RISING STARS OF OPERA San Francisco Opera Adler Fellows JULIE ADAMS, Soprano EDWARD NELSON, Baritone MARK MORASH, Piano
UC Davis Symphony Orchestra CHRISTIAN BALDINI, Music Director and Conductor LEAH CROCETTO, Soprano
Program
SUN • OCT 4, 2015
Western Health Advantage Season of Performing Arts
RO B ERT A N D M A RG RI T
MONDAVI CENTER
FO R T H E PERFO R M I N G A RTS PRES EN TS
RISING STARS OF OPERA FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2015 • 4PM Jackson Hall, UC Davis
San Francisco Opera Adler Fellows JULIE ADAMS, Soprano EDWARD NELSON, Baritone MARK MORASH, Piano
UC Davis Symphony Orchestra CHRISTIAN BALDINI, Music Director and Conductor LEAH CROCETTO, Soprano
This event is provided free to the community through the generous support of BARBARA K. JACKSON And presented in partnership with the UC Davis Department of Music
The artists and fellow audience members appreciate silence during the performance. Please be sure that you have switched off cellular phones, watch alarms and pager signals. Videotaping, photographing and audio recording are strictly forbidden. Violators are subject to removal.
2
SU N DAY, O C TO B E R 4, 2015
PROGRAM
San Francisco Opera Adler Fellows Mark Morash, piano Waldseligkeit Joseph Marx Hat dich die Liebe berührt (1882–1964) Julie Adams, soprano
Le manoir de Rosemonde Henri Duparc Phidylé (1848–1933) Edward Nelson, baritone Ne poj, krasavica, pri mne Sergei Rachmaninov Vesenneye Vody (1873–1943)
Tell Me, Oh, Blue, Blue Sky Vittorio Giannini It Is a Spring Night (1903–66) Julie Adams, soprano
“The Greatest Man” Charles Ives “Memories” (1874–1954) “Tom Sails Away” “The Circus Band” Edward Nelson, baritone
INTERMISSION UC Davis Symphony Orchestra Christian Baldini, Music Director and Conductor Overture to Norma
Vincenzo Bellini (1801–35)
“Surta è la notte ... Ernani, involami” from Ernani
Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901)
Leah Crocetto, soprano “Signore, ascolta” from Turandot “Tu che di gel sei cinta” from Turandot “Chi il bel sogno” from La Rondine
Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924) Leah Crocetto, soprano
RISING STARS OF OPERA
3
T E X T S , T R A N S L AT I O N S , A N D N O T E S
Two Songs Joseph Marx (Born May 11, 1882 in Graz, Austria Died September 3, 1964 in Graz)
Austrian composer Joseph Marx wrote a large amount of music in a style he called “Romantic realism” that drew as much from the French Impressionists as from German Late Romanticism, but he is best remembered for his choral works and 150 songs. Berkant Haydin, founder of the Joseph Marx Society and author of a massive website about the composer (www.josephmarx.org), wrote, “A strong melodic line, high technical demands placed upon the singing voice—generally accompanied by a lush piano part—these are the trademark features of Marx’s songs. Despite such richness of sound, the piano remains subservient to the voice, never causing it to strain. The typical combination of voice and piano that Marx creates thus manages to reflect fully whatever underlies the poet’s words.” Waldseligkeit (“Woodland Rapture”) sets a text by Richard Dehmel (1863-1920), whose verses bridged the sensuous Impressionism of the preceding generation and the intense spirituality of encroaching Expressionism. Hat dich die Liebe berührt (“If Love Has Touched You”) is based on a poem by the Nobel Prizewinning poet, dramatist, novelist and translator Paul Heyse (1830-1914).
Two Songs Henri Duparc (Born January 21, 1848 in Paris Died February 12, 1933 in Mont-de-Marsan)
Troubled in spirit and in health and sufficiently selfcritical to destroy much of what he composed, Henri Duparc left a tiny musical legacy to posterity: two tone poems (Lénore and Aux étoiles), a suite of waltzes for orchestra, a half-dozen pieces for piano, a cello sonata, one vocal duet, a motet for three voices, a few arrangements of organ works by Bach and Franck, and sixteen songs. He is remembered almost entirely for his handful of songs, but what songs they are— exquisite, fluid, precisely inflected musical wrappings of voluptuously beautiful verse that count among the greatest contributions to the French vocal repertory. Le Manoir de Rosemonde (“Rosemonde’s Manor”), composed in 1879 and orchestrated in 1912, sets a text by the Parisian novelist, journalist and poet Robert de Bonnières (1850-1905), a close friend with whom Duparc once shared an apartment. The poem, which had just been published in Bonnières’ Contes de fées (“Fairy Tales”), tells of a feverish quest to find the refuge of love
4
SU N DAY, O C TO B E R 4, 2015
in the cryptic “blue domain of Rosemonde,” perhaps a reference to the beautiful Rosamund Clifford, mistress of King Henry II of England (1133-1189), who lost his beloved when she had to enter a nunnery after their liaison became public knowledge, shortly before her death in 1176. Numerous legends sprang up around “The Fair Rosamund,” and she was the subject of a poem by Apollinaire that was set by Poulenc. Duparc’s dramatic song mirrors the wild hunting images in the poem’s first part and the sullen disillusion of the failed pursuit that follows. The nobility, restraint and unruffled spirit of Phidylé, composed in 1882 and dedicated to Duparc’s fellow composer Ernest Chausson, perfectly match for the poem by Charles Marie Leconte de Lisle (1818-1894), the Parnassian poet who sought to embody exactly such qualities in his verses.
