The Opera Tattler

SoundBox's Outré

* Notes *
SoundBox's latest program, titled Outré, featured French avant-garde music over seven centuries. Beautifully curated, the engaging music ranged from Pérotin's polyphonic Sederunt principes with a cappella male voices and portative organ to Messiaen's Couleurs de la cité celeste for solo piano and instrumental ensemble, including the many gongs seen in the photograph to the left.

Michael Tilson Thomas lead the musicians and amiably talked the audience through the pieces one by one. Selections from Jean-Féry Rebel's Les élémens was a cheerful place to start, and the sprightly French Baroque music was such fun. This certainly set the stage for the program to come.

It was lovely to hear the musicians of San Francisco Symphony in this more intimate venue. Principal oboist Eugene Izotov played Ravel's Pièce en forme de Habanera and Saint-Saëns' Molto allegro from Oboe Sonata in D major, while principal flutist Tim Day played Debussy's Syrinx. Principal percussionist Jacob Nissly especially impressed in Darius Milhaud's Concerto for Percussion and Small Orchestra, Opus 109. Ending with an excerpt of Milhaud's Scaramouche was a festive touch.

The French-inspired garden installation designed by Luke Kritzeck with a digital reflecting pool by video designer Adam Larsen was rather pretty. The videos during the music did not distract but did not look like screensavers either.

Tattling *
The youngish audience was mostly quiet. There seats are not guaranteed for these sold-out events and we were lucky enough to find a friend in line just before 8pm. Those who did not line up mostly milled about at the back of the venue, though a couple did stand directly in front of my date (we were seated by the west side of the first stage) for the second set.

Kentridge's Winterreise

* Notes *
SF Opera Lab began with visual artist William Kentridge's production of Winterreise last weekend. His beautiful meditations on Schubert's Lieder are deeply immersive and the incredible performers, baritone Matthias Goerne and pianist Markus Hinterhäuser though very talented, seemed almost incidental to the work.

The effect Kentridge gets with mostly black and white projections on a surface layered with paper is compelling, so much so that it was hard for me to focus in on the music. The landscapes and figures dancing or walking across dictionary pages completely held my attention for the 80 minute performance, which seemed much shorter to me.

Goerne has an absolutely gorgeous voice, vital and strong, but I was glad I had heard him before, because in this it might have been lost on me. The sound in the Taube Atrium Theater seemed properly adjusted, some of the weird echoey effects noticed at Daniel Okulitch's Schwabacher were not in evidence.

Tattling *
The audience was quiet. We were asked to look at our programs before the performance began and the lights were kept off, so browsing the translations was not a true option.

The much-touted cup holders were not in use, as we were asked to not bring beverages into the hall for this performance.

SF Opera Lab Preview

My preview of San Francisco Opera's series at the Taube Atrium Theater and new audience initiatives for classical music organizations such as SoundBox, PIVOT, and Berkeley RADICAL is up on KQED Arts.

I heard no less than three performances at the Wilsey Center for Opera: the first iteration of ChamberWORKS that I already described, an Adler recital for donors, and the second Schwabacher recital in the space, which featured bass-baritone Daniel Okulitch and pianist John Churchwell. Definitely curious about the William Kentridge production of Winterreise this weekend to be held as the first official event of SF Opera Lab.

Opera San José's 2016-2017 Season

September 10–25 2016: Lucia di Lammermoor
November 12–26 2016: Il barbiere di Siviglia
February 8–24 2017: Kevin Puts' Silent Night
April 15–30 2017: La bohème

There are four operas scheduled for next season at Opera San José, including the West Coast premiere of Kevin Put's Silent Night.

