New Season Opens for Symphony and Opera

By Eman Isadiar

Much like the turning of the leaves or the migration of the pelicans, there is a certain September week that signals the yearly progression of life in San Francisco. Yet it marks more than the mere passage of time. It is a moment of civic pride, of joyful celebration, and of being dressed to the nines for two extravagant opening nights.

On September 9, music director Michael Tilson Thomas inaugurated San Francisco Symphony’s 98th season at Davies Symphony Hall–and his own 15th anniversary at the podium–with works by Liszt, Ravel and Rodgers, and Prokofiev’s monumental Third Piano Concerto with keyboard legend Lang Lang.

Across the street at the War Memorial Opera House, Nicola Luisotti led a cast of stars in Verdi’s Il Trovatore on September 11–this time not as the favored returning guest conductor from Italy, but as San Francisco Opera’s newest music director.

The Public Goes Ga-Ga for Lang Lang

Maestro Tilson Thomas opened the symphony’s program with a series of three waltzes, each boldly different from the rest in style and character.

Mephisto Waltz No. 1 by Hungarian composer Franz Liszt is a fleshed-out symphonic version of his better-known work for the piano. The title is apparently derived from the character of Mephistopheles, who is an incarnation of the devil in the legend of Faust.

Far from the title’s reference to the underworld, the waltz expresses man’s rather innocent longing for youth and vitality in a perpetual struggle with moral issues. This, the orchestra communicated in a thrilling performance with bursts of supersonic tempos and stunning technical brilliance.

Then came La valse – simply, “The Waltz” – by French composer Maurice Ravel. The work was originally conceived for dance, but was made into a stand-alone concert piece after a dispute between composer and choreographer.

Being exceptionally gifted at orchestration, Ravel creates sensual tonal textures that, while being uniquely his own, are also an unmistakable musical salute to the great master of the Viennese waltz, Johann Strauss.

If Liszt’s waltz speaks of valiant youth and vigor, Ravel’s speaks of princes, fairy-tale castles and chivalry.

The third and final waltz on the program – taken from the Broadway musical Carousel by American composer Richard Rodgers – speaks simply of tender affection.

One might find the harmonies of the opening bars by Rodgers surprisingly sophisticated for a Broadway production. A brief detour into polytonality hinted at the composer’s interest in the emerging musical trends of his time on both sides of the Pond, which made this piece a particularly intriguing specimen for the waltz sample three-pack.

The evening’s principal attraction, however, followed intermission, with Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto played by one of the most popular performers of our time, Lang Lang.

Pianist Lang Lang shines in San Francisco Symphony’s opening night concert on September 9, 2009 (photo courtesy of San Francisco Symphony).

Despite being billed primarily as a Chinese sensation, Lang was a student of Graffman at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute, and could be equally considered a product of American training. At 27, he has played the great concert halls of the world many times over, and already demonstrates the rare sensitivity and skill of a veteran of the stage.

After years of polarized reviews, Lang Lang’s flawless execution has now aged into soulful art, right before our very eyes.

It was not the technical demands of Prokofiev’s concerto, but rather its unexpected romanticism that revealed the breadth of Lang’s interpretive canvas.

After endless applause and four returns to the stage, Lang Lang finally relented to an encore – Chopin’s Etude in A-flat, Op. 25, known as the “Aeolian Harp.”

If you think you’ve heard this piece before, think again!

To breathe new life into the single most commonly played Chopin Etude for over 160 years – now, THAT takes more than anything taught in a music school; American or Chinese.

So, who deserves credit for producing the world phenomenon that is Lang Lang? China and the U.S. may well have to fight this one out, too, along with the trade deficit and carbon emissions.

'Il Trovatore' Marks New Beginning for San Francisco Opera

Since San Francisco Opera’s public announcement of its new music director exactly two years and eight months ago, the enigmatic Nicola Luisotti has been the talk of the town as the man next in line to bear the mantle of his illustrious predecessors, the English Sir John Pritchard and the Scottish Donald Runnicles.

Nicola Luisotti conducts his first production as San Francisco Opera’s new music director (photo by Terrence McCarthy).