Two Songs Sergei Rachmaninoff (Born April 1, 1873 in Oneg (near Novgorod), Russia Died March 28, 1943 in Beverly Hills, California)
Ne poj, krasavica, pri mne (Do not sing to me) was composed in the summer of 1893, the year after Rachmaninoff graduated from the Moscow Conservatory. The first of his half-dozen settings of the verses of Pushkin, Do not sing to me, draws its fragrant exoticism from both the poet’s invocation of the “melodies of sorrowful Georgia” and the musical Orientalism popularized in imperial Russia by Borodin, RimskyKorsakov, Balakirev and others. As a result of the success of the premiere of Rachmaninoff’s one-act opera Aleko in May 1893, the publisher Gutheil accepted Do not sing to me and five other songs, and issued them later that year as the composer’s Op. 4. Created at the first flush of Rachmaninoff’s creativity (he was twenty), Do not sing to me already shows the young composer as a skilled melodist and a creator of sharply defined moods. Vesenneye Vody (Spring Waters), No. 11 of the twelve Op. 14 Songs of 1896, was dedicated to Anna Ornatskaya, a student at the St. Petersburg Conservatory and a friend of the composer’s mother, who was Rachmaninoff’s first piano teacher. The text, extolling the spring-time rebirth of the earth, is by Fyodor Tyutchev (1803-1873), known for his nature poems and as the first translator of Heine into Russian. Spring Waters was among the earliest works to win Rachmaninoff wide recognition in his native country, and continues to be among the most familiar and beloved of his songs.
T E X T S , T R A N S L AT I O N S , A N D N O T E S
Two Songs Vittorio Giannini (Born October 19, 1903 in Philadelphia Died November 28, 1966 in New York City)
Vittorio Giannini as born in Philadelphia in 1903 into a highly musical family — his father was a professional tenor who immigrated from his native Tuscany and founded an opera company in Philadelphia; one sister was among her generation’s leading sopranos and the other taught at the Curtis Institute for forty years and counted Anna Moffo and Judith Blegen among her students; Vittorio’s mother was a skilled violinist who gave the boy his first music instruction. Vittorio showed such musical promise that he was admitted to the Verdi Conservatory in Milan when he was ten and stayed until he was forced to return home by World War I. He continued to study violin and composition at Juilliard and won a series of Prix de Rome following his graduation that allowed him to return to Europe for four more years to begin his career; the first of his eleven operas (Lucedia) was premiered in Munich in 1934. Giannini returned to the United States when war again broke out in 1939 and he joined the faculty of Juilliard, a post to which he added a teaching commitment at the Manhattan School of Music two years later. In 1956 he moved to the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. He became the first director of the North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem in 1965, but his tenure was cut short by his unexpected death the following year. In addition to his numerous operas, Giannini composed five concertos, eight symphonies (the third is for concert band) and other orchestral works, chamber music, choral pieces and three dozen songs, nineteen of them set to texts by Karl West Flaster (1905-1965), a journalist and poet who also wrote the librettos for four of Giannini’s operas. Giannini’s traditional, lyrical style is exemplified by such songs based on Flaster’s verses as Tell Me, Oh, Blue, Blue Sky (1927) and It Is a Spring Night (1942). It is indicative that a 1991 recording of their song collaborations was titled “Hopelessly Romantic.”
Four Songs Charles Ives (Born October 20, 1874 in Danbury, Connecticut Died May 19, 1954 in New York City)
Ives revered his father, and when he read a verse by poet and playwright Anne Timoney Collins in the June 7, 1921 edition of the New York Evening Sun extolling the virtues of her own father, he immediately grasped its potential
as the text for a song of strong personal relevance for himself. He wrote to the author requesting her permission to include The Greatest Man in the collection of 114 Songs he was then compiling: “It seems to me that you’ve caught a boy’s unconscious pride and love for ‘dad’—the sentiment is true and appealing, without being sentimental, and I’ve tried to catch this spirit in the music.” The first of the two sections of Memories (1897), marked “Very Pleasantly,” recalls the excitement of a youth at the opera house. The word “Curtain” bridges to the second section (“Rather Sad”), which Ives based on a poignant tune “my Uncle hummed from early morn, shuffling down to the barn or to the town.” The World War I song Tom Sails Away (1917), for which Ives wrote both text and music, expresses essential elements of his creative work: memory (though the song’s fraternal Tom is fictional), longing for the purer world of childhood, and sadness over the intrusion of powerful political forces into individual lives. A quotation at the song’s crucial moment transforms George M. Cohan’s popular Over There from march into lament. Ives wrote the text and music for The Circus Band in 1894, just after he had arrived as an undergraduate at Yale, already primed to defy the traditional modes of form, harmony and expression advocated by his composition teacher, Horatio Parker. When he assembled his 114 Songs in 1922, Ives placed this delightfully raucous evocation of childhood’s memory of a circus parade as the last of the 5 Street Songs and Pieces.
