Friday Photo

Espresso

Paris, 2018

 

Museum Mondays

Birth of Gothic Sculpture

Musée de Cluny, Paris

October, 2018

 

Friday Photo

Ghost Sign

Rue de la Butte aux Cailles

Paris, 2018

 

Not Good for the Liberal Arts

Both Stanford and the University of California, Berkeley, are replacing their outgoing chief executives with people who come from their respective business schools.

• At Berkeley, Richard Lyons is the former head of the Haas School of Business. He replaces Carol Christ, a scholar of Victorian literature.
• At Stanford, Jonathan Levin, currently the dean of the Stanford business school, replaces Marc Tessier-Lavigne, who resigned after allegations of misconduct related to the authenticity of images appearing in his published research. I here note that Levin is a nepo baby; his father was president of Yale for 20 years.
• An article about Tessier-Lavigne's resignation. What happened here was much, much worse than anything Claudine Gay did.

I can't help but thinking that these appointments won't be good for the humanities, which are under attack everywhere. I'm sure they will be able leaders in terms of fundraising, budgeting, and other responsibilities. I hope that they'll support the full breadth of academic programs at their respective institutions.

Still More Music Director Updates

Well, apologies: I didn't get to posting about Esa-Pekka Salonen and the San Francisco Symphony. Here are more updates, taken from comments to the previous update.

• Kahchun Wong becomes the new principal conductor of the Hallé Orchestra in 2024-2025. This was announced in June 2023.
• Christopher Franklin became the principal conductor of the Minnesota Opera in December, 2023. He was excellent in his appearances at San Francisco Opera, where I hope he'll guest conduct again.
• Lionel Bringuier is principal conductor of the Nice Philharmonic Orchestra, as of the current season.
• Peter Oundjian has been principal conductor of the Colorado Symphony since Feb. 2022.
• Mark Wigglesworth becomes chief conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra next season.
• Dalia Stasevska will be leaving the Lahti Symphony at the end of 2024-25.
• Elim Chan will be leaving the Antwerp Symphony at the end of 2024-25
• Kirill Karabits will be leaving the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra after this season.

Open positions:

• San Francisco Symphony
• Phoenix Symphony
• Cleveland Orchestra, as of June, 2027.
• Lahti Symphony, when Dalia Stasevka leaves.
• Antwerp Symphony, with the departure in 2025 of Elim Chan.
• Paris Opera is currently without a music director.
• Nashville Symphony, when Giancarlo Guerrero leaves.
• Deutsche Oper Berlin, when Donald Runnicles leaves.
• Rottedam Philharmonic, when Lahav Shani leaves.
• Los Angeles Philharmonic, as of 2026-27, when Gustavo Dudamel leaves for NY.
• Sarasota Orchestra, following the death of Bramwell Tovey.
• Seattle Symphony, following Thomas Dausgaard's abrupt departure in January, 2022.
• Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra: open in 2024 when Louis Langree steps down.
• Hong Kong Philharmonic, when Jaap van Zweden leaves in 2024.
• Oakland Symphony, owing to the death of Michael Morgan in August, 2021.
• Teatro Regio Turin: Open now with departure of Gianandrea Noseda. The Teatro Regio has not named a new music director.
• Marin Symphony, at the end of 2022-23.
• Vienna Staatsoper, when Philippe Jordan leaves at the end of 2025.

Conductors looking for jobs (that is, as of the near future, or now, they do not have a posting). The big mystery, to me, is why an orchestra hasn't snapped up Susanna Mälkki. Slightly lesser mystery: Henrik Nanasi, whose superb Cosi fan tutte is still lingering in my ears.

