Hi Bill: I love your new opera “Warhorses” site!! Excellent idea, and you, a true scholar on the idiom, are more than qualified to do it!! We’ll talk more at dinner before Parsifal which I will see this weekend!! Meanwhile, I’ll see L A Opera’s Tosca with Samuel Ramey as my hero Baron Scarpia on Dec 1 — this should be fabulous!! Tom.

Thanks, Tom. Note the reference to Los Angeles Opera’s February 2005 “Romeo and Juliette” (which we both attended) in my note to Stephen above. I look forward to the “Parsifal” and dinner beforehand.

December, 2005

Hi Bill; Me, and I suspect many others, are anxiously awaiting your review of L A Opera’s musically wonderful Parsifal. On the radio or a CD it would have been fabulous, as to the blind or visually impaired in attendance,

But some of us were unfortunate enough to see it. I’ll make up for that ghastly mistake by seeing the MET’s glorious production this next May in NYC in the same week as Franco Zefferelli’s famed production of Tosca (on their DVD) and their equally superb reading of a delicious L’Elisir d’Amore (also on their DVD), plus their new Rodelinda which, hopefully, will not look like [San Francisco Opera departing general manager][ Pamela [Rosenberg]‘s flim-flam-flop.

We’ve but merely to count the few remaining days of Pamela’s Dark Age at SFO. She will be organizing concerts for the world’s premier symphony orchestra in Berlin — but in a back office. She won’t be selecting any music and won’t darken their stage.

On Jan 1, 2006 the Gockley Era [incoming General Manager David Gockley] begins. Look for lots of classics, lots of Wagner, big productions, and productions from Santa Fe, Wash DC Opera and Opera Philly in which he has had a major hand. We’ve seen some of these in LA and OC as well as SDO, all of which have been terrific. I saw his marvellous Ahkneton in Houston — he raided every museum everywhere for repro Egyptian props and produced a modern-day Aida of monumental proportions — to roaring standing ovations. He’s dramatic, very forceful, full of vitality and quite intense about opera. Enjoy the Holidays!!! Tom

Hi Tom. I have concluded that you regard the Rosenberg to Gockley change of command in San Francisco as a good thing.

Not only did I enjoy your Dec 18, 2005 review of LA Opera’s mercifully now-ended Parsifal, but I agreed with your overview of Wagner’s utter transformation of his musical genre into something the opera-world had not seen (nor heard) before, this forever changing what opera could be, how it sounded, and certainly how in looked. As you firmly point out, Wagner was extremely precise just how his masterpieces should be presented, insisting on Bayreuth performances for this reason. However, for those who’ve been to Bayreuth Wagner performances of late have found out, vast liberties have been taken with Der Meister’s directives. I saw a Bayreuth Parsifal some years ago with essentially no sets, with blue lights being almost the only memorable event – but the music was sublime.

As indeed it was in Los Angeles magnificently conducted by Kent Nagano, fabulously sung with real emotion by Placido Domingo and Matti Salminen. One of my dear friends attending that night’s performance indicated she was having a difficult time seeing the production from her Founder’s Circle seat having just had cataract surgery, to which another dear friend (whose name is on the theater) replied How lucky she is to be spared having to see it!!

As I marched out at the end of Act II along with battalions of other disgusted opera patrons voting with their feet, I thought this all the way home: how could a masterpiece containing some of the most intense emotional overlay in all opera, accompanied by Wagner’s musical genius’s apotheosis, have been so little understood by those who staged this production?

The contrast to the MET’s current (forthcoming again next May 2006) could not be more stark. Legions of opera-lovers in tears (like me) as the drama moves towards its catharsis in Act III as Kundry bathes Parsifal’s feet and the music reaches it’s overwhelmingly sublime climax. L A Opera’s production may well have produced tears, but for an entirely different reason.

