Behind the Curtain Summer 2019

A P U B L I C AT I O N F O R S A N F R A N C I S C O O P E R A S U P P O R T E R S A N D S U B S C R I B E R S | SPRING 2019

BEHIND THE

SFOPERA.COM

CURTAIN

RENÉE FLEMING A S C O U N T E S S A L M AV I VA IN THE 1991 PRODUCTION OF THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO

P H OTO B Y S I M O N PAU LY

BUILDING A FUTURE

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Legacy productions like Tosca and next season’s The Marriage of Figaro (the first in our new Mozart/Da Ponte trilogy) help us to further the tradition of excellence that San Francisco Opera has become known for through its almost 100 year history, connecting these classic titles to existing and new audiences in ways that will last for decades to come. They are built by SF Opera craftspeople and designed for SF Opera audiences, and it is a privilege to be re-envisioning these works. Programs like the Builders Circle allow you to be a part of these new ventures, celebrating the vital role that we all play in creating artistic expression on the stage. I am so excited to raise the curtain on our new Mozart trilogy with you!

Thank you for all you do to keep opera thriving on our stage and in our community.

SUMMER 2019 Behind the Curtain is a semi-annual publication for San Francisco Opera supporters and subscribers.

Editors Roya Clune Michael Hoke Writers Adam Flowers Elizabeth Kuntze General Director Matthew Shilvock Development Department San Francisco Opera 301 Van Ness Avenue San Francisco, CA 94102 C O N TA C T U S Membership (415) 565-6416 Medallion Society (415) 565-6401 V I S I T U S O N T H E W E B AT SFOPERA.COM

COMPANY SPONSORS The Dolby Family Bertie Bialek Elliott Ann and Gordon Getty John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Burgess and Elizabeth Jamieson Franklin and Catherine Johnson Edmund W. and Jeannik Méquet Littlefield Fund Steven M. Menzies Bernard and Barbro Osher Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Dianne and Tad Taube Phyllis C. Wattis Endowment Funds Diane B. Wilsey Barbara A. Wolf

With warm wishes,

M A T T H E W S H I LV O C K General Director

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P H OTO BY C A R O LY N M A S O N J O N E S

elcome to the summer season at San Francisco Opera! I cannot wait to embark on this marvelous journey together, from the passionate, spirited energy of Carmen, to the angst-ridden struggles in Handel’s Orlando, to the haunting fairytale world of Rusalka. Each of these pieces offers something unique, showcasing the power of this art form to move the soul, and it is a pleasure to be able to share each of these works with you.

In this issue we explore the amazing work that Barbara Rominski and her team are doing in our Opera Archives.

When Carmen Giannattasio took the stage last fall in her thrilling role debut in our brand-new production of Tosca, she was part of a long line of stars who have graced our stage as the title heroine. You get a feel for this history when you walk through the hallway galleries on the 4th floor of the Veterans Building, in the Wilsey Center for Opera, history that volunteers like Stan Dufford, who have been with the opera for decades, are working so hard to preserve.

Stan Dufford (Wig and Makeup Master) giving students a backstage tour.

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SEASON SPONSOR

C O R P O R AT E PA R T N E R S

San Francisco Opera is sponsored, in part, by a grant from Grants for the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund.

COVER IMAGE: Photo by Larry Merkle

OPERA

MAJESTY UNIQUE COLLECTION HUNG IN THE OPERA CENTER

Leontyne Price as Donna Elvira in the 1959 production of Don Giovanni, photgrapher unknown.

Leontyne Price gazes at you from the framed black and white portrait with a concentration and intensity that conjures the artistry for which she is so justly famed. If you look closer, beyond the eyes, you may see something else. She holds an apple in her lap.

“She was on her lunch break,” says Barbara Rominski, San Francisco Opera’s Director of Archives, the pictorial source of Looking Through the Lens: The Glory of San Francisco Opera, a permanent photo exhibit hung in the Diane B. Wilsey Center for Opera, located in the Veterans Building.

“There was confusion as to why, in the role of Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, she would be holding an apple. It wasn’t until later, when a second photograph was unearthed wherein she is eating the apple, that it was discovered she was indeed on her lunch break!”

In this unique collection hung in

the two fourth-floor hallways of the Wilsey Center for Opera, the history and majesty of 95 years of opera collide with the humanity of the artists who made all of this magic possible.

“The space that the Wilsey Center occupies was the original location of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art,” says Rominski. “Having come to the Opera from SFMOMA, where I oversaw the Research Library and established the Archives, I can say that the Wilsey Center renovations did in large part respect the architecture and original details from SFMOMA’s time. In particular the long corridors where the Archives photo exhibition now hangs are well suited to viewing the lush and beautiful photographs documenting the history of the Company.”

