RING 2018 cover 5.qxp_Layout 1 5/21/18 9:04 AM Page 1 2017–18 SEASON RICHARD WAGNER THE RING OF THE NIBELUNG Encore spread.indd 1 5/25/18 12:59 PM Encore spread.indd 1 5/25/18 12:59 PM “ City National helps keep my financial life in tune.” So much of my life is always shifting; a different city, a different piece of music, a different ensemble. I need people who I can count on to help keep my financial life on course so I can focus on creating and sharing the “adventures” of classical music. City National shares my passion and is instrumental in helping me bring classical music to audiences all over the world. They enjoy being a part of what I do and love. That is the essence of a successful relationship. Michael Tilson Thomas Conductor, Educator and Composer The people you trust, trust City National. Call (866) 618-5242 or visit cnb.com 18 City National Bank 18 City National ©20 CNB MEMBER FDIC City National Bank is a subsidiary of Royal Bank of Canada. EAP full-page template.indd 1 5/4/18 11:10 AM June 2018 Volume 95, No. 4 Vol. 95, No. 4 • 2017–18 Season • June 2018 Jon Finck, Executive Editor Matthew Erikson, Editor Susan L. Wells, Design Consultant Paul Heppner Publisher Please e-mail comments, questions, and feedback about San Francisco Opera Magazine Susan Peterson to [email protected]. Design & Production Director Ana Alvira, Robin Kessler, Stevie VanBronkhorst Production Artists and Graphic Design Mike Hathaway Sales Director Amelia Heppner, Marilyn Kallins, Terri Reed San Francisco/Bay Area Account Executives Brieanna Bright, Joey Chapman, Ann Manning Seattle Area Account Executives On the cover: Illustration by Mission Minded; Carol Yip photograph by Cory Weaver. Sales Coordinator FEATURES 19 Director’s Note by Francesca Zambello The inspiration behind this Ring production is partly #MeToo, partly environmental—and almost entirely American. Paul Heppner President 20 What Price Love? by Peter Bassett Mike Hathaway If Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen could be reduced to a slogan, it would resemble Vice President something like the power of love versus the love of power. Kajsa Puckett Vice President, 25 Epic Ambition: On Wagner’s Ring and Its Filmic Afterlives Marketing & Business Development by Adrian Daub Genay Genereux Over the past century, film has frequently turned to the opera house as the first Accounting & Office Manager cinema and to the Ring as its earliest ancestor. Shaun Swick Senior Designer & Digital Lead 48 “Stark ruft das Lied”: A Listening Guide to the Ring by William Berger Barry Johnson A dissection of each of the operas that make up the Ring and the cycle’s Digital Engagement Specialist multidimensional musical world. Ciara Caya Customer Service Representative & 82 Past San Francisco Opera Ring Casts Administrative Assistant A pictorial history of the Company’s Ring productions from 1935 to 2011. Corporate Office 425 North 85th Street Seattle, WA 98103 DEPARTMENTS p 206.443.0445 f 206.443.1246 6 San Francisco Opera Association 46 Götterdämmerung Synopsis and Cast [email protected] 9 Message from the Board of 57 Artist Profiles 800.308.2898 x105 San Francisco Opera www.encoremediagroup.com 85 San Francisco Opera Donors 13 San Francisco Opera News 100 Ring Crossword 36 2018 Repertory Encore Arts Programs is published monthly by Encore Media 101 Your Opera Experience Group to serve musical and theatrical events in the Puget 40 Das Rheingold Synopsis and Cast 102 Postlude by General Director Sound and San Francisco Bay Areas. All rights reserved. 42 Die Walküre Synopsis and Cast Matthew Shilvock ©2018 Encore Media Group. Reproduction without written permission is prohibited. 44 Siegfried Synopsis and Cast encoremediagroup.com/programs 5 SAN FRANCISCO OPERA ASSOCIATION Officers of the Board John A. Gunn Chairman Steven Menzies Vice Chairman Karl O. Mills Vice Chairman Reid W. Dennis Chairman Emeritus SAN FRANCISCO George H. Hume Vice Chairman Franklin P. Johnson, Jr. Chairman Emeritus OPERA SHOP Officers of the Association Visit the Opera Shop and Keith B. Geeslin President Lisa Erdberg Vice President Matthew Shilvock General Director & George H. Hume Treasurer take a memory home! Chief Executive Officer Thomas A. Larsen Secretary Paul M. Crane Dorfman Executive Vice President Michael Simpson Chief Financial Officer Now with 3 locations: • Main Lobby • Mezzanine (Box) Level Board of Directors • Level 3, Dress Circle North Susan Anderson-Norby George H. Hume + Randall Reynoso + Dawn Yates Black Bruce W. Hyman Karen Richardson Ring Circle Members Timothy Blackburn J. Burgess Jamieson Richard J. Rigg, Ph.D. Carol Franc Buck Dorothy M. Jeffries C.P. Russell and Subscribers, show your Jack Calhoun + Philip M. Jelley Bill Russell-Shapiro + subscriber I.D. to receive Annette Campbell-White Franklin P. Johnson, Jr. + Jack Schafer Carlyn Clause, Merola Opera Timothy F. Kahn Matthew Shilvock + ▴ 10% off your