Overture to Norma (1831) Vincenzo Bellini (Born November 3, 1801 in Catania, Sicily Died September 23, 1835 in Paris)
Norma is set in Gaul during the Roman occupation, around 50 B.C. Despite the Romans’ oppression, Norma, High Priestess of the Druids, has fallen in love with the invaders’ proconsul, Pollione, and secretly borne him two sons. Pollione, however, has transferred his love to Adalgisa, a young virgin in the Druids’ temple, and he persuades her to flee with him to Rome. When Norma and Adalgisa discover that they love the same man, Norma is so enraged that she threatens to take the lives of the sons she has had with Pollione and then commit suicide, but cannot summon the resolve to carry out her sanguinary plan. Adalgisa says she will give up Pollione
RISING STARS OF OPERA
5
T E X T S , T R A N S L AT I O N S , A N D N O T E S
so that he can return to Norma and their sons, but Pollione refuses to comply with that request, so Norma gathers the Druids together to incite them to wage war on the Roman occupiers. Pollione, having been apprehended trying to break into the Druids’ temple, is unexpectedly led in. Norma threatens him with a dagger but cannot take the life of the man she still loves. She offers him his freedom if he will renounce Adalgisa, but when he refuses to do so Norma confesses to the Druids that she has loved an enemy and desecrated her sacred vows. She offers herself as a sacrifice to the gods upon the flaming pyre to ensure the success of their quest for freedom. Pollione’s love for Norma is re-kindled by both her confession and her nobility, and he goes with her to end their lives together on the funeral pyre. The dramatic overture to Norma uses themes from the confrontational Act II duet of Norma and Pollione (Già mi pasco ne’ tuoi sguardi—“I Rejoice at Your Look of Grief”) and the chorus Guerra, guerra (War, War!).
“Surta è la notte ... Ernani, involami” from Ernani (1844) Giuseppe Verdi (Born October 10, 1813 in Le Roncole, Italy Died January 27, 1901 in Milan)
In Ernani, set during the early 16th century in Spain, Elvira has been promised in a political marriage to the aged Spanish grandee Silva, whom she does not love. Elvira laments her impending marriage and longs that she will be saved from the match by her true love in the passionate aria Ernani, involami—Ernani, Ernani, take me away from this hated embrace.
“Signore, ascolta” and “Tu che di gel sei cinta” from Turandot (1921-1924)) Giacomo Puccini (Born December 22, 1858 in Lucca Died November 29, 1924 in Brussels)
Turandot, Puccini’s unfinished last opera, was based on Carlo Gozzi’s play set in mythical China. As soon as the curtain opens, a mandarin reads a proclamation to the assembled crowd: “People of Peking! This is the law: Turandot the Pure will be the bride of the man of royal blood who shall solve the three riddles which she shall set. But if he fail in the test, he must lose his proud head to the sword!” The bloodthirsty crowd howls; guards push
6
SU N DAY, O C TO B E R 4, 2015
them back from the palace gates. The voice of a young servant girl—Liù—is heard through the mêlée, crying for help for her master—Timur—the aged and deposed King of the Tartars, who has escaped from his enemies and is living anonymously in Peking. A handsome young man— Prince Calaf—rushes to protect them. With astonishment, he recognizes Timur as his father, whom he had believed to be dead. The Princess Turandot appears on her loggia, and Calaf is overcome by an irresistible passion for her. The Prince determines to attempt Turandot’s riddles. Liù tries to change his mind in her aria Signore, ascolta, but fails. Prince Calaf successfully answers Turandot’s riddles. Faced with the necessity of marrying Calaf, she begs him to release her from her promise. He offers to do so only if she can discover his name by the following dawn. His servant Liù is dragged in by the crowd, who expect she will reveal the secret under torture. Liù claims that nothing, not even torture or threat of death, will force the Prince’s name from her lips. Turandot asks her the source of her courage. “Princess,” Liù says, “it is love. My secret undeclared love is so great that these tortures are sweet to me because I offer them to the Prince, my lord.” In the aria Tu che di gel sei cinta, she tells Turandot, “You who are girdled with ice, you will love him, too.” Fearful that she will be unable to endure further torture, Liù snatches a dagger from one of the soldiers, and mortally stabs herself. Turandot is moved by Liù’s sacrifice and stirred by the depth of Calaf’s love, and the two are jubilantly united at the end of the opera.
“Chi il bel sogno” from La Rondine (1914–16) Giacomo Puccini In La Rondine (“The Swallow”), set in the elegant world of Second Empire Paris, Magda is attracted to the writer Prunier. He has started a poem about Doretta, his new literary heroine, but professes that he cannot finish it and invites Magda to do so. She complies in the sensuous aria Chi il bel sogno (“Who Can Divine Doretta’s Wonderful Dream?”)
©2015 Dr. Richard E. Rodda
T E X T S , T R A N S L AT I O N S , A N D N O T E S
Two Songs of Joseph Marx Waldseligkeit (text by Richard Dehmel)
Forest Bliss
Der Wald beginnt zu rauschen, Den Bäumen naht die Nacht; Als ob sie selig lauschen, Berühren sie sich sacht.
The woods begin to rustle, Night overtakes the trees; As if it wanted to make them laugh, Caressing them gently.
Und unter ihren Zweigen, Da bin ich ganz allein, Da bin ich ganz mein eigen, Ganz nur dein.
And under their branches, There am I totally alone There am I completely my own self, But entirely yours.
