The SFJAZZ Collective is in residence at San Francisco’s Jazz Center this week, during which they’ll celebrate the 50th anniversary of two hugely significant albums recorded in 1969 – Stand! by Sly & the Family Stone, and Miles Davis’ In A Silent Way. Not only did these albums represent what SFJAZZ terms “a beacon of hope during a turbulent time in American history”, but they were instrumental in pointing jazz, funk and soul music in new directions.

The eight-strong Collective was founded by SFJAZZ in 2004, and – as it does each year – uses the SFJAZZ residency to showcase new arrangements of works by a modern master in these categories, and to feature a recently-commissioned piece by each member of the group. In so doing, not only are they paying tribute to some of the great names of music, but also maintaining the relevance of this music – right in keeping with the commitments of SFJAZZ itself.

In its 15-year existence, the Collective has paid tribute to the music of masters such as John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Herbie Hancock, Thelonious Monk, Wayne Shorter, McCoy Tyner, Horace Silver, Stevie Wonder, Chick Corea, Joe Henderson, Michael Jackson, Miles Davis, and Antonio Carlos Jobim, creating over 100 new arrangements and original compositions.

This year, as they celebrate the 50th anniversary of Stand! and In A Silent Way, the Collective will, for the first time in its residency history, feature two guest artists – vocalist Martin Luther McCoy, and guitarist Adam Rogers. So the line-up this week has David Sánchez on tenor saxophone, trumpeter Etienne Charles, Warren Wolf on vibraphone, pianist Edward Simon, Matt Brewer on bass and Obed Calvaire on drums, together with Rogers and McCoy.

Martin Luther McCoy – guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer – was born and raised in San Francisco. A former member of the Roots touring ensemble, he was the star of Julie Taymor’s 2007 film, Across The Universe – inspired by The Beatles. He has also performed with artists such as Dave Matthews, Jill Scott and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Andy Rogers – jazz guitarist and bandleader – has toured extensively in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Russia, and – having appeared and recorded with a wide range of artists – he’s probably best known for his work with Chris Potter, David Binney and Randy Brecker. Also a trained classical guitarist, he was the featured soloist with the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra in the summer of 1999.

The album Stand! by Sly and the Family Stone, released in May 1969, has been described by Ultimate Classic Rock as “ideal-based music, with pieces such as Everyday People, I Want to Take You Higher and Sing a Simple Song, deftly blending thoughts on peace and love with of-the-moment calls to purpose such as You Can Make It If You Try”.

This album is regarded as having defined the group which had been gaining in popularity for the previous two years. It was seen as their taking a stand for what they believed in, and representing what bassist Larry Graham described as “a rainbow”, having, for example, an African-American rock guitarist, a female front-line horn player, a white funk drummer and a group of singers performing a combination of all types of music, including R&B, jazz, rock and even country.

Miles Davis’ In a Silent Way – released a month later – is representative of Davis’ involvement in what’s known as his ‘Electric Period’. Gathering together a host of talented individuals – names such as Tony Williams, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Dave Holland, Josef Zawinul and John McLaughlin – and influenced by pop, R&B and funk, Davis produced an album which represents his exploration of the underlying tensions inherent in the future of jazz and how they related to new technology. Controversial at first, it ultimately became regarded as possibly the best that Davis had made in some time.

The SFJAZZ Collective performs in the Miner Auditorium at the JAZZ Center in San Francisco on October 30th and 31st, and November 1st, 2nd and 3rd. For more information and tickets, visit the SFJAZZ website.

Information sourced from:
SFJAZZ program notes
SFJAZZ Collective
Martin Luther McCoy
Adam Rogers
Ultimate Classic Rock
Classical Album Sundays

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Jules Massenet’s passionate and tragic opera, Manon, is the second of this season’s Live in HD cinema broadcasts by Metropolitan Opera. The largest provider of alternative cinema content in the world, the Met is broadcasting a season of ten productions live from the stage at Lincoln Center to cinemas in more than 70 countries on six continents.

This revival of Manon by Laurent Pelly stars Lisette Oropesa in the title role, with Michael Fabiano as the Chevalier des Grieux. The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus are led by conductor Maurizio Benini.

Jules Massenet – regarded as the leading French operatic composer of his day – had a particular gift for portraying the intimacies of human relations, and Manon is considered by many to be his masterpiece. It was written in 1884, with a libretto by Henri Meilhac & Philippe Gille, and based on the 1731 novel L’Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut by the Abbé Prévost. Set in 18th century Paris, it reflects a time when decadence, corruption and depravity were rife in the city.

The opera tells of a beautiful, but desperately poor young girl, whose love of romance is matched only by her love of wealth. Adored by the student Des Grieux, she elopes with him to Paris, but their idyll is interrupted by the intrusion of Manon’s brother, Lescaut, and Monsieur GM, a wealthy older man to whom Lescaut has sold her. Attracted by the lure of the luxury on offer, Manon deserts Des Grieux.