• Esa-Pekka Salonen, if he wants such a position again
• Dalia Stasevska
• Elim Chan
• Kirill Karabits
• Tito Muñoz 
• Andrey Boreyko
• Osmo Vänskä
• Susanna Mälkki, who left the Helsinki Philharmonic at the end of 2022-23.
• MGT (apparently does not want a full-time job, as of early 2022)
• Miguel Harth-Bedoya (seems settled in at Baylor)
• Sian Edwards
• Ingo Metzmacher
• Jac van Steen
• Ilan Volkov
• Aleksandr Markovic
• Lothar Koenigs
• Henrik Nanasi
• Philippe Jordan, eventually
• Franz Welser-Möst, if he wants such a job

And closed:

• Minnesota Opera: closed with the appointment of Christopher Franklin.
• The Chicago Symphony Orchestra gets to share Klaus Mäkelä with the Concertgebouw.
• The Hallé Orchestra's next conductor will be Kahchun Wong.
• Marin Alsop becomes principal guest conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, I believe succeeding Nathalie Stutzmann.
• Simon Rattle becomes principal guest conductor of the Czech Philharonic.
• John Storgards will becomes chief conductor of the Turku Philharmonic.
• Update and correction: San Francisco Chamber Orchestra was unable to hire Cosette Justo Valdés. Instead, Jory Fankuchen, a violinist in the orchestra, has been named Principal Conductor and will lead this season's programs.
• Indianapolis Symphony hires Jun Markel, effective September 1, 2024.
• Andris Nelsons renewed his contract with the Boston Symphony. He's now on an evergreen rolling contract, which will continue as long as he and the orchestra are happy with each other. MTT had one of these at SFS.
• Shanghai Symphony, with the appointment of Long Yu.
• Virginia Symphony, with the appointment of Eric Jacobsen.
• Warsaw Philharmonic, with the appointment of Krzysztof Urbański.
• Bern Symphony, with the appointment of Krzysztof Urbański.
• Berlin State Opera, with the appointment of Christian Thielemann.
• Dresden Philharmonic, with the appointment of Donald Runnicles.
• New York Philharmonic, with the appointment of Gustavo Dudamel. Note that Jaap van Zweden leaves in 2024 and there will be a two-season gap before Dudamel arrives.
• Helsinki Philharmonic: Jukka-Pekka Saraste to succeed Susanna Mälkki.
• Staatskapelle Dresden, with the appointment of Daniele Gatti.
• Seoul Philharmonic appoints Jaap van Zweden.
• Royal Opera appoints Jakub Hrůša to succeed Antonio Pappano in September, 2025.

 

Opera San José Cast Change

Something apparently didn't work as expected in Opera San José's upcoming production of Florencia en el Amazonas, because Elizabeth Caballero is singing the title role and Marlen Nahhas is not.

If you've been around a while, you'll remember Caballero as an exciting soprano, with an extremely beautiful voice, in the Adler Fellowship program at SF Opera. She withdrew partway through the fellowship to launch her career, perhaps before she was a fully mature artist. She's been singing all over the U.S. since then. I'm so interested to hear what she sounds like now.

This is all very last minute; the production opens on April 20, less than two weeks from today. Here's the top of the press release:

SAN JOSÉ, CA (8 April 2024) — In a last-minute change, internationally acclaimed soprano Elizabeth Caballero will take over the title role in the Bay Area premiere of Daniel Catán’s captivating opera, Florencia en el Amazonas presented by Opera San José. The singer, whose work has been described as “a thrilling balance of pearly tone, exacting technique, and brazen physicality” (The New York Times) and “a find: her opulent soprano rings freely and lyrically throughout her range” (The Wall Street Journal) is stepping in to replace the originally announced soprano Marlen Nahhas. Said Opera San José General Director/CEO Shawna Lucey, “We wish Marlen all the best and we are profoundly grateful for Elizabeth, who is leaping to our aid to take on this important role for a historic moment for Opera San José as we present the first Spanish language opera on our mainstage.” Caballero, who has been seen at opera houses around the world including frequent starring roles at The Metropolitan Opera, is fortunately familiar with the role of Florencia. She has given critically acclaimed performances in Florencia en el Amazonas at Madison Opera, Nashville Opera, and New York City Opera where she was hailed as “stunning, singing with beautiful passion” (New York Classical Review) and “plush-toned, expressive” (The New York Times). Florencia en el Amazonas will be presented April 20 - May 5, 2024 (performance dates/times below) at the California Theatre, 345 South First Street, San José.  For more information or to purchase tickets ($55–$195), the public can visit operasj.org or call 408-437-4450 (open Monday through Friday, 9:00am–5:00pm).   

Path of the Eclipse

Using a steamer insert to safely view the eclipse.

