Opera Week in San Francisco

For the last four years, Ron and I have taken a trip to San Francisco during opera season to hear three or four productions. In the course of events, we've had a number of memorable opera experiences--Juan Diego Florez in Fille du Regiment, Placido Domingo in Cyrano de Bergerac (though unfortunately Domingo was not at his best that night), and the 2011 Ring cycle, including Jay Hunter Morris singing Siegfried before he became famous in the Met production. There are times when I've liked the SFO offerings better than the versions from the Met, and in any case they feature a number of the same stars. This year the summer series included Nixon in China, Magic Flute, and Attila. I've wanted to see Nixon for a long time, ever since I caught the tail end of a film of the original Houston production on PBS. The Met did it last season, though I didn't get the chance to attend the Live in HD broadcast. I don't see how they could have bested the SFO staging, choreography, and singing. (Maybe by actually landing a mock-up of Air Force One on stage--that's something the Met would try.) All the leads were superb, but special credit should go to Hye Jung Lee as Chiang Ch'ing. In her "I Am the Wife of Mao Tse-Tung" she was the Queen of the Night on testosterone. Speaking of the Queen of the Night, I had mixed emotions about Magic Flute as designed by Jun Kaneko. Since it was being sung in English, and since the publicity emphasized stage effects and cutely costumed extras, I figured it would be Disneyfied. Well, yes, it was, and during the first act the eye candy really got in the way of Mozart. The language of the translated libretto was bizarre when it wasn't being faux-baroque. Spoken dialogue contained lots of cheesy in-jokes. The Queen of the Night was predictably campy, as one expects that in San Francisco, but she was also so archly self-conscious that she appeared to parody herself. Coloratura runs seemed a bit mechanical. The second act was much better; by that time they had run out of visual effects and decided to concentrate on music. There was one final light touch in the closing duet of Papageno and Papagena, where all their imaginary children ran on stage dressed as chicks. Because the impact was whimsical, rather than silly, I didn't mind that one at all. Still, Magic Flute is not my favorite Mozart piece, not by a long shot, and this production, clearly aimed at "fun for the whole family," did nothing to improve my opinion. The best thing one can say about Attila is that it's quintessential Verdi, complete with opening chorus and dazzling first-act close, wronged but patriotic heroine (with a father fixation, too, like Aida), and sympathetic villain, though not as charming as the Duke in Rigoletto. Just not up to the standard of the late masterpieces. Weather in San Francisco is, as usual, unpredictable. Although it's been pleasantly warm the past few days, as I write this, the summer fog is cooling everything off.

On Wednesday afternoon we went down to Fisherman's Wharf where I took this photo. We had lunch at Pompei's Grotto, tasted some interesting wines at the Winery Collective, and browsed the art show at the Cannery before going home to dress for Magic Flute. Dinner was post-performance at Jardinere--our annual gourmet treat. Today we have lunch with my sister and her husband, then catch a performance of Scottsboro Boys at ACT. Home tomorrow. It's been a crowded but entertaining week.