{"id":244109,"date":"2011-06-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-06-27T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/san-diego-symphony\/"},"modified":"2011-06-27T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-06-27T07:00:00","slug":"san-diego-symphony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/san-diego-symphony\/","title":{"rendered":"Sinf\u00f3nica de San Diego"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Charlene Baldridge | SDUN Theatre Critic<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"San<\/a>
Strauss's "Der Rosenkavalier" premiers in April in San Diego's Civic Theatre. (Photo by Pablo Mason)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

First love, suicide, mid-life angst, crimes of passion and a few beheadings\u2014just another edition of the daily news, right?<\/p>\n

Wrong. Those are the topics that inspired the librettists of operas set for performance in San Diego Opera\u2019s (SDO) 2011 season Jan. 29-May 22. Opera librettists, though seldom celebrated, give words to passion\u2014and operatic passions are immense. That\u2019s why it\u2019s called grand opera.<\/p>\n

This season\u2019s librettists are Italians Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni (Giacomo Puccini\u2019s \u201cTurandot\u201d), Austrian Hugo von Hofmannsthal (Richard Strauss\u2019 \u201cDer Rosenkavalier\u201d), and Frenchmen Jules Barbier and Michel Carr\u00e9 (Charles Gounod\u2019s \u201cFaust\u201d) and Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Hal\u00e9vy (Georges Bizet\u2019s \u201cCarmen\u201d).<\/p>\n

One might ask why hang out with a bunch of dead guys? The most recent of these operas premiered 85 years ago. What relevance does opera have in a Mos Def era?<\/p>\n

The answer is that in all its labor-intense glory, grand opera imparts thrills like absolutely no other musical art form.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople\u2019s lives are suspended as they go into this remarkable world in the darkness,\u201d Ian Campbell, SDO\u2019s general artistic director, said. \u201cYou can be any character, from a fuddy-duddy to romantic hero.\u201d<\/p>\n

Imagine a court in ancient China, bustling with acrobats, an immense chorus of Mandarins, comic yet sinister court flunkies named Ping, Pang and Pong. Add in an icy virgin princess, Turandot, who beheads failed suitors, and the one man in the universe who can melt the ice, a fellow from the provinces named Calaf, who risks his life solving three riddles to win her love. That\u2019s the plot enacted upon David Hockney\u2019s spectacular fairy tale set. Puccini\u2019s magnificent arias include Calaf\u2019s \u201cNessun Dorma\u201d (\u201cNo one shall sleep\u201d) and Turandot\u2019s \u201cIn Questa Reggia\u201d (\u201cIn this palace\u201d). Yep. The opera is sung in Italian. As with all four operas, English translations are projected above the proscenium of the Civic Theatre.<\/p>\n

In her SDO debut as Turandot, a role for which she is internationally acclaimed and in which she made her Metropolitan Opera debut last season, is American soprano Lise Lindstrom. Opposite Lindstrom is Uruguayan tenor Carlo Ventre, who has endeared himself to local audiences as Radames\u00a0in \u201cAida\u201d and Pinkerton in \u201cMadama Butterfly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The voluptuous opening scene of Richard Strauss\u2019 \u201cDer Rosenkavalier\u201d plops audiences down in the boudoir of a Viennese noblewoman known as the Marschallin (German soprano Anja Harteros in her role debut). She and her much younger lover, Octavian (German mezzo soprano Anke Vondung), have spent the night making love. The Marschallin realizes it is time for Octavian to move on with his life. She appoints him \u201cRosenkavalier,\u201d sending him to deliver Baron Ochs\u2019 (Italian bass Ferrucio Furlanetto in his role debut) silver rose to Sophie to seal Ochs\u2019 and Sophie\u2019s engagement. Octavian and Sophie (Italian soprano Patrizia Ciofi) fall in love at first sight, and the rest of the opera\u2019s plot involves machinations to prevent Baron Ochs from marrying the girl. With its grand harmonic sweep, Strauss\u2019 lush music matches the humor, sensuality, and poignancy of the plot.<\/p>\n