Manon and Des Grieux meet up again at a night of revelry in the establishment of a local Madame, and they escape together after he’s caught cheating at cards. They are both sent to a penal colony in America, where Manon – ill and exhausted – collapses in Des Grieux’s arms and dies.

Cuban American soprano Lisette Oropesa has been described by Spain’s Notodo as “… one of those exceptional things …. like Halley’s Comet”, and according to Place de l’Opera, “everything she touches turns to gold”. Winner of the 2019 Beverly Sills Award and the Richard Tucker Award, she appears in two of opera’s most demanding roles in the current Met season – Manon, and Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata. Appearances later this season include her debut at Teatro alla Scala as Amalia in Verdi’s I Masnadieri.

Tenor Michael Fabiano also has the double honor of winning both the Beverly Sills and Richard Tucker awards – in 2014 he was the first singer to achieve both in the same year. His Royal Opera debut as Lensky in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin in 2015 was described by The Independent as “out of this world”. Later this season, Mr Fabiano will sing the title role in Don Carlo at both Opéra Bastille and The Royal Opera, the role of Hoffman in Les Contes d’Hoffman at Opéra Bastille, and Alfredo in La Traviata at the Teatro Real. He is one of the founders of ArtSmart, a non-profit organization that provides free voice lessons to students in public schools in under-served neighborhoods within the United States.

Also in the cast are Carlo Bosi (Guillot de Morfontaine), Artur Ruciński (Lescaut), Brett Polegato (de Brétigny), Kwangchul Youn (Comte des Grieux)

Specializing in the French and Italian repertoire, conductor Maurizio Benini is a frequent guest at opera houses such as the Met, The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Paris Opéra, Vienna State Opera, Liceu in Barcelona, Teatro Real in Madrid, La Scala Milan, La Fenice in Venice, and the Glyndebourne Festival. This season, he’ll lead performances of La Traviata at The Royal Opera House, Nabucco at De Nationale Opera in Amsterdam, and return to the Met for Maria Stuarda.

Having worked in some of the world’s most prestigious opera houses, French opera and theatre director Laurent Pelly, who often does costume designs as well, has an exciting list of new productions scheduled this season – La Cenerentola for Dutch National Opera and Offenbach’s Le Voyage Dans La Lune for L’Opéra Comique. Revivals include I Puritani at Opéra national de Paris, Le Roi Carotte in Lyon and Don Pasquale in Seville.

A co-production of the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Teatro alla Scala, Milan and Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse, Manon is sung in French, with titles in English, German, Spanish and Italian, and will be broadcast Live in HD in cinemas around the world on October 26th.

To find the nearest cinema screening The Met Live in HD, follow this link.

Information sourced from:

Metropolitan Opera program notes

Lisette Oropesa

Michael Fabiano

Maurizio Benini

Laurent Pelly

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In complete contrast to Gluck’s season opener, English National Opera’s current production in the Orpheus quartet is Offenbach’s satirical operetta, Orpheus in the Underworld, with tenor Ed Lyon and soprano Mary Bevan in the title roles, and Sir Willard White as Jupiter. Director Emma Rice makes her ENO debut, and the production is led by former ENO Music Director Sian Edwards.

Set to a libretto by Hector-Jonathan Crémieux and Ludovic Halévy, this riotous take on the Orpheus and Eurydice myth was the first full-length classical operetta, and premiered on October 21, 1858, at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens in Paris. It was greeted with shock by the critics, partly because they felt that it was mocking of Gluck’s revered interpretation, and partly because it destroyed the hallowed perception of ancient Greece. It proved hugely popular with audiences, though, and became an international success.

Offenbach’s score is peppered with instantly recognizable music – the overture being the most well-known part, and very popular as a standalone piece. It includes what is probably the most famous piece, known as the Can-can, although Offenbach’s title for it was the Galop-infernal. Interestingly, the dance which is performed in the operetta is a completely different one from the rather raunchy and scandalous one which was first seen in Paris in the 1830s, and became so popular throughout the 19th century.

The operetta depicts Eurydice as an unfaithful wife who falls in love with Pluto, and having been fatally bitten by a snake, accompanies him to the hedonistic hell of the underworld. Orpheus reluctantly (and persuaded by Public Opinion), tries to rescue his errant wife, but as he leads her out of this bacchanalian revelry, Jupiter (who has also fallen in love with her), uses a thunderbolt to scare Orpheus into turning back, and Eurydice disappears back into the underworld.

