Opera SLO -
2013 and 2012 Columns
Note: While many Opera Slo columns contain announcements of specific events that
occurred in the past, those same columns also include video clips and discussions
of outstanding operatic performances -
December, 2013 Nutcracker Continues Successful Collaborations
Following on from the success of The Carmen Project this past October, Opera San Luis Obispo continues its commitment to arts collaboration with seasonal performances of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Ballet. The Civic Ballet of San Luis Obispo will once again join forces with the Opera San Luis Obispo Orchestra, the Los Osos Middle School and Morro Bay High School choruses, both directed by Colleen Wall, to perform this beloved ballet in December. Performances will be directed by Brian Asher Alhadeff, Artistic and General Director of Opera San Luis Obispo. San Luis Obispo performances are scheduled for December 14, at 2:00pm and 7:00pm, and December 15 at 2:00pm, at the Performing Arts Center on the Cal Poly campus.
November, 2013 Tosca in the MET HD Series
The story is set against the background of the Battle of Marengo, fought in June 1800. Napoleon had established a republic which was challenged by Austrian troops. The French and the Austrians fought on June 4, 1800. Ultimately the French were victorious. The four main characters in Tosca have some connection with historical figures but are essentially fictional.
October, 2013 The Carmen Project
Carmen is a music tale of romance, seduction, jealousy, and violence, peopled by soldiers, cigarette girls, a bullfighter and his retinue, gypsies and bandits, as well as a sexy heroine and a soldier who is helplessly captivated by her. Carmen, as she tells us in her opening aria, the famous Habanera, is like a bird free to fly. She may love a man, but if he loves her, her love may vanish. Not to psychologize, but the process of seduction may be more exciting to her than its achievement.
September, 2013 Some Thoughts on Two Russian Operas
During the second half of the 19th century, Russian opera aesthetics were split by a more cosmopolitan outlook and a "nationalist" school of composition. Partisans of the former took as their models the masterpieces of Western European art music, while those of the latter believed that Russian music must look for its development to Russian folk music and church music.
August, 2013 Broadway by the Sea 2013
Gershwin conceived Porgy and Bess as an opera from the beginning. It opened in 1935 to mixed reviews, but, as Ms. Miller notes, it received 124 performances — hardly a flop. Following two revivals in 1942 and 1952, which entailed substantial cuts of most of the operatic elements, the opera languished, due in part, to racial sensitivities surrounding the civil rights movement.
July, 2013 Mikado Comes to Opera Camp; OperaSlo Launches Carmen Project
Each summer Opera San Luis Obispo sponsors a 2-
In the course of two weeks the children will learn correct vocal techniques, drama and stage movement, ear training and musicianship, part singing, and choral techniques and use of props, costumes, and makeup. The preparation is quite complete.
June, 2013 Early Opera and Its Sources
Many musical and literary sources led to the beginnings of opera. Among the most important are the late 16th century Italian madrigal and a new musical style that arose out of theories about what, in the late 1500s, was known of ancient Greek music and theater. (We don't know a lot more now.)
May, 2013 The MET Live in HD: 2013-
Tchaikovsky's romantic love story of Tatyana and Onegin leads off in October. Based
on Alexander Pushkin's novel-
April, 2013 Co-
"Inventive, fantastic, charming and unique, with serpents, an evil queen, bird catchers, a beautiful lady in distress, priests, and spirits, all who triumph over evil with courage and wisdom" – that's how Jacalyn Kreitzer, director of the Cal Poly Opera Theater sums up the world created by Mozart's Magic Flute. One of Mozart's most beloved operas, it appeals on many levels. It is part fairy tale and part morality play, filled with both comedy and serious struggle
March, 2013 That's Amore: Opera San Luis Obispo's First Salon Recital of the Season
During March the Met Live in HD series features two very different operas, Wagner's final statement in music drama, Parsifal, and Zandonai's Francesca da Rimini. Parsifal is a deeply philosophical and spiritual work, while Francesca is a lust and blood thriller.
Though it was his last drama, Wagner conceived Parsifal as early as 1845, when he read the medieval German epic Parzifal, by Wolfram von Eschenbach. Not until 1877, when he completed the libretto (which he called the "poem") did Wagner compose his Parsifal. In the intervening three decades, his readings of other sources of the legend, his philosophical interests and his own experience as a composer and a man added layers to his conception of this music drama
February, 2013 That's Amore: Opera San Luis Obispo's First Salon Recital of the Season
Rigoletto is generally regarded as a work inaugurating a new phase in Verdi's career, one in which his mastery as a musical dramatist is fully achieved. The story, based on a play by Victor Hugo, Le roi s'amuse, is about a court jester, Rigoletto, ironically a hunchback and a man embittered by life; he hates the Duke he serves, who is a complete libertine and leads a life of debauchery, and the courtiers, whom he regularly insults. But this physically and emotionally deformed man has another quite different side: he is a father who passionately loves his only child, his daughter Gilda, and seeks to protect her from the Duke.