purchase. Program President ▴ Stephen S. Kahng Ruth A. Short William M. Coughran, Jr. + Joseph Keegan Mrs. George P. (Charlotte) Shultz Paul M. Crane Dorfman + Lawrence A. Kern Dianne Marie Taube Mrs. Peter W. (Jayne) Davis Mark R. Kroll Mrs. David T. (Joan) Traitel Ira Dearing Karen J. Kubin Soo Venkatesan + Jerome L. Dodson Thomas A. Larsen + Diane B. Wilsey + Carol Pucci Doll Sylvia R. Lindsey Sharon Winslow Shannon Eliot, BRAVO! President ▴ James Patterson McBaine Barbara A. Wolfe Robert A. Ellis + Patrick McCabe Barbara Moller Ward Wonder Lisa Erdberg + Anne G. McWilliams Melinda Yee Franklin Peter Fenton Mrs. Mark A. (Teresa) Medearis S. Shariq Yosufzai + Sarah Fenton Steven Menzies + Kristina Flanagan Helen Meyer + Executive Committee Member Margarita Gandia Karl O. Mills + ▴ Ex Officio Keith B. Geeslin + Justin Moore Susan Graham Johnston Jane S. Mudge, Guild President ▴ Nicholas M. Graves Nancy S. Mueller CHAIRMAN’S COUNCIL: Louise Gund + Ben Nelson Reid W. Dennis John A. Gunn + J. Boyce Nute + William W. Godward Jane M. Hartley Masashi Oka Barbara K. Jackson Franklin P. Johnson, Jr., Chairman RICHARD WAGNER • SUMMER 2018 I. Craig Henderson, M.D. Bernard Osher + John Hendrickson Anne Brandeis Popkin Bernard Osher Doreen Woo Ho Mary A. Powell Charles Edward Hudson III Karthik Rau Photo: Cory Weaver. Illustration: Mission Minded. Photo: Cory Weaver. All locations open before curtain, Presidents during intermissions and 1923 Timothy Healy 1974–84 Walter M. Baird 20 minutes after final curtain. 1924–31 Robert I. Bentley 1985–90 Tully M. Friedman 1932–36 Wallace M. Alexander 1990–93 Thomas Tilton 1937–44 Robert Watt Miller 1993–95 David M. Chamberlain 1945–51 Kenneth Monteagle 1995–2002 William W. Godward VISIT BRÜNNHILDE’S 1952–68 Robert Watt Miller 2002–06 Karl O. Mills 1969–70 Prentis Cobb Hale 2006–13 George H. Hume BIERGARTEN 1971–73 William H. Orrick, Jr. 2013– Keith B. Geeslin Visit Brünnhilde’s Biergarten on the Loggia for the best photo op Chairmen of the Board at San Francisco Opera! 1969 Robert Watt Miller 1985–99 Reid W. Dennis 1971–82 R. Gwin Follis 1999–2008 Franklin P. Johnson, Jr. Take in the view while you indulge 1983–84 Richard K. Miller 2008– John A. Gunn in an authentic variety of local beers and German fare like bratwursts with San Francisco Opera General Directors sauerkraut and warm soft pretzels Gaetano Merola 1923–53 with house-made mustard. Kurt Herbert Adler Artistic Director, 1953–57; General Director, 1957–81; General Director Emeritus, 1982-1988 Terence A. McEwen 1982–88; General Director Emeritus, 1988-1998 Open 1 hour before curtain and during Lotfi Mansouri 1988–2001; General Director Emeritus, 2001-2013 Pamela Rosenberg 2001–05 all intermissions. David Gockley 2006–16; General Director Emeritus, 2016- Matthew Shilvock 2016– 6 SAN FRANCISCO OPERA In The City You Love, The Address You Want. San Francisco has your heart. It also has one of the more enviable addresses for a complete Life Care Community—The Sequoias San Francisco. See why this can be your retirement reimagined. Visit thesequoiassf.org or for your personal tour call Alison Short, 415.351.7900. 1400 Geary Boulevard, San Francisco This not-for-profit community is part of Northern California Presbyterian Homes and Services. License# 210102761 COA# 099 NCSF789-02ab B:8.625” T:8.375” S:7.375” OperaNews Summer 2018.qxp_OperaNews 5/22/18 5:33 PM Page 1 A MeSSAGe froM the BoArD of SAn frAnCiSCo OPERA there are few undertakings more ltizer ambitious and rewarding for an A opera company than richard rew wagner’s epic Ring cycle. it is our D great pleasure to welcome you to this stunning artistic achievement and supreme test of teamwork. San francisco’s love affair with The Ring of the Nibelung dates as far back as 1900 when the touring Metropolitan opera pro- duced the four-part work at the Grand opera house on Mission Keith B. Geeslin and John A. Gunn Street (between third and fourth Streets and destroyed in the 1906 earthquake). Since San francisco opera’s first staging of wagner’s tetralogy in 1935 with lauritz Melchior and Kirsten flagstad, and subsequent mountings in 1972, 1985, 1990, 1999, and 2011, the Company has been regarded as one of the world’s preeminent presenters of this spectacular work. San francisco opera’s distinguished association with the Ring continues this summer with the Company debuts of Daniel Brenna as Siegfried and falk Struckmann as Alberich and the return of stars iréne theorin, Greer Grimsley, Karita Mattila, Brandon Jovanovich, and Jamie Barton, along with conductor Donald runnicles, director francesca zambello and her visionary production. it is no surprise that ticket sales have been robust and far- B:11.125” T:10.875” S:9.875” ranging for these three complete cycles. to date, our audiences hail from 48 states and 27 countries, including Australia, Brazil, finland, ireland, Japan, Mexico, new zealand, Poland, and Singapore.