Ed Lyon has a repertoire which ranges from the baroque to contemporary music, and he has appeared on the stages of many of the world’s leading opera houses and concert halls. Among recent highlights are roles such as Colin in Denisov’s L’écume des jours for Stuttgart Opera, Hylas in Les Troyens, Steuerman in Der fliegende Holländer and Walther in Tannhäuser for The Royal Opera, Covent Garden, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni for Scottish Opera, and Freddy in My Fair Lady for the Châtelet in Paris.

Mary Bevan, in her role debut as Eurydice, is an internationally renowned artist in the baroque, classical and contemporary repertoire. A winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artist award and UK Critics’ Circle Award for Exceptional Young Talent in music, she was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s birthday honours list in 2019.  This season sees her performing Sifare in Mozart’s Mitridate for Garsington Opera, reprising the role of Rose Maurrant in Weill’s Street Scene for Opera de Monte-Carlo, and on tour with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment as Diana in Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride.

Sir Willard White sings Jupiter, father of the gods. One of the most popular opera stars of the past 40 years, and regarded as one of the most versatile, he has performed at some of the world’s finest opera houses and concert halls, and appeared with some of the most celebrated conductors, directors and orchestras. In addition to these performances at ENO, Sir Willard will also appear this season as Luther/Crespel in Les contes d’Hoffmann at La Monnaie, as Trinity Moses in Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny for Dutch National Opera, and as Arkel in Pelléas et Mélisande for LA Opera.

The cast also includes Lucia Lucas as Public Opinion, Anne-Marie Owens as Juno, Alan Oke as John Styx, Ellie Laugharne as Cupid, Keel Watson as Mars, Judith Howarth as Venus, and ENO Harewood Artists Alex Otterburn as Pluto and Idunnu Münch as Diana.

This new production for English National Opera was adapted from the original French by Emma Rice and Tom Morris, and is presented in association with Rice’s new company, Wise Children. Former Artistic Director of Shakespeare’s Globe, and actor, director and Artistic Director for Kneehigh, Emma Rice has also directed the West End productions of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and Oedipussy, The Empress for the RSC, and An Audience with Meow Meow for Berkeley Repertory Theatre.

Sian Edwards – ENO Music Director during the 1990s – leads these performances, apart from those on November 1st, 26th and 28th when Valentina Peleggi takes the baton. Ms Edwards has been Head of Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music since 2013.

Set designs are by Lizzie Clachan, costumes by Lez Brotherston, lighting by Malcolm Rippeth, and choreography by Etta Murfitt.

English National Opera’s production of Orpheus in the Underworld runs at the Coliseum until November 28th. For more information and tickets, list the English National Opera website.

Information sourced from:
ENO program notes
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Ed Lyon
Mary Bevan
Sir Willard White
Emma Rice
Sian Edwards

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This week the San Francisco Symphony is delighted to welcome young Spanish violinist Maria Dueñas in her debut performance with the Symphony. Miss Dueñas will play the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in a program which includes Hindemith’s Concert Music for String Orchestra and Brass, and Mozart’s Symphony No 41, Jupiter. The performance will be led by Polish-born German conductor, Marek Janowski, making a popular return to Davies Symphony Hall.

It’s always exciting to showcase a new musical talent, and 16 year-old Maria Dueñas from Granada certainly looks set to make her mark on the world of classical music. Currently studying at the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna and the University of Graz, Miss Dueñas has already been recognized as an important arrival on the concert stages of the world. She has won a number of competitions, including the 2017 Zhuhai International Mozart Competition in China, Belgium’s Leonid Kogan International Violin Competition, and the Georg Philip Teleman competition in Poland. She won first prize at the 2018 Vladimir Spivakov International Violin Competition in Ufa – at which she was presented with a 1912 Riccardo Antoniazzi fine violin – and first place at the 2018 Yankelevitch International Violin Competition in Omsk – where her prize was an 1890 violin by the Venetian maker Eugenio Degani.

In addition to her studies and participation in competitions, Miss Dueñas has an array of other debuts coming up. These include appearances with the Oslo Philharmonic, Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona, Saint Petersburg Philharmonic, Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, and a tour of Spain and Russia with the National Philharmonic of Russia.

She is, she says, “extremely happy about my American debut with such a renowned orchestra as the San Francisco Symphony” and also that she’s appearing with Maestro Janowski, who “makes my debut still more special because he has supported me and given valuable and very wise advice from the first moment he met me”.

Marek Janowski, regarded as one of the great masters of music in the German tradition, is the Artistic Director and new Principal Conductor of the Dresden Philharmonic. During his tenure as Chief Conductor of this orchestra, between 2001 and 2003, he developed a deep connection with the Philharmonic, and regularly appeared with the ensemble as a guest conductor following the reopening of the Kultuurpalast concert hall in 2017, whilst holding the position of artistic director and chief conductor of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin. Other positions which Maestro Janowski has held were musical director of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, chief conductor of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, and musical director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.

