It was another frustrating night at the San Francisco Opera. This was the last production for this year and nothing could have been duller the way they performed it. The cast for Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin was very uneven to begin with. The only voice of note was the tenor Piotr Beczala who was making his U.S. operatic debut. Elena Prokina singing Tatyana for the second time here was no better than the first time. She is fine if she sings softly and in the lower registers but she is supposed to be a dramatic soprano but when she hits the high notes singing loudly, it is an unpleasant sound she produces. My friend was not even sure what notes she was supposed to be singing.
The biggest problem and disappointment with this production however was one which has plagued this opera company for several years. It is that of cheap and/or inappropriate sets. This time they reset the action to the late 19th century however the women in the Grand Polonaise scene in the last act were dressed in huge hoop skirts and looked as if they had just flown in from "Gone With the Wind". And if this was supposed to be a fashionable house in St. Petersburg, I would hate to see what the other houses looked like. All we could see from the balcony was black walls, a few mirrors, and the very bottom of a chandalier over center stage. There was nothing on stage to give the feeling of elegance at all. It was very drab.
The earlier ballroom in Marina's house had a huge picture window. Gee, I didn't know picture windows existed in 19th Century country houses. Even the wall that remained looked more like some cheap office paneling from the 1950s. In one scene in the woods, women were hanging out the laundry between trees. Golly, I wonder how long that took to dry in the shaded forest.
The performance itself limped along with no seeming focus, as if everyone were in some sort of dream. So SFO has once again ruined one of my favorite operas. Pamela Rosenberg, the current general director is leaving in 2006 and her departure can't come soon enough for me.
At least there is the San Francisco Symphony across the street which provides for more consistent enjoyment but this Friday they outdid themselves with a program that was completely satifsying from beginning to end. An early work by Debussy (Printemps, Suite symphonique) began the program and sounded more like Tchaikowsky in parts than Debussy which was fine with me and other who are not great fans of the music of Debussy.
The second work was a bravura performance by pianist Simon Trpceski of the Saint-Saens Concerto No. 2 in G Minor. This exciting performance resulted in a standing ovation followed by a rare encore.
The second half of the program featured music by Respighi, Fountains of Rome and Pines of Rome, which were thrilling in their excecution. The build up of the dynamics of the Pines of the Appian Way movement to its conclusion complete with the organ adding a lot of weight, but being felt more than heard, brought the audience to their feet once again. The conductor for this evening's performance was Yan Pascal Tortelier.
Often during the past few years I have enjoyed the music more with the SF Symphony than with the SF Opera so I am tempted to drop my opera subscription and increase my symphony subscription to more performances. If the opera just happens to do something worthwhile, I can, if nothing else, buy a standing room ticket. Right now however their production and musical values are way off the mark most times.
The biggest problem and disappointment with this production however was one which has plagued this opera company for several years. It is that of cheap and/or inappropriate sets. This time they reset the action to the late 19th century however the women in the Grand Polonaise scene in the last act were dressed in huge hoop skirts and looked as if they had just flown in from "Gone With the Wind". And if this was supposed to be a fashionable house in St. Petersburg, I would hate to see what the other houses looked like. All we could see from the balcony was black walls, a few mirrors, and the very bottom of a chandalier over center stage. There was nothing on stage to give the feeling of elegance at all. It was very drab.
The earlier ballroom in Marina's house had a huge picture window. Gee, I didn't know picture windows existed in 19th Century country houses. Even the wall that remained looked more like some cheap office paneling from the 1950s. In one scene in the woods, women were hanging out the laundry between trees. Golly, I wonder how long that took to dry in the shaded forest.
The performance itself limped along with no seeming focus, as if everyone were in some sort of dream. So SFO has once again ruined one of my favorite operas. Pamela Rosenberg, the current general director is leaving in 2006 and her departure can't come soon enough for me.
At least there is the San Francisco Symphony across the street which provides for more consistent enjoyment but this Friday they outdid themselves with a program that was completely satifsying from beginning to end. An early work by Debussy (Printemps, Suite symphonique) began the program and sounded more like Tchaikowsky in parts than Debussy which was fine with me and other who are not great fans of the music of Debussy.
The second work was a bravura performance by pianist Simon Trpceski of the Saint-Saens Concerto No. 2 in G Minor. This exciting performance resulted in a standing ovation followed by a rare encore.
The second half of the program featured music by Respighi, Fountains of Rome and Pines of Rome, which were thrilling in their excecution. The build up of the dynamics of the Pines of the Appian Way movement to its conclusion complete with the organ adding a lot of weight, but being felt more than heard, brought the audience to their feet once again. The conductor for this evening's performance was Yan Pascal Tortelier.
Often during the past few years I have enjoyed the music more with the SF Symphony than with the SF Opera so I am tempted to drop my opera subscription and increase my symphony subscription to more performances. If the opera just happens to do something worthwhile, I can, if nothing else, buy a standing room ticket. Right now however their production and musical values are way off the mark most times.
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