January, 2013 Nutcracker a Successful Collaboration
The Civic Ballet of San Luis Obispo joined forces with the Opera San Luis Obispo Orchestra and the Morro High School Chorus, directed by Colleen Wall, to perform Tchaikovsky's beloved ballet The Nutcracker on Saturday, December 8, and Sunday, December 9. The house was very nearly sold out on Saturday and completely sold out for Sunday afternoon. It was by all measures a highly successful venture.
December, 2012 Maestro Alhadeff Assumes Role of General Director of OperaSLO
Dr. Brian Asher Alhadeff, Artistic Director of Opera San Luis Obispo, now also wears the hat of General Director of the company. I had a chance to speak with him while he was taking a short break in rehearsing with the dancers for this year's production of the Nutcracker Ballet.i
November, 2012 November News From Opera SLO
The Met Live in HD series continues in November with a new opera by the young British
composer Thomas Ades (pronounced ADD-
October, 2012 The MET Live in HD
L'Elisir d'Amore is generally regarded as Donizetti's most popular opera. It belongs to the second great age of bel canto, dominated by the practice of Rossini and passed on to Bellini, Donizetti and subsequent Italian composers, not least of them Verdi. In this style the voice was the dominant force, and opportunities for "beautiful singing" (bel canto) were the basis of the libretto and score.
September, 2012 The MET Live in HD — Jacalyn Kreitzer in Recital
Kreitzer has sung locally with the San Luis Obispo Symphony and Festival Mosaic,
and with many major opera companies and orchestras, from the Los Angeles Philharmonic
to the Prague National Symphony, and from the Metropolitan Opera to Paris Chatelet
Opera, with conductors such as Jeffrey Tate, Simon Rattle, James Levine, Zubin Mehta,
Lorin Maazel, Michael Tilson-
August, 2012 Broadway by the Sea
Glorious singing, stunning views, beautiful gardens, wine tasting, painters at work, and a silent auction. It's Broadway by the Sea, presented by Opera San Luis Obispo each summer. Don't miss this feast of the arts, held at the elegant Chapman estate in Shell Beach, Saturday, August 18. The grounds will open at 1:00pm. A grand concert follows at 2:00pm.
July, 2012 Opera Camp -
Each summer Opera San Luis Obispo holds an opera camp for kids 8-
June, 2012 Gilbert and Sullivan Come to Salon Series
The continuing popularity of Gilbert and Sullivan is remarkable given how far removed our present day American society is from the one satirized in these operettas. Maestro Alhadeff attributes this in part to the United States' historical connections to Britain and our shared language. Interestingly, he finds connections between Gilbert and Sullivan and contemporary comedy. "The humor of G&S is a recognizable early link in English comedy to successes like Benny Hill, Monty Python, Wallace and Gromit, and The Office to name a few."
May, 2012 Jacalyn Kreitzer in May 6 Salon
Jacalyn Kreitzer, who lives in Los Osos, began her professional career when she stepped in for ailing soprano Felicity Lott to sing the orchestral transcription of Schoenberg's difficult String Quartet No. 2 in F# minor, with Simon Rattle and the Los Angeles Philharmonic to critical acclaim. She was then engaged with the Metropolitan Opera for four years, and recorded Die Walkure with the Met under the direction of James Levine.
April, 2012 Opera San Luis Obispo Announces 2012 Salon Series
OperaSLO's 26th anniversary season continues with a salon series featuring world-
March, 2012 "Co-
OperaSLO Artistic Advisor Kreitzer created and directs the Cal Poly Student Opera
Theater. She explains that the newly established "Co-
February, 2012 Opera Company to Launch New Series
Kleeman and Gulley wowed the audience as guest soloists at the Cuesta Master Chorale's
December concert of great opera choruses. Both are rising young artists, each with
numerous awards to their credit, and growing experience. Kleeman has recently returned
from a national tour of the Broadway show Spring Awakening. Gulley has just finished
his second season as tenor apprentice at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City. He was a
winner of the Metropolitan Opera's National Council District and Regional Competitions,
and was a national semi-
January, 2012 Opera San Luis Obispo presents Falling in Love with Opera
Falling in Love with Opera is a video course on Bel canto (beautiful song) opera.
It encompasses the operas of three great Italian opera composers -