This week’s program opens with Hindemith’s Concert Music for String Orchestra and Brass, a work commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and premiered by the orchestra on April 3rd, 1931, in a performance conducted by Serge Koussevitzky – an enthusiastic supporter of contemporary music. The work was performed by the San Francisco Symphony in 1939, at which performance Hindemith himself was the conductor.

The final work in this program is Mozart’s Symphony No 41, known as the Jupiter, thought to have been composed in a matter of weeks during July and August 1788. Georg Nikolaus von Nissen, author of a biography on Mozart, described it as “truly the first of all symphonies”, adding: “In no work of this kind does the divine spark of genius shine more brightly and beautifully”.

Marek Janowski leads the San Francisco Symphony and soloist Maria Dueñas in a program of music by Hindemith, Mendelssohn and Mozart, at Davies Symphony Hall from October 3rd to 5th. For more information and tickets, visit the San Francisco Symphony website.

Information sourced from:

San Francisco Symphony program notes

Maria Duenas – Musical America

Marek Janowski

Hindemith’s Concert Music for String Orchestra and Brass

Mozart Symphony No 41

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English National Opera opens the 2019-2020 season with an unusual and innovative programme, a quartet of works – each dedicated to a different interpretation of the Orpheus myth. Over the next two months, the London Coliseum will stage four very individual productions – Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice, Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld, The Mask of Orpheus by Harrison Birtwhistle, and Philip Glass’s Orphée.

The first production in this entrepreneurial venture is Orpheus and Eurydice, a retelling of one of the most famous of ancient Greek legends, by the Bohemian-Austrian composer Christophe Willibald Gluck. Composed in 1762, the opera tells of the love of Orpheus for his wife Eurydice, after whose death, Orpheus learns that he is able to lead her out of the underworld on condition that he does not look back at her, or she will be lost to him forever. On seeing the sun as they ascend from the Underworld, Orpheus turns to share his joy with Eurydice, and the tragic prediction is fulfilled.

Written in Italian, the opera premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna in 1762, but in 1774 Gluck revised it in French for Parisian audiences, with a libretto by Pierre-Louis Moline, and added two dances. In the mid-19th century, Hector Berlioz’s new staging of the opera, with music reworked from both the Viennese and French scores, premiered at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris in 1859. It’s this version on which ENO’s production is based.

This new production of Orpheus and Eurydice is directed by multi-award winning British choreographer and director, Wayne McGregor CBE, Resident Choreographer at The Royal Ballet, making his directorial debut for ENO. As a choreographer, McGregor has previously collaborated with the Company on its 2005 production of Salome, and more recently he created the Raven and Dove Dance for the production of Noyes Fludde. In this staging of Orpheus and Eurydice, the two dances which Gluck added to his French interpretation – the Dance of the Furies and the Dance of the Blessed Spirits – will be performed by members of Company Wayne McGregor.

Alice Coote OBE the “superlative British Mezzo” (San Francisco Chronicle), sings the role of Orpheus. With a repertoire which spans recital, concert and opera stages, Ms Coote has appeared in venues as prestigious as the Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Lincoln Centre and Carnegie Hall. She has also sung at the BBC Proms and more recently at The Stars of the White Nights Festival at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg.

Eurydice is sung by Sara Tynan, described by What’s On Stage as “the divine soprano”, whose repertoire embraces the baroque, classical and contemporary styles, and who is also much in demand for bel canto roles. Ms Tynan has appeared in a number of roles for ENO, and has sung for Glyndebourne on tour, at the Salzburg Festival, for Cincinnati Opera, Scottish Opera, at La Monnaie, Opera de Oviedo, Théâtre des Champs- Élysées, Opéra de Lille and Opéra de Lausanne.

The role of Love is sung by rising soprano Soraya Mafi, who appeared for ENO as Edith in The Pirates of Penzance, and as Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The Telegraph writes that “When Mafi is singing, we get lift-off”.

These performances of Orpheus and Eurydice are led by conductor, harpsichordist and organist Harry Bicket – currently Artistic Director of The English Concert, and Music Director of Santa Fe Opera.

Set design is by Lizzie Clachan, costumes by Louise Gray, lighting by Olivier Award-winning designer Jon Clark, and video designer is Ben Cullen-Williams.

English National Opera’s Orpheus and Eurydice, in collaboration with Studio Wayne McGregor, runs at the London Coliseum for eight performances, between 1st October and 19th November.

Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld opens on 5th October, Birtwhistle’s The Mask of Orpheus on 18th October, and Glass’s Orphée on 15th November.

For more information on ENO’s 2019-2020 season – which features some of opera’s best-loved works, in seven new productions and three revivals – visit the English National Opera website.

Information sourced from:
ENO programme notes
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Wayne McGregor
Alice Coote
Sarah Tynan
Soraya Mafi

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