The season openings crowd closely, one upon another. In San Francisco, the biggies are the Symphony and the Opera, although other ensembles and their season openings are not to be sniffed at. I'll get to as many as I can — it's a busy time of the year.
So: the Opera. In September we have both the traditional and the brand new.
For tradition: Verdi's Simon Boccanegra, staged by Elijah Moshinsky, directed by Donald Runnicles, and featuring Dimitri Hvorostovsky in the title role.
Boccanegra is fully mature Verdi representing both his middle period of the 1850s (when it was premiered) and his later period of 1881, when he subjected the work to extensive revisions. As a play it is a typical potboiler of the period: a sweet maiden wronged, a villain, jealous women, political intrigue, a noble Doge who dies nobly as the final curtain falls.
There's something just a bit funny about it, to tell the truth. Consider this excerpt from the synopsis: "Fiesco and Gabriele are led in and, in spite of his hatred for Boccanegra, Fiesco refuses to be involved in Paolo’s plot against the Doge. Fiesco leaves and Paolo informs Gabriele that the Doge wishes Amelia for himself. Left alone, Gabriele breaks into a fit of jealous anger..."
As Thelma Ritter put it so succintly in All About Eve, "Everything except the bloodhounds nippin' at her rear end."
But no matter. Ignore the supertitles if you want and make up your own story about the onstage goings-on. (That's what I used to do before supertitles came along.) Just dig the music, the music, the music. Verdi at his strongest, his most confident, his most endlessly inventive and resourceful. And with a baritone of Hvorostovsky's power, you just can't go wrong.
Modulating from the standard repertory to the brand spanking new, September also marks the world premiere of Stewart Wallace and Amy Tan's new opera, The Bonesetters Daughter. Staged with a largely Asian cast (save those who are Westerners in the story), directed by Chen Shi-Zheng and conducted by Steven Sloane, this promises to be one of the signature events of the season.
Wallace (left) is probably best known for his opera Harvey Milk, while Amy Tan (below) is a best-selling novelist whose works often meditate on the memories of Chinese women in modern-day California.
From the S.F. Opera press release: "The opera tells the story of a troubled Chinese-American woman who, escorted by a ghost, travels into her immigrant mother’s past and discovers what they share in their bones through heredity, history and the transformative power of love. Influenced by extensive field research in China, Stewart Wallace has created an American opera with roots in China—incorporating the timbres and textures of Chinese music into a highly theatrical and lyrical score. Over the last three years, Wallace and Tan have traveled together throughout China attending funerals in small villages and exploring the music of ethnic minorities and Chinese opera in its many regional forms. Many of the artists they met along the way are now a part of The Bonesetter's Daughter."
In short, potentially an extraordinary evening in the theater.
If you're interested in seeing either production — or perhaps attending Angela Gheorghiu's recital on Saturday, September 6 at 7:30, then the place to go is the SF Opera online box office.
And remember that the great big splashy Opera Ball 2008 is on Friday, September 5, beginning at 5:00 pm in the Opera House Pavilion, with the first performance of Simon Boccanegra following.
Finally: Opera in the Park! Sunday, September 7 starting at 1:30 pm in Sharon Meadow, in Golden Gate Park. It's free and it's a great city tradition. Enjoy abundant singing, people-watching, and fog.
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