Hat dich die Liebe berührt (text by Paul Heyse)
Once love has stirred in you
Hat dich die Liebe berührt, Still unter lärmendem Volke, Gehst du in gold’ner Wolke, Sicher vom Gott geführt.
Once love has stirred in you, Quietly under the noise of people You move around in a golden cloud— Certainly led by God.
Nur wie verloren umher, Lässest die Blikke du wandern, Gönnst ihre Freuden den andern, Trägst nur nach einem Begehr.
Like someone who is lost You allow your gaze to wander. You leave all joys to others As you are led by one single desire.
Scheu in dich selber verzückt, Möchtest du leugnen vergebens, Daß nun die Krone des Lebens, Strahlend die Stirn dir schmückt.
Shy in your ecstatic state, You would in vain try to deny That now the crown of life Most brilliantly adorns your brow.
Two Songs of Duparc Le manoir de Rosamonde (text by Robert de Bonnières)
Rosamonde’s Manor House
De sa dent soudaine et vorace, Comme un chien l’amour m’a mordu... En suivant mon sang répandu, Va, tu pourras suivre ma trace...
Love, like a dog, has bitten me with its sudden, voracious teeth... Come, the trail of spilt blood will enable you to follow my tracks.
Prends un cheval de bonne race, Pars, et suis mon chemin ardu, Fondrière ou sentier perdu, Si la course ne te harasse!
Take a horse of good pedigree and set off on the arduous route I took, through swamps and overgrown paths, if that’s not too exhausting a ride for you!
En passant par où j’ai passé, Tu verras que seul et blessé J’ai parcouru ce triste monde.
As you pass where I passed, you will see that I travelled alone and wounded through this sad world,
Et qu’ainsi je m’en fus mourir Bien loin, bien loin, sans découvrir Le bleu manoir de Rosamonde.
and thus went off to my death far, far away, without ever finding Rosemonde’s blue manor-house. RISING STARS OF OPERA
7
T E X T S , T R A N S L AT I O N S , A N D N O T E S
Two Songs of Duparc (con’t.) Phidylé (text by Leconte de Lisle)
Forest Bliss
L’herbe est molle au sommeil sous les frais peupliers, Aux pentes des sources moussues, Qui dans les prés en fleur germant par mille issues, Se perdent sous les noirs halliers.
The grass is soft for slumber beneath the fresh poplars, on the slopes by the mossy springs, which, in the meadows flowering with a thousand plants, lose themselves under dark thickets.
Repose, ô Phidylé! Midi sur les feuillages
Rest, o Phidylé! the midday sun shines on the foliage and invites you to sleep! Among clover and thyme, alone, in full sunlight hum the fickle honeybees.
Rayonne et t’invite au sommeil. Par le trèfle et le thym, seules, en plein soleil, Chantent les abeilles volages. Un chaud parfum circule au détour des sentiers, La rouge fleur des blés s’incline, Et les oiseaux, rasant de l’aile la colline, Cherchent l’ombre des églantiers. Repose, ô Phidylé! Mais, quand l’Astre, incliné sur sa courbe éclatante, Verra ses ardeurs s’apaiser, Que ton plus beau sourire et ton meilleur baiser Me récompensent de l’attente
A warm fragrance circulates about the turning paths, the red cornflower tilts, and the birds, skimming the hill with their wings, search for shade among the wild roses. Rest, o Phidylé! But when the sun, turning in its resplendent orbit, finds its heat abating, let your loveliest smile and your most ardent kiss recompense me for waiting!
Two Songs of Rachmaninov
8
Ne poj, krasavica, pri mne (text by Aleksander Pushkin)
Do not sing to me
Ne poj, krasavica, pri mne Ty pesen Gruzii pečal’noj; Napominajut mne Druguju žizn’ i bereg dal’nij.
Do not sing, my beauty, to me your sad songs of Georgia; they remind me of that other life and distant shore.
Uvy, napominajut mne Tvoi žestokie napevy I step’, i noč’, i pri lune Čerty dalekoj, bednoj devy!
Alas, They remind me, your cruel melodies, of the steppe, the night and moonlit features of a poor, distant maiden!
JA [prizrak]2 milyj, rokovoj, Tebja uvidev, zabyvaju; No ty poëš’, i predo mnoj Ego ja vnov’ voobražaju.
That sweet and fateful apparition I forget when you appear; but you sing, and before me I picture that image anew.
Ne poj, krasavica, pri mne Ty pesen Gruzii pečal’noj; Napominajut mne Druguju žizn’ i bereg dal’nij
Do not sing, my beauty, to me your sad songs of Georgia; they remind me of that other life and distant shore.
SU N DAY, O C TO B E R 4, 2015
T E X T S , T R A N S L AT I O N S , A N D N O T E S
Two Songs of Rachmaninov (con’t.) Vesenneye Vody (text by Fyodor Tyoutchev)
Spring Waters
Eshhyo v polyax beleet sneg, A vody’ uzh vesnoj shumyat, Begut i budyat sonny’j breg, Begut, i bleshhut, i glasyat...
The fields are still covered with white snow. But the streams are already rolling in a spring mood, Running and awakening the sleepy shore, Running and glittering and announcing loudly.
Oni glasyat vo vse koncy’: “Vesna idyot, vesna idyot! My’ molodoj vesny’ goncy’, Ona nas vy’slala vperyod.
