Before the fall
As we wait for the autumn music season to begin in earnest, a look ahead at some of the more promising events in our immediate future
Local classical music buffs with longish memories are apt to recall the days when the fall season used to open in a crazed rush. There was a prescribed ritual in those days, and a densely packed one it was. The San Francisco Symphony would go first, cutting the ribbon with an opening gala concert on the Wednesday after Labor Day. The following weekend was the exclusive province of the San Francisco Opera, which would offer back-to-back opening nights on Friday and Saturday, then follow up on Sunday afternoon with Opera in the Park. Then, and only then, was everyone free to schedule whatever they wanted for whenever they wanted.
It was a lot to process in a short amount of time, but it also came with an adrenaline rush. A long-ago editor at the Chronicle’s Datebook section used to refer to this period as “Hell Week,” which was a particularly self-aggrandizing way to say “we’re going to be working a little harder than usual for a few days.” Still, for anyone committed to covering it all, that first week was definitely a mini-sprint obstacle course of sorts, exciting and exhausting in equal measure.
That phenomenon is long gone now. The Opera’s markedly curtailed schedule (six productions spread across fall and next summer, compared to 10 productions packed into the fall alone in the 1980s and ’90s) neither requires nor allows for a two-opera opening weekend. The Symphony season gets under way whenever. Other musical organizations fill up the calendar in whatever fashion suits their particular needs.
Yet as much as the patterns have changed, you’d have to be made of stone not to find plenty of musical offerings to look forward to in the months ahead. Here’s my list of must-hear events for the fall:
• Rigoletto (Sept. 5-27) Among the highlights of last year’s San Francisco Opera season was the magnificent company debut of the Mongolian baritone Amartuvshin Enkhbat in Un Ballo in Maschera. I immediately began counting the days until his return, without daring to hope that the wait could be as short as a year. Yet here is Enkhbat once more, opening the new season in the title role of another Verdi opera; he’s joined by soprano Adela Zaharia as Gilda and debuting tenor Yongzhao Yu as the Duke of Mantua, under the baton of music director Eun Sun Kim. War Memorial Opera House. www.sfopera.com.
• Così Fan Tutte (Sept. 14-28) Mozart’s comedy has a famously ambiguous ending. When the curtain comes down, have the pairs of lovers reverted to their original configuration, or have they swapped for good? Either way makes sense, as do a number of other possibilities. For the season opener at Opera San José, director Alek Shrader throws the question to the audience, whose members will vote at intermission on which of the various conclusions they wish to see onstage. California Theatre, San Jose. www.operasj.org.
• Dead Man Walking (Sept. 14-28) When Jake Heggie’s first opera had its world premiere at the San Francisco Opera 25 years ago, some observers saw its virtues right away. But not even the work’s biggest enthusiasts could have foreseen that it would go on to become a worldwide phenomenon and the most widely staged opera of the 21st century. Now the piece returns home in triumph for a revival featuring Jamie Barton as Sister Helen Prejean (a role originated by Susan Graham), Susan Graham as Mrs. De Rocher (a role originated by Frederica von Stade), and Ryan McKinney as Joseph De Rocher, the condemned prisoner. Patrick Summers, who conducted the world premiere, is back to conduct again. War Memorial Opera House. www.sfopera.com.
• Donald Runnicles conducts the San Francisco Symphony (Sept. 26-28) It’s been a hot second since Donald Runnicles last conducted in San Francisco, and far, far longer since he conducted anywhere but at the San Francisco Opera, where he spent many exciting seasons as the company’s music director. So the opportunity to hear him in the orchestral repertoire — leading the Symphony in Berg’s Seven Early Songs and the First Symphony of Mahler — is not to be missed. Davies Symphony Hall. www.sfsymphony.org.
• Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen (Sept. 27) The gifted countertenor has become something of a phenom in the years since his stint as an Adler Fellow at the San Francisco Opera. He boast a gorgeous vocal sound, which he combines with deep expressivity and interpretive insight. For his Cal Performances with pianist John Churchwell, he offers a range of repertoire by Handel, Brahms, Jake Heggie, and both Schumanns. Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley. www.calperformances.org.