I did indeed enjoy it, but I only listened to it from my front-row-center seat, just taking a furtive and occasional peak to see what was going on, only to look away in disgust. As I marched out with those battalions of other opera-patrons, I overheard many exclaiming that they, too, just listened. Is that Robert WIlson’s legacy from his L A Parsifal? Tom

Hi Tom – Despite the controversy around this “Parsifal”, what I will remember kindly are the Domingo-Salminen-Nagano performances. I think I am forewarned and therefore fore-armed with the knowledge that I will want to avoid “Robert Wilson’s Pelleas et Melisande”, the reports of which suggest the same inarticulateness of concept [with similar costumes and faux-Noh gestures], in an opera that is often pegged as being basically inarticulate (though wonderful) anyway. Bill

October, 2006

William -

I read your review of MANON. [See "Thriller": Paterson Links with Netrebko, Villazon and Domingo in L. A. "Manon" - October 5, 2006] The review was spot on. I feel pretty much the same way and could not have said it better. We enjoyed MANON very much and tried to see it up close a second time to no avail because of its sold-out status. Annie and I recently saw Penelope Cruz in VOLVER, the new Almodovar film and I believe that just as Almodovar is paying homage to the great acting divas, Anna Magnani and Sophia Loren, by creating an amzaing role and performance with Penelope, Anna Netrebko is recreating roles in her own way with great help from her directors that give her opera diva status in much the same way as opera divas of yesteryear. These are exciting times for performance art!

Because of our Guild status, we see a lot of movies this time of year that are being considered for awards. I can really recommend NOTES ON A SCANDAL with Judi Dench and also VOLVER. They are both daring and exciting and leave you wanting more.

Thank you for your intelligent insights. They are much appreciated. Bob.

Hi Bob -

Note my (admittedly tangential) references to Pedro Almodovar’s film characters in my comments on the DVD of the Stuttgart production of Handel’s “Alcina”, on the web-page entitled: Separating Art from “Eurotrash”: S.F.’s “Rodelinda” & Stuttgart’s “Alcina”

William

I enjoyed the site very much. Looking forward to reading more. I think we were both at that Faust; some of them are still alive. Wild horses couldn’t drag me to a performance of that opera these days, though. It just hasn’t worn well with me. But of course then, it was sheer magic. Keep sending . . . Best, Stephen

Thanks, Stephen. Gounod’s “Faust” has achieved a high degree of critical disrespect over the nearly a century and a half of its existence, and certainly does not wear well if performances are poorly executed (what opera does?). I think we are in a period where the French operas of the mid-19th century are being re-evaluated. Obviously, a new production of Bizet’s “Les Pecheurs de Perles” was a big hit in both San Diego (2003) and San Francisco (2005), and Los Angeles was treated to a stunning presentation of Gounod’s “Romeo and Juliette” with Rolando Villazon and Anna Netrebko earlier this year. I had the good fortune to be present for performances of all three.

“Faust” still needs a major new production in San Francisco, that treats it seriously and plays it straight, but the commitment to the opera by Covent Garden and the Metropolitan over the last year or two is a sign that the opera’s hold on the repertory is strengthening. I will have a lot more to say about “Faust” over the next several weeks. However, I believe the “sheer magic” in the opera is possible to revive.

December, 2005

Hi Bill: I’m anxious to read your review of PARSIFAL. I saw an earlier performance and Domingo was in beautiful voice. Sorry he was a little under the weather for you. Have to rush at the moment, but after the holidays we’ll chat about the Wilson production. Your website is wonderful. Best, Stephen

Hi Stephen. My comments about “Richard Wagner’s Parsifal” (the music review) are found in the entry “Domingo is the Redeemer of L.A.’s spellbound Parsifal”. My comments about “Robert Wilson’s Parsifal” (the production review) are found in the entry “Robert Wilson’s ‘Parsifal’ in L A – Whose Spell is it Anyway?”

January, 2006

Hi Bill -

I will reply to your “Parsifal” comments . . . (found the production a revelation; stand by for blinding light!)

More soon, Stephen

Hi Stephen -

I have entitled those comments “More on the L. A. Parsifal: the Case for Wilson’s Spell” and have given them their own webpage in the “Guest Reviews” section of the website.

Hi Bill –

Re: the Santa Fe “Italiana”: it was a hoot from first note to last, and, in fact, through the aisles of the theatre during the overture, miniature planes were flown on the ends of long sticks manipulated by stagehands all in black — a la Noh Theatre. It was fabulous.

By all means skip this coming summer in Santa Fe. It is the drabbest season anyone can remember! The word is out from friends I have who are affiliated there (or were –one resigned last month).

Thanks for posting [my comments on Robert Wilson's "Parsifal".] What did you think of my ideas?

Best, Stephen

Your thoughts are very interesting, and I am still sorting them through in my mind. Let me know your take on the Youth who accompanies Amfortas.