They are announcing loudly to every corner: “Spring is coming, Spring is coming! We are the messengers of young Spring, She has sent us to come forward,
Vesna idyot, vesna idyot, I tixix, teply’x majskix dnej Rumyany’j, svetly’j xorovod Tolpitsya veselo za nej!”
Spring is coming, Spring is coming! And the quiet, warm May days Follow her, merrily crowded Into the rosy, bright dancing circle.”
Two Songs of Vittorio Giannini Tell Me, Oh Blue, Blue Sky (poem by Karl Flaster)
It is a Spring Night (poem by Karl Flaster)
Summer has flown, the leaves are falling, I hear a voice, your voice, calling, I see a face, your face, pleading, I feel a heart, your heart, bleeding.
It is a spring night, o my beloved! The scent of the wisteria draws me, With caressing, invisible fingers. And once more I walk in the garden of my dreams.
Tell me, oh blue, blue sky Why did we part? Tell me, oh whispering wind, Breathe on my heart.
Ah! That you were here with me, my beloved! Attired in moon-colored silks Swaying on your tiny lily feet, Here with me among the languorous night fragrance of the flowers, In the garden of my dreams!
Breathe on my lonely heart that too has bled. Tell what is left in life, since love has fled? Tell me, tell me.
My soul is filled with a celestial scent. I lift my eyes above the earth and behold! There in the dark garden of the heavens Blooms white and misty, a Lotus moon! Oh! That thou wert here with me, To share this ecstasy This white and misty Lotus moon That fills the soul with a celestial scent. Blooming there, in the dark garden of the heavens, So high above the lonely garden of my dreams!
RISING STARS OF OPERA
9
T E X T S , T R A N S L AT I O N S , A N D N O T E S
Four Songs of Charles Ives
The Greatest Man (text by Anne Collins)
Memories (A: Very Pleasant; B: Rather Sad)
My teacher said us boys should write about some great man, so I thought last night ‘n thought about heroes and men that had done great things, ‘n then I got to thinkin’ ‘bout my pa; he ain’t a hero ‘r anything but pshaw! Say! He can ride the wildest hoss ‘n find minners near the moss down by the creek; ‘n he can swim ‘n fish, we ketched five new lights, me ‘n him! Dad’s some hunter too Oh, my! Miss Molly Cottonttail sure does fly When he tromps through the fields ‘n brush! (Dad won’t kill a lark ‘r thrush.) Once when I was sick ‘n though his hands were rough he rubbed the pain right out. “That’s the stuff!” he said when I winked back the tears.He never cried but once ‘n that was when my mother died—There’s lots ‘o great men George Washington ‘n Lee, but Dad’s got ‘em all beat holler, seems to me!
We’re sitting in the opera house; We’re waiting for the curtain to arise with wonders for our eyes; We’re feeling pretty gay, and well we may, “O, Jimmy, look!” I say, “The band is tuning up and soon will start to play.”
Tom Sails Away
But ‘twas sad and seemed to slow up both his feet; I can see him shuffling down to the barn or to the town, a-humming.
Scenes from my childhood are with me, I’m in the lot behind our house upon the hill, A spring day’s sun is setting. Mother with Tom in her arms Is coming towards the garden; The lettuce rows are showing green. Thinner grows the smoke o’er the town, Stronger comes the breeze from the ridge, ‘Tis after six, the whistles have blown, The milk trains’s gone down the valley Daddy is coming up the hill from the mill, We run down the lane to meet him But today! In freedom’s cause Tom sailed away For over there! Scenes from my childhood are floating before my eyes.
10
SU N DAY, O C TO B E R 4, 2015
We whistle and we hum, beat time with the drum. We’re sitting in the opera house, Awaiting for the curtain to rise with wonders for our eyes, A feeling of expectancy, a certain kind of ecstasy, Expectancy and ecstasy—Sh’-s’-s’-s. Curtain! From the street a strain on my ear doth fall, A tune as thread-bare as that “old red shawl,” It is tattered, it is torn, It shows signs of being worn, It’s the tune my Uncle hummed from early morn, ‘Twas a common little thing and kind ‘a sweet,
The Circus Band All summer long, we boys dreamed ‘bout big circus joys! Down Main Street, comes the band, Oh! “Ain’t it a grand and glorious noise!” Horses are prancing, Knights advancing; Helmets gleaming, Pennants streaming, Cleopatra’s on her throne! That golden hair is all her own. Where is the lady all in pink? Last year she waved to me I think, Can she have died? Can! that! rot! She is passing but she sees me not.
T E X T S , T R A N S L AT I O N S , A N D N O T E S
Verdi: “Surta è la notte ... Ernani, involami” from Ernani Text: Francesco Maria Piave Surta è la notte, e Silva non ritorna! Ah, non tornasse ei più! Questo odiato veglio, che quale immondo spettro ognor m’insegue, col favellar d’amore, più sempre Ernani mi configge in core.
Night has fallen and Silva isn’t back! Oh, I wish he’d never return! This old man whom I hate, who like a foul ghost pursues me, with words of love, fixes Ernani ever more firmly in my heart.
Ernani! ... Ernani, involami all’abborrito amplesso. Fuggiam ... se teco vivere mi sia d’amor concesso, per antri e lande inospiti, ti seguirà il mio piè. Un Eden di delizia saran quegli antri a me.
