The Opera Tattler

Opera Parallèle's Fellow Travelers

* Notes *
Opera Parallèle is presenting the West Coast premiere of Fellow Travelers (Scene 6 pictured, photograph by Stefan Cohen) this weekend in San Francisco at the Presidio Theatre. The opera, a love story set in McCarthy era Washington DC, features a wordy libretto by Greg Spears and lyrical music from Gregory Spears.

Directed by Artistic Director Brian Staufenbiel, this chamber opera is very much makes for compelling theater, with romance, intrigue, and betrayal. Jacquelyn Scott's scenic design employs props hidden in a platform to move the action along with help from background projections. The mid-century costumes from Y. Sharon Peng are pleasing.

Opera Parallèle's Music Director Nicole Paiement is conducting John Adams in Vienna, so Maestro Jaymes Kirksey was at the helm of the pit. Though perhaps not as taut as usual, the orchestra sounded lovely playing this sweeping score, there were lots of trills and perhaps some references to Tchaikovsky. The libretto is structured in a way that feels very metrical, the repeated lines come back within the context of a duet or ensemble that reminded me of a tightly structured poetic form like a villanelle.

The plot centers on a love story between Hawkins "Hawk" Fuller, who works in the State Department, and Timothy Laughlin, a recent college graduate who aspires to work on The Hill. There is some great singing from the cast. even in the smaller roles. Soprano Cara Gabrielson has a full, icy clear voice as Lucy, Hawk's beard and soprano Elena Galván (Miss Lightfoot) was incisive and cut through the orchestration with utter clarity. Soprano Victoria Lawal is a sympathetic Mary Johnson, Hawk's assistant. Her Southern accent comes through nicely and her voice is smooth and resonant.

Best of all are the two leads (pictured in Scene 14, photograph by Stefan Cohen), who can both sing and act. Baritone Joseph Lattanzi embodied Hawk, he's charming and sounds sweetly vibrant. Tenor Jonathan Pierce Rhodes is convincing as Tim, he seems young and earnest, and his heartbreak is feels very real. His voice is beautiful, very clear and bright.

• * Tattling *
  The scenes of this opera unfold one after another, so there weren't really pauses for people to chatter, which meant they spoke over the music at times. The folks in the center section of Row H closer to the odd numbered seats were quite audible, for instance. I did not hear electronic noise or see anyone use a cellular phone, so that was nice.

The opera is presented with an intermission after Scene 8, but it felt very abrupt. Maybe I have just gotten used to contemporary operas being done all in one go. The intermission must have been a little on the short side, because a person in our row came back late, as the music had already resumed

It was fun to see many familiar faces in the audience, and the intermission was a good time to catch up with some friends I haven't seen for a bit.

SF Opera's Partenope

* Notes *
A revival of Händel's Partenope returned to San Francisco Opera last night. The sleek staging (Act III pictured, photograph by Cory Weaver) is still very funny and the cast is fantastic.

Even though Händel wrote 42 operas, we usually only hear Giulio Cesare and Rodelinda. Partenope (1730) had its first performances in the United States in 1988 and at the War Memorial in 2014,  so it is great to have the chance to hear this opera again. 

The 2008 production from Christopher Alden is set in a 1920s Parisian salon and references Man Ray, Surrealism, and Dadaism. There are many sight gags, leaning into the silliness of the plot. Crude drawings are scrawled on the walls; bananas are eaten, thrown, and worn; lewd gestures made; and jokes in and around a water closet figure prominently in Act II. The amount of toilet paper employed has, perhaps, a different valence than it did pre-pandemic.

The music is lovely, and conductor Christopher Moulds certainly keeps everyone moving. The rapid tempi at times felt rushed, but it was always lively and never dully square. The continuo was played prettily by cellist Evan Kahn, theorbist Richard Savino, and Maestro Moulds and Peter Walsh on harpsichord.