Well, the youth can be just about anything, but I saw him as the pure innocence of Parsifal, and of, what once was, that of Amfortas as well; he is perhaps the promise of redemption as well (it is he who first steps off the rhythm of the Grail music), or something like that.

Best, Stephen

We can certainly speculate on whether a person who has been dead for almost 125 years would approve of a production that strays far from his directions. We know a quote of his that appears to express frustration that existing stage and lighting technology in the latter part of the 19th century did not match his ideas. You and I are guessing what his reaction would be; but, of course, whatever that guess is, there is no way to ever know what Wagner would actually say. MY guess is that he would like a lot of the lighting ideas, and might agree with some of the efforts to make the sets less concrete and with less emphasis on picture postcard realism.

But I also believe he would not have approved of any attempts to abolish what Wilson apparently regards as merely stage props and old-fashioned stage directions. My companions at the performance I attended, Tom and Andrew, were outraged at the idea of the Holy Grail being ice and fire instead of a cup — THE cup — towards which centuries of medieval effort and bravado was directed. The Kiss and Kundry’s bathing of Parsifal’s feet, to refer to two actions that most Wagnerians had assumed were crucial to the story, apparently were uninteresting to Wilson. As you have read in my critique of the production, my thinking may be closer to Tom and Andrew than to yours on these points, and I do believe Wagner would be in our corner also.

However, you were a student of persons composed of Richard Wagner’s DNA, and I value your thoughts on these matters. You got me hooked on opera in general and Wagner in particular by encouraging me to follow the Met’s 1954 broadcast of “Tannhauser” with its piano score. The two of us as teenagers saw our first Wagner together — San Francisco Opera’s “Walkuere” production in 1956 (on its post-season tour of Los Angeles) that introduced Birgit Nillson and Leonie Rysanek to the United States.

You were with me and my wife sitting in the first row in San Francisco just behind conductor Kenneth Schermerhorn when Jean-Pierre Ponnelle’s new production of “Fliegende Hollaender” introduced me to the tenth of Wagner’s ten most important operas. It is my intention to continue to reflect on what you regard as important insights that Wilson brings to “Parsifal”. I have no doubt that we both get “Parsifal”. I am not yet sure that we both get all of Robert Wilson.

By the way, my desert island opera would be the Ring. If it were required that I could have only one of the four, it would be “Goetterdaemerung”.

William

Hi Bill -

Thank you for your comments. They are very interesting. I certainly do agree about both the kiss and the foot washing; as I told you the two principals [Domingo and Watson] were both very saddened by the absence of these in the production, and so was I. They ARE crucial.

While I was at Bayreuth the joke of 1966 was how Wieland Wagner managed to stage the descending dove at the end of PARSIFAL so that ONLY [conductor Hans] Knappertsbusch could see it. (He had died in ’65.) He would not conduct without it and Wieland hated the bird so — no one told the old man, and he died smiling, one may assume. And so it goes. The world went into a swivet in ’24 when Siegfried Wagner stripped “Tannhauser” of a lot of its trappings; that was STILL being discussed Bayreuth in ’66 (no business is EVER finished there!). Whatever Wilson does or does not do, there is an intelligence behind it that generally I respect.

By the way, I have read that more than one critic thinks GOETTERDAEMERUNG [to be] Wagner’s most successful and fully accomplished music drama! It is sure hard to beat!

I remember [Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's 1975 San Francisco Opera] “Hollander” very fondly. Generally known and recalled now as “the Tea Cozy” Hollander! I also recall that your wife was or is not fond of Wagner.

She gets great delight in offering her first row San Francisco Opera seat for the “Wagners” to those infected with the Wagner bug. This includes our younger son, who, as a child would watch the videotapes of Patrice Chereau’s “Ring” with fascination. In fact, he, along with myself, Tom and Andrew, attended all four operas of the latest San Francisco “Ring” (1999). He saw his first performance of “Walkuere” at about the same age as we did, and “did” the Ring at age 19, at a much earlier age than I first experienced it.

It was Martin Bernheimer of the Los Angeles Times who referred to Ponnelle’s costumes for the women at their spinning wheels and the women on shore (excitedly hopping up and down in anticipation the sailors returning on Daland’s ship) as “tea cozies”.

Hi Bill -

I remember Friedelind Wagner cackling in delight as she introducted [Patrice] Chereau to her formidable mother (whom I met several times) — the terrifying Winifred, who had loudly exclaimed how she hated the Chereau RING. The Wagners love to do horrible things to each other. Apparently, Winnie and Patrice were very civil to each other.

