Iron Tongue of Midnight
Lisa Hirsch's Classical Music Blog.
The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve. Lovers, to bed; 'tis almost fairy time.
Berce mollement sur ton sein sublime
Ô puissante mer, l’enfant de Dindyme!
Opinions expressed on this blog are mine and not my employer's.
Monday, March 18, 2024
Sunday, March 17, 2024
Bohème Out of the Box
San Francisco Opera's Bohème Out of the Box is back. This is a mobile, miniature version of Puccini's evergreen opera La Bohème that travels around the Bay Area and gives 75 minute performances of the opera with piano accompaniment.
I'm hoping that one of these days it'll be performed in Oakland, but maybe they haven't got a suitable location lined up.
Here are the details:
SAN FRANCISCO OPERA PRESENTS BOHÈME OUT OF THE BOX
Bohème Out of the Box runs approximately 75 minutes with no intermission and features piano accompaniment. Performed by San Francisco Opera Adler Fellows and guest artists in Italian with English narration. Live English supertitles will be available on personal mobile devices.
Bohème Out of the Box is a free event. Registration at sfopera.com/box is encouraged but not required.
Admission/seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Food and beverages will be available for purchase at many of the locations or nearby, and audiences are welcome to bring their own food and beverages to enjoy during the shows.
Casting and schedule subject to change. Additional event information will be announced at a later date. For more information, including directions, parking, public transit and event updates, visit sfopera.com/box.
PLEASE NOTE: In the event of rain and inclement weather, these outdoor performances may be cancelled or delayed. Register at sfopera.com/box to receive updates via email or follow @sfopera on social media.
FREE FIRST ACT WORKSHOPS: Families with young children are invited to participate in free First Act Workshops 45 minutes before showtime at all Bohème Out of the Box performances. Explore Puccini’s La Bohème and get to know the passionate artists in the story. Bring along a favorite stuffed-animal friend and dance to “Musetta’s Waltz,” one of the most famous melodies in all of opera.
BURLINGAME
Saturday, April 13, 2024 at 2 p.m. – Bohème Out of the Box
Sunday, April 14, 2024 at 2 p.m. – Bohème Out of the Box
Washington Park, 850 Burlingame Avenue, Burlingame
Washington Park is a vibrant center for Burlingame recreation, boasting a beautiful and recently renovated Community Center. Nestled in the center of the Bay Area’s Peninsula region, the outdoor Bohème Out of the Box performances will take place steps away from a Caltrain stop and Burlingame Avenue, with its many shops and eateries. Chairs will be provided at the parking lot performance location (available on a first-come, first-served basis), and audiences are welcome to bring their own seating. Food and beverages will be available for purchase onsite. This event is presented in partnership with the Burlingame Parks and Recreation Department.
ALAMEDA
Saturday, April 20, 2024 at 2 p.m. – Bohème Out of the Box
Sunday, April 21, 2024 at 2 p.m. – Bohème Out of the Box
Radium Runway, 2151 Ferry Point, Alameda
In partnership with the City of Alameda and RADIUM Presents, an initiative to establish a performing arts center in Alameda catering to the needs of the local East Bay arts community, Bohème Out of the Box will be performed at Radium Runway, a short walk from the Seaplane Ferry Terminal. With the San Francisco skyline and Bay Bridge as the backdrop, seating will be on the concrete taxiway, covered with an artificial lawn. Audiences are encouraged to bring blankets or low camp chairs (a limited number of folding chairs will be available on a first-come, first-served basis). Food and beverages will be available for purchase onsite.
ALBANY
Thursday, June 27, 2024 at 1 p.m. – Bohème Out of the Box
The performance will take place at the intersection of Solano Avenue and Evelyn Avenue, Albany
Bohème Out of the Box makes a lunchtime visit to perform along Albany’s charming Solano Avenue, full of restaurants and local businesses. Audiences are encouraged to purchase lunch at one of the local restaurants and join us in the closed street intersection for a unique lunchtime experience (chairs will be provided on a first-come, first served basis). This event is presented in partnership with the City of Albany.
UNION CITY
Saturday, June 29, 2024 at 1 p.m. – Bohème Out of the Box
Saturday, June 29, 2024 at 3:30 p.m. – SF Opera Out of the Box: Adler Fellows in Concert
Kennedy Park Amphitheater, 1333 Decoto Road, Union City
The beautiful park amphitheater in Charles F. Kennedy Park is the setting for two performances: a 1 p.m. performance of Bohème Out of the Box and at 3:30 p.m., SF Opera Out of the Box: Adler Fellows in Concert, a free one-hour concert of popular opera arias and duets performed by Adler Fellows, San Francisco Opera’s resident artists. Seating will be on the gently sloping hills of the outdoor amphitheater. Food and beverages will be available for purchase. The venue is walking distance from Union City BART. This event is presented in partnership with the City of Union City.