Best of all was the singing, especially from the title character. Soprano Julie Fuchs (pictured in Act I, photograph by Cory Weaver), making her American debut, is truly a winsome Partenope. Her resonant voice is bell-like and clean, well-suited for the role. She went from strength to strength, her sound opening up as the night progressed. Her Act II aria "Qual farfalletta" was particularly beautiful and she interpolated some La Traviata into the end of Act III to hilarious effect.

Also making very fine company debuts were countertenors Carlo Vistoli (Arsace) and Nicholas Tamagna (Armindo). Vistoli has an almost girlish sweetness to his voice, very much at odds with his physical presentation, which was fun. His coloratura is impressive, but his introspective arias were also strong, as in Act III with "Ch'io parta." Tamagna sounded clear and open as Arsace's rival Armindo.

The cast was rounded out by three former Adler Fellows, all of whom can both sing and act. Baritone Hadleigh Adams is charming as Ormonte, he has a lot of charisma and a pleasant tone to boot. He looked and moved fabulously in his pink petticoated dress with Pickelhaube and bananas on his head. Mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack is suitably tormented and vacillating as Rosmira who is disguised as a man named Eurimene. Her voice is light and pretty, but she can sound downright mannish. Her real-life husband tenor Alek Shrader is Emilio, a military general also besotted by Partenope, but presented here as a stand-in for Man Ray. Shrader's antics are amusing, he is creepy and weird, constantly photographing the others. His voice has a richer tone than I remember in previous years.

* Tattling *
The couple behind us in Orchestra Row R Seats 2 and 4 were having the best time. They arrived precisely at 7:28pm and were exhilarated to be there just before the curtain rose. They did talk to each other the whole opera, but were so engaged that it was hard to be annoyed with them. They laughed uproariously at every single joke presented.

Otherwise, the rest of the audience also seemed to enjoy the opera, I heard lots of giggles and clapping for the various arias but very little in the way of electronic noise or lozenge wrappers.

In fact, the most ill-behaved person I observed was likely myself. I tried to dress as a flapper per the Roaring Twenties theme of this production and my boa, shed pink feathers all over the place.

SF Symphony's Erwartung

* Notes *
San Francisco Symphony performed Schoenberg's Erwartung (1909) for the first time on Friday. Conducted by outgoing music director Esa-Pekka Salonen, the orchestra sounded splendid at the Saturday performance I attended. The musicians were very clear and together, while soprano Mary Elizabeth Williams (pictured as the Woman, photograph by Kristen Loken) sounded hearty, always able to cut through the lush orchestration.

This opera is part of director Peter Sellars and Salonen's collaboration  at San Francisco Symphony to put on large-scale works over four years. Sellars reframes this piece as an "Accidental Death in Custody" and begins with a body bag on stage. Two guards come out and Williams signs some papers on a clipboard. This new setting did not always work with the text, as it is very specific, and the opera is more ambiguous, the Woman gradually realizes her lover is dead, which is at odds with a corpse at her feet. The imagery of walking through the forest at night is lost, but the Woman's journey does retain a nightmarish quality, a very contemporary horror.

Maestro Salonen got his ideas across,  the orchestra has a fine clarity and everything felt laden with intent.  The piece can be quite loud, but I could always pick out the fluid soli. Concertmaster Alexander Barantschik played particularly well, though all the strings were shimmering. The woodwinds sounded lovely, especially the flute. The brass fanfares were clear and in tune.

The one vocal soloist, soprano Mary Elizabeth Williams, was utterly focused and very strong. Her voice is well-supported from top to bottom and her high notes are crystalline without being the least bit shrill. She sounded robust no matter how she was positioned, whether she was standing or lying down, it did not seem to matter. Her German diction was clear as were the emotions of the text. It was an intense 33 minutes.

The evening began with Ravel's Ma Mère l’Oye (Mother Goose) with choreography from Alonzo King performed by his LINES Ballet. King chose not to literally tell these stories, but there were characters within each of the dances. The dancers (pictured, photograph by Kristen Loken) were dressed in muted autumnal colors and were a joy to watch, lots of impressive extension, and coordinated movement. I love to hear live music with dancers, especially at this high level, though there were moments when I might have been more focused on the playing than the dancing.