• Jeffrey and Gabriel Kahane (Oct. 10) Two of my favorite musical artists are the pianist and conductor Jeffrey Kahane and his son, the composer-singer-pianist-guitarist-polymath Gabriel Kahane. I’ve heard them both many times with great pleasure, but their joint appearance with San Francisco Performances is the first local opportunity to hear them together. The program includes music by J.S. Bach, Samuel Barber, Joni Mitchell, and Bob Dylan, as well as a two-piano transcription of a movement from Heirloom, the piano concerto recently written by the son for the father. Herbst Theatre. www.sfperformances.org.
• Philharmonia Orchestra (Oct. 18-19) The sleekly forceful London orchestra once led by Esa-Pekka Salonen comes to Cal Performances for a two-night visit with a different Finnish conductor, Santtu-Matias Rouvali. The program includes a piece by Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz, Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto with the brilliant Víkingur Ólafsson as soloist, and the Fifth Symphonies of Sibelius and Shostakovich. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley. www.calperformances.org.
• Twelfth Night (Nov. 9) The well-regarded New York-based early music ensemble founded and led by violinist Rachell Ellen Wong and keyboardist David Belkovski makes its first appearance at Cal Performances. The program’s centerpiece is a group of excerpts from Handel’s pastoral cantata Aminta e Fillide, featuring soprano Nicoletta Berry and mezzo-soprano Megan Moore. Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley. www.calperformances.org.
• Ercole Amante (Nov. 14-16) Director Céline Ricci’s resourceful opera company Ars Minerva has made a specialty of exhuming unknown Baroque operas by unknown composers and bringing them back to life with stylish, well-cast productions. This year’s production adds an extra layer of novelty: it was composed by a woman. The opera, written in 1707 by Antonia Bembo, receives its first staged production in modern times. ODC Theater. www.arsminerva.org.
• The Monkey King (Nov. 14-30) The last and most intriguing installment of the San Francisco Opera’s fall season is this commissioned world premiere based on the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West. It boasts a score by Huang Ruo, a composer of imagination and skill, and a libretto by the playwright David Henry Hwang. Diane Paulus directs, with an assist from the wonderful puppeteer Basil Twist; tenor Kang Wang makes his company debut in the title role. War Memorial Opera House. www.sfopera.com.
Elsewhere
This week brought the striking news that Esa-Pekka Salonen, until recently the music director of the San Francisco Symphony, has negotiated a pair of collaborative posts — not music directorships per se, but artistic partnerships that are somewhere in the same ballpark — with musical organizations in Los Angeles and Paris. I was given some space in The Chronicle to hold forth on what this tells us about the home team. (Spoiler: Nothing good). Read the whole thing here.
Cryptic clue of the week
From Out of Left Field #283 by Henri Picciotto and me, sent to subscribers last Thursday:
Jam and things (5)
Last week’s clue:
African nation loses one stringed instrument (5)
Solution: GAMBA
African nation: GAMBIA
loses one: delete I (one in Roman numerals)
stringed instrument: definition
Coming up
• ARTZenter Institute: The newly formed commissioning project, in conjunction with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, presents its first free showcase concert of four world premieres by students at U.S. universities and conservatories. The composers, whose chamber works were supported by ARTZenter, are Viskamol Chaiwanichsiri, Pablo Martinez Teutli, Jaebong Rho, and David Vess. Sept. 5, Herbst Theatre. www.artzenter.org. www.sfcmp.org.
• Opera in the Park: The San Francisco Opera’s annual free outdoor concert remains one of the reliable delights of the fall season. As always, the lineup of stars and stars-to-be is drawn from the casts of the first two fall operas. On this occasion, that includes soprano Brittany Renee, mezzo-sopranos Jamie Barton, J’Nai Bridges, and Susan Graham, and baritones Amartuvshin Enkhbat and Rod Gilfry, all conducted by music director Eun Sun Kim. Sept. 7, Robin Williams Meadow, Golden Gate Park. www.sfopera.com.
Thank you so much for this preview, as well as for your article on the Maestro Salonen news. A note: my tickets show that the Twelfth Night concert (Cal Performances) will take place in Hertz Hall, not Zellerbach.