Oakland, CA

April 8, 2024

 

Museum Mondays

 

Birth of Gothic Sculpture

Musée de Cluny, Paris

October, 2018

Feast of the Annunciation

 

Annunciation

Sandro Botticelli

Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco

December, 2023

MTT, Here and There

 

Michael Tilson Thomas

Photo by Brandon Patoc (c), 2019

courtesy of San Francisco Symphony

I'm pleased to see that MTT continues to be as active as he can possibly be, given his current health. He's just been appointed a distinguished professor of music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he will "work individually with selected conducting and piano students, participate in readings with the orchestra and lead master classes", according to Joshua Kosman's article from earlier this week. I am sure that he'll be great at this.

Further, he's on the schedules of several American orchestras during the 2024-25 season:

• New York Philharmonic, Mahler Symphony No. 5 and Mozart Piano Concerto No. 14 (Emmanuel Ax), opening the season in September
• LA Philharmonic, Celebrating MTT, February 1, 2025 (program TBD)
• Philadelphia Orchestra, May, 2025

He also has upcoming appearances at the New World Symphony in Miami, in London at the London Symphony, and in Copenhagen with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra.

Really, it seems odd that he's not on the SFS schedule for 2024-25, given the above. As always, wishing MTT the very best.

Klaus Mäkelä, Here and There

Klaus Mäkelä leading the Oslo Philharmonic

Photo copyright Marco Borggreve

courtesy of Mäkelä's web site

There's been an enormous amount of ink spilled in the last few days over the appointment of Klaus Mäkelä, 28, to the post of music director for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, starting with the 2027-28 season. He is currently the music director of the Orchestre de Paris and the Oslo Philharmonic, posts he will leave before the 2027-28 season. 

He is also the incoming music director of the Concertgebouw. So, in three years, at 31, he'll be leading two of the world's great orchestras.

I've got two objections to this, one of which might or might not be connected to his age:

• Nobody should be the music director of more than one major orchestra.
• He was....good, not great, in his single appearance at San Francisco Symphony.

As to the first point above, I've been saying this for a few years. Big organizations deserve the more or less full attention of their music directors, who in the United States are responsible for working with the artistic administrator on programming, leading a substantial number of concerts, building the orchestra, both through consistent work with them and through hiring new musicians*, working with the board and administration on publicity and fundraising, and ideally being involved with the local community in some ways. 

That last item is complicated: it might entail working with youth orchestras, working with young musicians, bringing the orchestra or a subset of the musicians out into the community, and so on. Conductors really do vary a lot in how much they do this. Locally, the late Michael Morgan, conductor of the Oakland Symphony for decades, was the exemplar, not Esa-Pekka Salonen, not MTT, not Herbert Blomstedt at San Francisco Symphony. I understand that Gustavo Dudamel, who came out of Venezuela's Sistema, has done a lot of community-oriented work in LA.

And I realize that a conductor can lead just one orchestra and still not be around as much as you'd like. Salonen isn't the music director anywhere except SFS, but he teaches conducting at the Colburn School in LA (possibly putting a lot of mileage on the Prius I see parked in his spot in Lake Louise). In a typical year he has guest conducting engagements all over the United States and in Europe.

It'd be interesting to ask the Metropolitan Opera how it worked out when James Levine was the music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra as well as the Met - okay, we know his health problems had a lot to do with his problems at both organizations - and how it's working out now to have YN-S at the Met, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Orchestre Métropolitain in Montreal. Not that I think you'll get an honest answer, if there are any issues. And neither the BSO nor the Leipzig Gewandhaus will tell you whether it's a problem that Andris Nelsons is the music director of both.

But, you know, there is a gigantic pool of conducting talent out there. I know this because of the great performances I've heard the last few years just at SFS, from conductors as diverse as Dalia Stasevska, Elim Chan, Giancarlo Guerrero, Ruth Reinhardt, Nathalie Stutzmann, Krzysztof Urbański, Susanna Mälkki, Osmo Vänskä, and, of course, MTT and Salonen. Elsewhere, I've heard excellent work from Cristian Macerlaru at the Cabrillo Festival and Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla in SF with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

As to the second - well, see the above. All of the conductors I list have been more memorable and interesting than Mäkelä, who has gotten mixed reviews from Joshua Kosman, Alex Ross, and (on record) David Allen. Balancing this, he got a great review from Justin Davidson for a recent Carnegie Hall program with the Orchestre de Paris. I trust the ears and judgement of all of these writers, and also my own. 