* Tattling *
The dancing kept the audience rapt, they hardly made a peep during the Ravel. The Schoenberg is more challenging, and there was some light talking and looking at cell phones to check the time.

Surprisingly, many people I know attended this performance, as it was not the prima.

I was startled to see that SF Symphony had not performed the Schoenberg before, it's a bit funny to think a Saariaho was here first. I heard this at Seattle Opera where it was presented with Bluebeard's Castle in 2009. When I saw in the program that Mary Elizabeth Williams was in the young artist program at Seattle Opera before I had my first child, I thought I must have heard her before. Sure enough, she was Serena in Porgy and Bess back in 2011, and it was nice to see that I was consistent about really liking her voice. Apparently I found Erwartung "interminable."

SF Opera's Innocence (Again)

* Notes *
Hearing Saariaho's Innocence a second time at San Francisco Opera is most gratifying. The music is richly layered and the orchestra sounds great, as do the singers.

The whole production is at a very high level, it was even more obvious from the orchestra level how perfectly coordinated the staging was, and how quietly everything was placed as the massive set was spinning. I noticed this time around that the set mostly goes clockwise, but did also spin counterclockwise. There definitely were times when things did stop or speed up, and it is truly a feat.

Maestro Clément Mao-Takacs has the orchestra sounding very clear, there is lovely shimmering punctuated with pops of percussion, and I look forward to hearing this up in balcony standing room. Mao-Takacs high-fived all the principal singers when he came to the stage for the ovation (pictured, photograph by author) and he seemed to have a strong rapport with the musicians.

Again I loved hearing soprano Vilma Jää as Markéta , but was able to get a better handle on the other voices this time. Soprano Lucy Shelton (Teacher) almost screams, I felt like her voice was reaching inside of me, it was very disturbing. Soprano Claire de Sévigné (Mother-in-Law) can sound bird-like and crystalline, while soprano Lilian Farahani (Bride) has a touch more warmth and heft to her tone. Soprano Beate Mordal has a certain sweetness as Lilly, one of the students who survives, and soprano Marina Dumont was sympathetic as Alexia, another surviving student.

Julie Hega is menacing as Iris, the shooter's friend, her slow, deliberateness and deep voice are striking. It is also clear that the character has been abused and is in pain, so again, there is nuance. Tenor Miles Mykkanen has a bright quality to his voice. Mezzo-soprano Ruxandra Donose sang the role of Tereza, the Waitress, with a lot of passion, conveying the text with clarity in both her voice and her acting.

* Tattling *
There were some inappropriate giggles when Tereza confronts Patricia, the Mother-in-Law. Perhaps the person in question was just uncomfortable witnessing these mothers and their pain.

I did see the fog this time, it is right near the end and was to far upstage for me to see from Box B.

The original language supertitles to the sides of the stage did not appear during the June 7 performance, which was too bad, as I had found them very helpful to understand what language the opera was being sung in at any given moment.

The Magic Flute at SF Opera (Again)

* Notes * 
I attended San Francisco Opera's Die Zauberflöte with my family last Sunday, our first with all four of us. It was also my seven-year-old's (pictured left, photograph by author) first time to the War Memorial Opera House. Again, my favorite part was hearing Eun Sun Kim conduct the San Francisco Opera Orchestra.

It was very fun to be able to see the musicians in the orchestra pit, especially the fortepiano. We could not see all of the stage from where we were, but since most of staging was visible, it seemed easy enough to fill in what was going on, since all of us know this opera fairly well.

I was definitely a bit nervous about bringing my young children to the opera, and hopefully the younger one was not too annoying to the other two patrons with whom we shared Box Z. My daughter runs hot and was wearing two dresses, leggings, and a fake fur stole, so did overheat at one point.

Both children have familiarity with silent film, especially Buster Keaton, so they did get a lot of the jokes. They seemed charmed by the various animals projected on the stage. The black cat that befriends Papageno was a favorite, but they also liked the owls and cuttlefish.

