PUCCINI WITH PEANUTS AND PATHOS
Free Opera
Accompanied by Sailboats, Full Moon, Gulls---and 27,000 Fans
By Paul Hertelendy
artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music
and dance
Week of June 6-13, 2009
Vol. 11, No. 109
The
live stadiumcast of the S.F. Opera’s “Tosca” was a smashing success
June 5, but
it was quite a different experience than live in the flesh in-house
viewing.
Not
only was the crowd of 27,000 at AT&T Park easily tenfold greater
than in the
Opera
House, but it was an attentive group largely in the 20s, about a
generation
younger. And that builds tomorrow’s audiences. By giving the experience
away
free now, the SFO was investing in the future while serving a public
that
cannot currently afford the $200+ for prime Opera House tickets.
There
are new dimensions. We got Puccini with peanuts and Pilsener, “Tosca”
with
Tostitos, S.F. Giants warmup jackets and
caps instead of
black tie. But
the crowd was fully engaged. When the vulnerable Tosca plunged the
knife into
her oppressive, sadistic tormentor Scarpia, the ballpark erupted in
mid-scene cheers
as never heard in the august decorum of the Opera.
This
was a let-it-all-hang-out operatic melodrama for an audience with broad
tastes
and background. Families brought pre-school children to dip their
tootsies into
opera up in the very crowded second deck while thousands more picnicked
on the
green. Clearly, SFO General director David Gockley made the right move
initiating these stadium offshoots of his operation, this one being
number
three in the sequence over recent years.
The
giant high-definition video screen in center field caught the action of
the
tragedy with high clarity, via nearly a dozen cameras in the Opera
House. A few
close-ups would have been welcome, as these principals were attractive,
theatrically well-versed, and plausible
in appearance. The movie-style subtitle translations were right there
on the
screen, avoiding the usual neck-craning ceilingward by patrons.
The
sound left a lot to be desired---not only turned up much too high (have
the
sound techs been doing too many rock concerts?), but of low fidelity,
such as
in AM radio. Four hundred feet removed from the speakers, the sound
level was still
far higher than at the Opera House. And the high strings were seriously
muted. Yet at every intermission we were loudly given copious plugs
that this was a formidable event.
A single
intermission would be much preferable for stadium events. As S.F. arts
patron
Gordon Getty keeps reminding people, the typical Verdi opera has no
more minutes of music than a Broadway show
like “Les
Misérables,” Yet while the latter has only one intermission, a
Verdi opera may
have three, and Puccini usually two. Tightening up the pauses would
tighten up
the drama as well.
The
scene at the start was idyllic. Sailboats gliding up toward the basin
by right-field
wall, the famous site of legendary “splash-hit” home runs. A view of
the
Eastbay hills. A full moon rising above them. And later, when Tosca
poured out
her lyrical ode to her art “Vissi d’arte,” flocks of seagulls glided
overhead
in silent tranquility, as if themselves savoring the unforgettable
moment.
Puccini’s
opera “Tosca” is one of the all-time favorites, offering an astutely
set
synopsis of jealousy, institutional corruption, persecution, torture,
espionage,
illicit love, pacts with a devil, sleazy deal-making, murder, deceit,
and implicit
criticism of the Church, where part of the action takes place. Unlike
so much
romantic opera, this is plausible every step of the way. The corrupt
police
chief Scarpia plays on the insecurities of the actress-heroine Tosca
and brings
about the death of two male political renegades, one of them Tosca’s
lover.
While often viewed as a passionate love story, “Tosca” is far more a
telling critique
of institutional corruption on the highest level in Italy.
Sung
in Italian, this dramatic and highly melodious melodrama is a stunning
experience, far more than the “horrid little shocker”
epithet-evaluation years
ago by a sniffy academic. Tosca’s
concern that her lover Cavaradossi might have trysts with a rival
woman, whose
figure he used as model in a religious painting, leads to a revisionist
demand,
“Paint her eyes black!” Years ago in the Opera House, this line drew
repeated audience
guffaws, to the bewilderment of the soprano who was not in a position
toread the subtitle translation, “Give her two black eyes!”
Right
on, sock it to ‘er!
The
performance by a mostly new cast was marked by the excellent singing of
Adrienne Pieczonka (Tosca), Carlo Ventre (Cavaradossi), Lado Ataneli
(Scarpia)
and Jordan Bisch (Angelotti). Baritone Ataneli needed more hot-breath
lust to be credible; you felt that his paramount concern was about
mussing his elegant powdered wig.
The elegant
Lotfi Mansouri production
featured
the familiar conductor Marco Armiliato, who unlike some other foreign
maestros
even led the “Star-Spangled Banner” at a proper, relaxed pace. Beyond
that, any
critiques about the orchestral sound will await installation of a
better sound
system.
The SFO staff
was elated at the results, particularly noting that each stadiumcast
drew a bigger crowd than the previous.
But what is
interesting is that you can now get opera any way you want it---free
stadiumcasts, which may not last forever; live feeds into theaters, as
was critiqued here by Steven Emanuel last November; DVDs; and
in-house.
The more the merrier!
(Statistics updated
June 12.)
Puccini’s
opera “Tosca” live at the S.F. Opera House through June 26, in Italian
with
supertitle translations. For info: (415) 864-3330, or go online.
©Paul Hertelendy 2009
#
Paul Hertelendy has been
covering
the dance and modern-music scene in the San Francisco Bay Area with
relish
-- and a certain amount of salsa -- for years.
These critiques appearing weekly (or sometimes semi-weekly, but never
weakly)
will focus on dance and new musical creativity in performance, with
forays
into books (by authors of the region), theater and recordings by local
artists as well.
#
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