It is also a compliment to our city and to our opera that a European conductor of Luisotti’s stature should dismiss multiple offers, no doubt, from highly prestigious opera companies on the continent in favor of San Francisco.

Rivers of ink have flowed in Luisotti’s mention since he conducted last year’s production of La Bohème, and was featured as a guest conductor of the San Francisco Symphony in March. Naturally, this year’s season-opener with Verdi’s Il Trovatore was laden with excitement with perhaps a dash of skepticism.

Moments into the music, one could faintly hear a qualitative change in the orchestra’s sound. Whether a result of the new chemistry between conductor and orchestra, a side-effect of the slightly raised pit, or simply a musical placebo effect caused by the massive publicity in advance of Luisotti’s arrival – it is hard to know for sure.

Whatever the case, this is definitely a positive change.

The opera itself is a tragic tale of love, cruelty and murder, set to music by the master of Italian opera Giuseppe Verdi based on the work of Spanish playwright Antonio Gutierrez.

Sometime in fifteenth century Spain, Count Di Luna is convinced that his young son is ill from witchcraft, and orders a certain gypsy woman burnt at the stake in order to break the evil spell. The gypsy’s daughter named Azucena – herself the mother of a young boy – kidnaps the count’s son in a desperate attempt to trade his life for that of her mother, but arrives too late.

As the flames devour Azucena’s mother, she throws the count’s abducted son into the fire in a fit a vengeful wrath, only to realize in chilling horror, that she has instead burned her own son alive by mistake.

Azucena raises the count’s son as her dead boy Manrico, who grows into a handsome troubadour – trovatore in Italian – and whose sweet melodies capture the heart of a certain Leonora.

The count’s second son becomes the new Count Di Luna after his father’s death, and also falls in love with Leonora. Being a powerful and wealthy man – not to mention lethally jealous – the count manages to capture Manrico, whom he intends to kill over the woman they both love.

Leonora vows marriage to the count in exchange for Manrico’s life, but soon commits suicide to get out of the bargain. This enrages the count, so he hangs Manrico, upon which Azucena reveals to the count that he has killed, not a rival, but his own long-lost brother.

The story ends in a perfect example of operatic justice when the count pays the price for the long-ago death of a gypsy woman, and has to live out his days knowing he has killed his own flesh and blood, eerily sharing Azucena’s fate.

Verdi’s Il Trovatore opened San Francisco Opera’s 87th season on September 11, 2009 (photo by Robert Kusel).

American soprano Sondra Radvanovsky was ravishing as Leonora. Her perfectly controlled high notes in the aria “D’amor sull’ali rosee” (“On the Rosey Wings of Love”) of Act 4 – where Leonora sings of her concern for Manrico while pacing outside the prison – drew the evening’s loudest cheers.

Singing the troubadour’s part was Italian tenor Marco Berti, who did a fine job carrying the added burden of – not only being the leading tenor – but being a leading tenor who happens to be a singer in the story itself.

Berti’s aria “Ah, sì ben mio” (“Ah, My Beloved”), was one of the opera’s highlights, in which Manrico longs for death knowing that Leonora has agreed to marry the count.

Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky, who appears frequently in important roles with the San Francisco Opera, sang the part of Count di Luna with command and authority. First-timer mezzo soprano Stephanie Blythe, made a lasting impression in the complicated and disturbing character of Azucena.

Under chorus director Ian Robertson’s leadership, the band of gypsies, nuns, and ordinary fifteenth century Spaniards played a crucial part in the opera’s success.

Each scene was treated as though a delicately balanced painting, where the interplay of shadow and light filled open spaces, creating a kind of picture book to accompany the story.

David McVicar and Walter Sutcliffe co-directed the production with the finest of sets, costumes and choreography at their disposal.

Clearly, San Francisco Opera is charting its own artistic course through the rough waters of the world’s worst economic crisis ever. In contrast, this opening night was nothing but smooth sailing all around.

Of course, with Captain Luisotti now at the helm, San Francisco Opera may as well be the QE2.

---

Eman Isadiar teaches piano at the Peninsula Conservatory and writes about music in the San Francisco Bay Area.