Papageno may have missed a cue and his legs were facing the wrong direction from his body at the end of Act I.

The singing was more confident this time around,  Tenor Amitai Pati (Tamino) continued to sing well, though his voice is a bit light, as is soprano Anna Simińska (Queen of the Night).

* Tattling * 
My ten-year-old was his usual quiet self at the performance, this is the second time he's been to this particular opera. I think it's easier for him to pay attention when he's wearing his glasses, since that means he can actually read the supertitles. His sister did fairly well, and I'm glad I waited to bring her to San Francisco Opera now that she can read, since it is harder for her to sit still. When I told her if she didn't behave I wouldn't bring her again for a long time, she asked how long, and I responded with "20 years."

SF Opera's Innocence

* Notes *
Kaija Saariaho's Innocence had a U.S. premiere last night at San Francisco Opera, almost exactly a year after her death. The performance was gripping, the music, narrative, and staging all had a relentless intensity.

As with Adriana Mater, the opera from Saariaho performed by San Francisco Symphony the previous June, Innocence deals with a very difficult topic. Sofi Okansen's original Finnish libretto, which was made into the nine-language final version by Aleksi Barriere, deals with a school shooting and its aftermath a decade later. The way the story unwinds, starting at a wedding reception in Helsinki and gradually taking us into the international school where the shooting takes place is very effective. The story is nuanced, there are many characters, but we are able to understand that nothing is black and white, nothing is simple.

The enormous set has two levels (pictured, photographs by Cory Weaver) and is basically looks like a modernist building. It revolves the entire 108 minutes of the opera, which has no intermission, and the scenes are changed when rooms are out of view. The crew members did an incredible job, and having rooms change from a reception hall into a classroom, which seemed to happen undetectably, pulled the audience into the world of this opera. 

Saariaho's music is, however, the beating heart of this piece. The eerie textures of the orchestra had much color and shape under the baton of Maestro Clément Mao-Takacs. There wasn't a moment when my attention flagged, the intensity of focus from the orchestra pit was palpable. There were particularly beautiful soli from the bassoon, oboe, and harp. The brass and strings all sounded clear and clean.

The singers had microphones, which is characteristic of Sariaaho's work. This piece has a lot of speech singing (Sprechgesang) and the amplification made for good intelligibility, I could definitely understand the English, German, and Spanish without looking at the supertitles, which were provided in English above and in whichever language the words were in, which was so helpful. I really appreciated seeing the text, so that at a glance I could tell what language we were hearing.

There are a lot of principal singers for this opera, 21 in total. Soprano Vilma Jää was a standout, her portrayal of Student #1 (Markéta) was otherworldly. Her vocal technique comes from Finnish folk music, and her part was written for her. While it wasn't what one normally hears at the opera, it felt very much in place for this performance. Soprano Lucy Shelton as the Teacher was also very strong, she very much appeared to be a shattered person, it was clear in her singing. 

Baritone Rod Gilfry sang the Father-in-Law with warmth and subtlety, while soprano Claire de Sévigné gave an icy, almost frightening contrast as the Mother-in-Law. Tenor Miles Mykkanen has a pretty sound as the Bridegroom, but was able to effortlessly convey the different emotions of the opera. Soprano Lilian Farahani was a fine counterpoint as the Bride, her character is not in the community when the school shooting happened. She is perhaps easiest to identify with in the story, as what happens is unfolding to her as well. Mezzo-soprano Ruxandra Donose (Waitress) is the most devastating though, her pain felt very real to me, and her rich, powerful voice showed the anguish of losing a child.

* Tattling *
There were light whispers in Box A, but Box B (which included librettist Okansen, who had to scurry out to take her ovation) was exceedingly quiet. I did not hear or see anyone's cellular phone.

The advisory for this opera warned us of "FOG" in large letters, but of the gun violence in much smaller type below. I did not even detect this fog, but perhaps I was too fixated on other aspects of the performance. Cake is thrown out of anger and frustration, for example, which I really was not expecting.