Certainly there's room for growth for every young musician. The LA Phil has a history of hiring surprisingly young and untried conductors, including Zubin Mehta, Gustavo Dudamel, and Esa-Pekka Salonen. By and large those were good appointments, in different ways. Maybe Mäkelä will be as good as Salonen one of these days, and I note that I have friends who still wince at some of Salonen's work in the, uh, core Germanic repertory in the 1990s. (His Beethoven here has been spectacularly good.)

Here are various Mäkelä-related articles that I've read over the last week and even earlier:

• Joshua Kosman, SF Chron, SFS review
• David Bratman, SFCV, SFS review
• Joshua Kosman on young performers in general
• Alex Ross, The New Yorker, Conductors Had One Job. Now They Have Three or Four
• Zachary Wolfe, NY Times, The Era of Klaus Mäkelä, Conducting Phenom, Begins in Chicago (gift link)
• Javier C. Hernandez, NY Times, Klaus Mäkelä, 28-Year-Old Finnish Conductor, to Lead Chicago Symphony
• David Mermelstein, WSJ, Klaus Mäkelä Breezes Into the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (gift link)
• Jens Laurson, Ionarts, Thoughts on Thoughts on Klaus Mäkelä
• Ari Shapiro and Tom Huizinga, NPR All Things Considered, 28-year-old conductor Klaus Mäkelä will lead the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
• John Axelrod, Is Mäkelä Really That Good?
• Comments to one of my music director update posts.

Belated Friday Photo

Santa Fe Sky and Adobe

July, 2018

 

Birds & Balls at Opera Parallèle

 

Nikola Printz as Billie Jean King in Laura Karpman's Balls

Opera Parallèle, April, 2024

Photo by Kristen Loken, courtesy of Opera Parallèle

This weekend, Opera Parallèle is presenting four performances of a charming double bill called Birds & Balls, consisting of David T. Little and Royce Vavrek's Vinkensport (about the Belgian sport of counting the mating calls of finches) and Laura Karpman and Gail Collins's Balls, which is about the 1973 tennis match between (the very closeted) champion Billie Jean King and (the asshole former amateur champion) Bobby Riggs.  I saw the second performance, yesterday afternoon.

I always want more operatic comedies, and this pairing is definitely a winner. Both works have good music and good to great performances; they are knit together by extremely funny patter from Howard Cosell (some of you will remember him) as a presentation of ABC's Wide World of Sports. (Does it still exist? I have no idea.) The standout performances are Nikola Printz as King and Nathan Granner as Riggs, with a great contribution by Tiffany Austin as King's secret lover Marilyn and the always-terrific Shawnette Sulker as Susan B. Anthony. Honestly, everyone was excellent, and Nicole Paiement conducted with her usual precision and drive. The two operas are not perfect, per Joshua Kosman's review, but I enjoyed them greatly despite the flaws.

There's one performance left, today, Sunday, April 7, at 2 p.m. Go if you can!

Review roundup:

• Joshua Kosman,  SF Chronicle
• Jeff Dunn, Aisle Seat Review
• Michael Anthonio, Parterre Box
• Rebecca Wishnia, SFCV

Music Director Updates, Shocking and Not

Yes, it's true, I have not yet posted about the terrible news from my local orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, whose Board and CEO foolishly did not bend over backwards to retain Esa-Pekka Salonen as music director. I swear I'll get to it this weekend.

New news:

• Esa-Pekka Salonen to leave the San Francisco Symphony when his contract expires at the end of 2024-25.
• Klaus Mäkelä will be the next music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra WTF. As we know, every 28-year-old conductor should be in charge of two of the world's great orchestras plus a couple more that aren't quite on that level. I'll have more to say about this, too.
• Jaap van Zweden will be the new music director of the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra from mid-2026. (Maybe he didn't really leave the New York Philharmonic to spend more time with his family; he is also the music director of the Seoul Philharmonic.)

