SJOG BRUNCH a Grand Success
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NEWSLETTER ARGO GHERARDI, EDITOR AUGUST 2012 SJOG BRUNCH A Grand Success From left to right: Peggy Heiman, raffle From left to right: Irene Dalis, Opera San and silent auction chair: Olga Nespole, Event José General Director; Melinda Whittington, chair; Susan English, President SJOG. All at- Soprano, Merola Opera Program and SJOG tending the brunch enjoyed the day made pos- Sponsoree; Larry Hancock, Opera San José sible by their leadership. General Manager. If you would like to see what you missed, check out SJOG’s face book page. A link is provided at sjoperaguild.org. Photos by John Eurich 2012 FALL LECTURES by Steve Zilles The Fall Lecture Series of the San José Opera Penzak Jewish Community Center Silicon Guild begins, once again, before Labor Day Valley in Los Gatos. This site, which is on this year. We have a wonderful collection of Oka Road just off the intersection of Highway presentations on operas that will be performed 17 and Lark Ave. is easy to find and get to. in the Bay Area this year, with talks on the And, we have arranged parking in the church Fall season of San Francisco Opera, and sea- parking lot next to the JCC to avoid conflicts son overviews for Opera San José and West with the other users of the JCC. Bay Opera. All of these presentations will be from 10:00AM to 12:00 Noon at the Addison Continued on P. 2 Fall Lectures from P. 1 The season begins on Tues., Aug. 28, with ich, the company’s General Director, will give a lecture by Prof. Laura Basini on Rigoletto an introduction to the season, and this will be by Giuseppe Verdi. The opera, one of Verdi’s followed by excerpts from the season’s operas great mid-career operas, is full of posturing, by singers from the West Bay Company. This intrigue and love. Rigoletto, the jester of the presentation will be held in conjunction with Duke of Mantua, has one possession of great the Friday Shabbat lunch at the Jewish Com- value, his daughter. His cruel jests on the Duke munity Center and all senior (55+) attendees courtiers lead to his undoing. The Duke glides are invited to purchase lunch tickets (in ad- above all this, freely attracting every girl in vance) if they wish to stay for the lunch. sight. Dr. Laura Basini is an Associate Pro- On the following Tuesday, October 2, we fessor of Music History at Sacramento State will return to the Fall Season at San Francisco and last spoke to us on La Fanciulla del West Opera with a lecture on Moby Dick, a new op- in the summer of 2010. Dr. Basini’s research era by Jake Heggie whose premier opened the interests include the relationships between new Dallas Opera House in 2010. Jake Heggie music and politics, particularly in late nine- is seen as one of the pre-eminent contempo- teenth- and early twentieth-century Italy, very rary opera composers, and we are fortunate to appropriate for Rigoletto. have the librettist for this opera, Gene Scheer, The next lecture, on September 25th, begins giving our lecture. Mr. Scheer has written ac- an intense week of lectures. It is given by Prof. claimed lyrics for a number of 21st century Mary Ann Smart on I Capuleti e I Montecchi operas, including several by Jake Heggie and by Vincenzo Bellini, written in 1830. This op- Tobias Picker. He has written the lyrics for era follows the basic plot of the story Shake- songs (many composed by Mr. Heggie) for speare called Romeo and Juliet, but in a varia- such singers as Renee Fleming and Nathan tion different from Shakespeare and based on Gunn. We are indeed privileged to have Mr. Italian Renaissance sources. It was the hit of Scheer as our lecturer. the season the last time it was performed in Our final San Francisco Opera Lecture is San Francisco in 1991. Dr. Smart is Profes- given on October 16th by our old friend, Prof. sor of Musicology at U.C. Berkeley where her Simon Williams on Lohengrin by Richard research focuses on the social dimensions of Wagner. This opera, with wonderful mid-ca- opera in nineteenth-century Europe. She has reer music by Wagner, tells the story of the particularly written about opera in Italy from trials of Elsa of Brabant, the knight (Lohen- 1830 to 1848. She last spoke to us on La fille grin) that rescues her and the way innuendo du Regiment in 2009 and Lucrezia Borgia in can cast doubt on and destroy a relationship. 