com
Photo from Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio
courtesy of Fred Matthews
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