Open positions:

• San Francisco Symphony
• Phoenix Symphony
• Cleveland Orchestra, as of June, 2027.
• Paris Opera is currently without a music director.
• Nashville Symphony, when Giancarlo Guerrero leaves.
• Deutsche Oper Berlin, when Donald Runnicles leaves.
• Hallé Orchestra, when Mark Elder leaves.
• Rottedam Philharmonic, when Lahav Shani leaves.
• Los Angeles Philharmonic, as of 2026-27, when Gustavo Dudamel leaves for NY.
• Sarasota Orchestra, following the death of Bramwell Tovey.
• Seattle Symphony, following Thomas Dausgaard's abrupt departure in January, 2022.
• Chicago Symphony Orchestra, where Riccardo Muti left at the end of 2022-23.
• Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra: open in 2024 when Louis Langree steps down.
• Hong Kong Philharmonic, when Jaap van Zweden leaves in 2024.
• Oakland Symphony, owing to the death of Michael Morgan in August, 2021.
• Teatro Regio Turin: Open now with departure of Gianandrea Noseda. The Teatro Regio has not named a new music director.
• Minnesota Opera: Michael Christie has left. MO has not named a new music director. 
• Marin Symphony, at the end of 2022-23.
• Vienna Staatsoper, when Philippe Jordan leaves at the end of 2025.

Conductors looking for jobs (that is, as of the near future, or now, they do not have a posting). The big mystery, to me, is why an orchestra hasn't snapped up Susanna Mälkki. Slightly lesser mystery: Henrik Nanasi, whose superb Cosi fan tutte is still lingering in my ears.

• Esa-Pekka Salonen, if he wants such a position again
• Tito Muñoz 
• Andrey Boreyko
• Osmo Vänskä
• Susanna Mälkki, who left the Helsinki Philharmonic at the end of 2022-23.
• MGT (apparently does not want a full-time job, as of early 2022)
• Miguel Harth-Bedoya (seems settled in at Baylor)
• Lionel Bringuier
• Sian Edwards
• Ingo Metzmacher
• Jac van Steen
• Mark Wigglesworth
• Peter Oundjian
• Ilan Volkov
• Aleksandr Markovic
• Lothar Koenigs
• Henrik Nanasi
• Philippe Jordan, eventually
• Franz Welser-Möst, eventually

And closed:

• Marin Alsop becomes principal guest conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, I believe succeeding Nathalie Stutzmann.
• Simon Rattle becomes principal guest conductor of the Czech Philharonic.
• John Storgards will becomes chief conductor of the Turku Philharmonic.
• Update and correction: San Francisco Chamber Orchestra was unable to hire Cosette Justo Valdés. Instead, Jory Fankuchen, a violinist in the orchestra, has been named Principal Conductor and will lead this season's programs.
• Indianapolis Symphony hires Jun Markel, effective September 1, 2024.
• Andris Nelsons renewed his contract with the Boston Symphony. He's now on an evergreen rolling contract, which will continue as long as he and the orchestra are happy with each other. MTT had one of these at SFS.
• Shanghai Symphony, with the appointment of Long Yu.
• Virginia Symphony, with the appointment of Eric Jacobsen.
• Warsaw Philharmonic, with the appointment of Krzysztof Urbański.
• Bern Symphony, with the appointment of Krzysztof Urbański.
• Berlin State Opera, with the appointment of Christian Thielemann.
• Dresden Philharmonic, with the appointment of Donald Runnicles.
• New York Philharmonic, with the appointment of Gustavo Dudamel. Note that Jaap van Zweden leaves in 2024 and there will be a two-season gap before Dudamel arrives.
• Helsinki Philharmonic: Jukka-Pekka Saraste to succeed Susanna Mälkki.
• Staatskapelle Dresden, with the appointment of Daniele Gatti.
• Seoul Philharmonic appoints Jaap van Zweden.
• Royal Opera appoints Jakub Hrůša to succeed Antonio Pappano in September, 2025.

 

Museum Mondays

Basilique du Sacré-Coeur

Seen from the Musée d'Orsay

Paris, October 2018

 

Belated Museum Mondays

Madonna and Child

Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC

February, 2010

 

Friday Photo

Plant

Elsie Roemer Bird Sanctuary, Alameda

December, 2024

 

Good Friday

Good Samaritan Medical Center

Portland, OR

January, 2015

 

Representation

In my in-box, information from two California music festivals.