SF Symphony's 2016-2017 Season

September 7 2016: MTT conducts Steve Reich, Rossini; Renée Fleming, soprano and Susan Graham, mezzo-soprano
September 8 2016: MTT conducts Copland, Vivaldi, Rossini; Susanna Phillips, soprano and Alexander Barantschik, violin
September 9-10 2016: MTT conducts Copland, Reich; Susanna Phillips, soprano and eighth blackbird, chamber ensemble
September 11 2016: MTT conducts Steve Reich 80th Birthday Celebration
September 14-17 2016: MTT conducts Haydn, Sibelius, Beethoven
September 18 2016: MTT conducts Beethoven Discovery Concert
September 22-24 2016: MTT conducts Marcello, Berio, Verdi; Michael Fabiano, tenor; Swingle Singers, vocal ensemble; Eugene Izotov, oboe
September 28- October 1 2016: MTT conducts Bright Sheng, Shostakovich, Stravinsky; Yuja Wang, piano; Mark Inouye, trumpet
October 9 2016: Vincent Dubois, organ
October 13-15 2016: Brad Lubman conducts 2001: A Space Odyssey
October 16 2016: Chamber Music with members of SFS
October 19-22 2016: Pablo Heras-Casado conducts Mozart, Schumann, Dvořák; Alisa Weilerstein, cello
October 23 2016: Chamber Music with members of SFS
October 27-30 2016: MTT conducts Allegri, Mozart, Brahms; Rudolph Buchbinder, piano; Pacific Boychoir
October 31- November 1 2016: Gustavo Dudamel conducts Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra
November 2-4 2016: MTT conducts Chopin and Bruckner; Yuja Wang, piano
November 5 2016: Día de los Muertos Concert
November 6 2016: Jacek Kaspszyki conducts Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra; Yulianna Avdeevat, piano
November 9-22 2016: Asia Tour with Yuja Wang
November 20 2016: Christian Reif conducts SFS Youth Orchestra
November 22-23 2016: Simon Rattle conducts Berlin Philharmonic
December 3 2016: Edwin Outwater conducts Music for Families
December 4 2016: Chamber Music with members of SFS
December 4 2016: Yu Long conducts China Philharmonic Orchestra; Julian Rachlin, violin
December 9-10 2016: SoundBox
December 11 2016: Christian Reif conducts SFS Youth Orchestra in Peter and the Wolf
December 11 2016: A Merri-achi Christmas
December 15-17 2016: Patrick Dupré Quigley conducts Messiah
January 7-8 2017: David Newman conducts On the Waterfront
January 13-15 2017: MTT conducts Mahler
January 16 2017: Itzak Perlman, violin & Rohan De Silva, piano
January 21-24 2016: James Gaffigan conducts Musssorgsky, Prokofiev, Mozart, and R. Strauss; Simone Lamsma, violin
January 20-21 2017: SoundBox
January 26-28 2017: Lionel Bringuier conducts Kodály, Ravel, Beethoven; Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano
January 28 2017: Edwin Outwater conducts Music for Families
January 29 2017: Chamber Music with members of SFS
January 29 2017: Emmanuel Villaume conducts Prague Philharmonia; Gautier Capuçon, cello
February 1-3 2017: Herbert Blomstedi conducts Beethoven
February 4 2017: Chinese New Year Concert
February 5 2017: Chamber Music with members of SFS
February 7 2017: Lang Lang, piano
February 9-12 2017: Herbert Blomstedt conducts Beethoven and Brahms; Yefim Bronfman, piano
February 10-11 2017: SoundBox
February 16-18 2017: Joana Carneiro conducts John Adams' The Gospel According to the Other Mary
February 19 2017: Chamber Music with members of SFS
February 22-25 2017: MTT conducts John Adams, Prokofiev; Leila Josefowicz, violin
February 26 2017: James O'Donnell, organ
March 1-4 2017: MTT conducts Gnesin, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky; Gautier Capuçon, cello
March 5 2017: Christian Reif conducts SFS Youth Orchestra
March 9-12 2017: Marek Janowski conducts Beethoven, Hindemith, Brahms; Arabella Steinbacher, violin
March 10-11 2017: SoundBox
March 13 2017: András Schiff, piano
March 16-18 2017: Juraj Valčuha conducts Schreker, Barber, Beethoven; Gil Shaham, violin
March 18 2017: Christian Reif conducts Music for Families
March 19 2017: Chamber Music with members of SFS
March 19-20 2017: Yuri Temirkanov conducts St. Petersburg Philharmonic
March 23-24 2017: MTT conducts Cage, Robin Holloway, Bartók; Jeffrey Anderson, tuba
March 25-26 2017: MTT conducts Cage, Bruch, Bartók; Nicola Benedetti, violin
March 26 2017: Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin and Lambert Orkis, piano
March 30- April 2 2017: MTT conducts Mahler
April 2-3 2017: Fabio Luisi conducts Danish National Orchestra
April 5-8 2017: US Tour
April 7 2017: Ragnar Bohlin conducts San Francisco Symphony Chorus
April 14-15 2017: SoundBox
April 14-15 2017: Emil de Cou conducts Raiders of the Lost Ark
April 19-22 2017: Andrés Orozco-Estrada conducts Prokofiev and Rachmaninoff; Denis Kozhukhin, piano
April 27-29 2017: Fabio Luisi conducts Schumann and R. Strauss; Igor Levit, piano
April 30 2017: Chamber Music with members of SFS
May 4-6 2017: Charles Dutoit conducts Berlioz's Requiem; Paul Groves, tenor
May 7 2017: Chamber Music with members of SFS
May 10-13 2017: Charles Dutoit conducts Sibelius, Mozart, Falla, Debussy; Emanuel Ax, piano
May 14 2017: Christian Reif conducts SFS Youth Orchestra
May 17-21 2017: Roberto Abbado conducts Schumann and Mendelssohn; Veronika Eberle, violin
May 25-27 2017: Manfred Honeck conducts Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky; Matthias Goerne, baritone
May 28 2017: Chamber Music with members of SFS
May 31- June 1 2017: Alexander Barantschik, violin leads Vivaldi, Mozart, J.S. Bach
June 2-3 2017: Sarah Hicks conducts Casablanca
June 3 2017: Christian Reif conducts Music for Families
June 4 2017: Wayne Marshall, organ
June 9-11 2017: Susanna Mälkki conducts Debussy, Beethoven, Stravinsky; Garrick Ohlsson, piano
June 15-18 2017: Vasily Petrenko conducts Glinka, Lalo, Rachmaninoff; Joshua Bell, violin
June 23-25 2017: MTT conducts Ives, MTT, Harrison, Antheil; Measha Brueggergosman, mezzo-soprano
June 28- July 1 2017: MTT conducts Berlioz's Roméo et Juliette; Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano; Nicholas Phan, tenor; and Luca Pisaroni, bass-baritone