Halfway down the David Gockley Gallery in the south corridor of the 4th floor, the oldest photo of the entire collection encapsulates the artistic and cultural legacy of the

Company in stark black and white.

It is a group portrait of everyone involved in the inaugural 1923 season production of Andrea Cheniér, including chorus, orchestra, corps de ballet, supernumeraries, board members, the young tenor Beniamino Gigli, soprano Bianco Saroya, and San Francisco Opera Founder and Music Director Gaetano Merola’s wife, Rosa, who holds his hand. This detail, among so many others, is the heart and soul of this legacy-defining exhibit of the Company’s triumphs and history.

In contrast to the black and white palette of the Gockley Gallery, the Hume Family Gallery in the north corridor features vivid color portraits and production photos. The left wall of the gallery highlights a collection of striking vertical portraits of the many operatic superstars who have tread the War Memorial’s floor. International stars such as Luciano Pavarotti, Kiri C O N T I N U E D O N PAG E 6

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Jussi Bjoerling (Manon Lescaut), 1956

STAN DUFFORD WIG AND MAKEUP MASTER

Leontyne Price (Production Unknown), 1965

Stan Dufford with George Shirley (La Bohème), 1961, photographer unknown

Stan Dufford, Wig and Makeup Master from 1956-1968 and returning journeyman for twelve seasons between 1971-2010, began volunteering his time and expertise to the San Francisco Opera Archives in May 2010. Mr. Dufford is currently working with historic photographs.

The performance archive is available at archive.sfopera.com.

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What type of impact and how important do you think the visuals have on the audience and the artists on stage?

I think the audience is not very cognizant unless the costuming is weird or incredibly beautiful.

For instance when Elisabeth Schwarzkopf would do the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, she

would come in for the last act and everybody would go “Ahhh!” because she was so stunning. Fortunately, critics hardly ever mentioned wigs because if they did it was usually negative. People like Schwarzkopf, who was incredibly intelligent about makeup and hair styling, taught me a lot. In the early days most of the artists did their own makeup.

What was the first or most memorable show you worked on during your tenure?

I worked on the second production of Jean-Pierre Ponnelle’s Lear, and that was probably the most exciting production I have ever seen. Everything was very traditional during my time. Opera did not change a lot until later in Bayreuth. Germany had so many opera houses and they did the repertory so many times that they got very innovative. My first trip to Europe was a huge revelation to me, especially Bayreuth. Everything was very stylized. A lot of it had to do with economy after the Second World War. What was a revelation to me was that they made wigs out of foam rubber, sponge rubber, cut up hair that was glued on; a lot of ideas that I stole.

Really? You brought it back?

Well, yes, because one of the great problems that I had was that there was no budget.

We did new productions with absolutely no money set aside for wigs, and our stock was incredibly antiquated. It dated from the 20's

“People like Schwarzkopf, who was incredibly intelligent about makeup and hair styling, taught me a lot.” and 30’s. On some productions I would make wigs out of rubber, tissue paper, hair cut up from old wigs, and other things like that because there was no money. When I look at how large the department is now, it’s a huge change. Fortunately, through the years I have maintained good relationships with every succeeding [head of wigs and makeup]. As a matter of fact, two of the current wig masters were former students of mine. I taught at San Francisco State University and I taught them makeup and wig making. You know what is ironic? I have better memories of the 50’s and 60’s here than of the 29 years of my life in Chicago because I have photographic evidence and because of the incredible performance database that we have here. I can look up anything about who did what and when.

WHY I GIVE

Anne and Jeffrey Katz are longtime subscribers and donors to San Francisco Opera

How did you first discover opera?

Going to the opera wasn’t a regular part of either of our childhood experiences, but we both enjoy a range of different kinds of music. Once our children were a bit older, we decided to attend a few performances at SF Opera. We started with a three-opera subscription in the balcony and soon realized we’d found something extraordinary. Over the twenty plus years of subscribing, we’ve become full season subscribers and look forward to the beginning of each season, sometimes to reconnect with a favorite opera, sometimes to explore a new production.

Why is opera important to you today?

We see opera as an amazing, complex art form, the result of the work of musicians, singers, composers, librettists, and directors, as well as costume, lighting, and set designers. Their creativity generates powerful emotional experiences and when it all meshes together, as with last summer’s Ring cycle, we feel enriched and energized.

Do you have a favorite opera?

We can identify several operas that are perennial favorites, for example, Rigoletto, Der Rosenkavalier, The Marriage of Figaro. But with each season we find others that provide powerful experiences and would also merit a place on a favorites list, for example, recent past productions of Elektra and Roberto Devereux.

What inspired you to increase your support as a member of the Builders Circle?

Creating new productions is a process that takes place over several years.