• La Jolla Music Festival, music director Inon Barnatan. Of approximately 60 works performed, two are by women of color and one by a Black man. So, 1/20th. Pretty sure one of the works by a woman is one movement of a larger piece.
• Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, music director Cristian Măcelaru, 15 composers featured, 7 are women. I can't quite tell what the story is for two of the concerts (Greg Smith: VIBE and In concert with Phillipe Quint), but of the 14 works listed, 7 are by women. Because of my uncertainty about those two concerts, I think this isn't quite 50/50 but it's so much closer to parity, and the works composed by women are all substantial. We're not seeing token 12 minute curtain-raisers here. Go, Cabrillo! (Me, I am particularly interested in Helen Grime's violin concerto, performed by Leila! Josefowicz!)

San Francisco Opera 2024-25

War Memorial Opera House

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

[This blog post was already overdue and about 1/3 written when the Salonen announcement landed, and that's been distracting me for the last 10 days or so.]

San Francisco Opera announced its 2024-25 season on February 20, roughly a month after its typical announcement date, as in, the third week of January. The season announced is shockingly short, which makes me wonder whether the extra month was spent cutting the season from eight operas to six. To do this, you'd have to contact all of the artists involved, and very likely reschedule them or pay a cancellation fee built into the contracts.

A six-opera season feels like some kind bellwether, and not a good one, for the company. It's been at eight operas for a number of years, and that was a reduction from ten, and that was a reduction from twelve or thirteen back in the 1980s. Six operas feels like a huge reduction in ambition and scope, because it's a 25% reduction over the last many seasons. (With the archive still offline, I can't easily check when the reduction from 10 to 8 happened.) 

I find the reduction especially sad coming after the centennial season and the 101st season, where the company produced five new operas out of sixteen, drew in new audiences (particularly with Omar and Frida y Diego), and had some great concerts as well. The upcoming season does include two one-off concerts and Opera in the Park, but the two concerts absolutely don't make up for losing two operas. Beethoven's 9th will take much less rehearsal time than an opera requires and there's no staging or scenery involved, no juggle of schedules and locations and coaching and the orchestra.

I chatted with Matthew Shilvock before the season announcement and asked what was going on. I should have been more precise in my questions; what I heard about the length of the season wasn't specific to SFO's financial situation. He provided general information about music org finances; the reduction over decades in the percentage of income from ticket sales, issues in the financial model; and so on.

The reduction seems strange to me because the company is in good financial condition, as far as can be told from their 990 forms. It is true that on the most recent 990, the size of the endowment is down from its peak, but it's also considerably higher than it was before the pandemic. And from watching my own 401Ks, I would bet that the SFO endowment has gone up from the period covered by the most recent. 990, which was filed last summer. I mean, do I get better investment advice than SFO? I doubt it.

Here are some numbers from the last three 990 forms:

FY Ending July 2020 (filed 2021)

Revenue
$88,254,131
Expenses
$70,437,595
Net Income
$17,816,536
Net Assets
$269,322,430

Endowment: $244.7 million

FY Ending July 2021 (filed 2022)
Revenue
$79,158,489
Expenses
$52,174,556
Net Income
$26,983,933
Net Assets
$340,907,354

Endowment $312 million

FY Ending July 2022 (filed 2023)
Revenue
$88,376,102
Expenses
$68,630,368
Net Income
$19,745,734
Net Assets
$314,499,971

Endowment $281.2 million

This is not the picture of a company on the brink. As I noted, it's likely that the next 990 - look for it in maybe August - will show the endowment and net assets back up. But the endowment is still tens of millions up from where it had been, even in the most recent 990.

I asked about the cutback, and, as noted, Shilvock's comments did not get very specific about the company's finances. I believe that when an organization that appears to be in perfectly good financial health makes these kinds of cuts, it should show its work. That is, provide as much detail as possible about the finances and the reasoning behind the cuts. 