Ernani, Ernani, take me away from this hated embrace. Let’s run away ... if love will allow me to live with you, in caverns or barren wastelands, my footsteps will follow you. An Eden of delights those caverns will be to me.
Puccini: “Signore, ascolta” from Turandot Text: Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni Signore, ascolta! Ah, signore, ascolta! Liù non regge più, si spezza il cuor! Ahimè, ahimè, quanto cammino col tuo nome nell’anima, col nome tuo sulle labbra! Ma se il tuo destino, doman sarà deciso, noi morrem sulla strada dell’esilio. Ei perderà suo figlio ... io l’ombra d’un sorriso. Liù non regge più! Ah, pietà!
My lord, hear me! O, hear, my lord ! Liù can bear no more, her heart is breaking! Alas, how many miles have I walked with your name in my heart, with your name on my lips! But if your fate, tomorrow be decided, we shall die on the path of exile. He will lose a son ... I, the remembrance of a smile. Liù can bear no more! Have pity!
RISING STARS OF OPERA
11
T E X T S , T R A N S L AT I O N S , A N D N O T E S
Puccini: “Tu che di gel sei cinta” from Turandot Text: Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni Tu che di gel sei cinta, da tanta fiamma vinta, l’amerai anche tu! Prima di questa aurora, io chiudo stanca gli occhi, perchè Egli vinca ancora ... Per non…per non vederlo più! Prima di questa aurora, io chiudo stanca gli occhiI per non verderlo più!
You who are girdled with ice, vanquished by such fire, you will love him, too! Before the break of day, I shall close my tired eyes, that he may win yet again ... Never…never to see him more! Before the break of day, shall close my tired eyes never to see him more!
Puccini: “Chi il bel sogno di Doretta” from La Rondine Text: Giuseppe Adami
12
Chi il bel sogno di Doretta potè indovinar? Il suo mister come mai finì?
Who can divine Doretta’s wonderful dream? What was the end of her mystery?
Ahimè! un giorno uno studente in bocca la baciò, e fu quel bacio rivelazione: Fu la passione! Folle amore! Folle ebbrezza! Chi la sottil carezza d’un bacio così ardente mai ridir potrà?
Alas! One day a student kissed her lips, and this kiss became a revelation: Passion it was! Love’s entrancement! Wild intoxication! Who can ever recall the subtle caress of so ardent a kiss?
Ah! mio sogno! Ah! mia vita! Che importa la ricchezza se alfine è rifiorita la felicità! O sogno d’or poter amar così!
Ah, my dream! Ah! my life! What do I care for riches if at last happiness should bloom again! O golden dream to love so!
SU N DAY, O C TO B E R 4, 2015
ABOUT THE ARTISTS A winner of the 2014 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and a 2015 Richard Tucker grant, soprano Julie Adams is a first-year San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow and alumna of the 2014 Merola Opera Program, where she performed the role of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire. During her studies with César Ulloa at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees, she performed the roles of Blanche in Les Dialogues des Carmélites, Mimi in La Bohème, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, and Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi. Other credits include Lia (Debussy’s L’Enfant Prodigue) at the International Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv; Pamina (Die Zauberflöte) at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara; and Magnolia Hawks (Show Boat) and Rose (Street Scene) with the Oakland East Bay Symphony. Adams is a former studio artist with Opera Santa Barbara. A first-year San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow, baritone Edward Nelson is a graduate of the 2014 Merola Opera Program, where he sang the title role of Don Giovanni. In San Francisco Opera’s 2015 season, he will debut the role of Lieutenant John Buckley in the world premiere of Marco Tutino’s Two Women, perform Fiorello (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), L’ami de Roderick (Debussy’s La chûte de la maison d’Usher), Meister Hermann Ortel (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), and cover the roles of Count Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro) and Anthony Hope (Sweeney Todd). Recent engagements include the Ferryman (Britten’s Curlew River) with the Mark Morris Dance Group/Tanglewood Music Festival and Montreal’s Ballet-Opéra-Pantomime, covering Miller in Montsalvatge’s El Gato con Botas with Gotham Chamber Opera, as well as the title role of Britten’s Owen Wingrave, Dandini (La Cenerentola) and Le Podestat (Bizet’s Le Docteur Miracle) with the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), where he holds undergraduate and graduate degrees. On the concert stage, he has been a soloist with the American Choral Directors Association and the Reno Philharmonic. He is a national semi-finalist in the 2013 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the 2014 Naumburg International Voice Competition, 1st Prize winner of the 2014 Corbett Opera Competition at CCM, and a winner in the 2013 Opera Columbus and 2014 Mildred Miller International Voice Competitions. Mark Morash is a conductor and pianist originally from Halifax, Canada. Currently, he serves as the Director of Musical Studies for San Francisco Opera Center. There, he has conducted for the Merola program, the Adler Fellow Showcase and Western Opera Theater. He has also led performances of Rigoletto for Opera Colorado, Don Giovanni and The Turn of the Screw for the Lincoln Theater in Yountville, CA, La Serva Padrona and Trouble in Tahiti for Opera Santa Barbara. San Francisco Opera Center performances have included Argento’s Postcard from Morocco, The Barber of Seville, The Rape of Lucretia, Così fan tutte, Die Fledermaus, The Merry Wives of Windsor, and Pasatieri’s The Seagull. As a collaborative pianist, Morash’s performances have taken him throughout Canada, the U.S.A. as well as to Japan and Russia.