Friday, March 15, 2024
Wednesday, March 13, 2024
They're Not the Same.
Your toothbrush subscription and a subscription to, say, the San Francisco Symphony.
Over at the S.F. Chronicle, Joshua Kosman interviewed Aubrey Bergauer, who has published a book about how arts organizations can succeed in the current climate.
Bergauer is smart and practical; she made an enormous impact on the California Symphony, where she was executive director from 2014 to 2019. But in this interview she says the following, which I disagree with:
“So much of our lives as consumers is based on a membership economy, things like Netflix and Amazon. My toothbrush literally gets delivered to my door on subscription. As I was researching the book, I found that 20 percent of all global credit card transactions go toward a subscription or membership.
“And yet in the arts, we’re told that the subscription model doesn’t work! These two things just don’t compute.”
I'd say that there is a significant difference between an object that arrives at your door (or in your smart TV) on a particular schedule and an experience where you have to be at a particular location at the correct time.
My Peet's subscription (don't look at me that way; you can no longer get Garuda Blend in the stores) arrives on my front porch roughly once a month, but the date and time of day vary. That's okay! I mostly care about whether, if we're about to run out, we need to change the delivery date or get a pound of beans elsewhere. I don't have to be there to sign for the delivery. If it came at 2 a.m., that would be fine.
In other words, once it's set up, it's a passive process. I can make changes to suit my convenience, but the coffee will get there every month regardless.
But my San Francisco Symphony subscription places a lot of responsibility on me. I have to be at Davies Symphony Hall, in my seat, on most Fridays at 7:30 p.m. I can exchange for another date, to be sure, but that'll cost me $15. (Yes, I find this incredibly annoying and I'm sure Bergauer has something to say about these damned fees.) The difference is that I must be active about this: get to the scheduled concert at the right time* and place, and if I can't make the date, swap the ticket or donate it back.
Look at this this way:
- Toothbrush subscription: Your toothbrush magically appears on your doorstep! Once it's set up, you don't need to do much.
- Orchestra subscription: You have to dress, leave your house, and get yourself to the concert venue, which can take from ten minutes, if you live around the block, to a lot more, if, say, you live in the East Bay.
Monday, March 11, 2024
Sunday, March 10, 2024
Femenine at Stanford and Berkeley
- Joshua Kosman, SF Chron, reviews the Berkeley performance.
Monday, March 04, 2024
Saturday, March 02, 2024
Smell-o-Rama and the Seven Doors
Kind of mixed! The music side of Prometheus was in excellent hands, between Salonen and Jean-Yves Thibaudet, who is superb in general and certainly in some of the wilder reaches of the repertory. He was the pianist in Messiaen's Trois petites liturgies de la Présence Divine at SFS about a year ago, for example; this was one of MTT's rare forays into Messiaen.
I enjoyed the light show, which used spotlights, a giant ring of tubular lighting fixtures over the stage, and more of those fixtures upright around the stage. I don't know how the tubular fixtures work; they could change color, including gradually from one end to the other. Computers were certainly involved, and, well, maybe I should read the extensive program notes to see what types of lighting fixtures were used. I can tell you that my spectacularly strong eyeglass prescription meant that my lenses were able to split the fixtures into two different colors that appeared physically next to each other. That was weird.
While I enjoyed the light show, I also found it a distraction from the main event, that is, the music. And there was the anticipation of wondering what the scents would be like, what their effects would be, and when we were supposed to smell them.
- Joshua Kosman, Chronicle
- Joshua Kosman in 2012. "Strangely wan" applies here as well.
- Michael Strickland, SF Civic Center
- Rebecca Wishnia, SFCV
Friday, March 01, 2024
Monday, February 26, 2024
Beethoven in Vallejo
- Egmonont Overture
- Coriolanus Overture
- Prometheus Overture (I presume this is the overture to The Creatures of Prometheus.)
- Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Eroica
Saturday, February 24, 2024
There's a Bay Area Conductor Who Eats Very, Very Well.
- Bon Appetite follows a conductor around for a while, posts some personal financial info in the process.
- Joshua Kosman reports, skeptically, owing to the conductor's purported annual income of $950,000/year. Hey, the conductor says he has 94 performances; if he gets $10,000/per, well?
Friday, February 23, 2024
Tuesday, February 20, 2024
Jules Harlow
Rabbi Jules Harlow died at 92, on February 12, 2024. From his NY Times obituary:
Many of Rabbi Harlow’s liturgical innovations were in “Siddur Sim Shalom,” a daily and Sabbath prayer book published in 1985.