Shilvock did mention long-term trends in the arts in the United States. Only 16% of revenue comes from ticket sales, down from 60% in the 1960s. That means gigantic fundraising efforts are necessary (he didn't say this, but clearly it's part of what goes on, so if you're wondering why orchestras and opera companies have big development departments....). I was somewhat alarmed by his comment that "something fundamental needs to change about how the American arts work." There is no reason to expect an increase in government funding, given that one of the major parties looks on the arts with more than suspicion. And given how Arts Council England is gutting the English National Opera and other arts organizations in the UK, we need to keep that risk in mind as well. What the government gives, they can take away.

When I talk with people about arts funding, folks in the Bay Area often mention tech money, that is, all the people who have gotten rich, sometimes obscenely rich, from IPOs and running extremely successful companies. Shilvock made the point that everybody is different and has different interests. They need to be approached and brought in over a long period of time. It's a delicate process.  Said Shilvock, "We have some new relationships in this post-pandemic era. It takes time to build those relationships, up to a decade before people reach their full philanthropic potential."

SFO is starting to have some success. Of the people who are clearly big donors, which we know because they are season or production sponsors, I call to your attention Dr. and Mrs. William Coughran. Bill Coughran was an important, high-ranking VP or SVP at Google for many years. It's great to see his name associated with SFO. Will more tech folks follow? I can't say, obviously. Of the younger generation, it's common to see donations to health care research and organizations: Sergey Brin and Parkinson's; Mark Benioff and children's hospitals; Mark Zuckerberg & Priscilla Chan, SF General.

So I worry about "something fundamental needs to change about how the American arts work." Does that mean breaking unions to reduce performer pay? That would be a disastrous turn of events, a huge step backward for large opera companies and symphony orchestras. (I point here to events across Grove St., where SFS management has bungled things so badly that they made major artistic cuts and now they're losing their music director.)

All that said, Shilvock is excited about the future. He said that it's "a transitional moment for the art form, making sure that the financial model will sustain the company. It’s important to reconcile the financial model but we have to also sustain the artistic goals." He mentioned these four points:

• The company must keep producing "transporting emotional experiences" and remember "the power of the art form to create all-consuming experiences." They have to maintain the level of artistry.
• They must keep building repertory with new works and productions, connecting to the deeper arc of humanity, and connection to communities.
• They must sustain creative excellence and the caliber of the arts in SF. 
• They must keep pushing boundaries. "We can’t retreat, we must keep things moving forward.  We have initiatives like the encounters, out of the box, livestreams."

I asked that can be done to get back to eight operas. He said that the board and management are working together to figure out the future." My questions are what they’re asking themselves. He is optimistic about finding a way forward.  He also mentioned that what they're doing goes beyond  "...the work on stage, to how we frame it with the company and with the audiences. People living with a mass shooting day in and day out. Kaija [Saariaho, composer of Innocence] talked with the company about what it was like to live with it for three years while she composed the opera."

All of that said, the season is smaller and less adventurous than either of the last two seasons. It does have Tristan und Isolde, not seen here since Donald Runnicles last conducted it, in 2007; Un ballo in maschera, not seen for a decade; Idomeneo; and Poul Ruders' The Handmaid's Tale, based on Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel of the same name. The casting throughout the season is strong and attractive, enough so that I'll have to see both casts in La bohème. (Fortunately it's one of my favorite operas.) The new productions all look attractive.

Season casting is below the cut.

Birds & Balls at Opera Parallèle

The ever-adventurous Opera Parallèle is presenting a delightful-looking double bill called Birds & Balls in a few weeks.  The Birds are finches, in David T. Little and Royce Vavrek's Vinkensport, or The Finch Opera. The press release describes Vinkensport this way:

[It's about] the obscure 400-year-old Flemish folk sport of professional Finch-sitting, where the contestants battle it out to see who has the most melodious bird. As they compete for the greatest number of “susk-e-wiets” over the course of an hour, the motivations and secrets of the finches’ trainers are revealed, as is their complex relationship to their birds, the sport, and themselves. 

The Balls are..um...tennis balls, as in the famous tennis match in which Billy Jean King soundly defeated Bobby Riggs:

Balls is a multimedia opera dramatizing the famed 1973 tennis game between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, a live television event which was viewed by 90-million people worldwide and which last year commemorated its 50-year anniversary. The famous match, in which Billie Jean King triumphed over Bobby Riggs, changed not only the perception and treatment of women in sports, but significantly advanced the women’s rights movement. 