Artists with whom Morash has appeared include Michael Schade, Tracy Dahl, Leah Crocetto, Melody Moore and Elza van den Heever. He has accompanied numerous emerging singers in San Francisco Opera’s esteemed Schwabacher Debut recitals. He performed in the west coast premiere of Ned Rorem’s song cycle Evidence of Things Not Seen for the “Other Minds Music Festival.” In addition to his work with young artists in San Francisco, Morash has been involved with the Opera Center of Pittsburgh Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, the Banff Centre, and Hawaii Opera Theater as well as having taught at the University of Toronto. He has given master classes throughout the USA and Canada and most recently in New Zealand. Morash is a graduate of the University of Michigan where he studied collaborative piano with Martin Katz. Christian Baldini works regularly with several international orchestras including the Munich Radio Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Buenos Aires Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra (of Portugal, Argentina and the U.S.), the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, and opera for the Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires), and the Aldeburgh Festival (U.K.). Since 2011, Baldini was invited to serve as assistant conductor with the BBC Symphony Orchestra on various occasions, and in 2014 he was invited to serve as cover conductor with the San Francisco Symphony by Michael Tilson Thomas. In December of 2014 he will make his debut conducting the San Francisco Symphony at Davies Hall. He made his debut conducting in Salzburg at the Award Weekend when an international jury selected him and two other conductors out of ninety-one submissions worldwide. Baldini has been described as a conductor who “left sighs all over the hall and the rows of the orchestra” (Folha de Sao Paulo, Brazil) and who has “a keen ear for detail” (Scotsman). When he made his conducting debut in South Africa, Moira de Swardt wrote that “passion and dedication intersect for a fabulous orchestral concert.” Equally at home in the core symphonic and operatic repertoire in the most daring corners of contemporary music, he has presented world premieres of over seventy works. He has also conducted and recorded contemporary Italian music for the RAI Trade and Tactus labels. His compositions are published by Babel Scores in Paris. As conductor, Baldini has been privileged to learn from Kurt Masur, Peter Eötvös, Leonard Slatkin and Martyn Brabbins, and he holds degrees from SUNY at Buffalo (Ph.D., composition), Pennsylvania State University (Master’s, orchestral conducting), and Catholic University of Argentina (Bachelor’s, conducting and composition). His work has received awards in several competitions including the top prize at the Seoul International Competition for Composers (South Korea, 2005), the Tribune of Music (UNESCO, 2005), the Ossia International Competition (Rochester, NY, 2008), the Daegu Chamber Orchestra International Competition (South Korea, 2008), and the Sao Paulo Orchestra International Conducting Competition (Brazil, 2006). He has been an assistant conductor with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Britten- Pears Orchestra (England), and a cover conductor with the National Symphony Orchestra (Washington, D.C.). After teaching and conducting at SUNY, Buffalo, Baldini joined the UC Davis faculty in 2009 and serves as the music director of the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra as the chamber music coordinator. Baldini is also music director of the Camellia Symphony Orchestra in Sacramento, California. RISING STARS OF OPERA
13
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Recognized as a rising star in the next generation of singers, Leah Crocetto represented the United States at the 2011 Cardiff BBC Singer of the World Competition where she was a finalist in the Song Competition. She is a 2010 Grand Finals Winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and was the First Place Winner, People’s Choice and the Spanish Prize Winner of the 2009 José Iturbi International Music Competition, and winner of the Bel Canto Foundation competition. A former Adler fellow at San Francisco Opera, Ms. Crocetto has appeared frequently with the company, most recently in the role of Mimì in La bohème.
Opera as the title role of Luisa Miller. She joined the Calgary Philharmonic in performances of Verdi’s Requiem, and she returned to Italy to sing Leonora in Il trovatore in her debut at the Arena di Verona.
In her stellar 2015–16 season, Leah Crocetto makes two major debuts: her long-awaited Metropolitan Opera debut as Liù in Turandot, and her role debut as Semiramide in Rossini’s seldom-heard opera of the same name, with Opera National de Bordeaux.
Ms. Crocetto’s 2010–11 season included her European debut as Leonora in Il trovatore with Opéra National de Bordeaux and performances of Verdi’s Requiem with Columbus Symphony and Albany Symphony. She returned to her hometown for a gala concert of opera and musical theatre with the Adrian Symphony Orchestra and was featured in a gala opera concert with the Toronto Symphony. She finished the season with performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection” at the Grand Tetons Music Festival with Donald Runnicles, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at The Hollywood Bowl.