Seasoned opera lovers relish the idea of seeing \u201cTurandot\u201d and \u201cRosenkavalier\u201d again. Admittedly, the more frequently performed \u201cFaust\u201d and \u201cCarmen\u201d will be the crowd pleasers as well. \u201cFaust\u201d concerns the elderly Faust\u2019s (American tenor Stephen Costello) deal with the devil, Mephistopheles (American bass-baritone Greer Grimsley) to exchange his soul for the restoration of his lusty youth. Faust woos and despoils the virginal Marguerite (American soprano Ailyn Per\u00e9z) putting her immortal soul in peril (she goes mad and kills their baby) until she is saved by a miracle. Faust and the Devil get their due. In real life Costello and Per\u00e9z are a married couple who relish the opportunity to be on the same stage portraying overs again (they performed the title roles in \u201cRomeo and Juliet\u201d here last season). A great favorite wherever he goes, the graceful Grimsley is, quite simply, a hunk. See him on the cover of the June 2010 \u201cOpera News.\u201d All are fine actors, so the opera should play like gangbusters.<\/p>\n

Does anyone not know the plot of \u201cCarmen\u201d? It\u2019s been made into numerous films and pounded into other guises. The hit tunes are everywhere. Carmen, a gypsy temptress (Georgian mezzo soprano Nino Surgurladze in her SDO debut) seduces a country bumpkin soldier, Don Jose (sensational Italian tenor Salavatore Licitra in his SDO debut), who goes AWOL after releasing her when she is arrested for murder. When he gets out of prison, Jose joins Carmen and a band of cutthroat smugglers. Jose is beloved of hometown girl Micaela (SDO debutante Talise Trevigne, who created the role of Pip in \u201cMoby-Dick\u201d), who comes to the gypsies\u2019 encampment to plead with him to come home. So intense and obsessive is his passion that he cannot leave Carmen even though she treats him like dirt. Meanwhile, Carmen falls in love with a toreador named Escamillo (American baritone Wayne Tigges) and gives Don Jose the heave-ho. Jose follows her to the bull ring and stabs her to death. Hit tunes include the famous \u201cToreador Song\u201d and Carmen\u2019s \u201cHabanera.\u201d Bizet\u2019s \u201cfate\u201d theme dominates the opera. One can\u2019t help humming it in the car bound for home.<\/p>\n

To further discover the grandness of opera and decide whether it\u2019s for you, SDO offers a new series of \u201cCommunity Conversations,\u201d which address musical, dramatic, religious and psychological matters. For instance, on Jan. 10 at 7 p.m. at Point Loma Nazarene University, San Diego Symphony music director Jahja Ling and SDO education director Nicolas Reveles explore the authentic Chinese melodies in Puccini\u2019s \u201cTurandot.\u201d These events are scheduled at convenient community locations, and will feature noted experts in various fields, but best of all are free and open to the public. For more information or to reserve a seat, visit sdopera.com\/communityconversations.<\/p>\n

Tickets for individual performances at the Civic Theatre, located at 3rd and B Street in downtown San Diego, start at $35. Three- or four-opera subscription packages range upwards from $108, depending upon performance night and location. Senior discounts are available for the full Tuesday evening series. For more information, visit sdopera.com or call 533-7000. Music may be sampled on the website as well as individual singers\u2019 voices.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Charlene Baldridge | SDUN Theatre Critic First love, suicide, mid-life angst, crimes of passion and a few beheadings\u2014just another edition of the daily news, right? Wrong. Those are the topics that inspired the librettists of operas set for performance in San Diego Opera\u2019s (SDO) 2011 season Jan. 29-May 22. Opera librettists, though seldom celebrated, […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":731,"featured_media":243160,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"San Diego Symphony","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11593,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-no-images","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/731"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}