Best, Stephen

Bill, It was wonderful to see you again at our reunion. It is a pity that we don’t live in the same city since we both have such a love of opera. Have you ever seen the video production of Tosca (on Decca label) with the young Placido Domingo and Sherill Milnes? It is-visually and sonically-one of the finest produced operas on video that I have ever seen. . . Unfortunately I have a class in about fifteen minutes which I must prepare for. I’ll talk with you again. Regards, Sal

Sal, better than the Decca video (which I will look for) I saw the 29-year old Domingo in San Francisco for both the SF Opera’s 1970 productions of “Carmen” with Joy Davidson and “Tosca” with Dorothy Kirsten and Louis Quilico, James Levine conducting. He had actually debuted a year before in “La Boheme” in a late season alternate cast. Since I had seen the principal cast of Luciano Pavarotti and Dorothy Kirsten in “Boheme” earlier in the season (and also Pavarotti and Mirella Freni in Boheme in 1967), I had skipped the alternate cast. Incidentally, the 1970 Domingo performances were also the later season alternate casts. By 1972, Domingo was to have his own new production of “Tosca”.

December, 2006

Bill, Great idea….you’re so clever but I’m not surprised….what are your future plans for your website? Carol Jean

Hi Carol Jean. For sure, I plan to record my thoughts on the 2004 San Diego Opera production of Bizet’s “Pearl Fishers” that we saw together, as well as review the San Francisco Opera mounting of San Diego’s production, to which the Bay Area was treated in Summer, 2005.

Hi Bill, How nice to hear from you. I have written a post about your site and blog and linked to it from (my blog) Wellsung. It looks really terrific. I like your anecdote about the Tannhauser score being a watershed moment for you! Anyway, I will add you to my list of bookmarks and will keep up to speed on reading your posts! All best, Jonathan

Hi, Jonathan. Your dad alerted me to your website. I found the review that your parents posted of the San Francisco Opera’s Sunday matinee “Forza del Destino” to be very interesting. We were obviously at the same performance, although I did not run into them. I pretty well skewered the physical production, and apparently your parents were disrespectful of it also. As I reflect on the production, I have begun to believe that this turned out to be quite different than was originally conceived. I don’t think I even believe that they intended to mount a production of “Forza”, but were going to do something else entirely. The Pamela Rosenberg era in San Francisco has ended, leaving some unanswered questions.

I appreciate learning about the Wellsung site and plan to follow your chronicles of the New York City opera scene.

February, 2006

Bill, your article on the “Pearl Fishers” is very profound. I particularly enjoyed the many interesting facts that you included, both about the opera and Zandra. Carol Jean.

Hi Carol Jean -

Many thanks for coming up with a ticket for me to join you at one of the San Diego performances. It was quite a show for the General Director (Ian Campbell) to come out before the performance to congratulate the audience for being lucky enough to have secured tickets. I am assuming that he is planning a revival of the production there in one of the next seasons. Bill

November, 2005

Bill, It’s a great start. Perhaps after only your first opera you did not feel competent to comment, even retrospectively, on the quality (rather than the star-rating) of the great singers in San Diego. I hope in future chapters (years? pages?) you will become a critic as well as a historian. Did you realize that “war-horse” in this sense was first used only in 1947, by Alfred Einstein, in Music in the Romantic Era? We’ll be at the SFO this weekend for the Sunday afternoon “Norma”, unfortunately no longer first row, center, but there with my daughter & son-in-law, nonetheless. . . Best wishes, Peter

Peter, it is my plan to comment on the quality of singers and all of the other factors of an operatic production, both retrospectively and contemporaneously. In fact, I plan to post my comments on the production of San Francisco opera’s “Norma” to which you refer.