Additional highlights of the season include Anna in Maometto II with the Canadian Opera Company, the title role of Luisa Miller with the San Francisco Opera, and Donna Anna in Don Giovanni with Santa Fe Opera. She also sings a solo recital at Washington National Opera with pianist Mark Markham. Last season, Ms. Crocetto performed Desdemona in Otello with English National Opera, followed by performances of Mimi in La bohème with San Francisco Opera, and Madame Lidoine in Poulenc’s powerful Dialogues of the Carmelites with Washington National Opera. Her season closed at Opera Philadelphia singing Elisabetta di Valois in a new production of Don Carlo. Leah Crocetto began the previous season singing a concert of sacred pieces by Verdi with Orchestre National de France under the direction of Daniele Gatti. She returned to Opera de Bordeaux to sing Desdemona in Otello, and returned to Frankfurt Opera for her first performances of Alice Ford in Falstaff. Her concert engagements took her to the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts in Davis, California, the Green Music Center in Sonoma, California and the Speed Museum in Louisville, Kentucky. She sang Verdi’s Requiem with San Francisco Opera and with the Radio Orchestra of Saarbrücken, Germany. She made her debut with Pittsburgh Opera singing her first performances of Mimi in La bohème, and she performs Handel’s Messiah with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center. In the 2012–13 season, Ms. Crocetto made her debut in Venice, singing Desdemona in Otello at Teatro la Fenice. She reprised the role with the company in their tour of Japan later in the season, as well as with Frankfurt Opera in her company debut. Ms. Crocetto also made her debut with the Israeli
14
SU N DAY, O C TO B E R 4, 2015
Ms. Crocetto continued to make important debuts on stages around the world in the 2011–12 season. She began the season in her role debut as Liù in Turandot for San Francisco Opera, and was featured by the prestigious San Francisco Performances on Nicola Luisotti conducting, with Houston Grand Opera as Female Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia, and with North Carolina Opera as Leonora in Il trovatore. In the summer of 2012, she made her debut with The Santa Fe Opera to great acclaim as Anna in Rossini’s Maometto II in a new production by David Alden.
Ms. Crocetto began the 2009–10 with San Francisco Opera’s production of Il Trittico as Suor Angelica and covered the roles of Leonora in Il trovatore and Desdemona in Otello. She joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel for performances of Verdi’s Requiem; a piece she prepared with Riccardo Muti for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Also, she was featured in a Schwabacher Recital for the San Francisco Opera. Further concert performances included Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with San Francisco Opera and Nicola Luisotti, and Handel’s Messiah in Anchorage. Ms. Crocetto holds degrees from Siena Heights University in acting performance and Moody Bible Institute in vocal studies. She is a former member of the Sarasota Opera Apprentice Artists Program where she appeared in Le nozze di Figaro and in La Rondine. She was a member of San Francisco Opera’s Merola Opera Program, where she performed scenes from Manon, Don Pasquale and sang the roles of two Verdi heroines, Luisa Miller and Leonora in Il trovatore on the Grand Finale Concert. Of this performance, San Francisco Chronicle said Crocetto has a “powerful Verdi voice and formidable precision technique, and intensity that amplifies an already huge voice, and an innate, irresistible musicality.” San Francisco Classical voice said, “In thirty years of exciting discoveries, listening to each group of Merolini for the first time, I have never experienced a singer as complete and awesome as Crocetto.”
UC DAVIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTR A
Christian Baldini, music director and conductor Alex Stepans, librarian — Members appear in seated order. —
FLUTE
HORN
VIOLIN I
VIOLA
Mia Cylinder, principal Clement Yuen Kelly Purdy Lisa Illes
Alex Stepans, co-principal Evan Barnell, co-principal Ava Hagwood Kristen Muller
Sean Ang, concertmaster Valerie Fates, concertmaster Devon Bradshaw, concertmaster Jennifer Jobling Pam He Mihoko Kubo Rafael Moore Kai Jakobsen Amelia Reynolds Stanislav Baranovskiy Christina Thompson Diana Yuwen Jian Daniel Neyshloss Ju Hye Mun June Ju Jeske Dioquino
Christine Nguyen, co-principal Jonathan Spatola-Knoll, co-principal Karli Ching Andrew Ngo Claire Montgomery Sean Calabro Cristian Mojica Chaorui Duan Daraujanae Artis
PICCOLO
Lisa Illes TRUMPET OBOE
Julia Anderson, principal Curtis Kidwell, principal Davia Kot
Aaron Shuler, principal Will Ebeler Alessandra Knitter TROMBONE
ENGLISH HORN
Chris Hung CLARINET
Nicholas Yoon, co-principal Robert Brosnan, co-principal Ruby Tapia Briana Herrera BASS CLARINET
True Randall BASSOON
Alex Wells, co-principal Katie Erickson, co-principal Emily Bergmann Katie Landreville
Justin Wang, principal Ryan Swanson Michaela Tan BASS TROMBONE
Jason Luong HARP
Maxime Lacour PIANO
Kelly Yuan PERCUSSION
Connelly Doan, principal Sean Chiles Jacob Holiday
VIOLIN II
Cynthia Bates, principal Gayane Malayan, assistant principal Caroline Campbell Shadia Mustafa Cindy Priyanto Lily Brown Janine Alcordo Joseph Torreano Audrey Bergmann Andrea Salas de la O Natasha Anna Mariano Daniel Oliveira Desiree Negrette Jiangtian Guan Yelizaveta Belomyttseva Jinyi Zhou
VIOLONCELLO
Lauren Ho, co-principal Patrick Baek, co-principal Caitlin Anderson STeven Sato Joanna Kim Malcolm King Caitlin Tsai Hyo Joon Ahn Alex Monroe Megan Ng Ellen Dyer DOUBLE BASS
Chris Castro, principal Kaitryn Ronning, assistant principal Alexis Reynolds Sam Skinner Melissa Zerofsky
RISING STARS OF OPERA
15