2011. Dr. Williams is Professor and Chair of the De- Following this lecture, in the same week, is partment of Dramatic Art at U.C. Santa Bar- a presentation, on Friday, 28 September, of the bara and has written several books on Richard West Bay Opera Company season which in- Wagner. In the past he has lectured to us on cludes the Tales of Hoffman, Lucia di Lammer- Tannhäuser, Simon Boccanegra, Die Walküre moor and Otello. Maestro José Luis Moscov- and last year, Don Giovanni. ### PAGE 2 SAN JOSÉ OPERA GUILD Opera Traveler By Mort Levine Unique 20th century opera brings a rarity to Bay area and a resounding Merola success If you wanted to test the outer limits of op- In Postcard, the masterful Argento touch is era’s creativity, you should have gone a short evident in a centerpiece of the show labeled a trip north to San Francisco’s Cowell Theatre “Souvenir of Bayreuth” in which singers and at Fort Mason to catch one of the two perfor- the eight piece orchestra under Merola music mances of Dominick Argento’s semi-surreal director Mark Morash quotes and parodies 1971 work Postcard from Morocco. The Wagner’s Flying Dutchman. Other musical 90-minute one act showcases seven singer- flights include a operetta singer’s torch song actors in some extremely difficult arias and to an absent lover, sung by Soprano Aviva ensemble numbers. The composer brings Fortunato while twirling a very long bright together a wide assortment of styles and tex- red sash. tures that mirror the changing moods of the There are some creative dance touches as absurdist plot. well, proving the singers’ versatility. Written to a libretto by John Donahue, the Tenor A. J. Glueckert provides a poignant setting implies an old fashion grand railway portrayal of an unfulfilled artist, always tight- station which is typically featured in post- ly clutching a painter’s box. When pressed to cards sent by tourists. None of the four men show the brushes and tubes of paint, he finally and three women know each other, and, while opens the box to reveal it contains nothing. they share slivers of biography of themselves, His role is one which encapsulates the pathetic the audience is left to fill in a lot of blanks longing which marks all of the opera. He con- such as where are they going and why each cludes it by telling of the boyhood fantasies of is carrying some kind of prop. All seven are having a naval fleet sailing on a staircase at his assigned a common item although only one of command. the characters is named. The young singers from SF Opera’s Merola The articles the other singers possess also program will also be performing Mozart’s La seem to reveal an emptiness in their lives. Finta Giardiniera at the Cowell Theatre on Bass-baritone Matthew Scolin totes a cor- August 2 at 8 p.m. and August 4 at 2 p.m. netcase but admits he can’t play. A traveling These performances will be followed with salesman swaggeringly sung by Baritone Jo- the annual Merola Grand Finale at the opera seph Lattanzi carries a large suitcase with shoe house on August 18 at 7:30 p.m. samples each in a pocket of velvet or fuzz. The composer is a careful operatic craftsman The high soprano of Susan Rigden who sings with more than a dozen works to his credit. “a lady with a bad mirror” in an atonal aria The Aspern Papers based on a Henry James which sets an early mood, but the composer’s novella may be his most successful. An up- tonal lyricism provides a sharp contrast. This coming performance at Dallas opera is sched- is evident as mezzo soprano Carolyn Sproule uled. Another Argento one-act, A Water Bird talks about the hatbox and sings of the hats Talk was given some years back by San José made for movie stars. Tenor Andrew Stenson State’s opera workshop. Continued on P. 4 AUGUST 2012 PAGE 3 Career Updates Soprano Rebecca Davis (Opera San José & artists) gave solo performers at the midsum- Merola) was awarded first prize of $15,000 at mer Mozart Festival July19-July29. the sixth annual Irene Dalis Vocal Competi- Soprano Talise Travigne (OSJ) will perform tion held May 19, 2012 at the California The- the role of Pip in San Francisco Opera’s pro- atre. During the summer of 2012 she will be a duction of Moby-Dick. She will be joined in featured soloist with the Midsummer Mozart that cast by Merola’s tenor, Matthew O’Neil Festival. She performed the role of Violetta in (2005) in the role of Flask. three productions of La Traviata, (Opera Santa Bass baritone Mark Delavan (Merola 1985) Barbara, Festival Opera, and Opera San José.) will perform the role of Scarpia in SFO 2012- She made her role debuts as Ilia in Mozart’s 2013 production of Puccini’s Tosca. He was Idomeno at Opera San José, Mimi in Puccini’s described by the New York Times as a “men- La Boheme with Opera Santa Barbara, and acing, yet elegantly mannered Scarpia.” Baby Doe in Opera Idaho’s production of The Ballad of Baby Doe.