Bill, The quote: from Alfred Einstein,, (W.W. Norton, 1947) p 209. “There is a whole series of operatic transcriptions — all pieces that are great technical war-horses.”According to the OED, the first (and literal) use of the term was in 1653; in 1837 the word first appeared in its figurative sense of an old soldier or veteran. Einstein was one of the dominant musicologists of his generation. Born in Germany in 1880 he left in 1933, when Hitler’s came to power, first to London, then to Italy. In 1939 he came to the US, where he taught at Smith College, from which he retired in 1950. His best known work was on Mozart; his 1945 (Translated by Mendel & Broder, Oxford UP,) is still considered authoritative – at least the musical part (he seems to have been rather misogynistic, as far as Mozart’s women were concerned.) He made many contributions to Mozart scholarship, including updating and improving the standard Kochel numbering system. He was particularly fond of “Idomeneo”, by the way – considered it a work of genius. You mentioned the Bay Area “-stein”, who I assume was Alfred Frankenstein, the revered music critic for the during the 1950′s and 1960′s. Non-San Franciscans remember Frankenstein primarily for his in describing the voice of Eileen Farrell: “Miss Farrell has a voice like some unparalleled phenomenon of nature. She is to singers what Niagara is to waterfalls.” But you knew this already. It is an interesting geographical coincidence that Einstein died in El Cerrito in 1952, and his daughter (I think) donated his library and his papers to the UC Berkeley Music Library.

Thanks for alerting me to your new site, Peter

Thanks, Peter, for following up on an off-page communication from me, in which I asked for further information about your citation of Alfred Einstein’s reference to operatic “war-horses”. I had momentarily wondered if he was responsible for another quote, but then noticed that his date of death was too early. You are absolutely correct that the quotation I had in mind was one of Alfred Frankenstein’s.

By the way, I did an Internet search of Alfred Einstein and was amazed to find a reference to him among some factoids relating to the 1989 movie “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure”, a teen-oriented movie that was supposed to take place in the San Dimas Mall (although actually filmed in Phoenix). A close student of that film noticed that reference was made to the scientist Alfred Einstein, and wondered if there was a hidden meaning in the substitution of the name of a musicologist for the great theoretical physicist. I will go with a slip of the tongue, or careless writing, unless additional furtive clues in the Excellent Adventure are disclosed.

February, 2006

Bill, What a wonderful website and what a lot of work you have gone to. I am forwarding this to my friends at the Lexington Opera Society. I think I told you that I am on the board of our town-gown opera society. Hope to be in touch with you soon. Sam

Hi Sam -

Thanks for your comments. Hopefully, we will be able to take in a performance one of the next times I am in Lexington. By the way, I am very pleased that the Kentucky Opera in Louisville joined with the San Francisco Opera, New York City Opera and Detroit’s Michigan Opera Theatre to assist the San Diego Opera in the Zandra Rhodes production of Bizet’s “Les Pecheurs de Perles”. I have seen the production in both San Diego and San Francisco and believe that the production advances the cause for this long-undervalued opera in the United States. I hope all goes well with the performances of the opera in Louisville tonight (February 2) and Saturday night (February 4). I will post my comments on the Pearl Fishers According to Zandra Rhodes before too long. Bill

August, 2006

Hi William -

I’d been away from your site for a while and was pleasantly surprised by the new look. Very cool!

Paul at operablog.blogspot.com

September, 2006

Hi William:

Re: Missing “That 70′s Show”: S. F. “Ballo” - September 17, 2006

We here in Denver are looking forward to Opera Colorado’s production of “Un Ballo,” although no one with the credentials of Ms. Voigt will be singing Amelia. In next spring’s performances (Apr 26/29, May 2/5/8), that role will be performed by Doina Dimitriu. Thankfully the two male starring roles here are better represented: Frank Lopardo is Gustav and hometown star Charles Taylor is Anckarstrom. David Agler will conduct.

Paul at operablog.blogspot.com

Hi Paul -

I have not yet seen Doina Dimitriu, although she will come to Denver with a creditable worldwide reputation. She sang in “Tosca” at Opera Pacific earlier this year, and Tom, who does guest reviews on this website, regularly attends performances at that Orange County house.

I will be at Opera Pacific in early October for four operas (Rheingold, Walkuere, Siegfried and Goetterdaemerung) from the Kirov with Gergiev conducting, and will see Tom there and at the Anna Netrebko-Rolando Villazon “Manon” in Los Angeles also. I will check out Tom’s opinion of Madame Dimitriu.

William

October, 2006

Hi William:

Re: Gavanelli Dominates Strongly Cast S.F. “Rigoletto” – October 15, 2006

Once again you’ve done a fine job in capturing the essence of a performance for those of us unlucky enough to have missed it. I especially appreciate the fact that you’ve named everyone in comprimario roles, as it will help us look for them in bigger things at some future date. Thanks again for a terrific piece.

Paul at operablog.blogspot.com