Vinkensport was commissioned by soprano Dawn Upshaw for the Graduate Vocal Arts Program at Bard College. Balls was workshopped in 2017 at The Industry in LA, but in an incomplete form.

The production stars an array of terrific singers, including (but not limited to) Tiffany Austin, Daniel Cilli, Nathan Granner, Nikola Printz, Chad Somers, Chung-Wai Soong, and Shawnette Sulker. Nicole Paiement conducts, Brian Staufenbiel directs.

Dates:

• Friday, April 5, 2024 7.30 PM
• Saturday, April 6, 2 PM & 7.30 PM
• Sunday, April 7, 2 PM

Ticket prices: $40 – $185 for April 5 & 7 performances; $50 – $205 for April 6 performance.
Buy tickets at the SFJAZZ web site.

Venue: SFJAZZ Center’s Miner Auditorium, San Francisco 201 Franklin St., between Fell and Linden.

21V: Reclaiming Radical

21V is a newish chorus, now in its third season and directed by Martín Benvenuto. It's an unusual group in that all of its choristers, of all genders, sing in the soprano or alto range. Here's what they have to say about their upcoming program, Reclaiming Radical:

In this case, reimagining with us the word “radical” at its roots: fundamental, foundational, indispensable.

Benvenuto says: “The idea for this program stemmed from a desire to free “radical” from its pejorative, ideologically fortified shackles, to recapture its positive and, well, radical connotations. John Stuart Mill in the 1830s famously stated: ‘Every great movement must experience three stages: ridicule, discussion, adoption.’ Why are we inclined to see movements as extreme at first rather than as essentially foundational to our humanity?”

Here's the program, which looks great:

• undanceable -- David Lang
• Elements -- Katerina Gimon
• I. Air
• II. Fire
• Truth Tones -- Trevor Weston
• Two Partsongs -- Chris Castro (world premiere)
• De Otoño
• Choir of Spirits from Faust
• My Dearest Ruth -- Stacy Garrop (world premiere, treble edition)
• When the Dust Settles -- Mari Esabel Valverde
• We Are the Storm -- Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate
• Earth Song -- Frank Ticheli

21V is presenting this program twice:

• Friday, April 5, 2024 at 8:00 p.m. Old Mission Dolores • 320 Dolores St, San Francisco, CA 94110
• Saturday, April 6, 2024 at 4:00 p.m. (pre-panel discussion at 3:00 p.m.) Berkeley Hillside Club • 2286 Cedar St, Berkeley, CA 94709

TICKETS: $30 or Choose Your Own Price (in person); $20 Livestream (online)

MORE INFO: https://www.21vchoir.org/performances 

Friday Photo

Plane over San Francisco Bay

Taken from Elsie Roemer Bird Sanctuary, Alameda

December, 2022

 

Boston Symphony Scriabin

Found in a press release from the BSO:

The first of these (April 4–6) is a program inspired by color: it opens with Anna Clyne’s Color Field, inspired in part by the vibrancy of a Mark Rothko painting, and concludes with Alexander Scriabin’s epic Prometheus, Poem of Fire, for piano, color organ, chorus, and orchestra. Scriabin’s spectacular vision for a color organ, which bathes the performance space in colored light corresponding to the music played, will be actualized for the first time in Symphony Hall by Tony-award winning lighting designer Justin Townsend in collaboration with researcher and musicologist Anna Gawboy, Ph.D. Esteemed pianist Yefim Bronfman and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus join to bring this synesthetic work to life. Also on the program are Franz Liszt's symphonic poem Prometheus, providing an additional musical interpretation of the Greek myth, and Richard Wagner’s ecstatic Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde, a work suffused with the sensual and one that helped expand ideas of musical time. 

So,  a color organ of some kind but no scents.

Note that this is part of a festival that also includes some Messiaen (Turangalila with Yuja Wang taking the piano part; Quartet for the End of Time with Garrick Ohlsson) and a bunch of other interesting works.

Museum Mondays

Mosaic Tile Floor

Victoria and Albert Museum, London

November, 2019