...
The volume also included several original poems by Rabbi Harlow, among them “Changing Light,” which was offered as an alternative to parts of the evening service known as ma’ariv:
Resplendent skies, sunset, sunrise
The grandeur of creation lifts our lives
Evening darkness, morning dawn
Renew our lives as You renew all time.
The full poem was even set to music, by the Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho. The piece had its world premiere in Helsinki in 2002, on the first anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, and its American premiere at Carnegie Hall in 2003.
Monday, February 19, 2024
Sunday, February 18, 2024
Music Director Updates, Part XXX
Some new reports:
- 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.
Open positions:
- 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.
- 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
- 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.
Friday, February 16, 2024
Tuesday, February 13, 2024
Ozawa Update
After the question arose elsewhere, I asked San Francisco Symphony about Seiji Ozawa's appearances with SFS after he stepped down as music director. Here's the answer:
After the 1976-77 season, Ozawa conducted:
- January 11-14, 1978 – Tchaikovsky Swan Lake
- January 18-21, 1978 – Brahms Symphony No. 3 & Roger Sessions When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd
- November 9, 1986 – Pension Fund Concert – Ravel’s La Valse, Schumann’s Symphony No. 2, and Kei Anjo’s Who-ei for Erh-hu and Orchestra
- February 23, 1993 – Pension Fund Concert – Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 and Bernstein’s The Age of Anxiety
- October 29, 2001 – Pension Fund Concert – Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8 and Berlioz Symphonie fantastique
Ozawa also came to Davies Symphony Hall with the BSO twice (March 12, 1981 and February 13, 1996) and Saito Kinen Orchestra once (January 7, 2001).
Monday, February 12, 2024
Friday, February 09, 2024
Seiji Ozawa
He led the BSO for 29 years. I lived in the Boston area for five of those years and saw him conduct only once or twice. (It was a major schlep to get from Waltham to Symphony Hall; I spent a lot of time in evening rehearsals, and there were many, many free concerts at Brandeis. In retrospect, if I'd had any sense, I would have coordinated my flute lessons, in Brookline, with the Friday matinees.)
As I understand it, the length of his tenure in Boston eventually became a problem; conflicts with the orchestra, etc. I wasn't there and wasn't paying a lot of attention, but I do remember the relief when he finally resigned and James Levine became the music director. That....ultimately didn't work out either, between Levine's health and divided attention.
Ozawa was the music director of SFS in the 1970s, and my sense is that locally, people regard him as having used the position as a springboard to a bigger and better appointment, which the BSO certainly was, at the time. Today, well, the Big Five are the Big Seven and numerous other U.S. orchestras (Seattle, Minnesota, Buffalo, and more) play on an extremely high level.
I've now read two different obituaries, at WBUR, Boston, and the NY Times, and gosh, there are outright errors in the obits and the same two omissions.
- Typo in a Times photo caption, "Ozawar". (Could happen anywhere; now fixed.)
- "Big Five" interpreted to mean "five greatest orchestras in the world", in the WBUR obit. (Still not fixed.)
- Neither mentions survivors! It's pro-forma in an obit to say "Information on survivors was not immediately available" or "The Seiji Ozawa International Academy Switzerland, which announced the death, did not release any information about survivors." (Times obit now includes survivors.)
- Neither - and this is amazing from James R. Oestreich at the Times, in what must have been an advance obit - mentions that Ozawa conducted the world premiere of Olivier Messiaen's sole opera, St. Francois d'Assise.
- Was it a sprained or broken finger that made him turn to conducting?
- BSO Press Release
- James R. Oestreich, NY Times (gift link)
- Tim Page, Washington Post (gift link; superb obituary)
- Richard Dyer, Boston Globe
- Andrea Shea, WBUR
- Metropolitan Opera remembers Ozawa
Wednesday, February 07, 2024
Changes in the San Francisco Symphony Bassoon Section
After a distinguished 48-year career as the Symphony’s Principal Bassoon, Stephen Paulson will be stepping into the Associate Principal role beginning with the 2024-25 Season.
So...I guess that means that Steven Dibner, currently the associate principal, is retiring, Paulson is stepping into that spot, and hence there's a need for a new principal.
With a tenure going back 48 years, I think that Paulson is the longest-serving member of the orchestra. A look around the musician page turned up a few players who joined between 1980 and 1984; as I've mentioned, the orchestra is very much in the midst of a generational change.
Tuesday, February 06, 2024
Raehann Bryce-Davis in Recital
- Lisa Hirsch, SFCV
- Patrick Vaz, The Reverberate Hills