By contributing to The Builders Circle, we help to provide ongoing support to help SF Opera make long-range plans for future repertory. As a benefit, we attended the final dress rehearsal for Tosca and afterwards signed our names on the back of the set. A small thing, perhaps, but it helped to personalize our support in a very concrete way.

Talk about the importance to you of new productions.

New productions are key for a vibrant and world-class opera company. They help us to re-envision familiar operas from new perspectives. In last season’s Tosca, for example, the church interior in Act 1 is repositioned so that we, the audience, are facing the altar, making it easier to follow the action. For the first time, we saw where Angelotti was hiding, and the Te Deum came across as a wall of brilliant sound.

Why I Give is an ongoing series of interviews with members of San Francisco Opera’s family of generous supporters.

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97 YEARS OF PRODUCTION

Eugenia Ratti as Susanna and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf as Countess Almaviva

1958

1964

THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO

Reri Grist as Susanna and Lee Venora as Cherubino

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First production of The Marriage of Figaro at San Francisco Opera

1972

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1936

Frederica von Stade as Cherubino, Geraint Evans as Figaro, and Judith Blegen as Susanna

C O N T I N U E D F R O M PAG E 3

Te Kanawa, Plácido Domingo, and Dolora Zajick place San Francisco Opera’s past and present into perspective as one of the world’s most important artistic organizations.

On the right wall are horizontal production photos featuring soloists, chorus, corps de ballet, supernumeraries, and the lavish scenic designs which bring each production to life.

“These images visually bring to the foreground the breadth of individuals and activities that it takes to bring a production to the stage and allow us, in the galleries, to highlight the many many people working behind the scenes,” Rominski says.

From David Hockney’s bold Turandot to the hyper-realism of JeanPierre Ponnelle and Franco Zeffirelli, these images capture the grandeur and scope of San Francisco Opera’s artistic achievements in daring relief.

Selecting these few photos out of the Company’s exhaustive archives proved a daunting task.

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of 2016. The selection process for the images and certainly the curatorial decisions had been made by Jon Finck, former Director of Communications and Public Affairs, who curated the exhibition. However, as the party responsible for the Company’s photographic history, it is mind boggling to think how the selection process unfolded. I probably have 250,000+ images in multiple formats — photographs, negatives, digital photos, etc — and the idea of whittling that down to the 135 images in these two galleries is, well, overwhelming!

Which productions? Who to include?

Full stage shots or close-ups?

Role debuts? Premieres? Behind the scenes? Staff? It was a monumental challenge.”

Despite the daunting task of choosing between thousands of images to represent the breadth and scope of San Francisco Opera’s history, the galleries imbue the viewer with the palpable sense of a rich artistic legacy that stretches from the black

and white Company portrait during its inaugural season to its meteoric rise as a first-class international institution that forges fearlessly ahead into new creative territory.

“I love the fact that when I tour groups through the galleries nearly every one of my guests has a memory triggered by one of the images on the walls. The memory comes tumbling out punctuated by an excited story, a bit of an aria sung, a few bars of a tune hummed — but always, always there is a smile, a laugh, a knowing nod, all followed by a wistful look. The memories are strong and they are good. Opera does this to people — it gets under their skin and into their hearts. Being a part of that is powerful,” says Rominski.

Walking amongst so many images of legendary performers and the spectacle of grand opera at its grandest, it is impossible not to feel the legacy of San Francisco Opera’s artistic accomplishments and the imperative to continue this legacy far into an exciting future.

1982

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Kiri Te Kanawa as Countess Almaviva , Samuel Ramey as Figaro, and Gianna Rolandi as Susanna

Anna Netrebko as Susanna and John Relyea as Figaro

1986

1990

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Frederica von Stade as Cherubino and RenĂŠe Fleming as Countess Almaviva P H OTO BY R O N S C H E R L

Laura Brooks as Marcellina, Hermann Prey as Figaro, Lucia Popp as Susanna, and Kevin Langan as Dr. Bartolo

1997

2017-18

OPERA FINANCIALS Marketing and Box Office 9%

Administrative and General Operations Fundraising 9% 7%

Endowment 11%

Corporations 6%

Government 2% Guild 2%

Foundations 22% Operating Revenue 31% Production and Artistic 75%

Contributed Revenue 58%

EXP ENS ES

R E V E N UE

$80,013,238

$79,068,055

Individuals 67%

CO N T R IBUTED R E V E N UE (DETAI L) $44,709,077

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STARS EMERGING

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COMPETITION

Andriana Chuchman It’s a Wonderful Life

Daniel Johansson Arabella

Hye Jung Lee Arabella

Sasha Cooke Orlando

Christina Gansch Orlando

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J’Nai Bridges Carmen

Golda Schultz It’s a Wonderful Life

Rachel Willis-Sørensen Rusalka

C ATC H A R I S I N G S TA R W I T H T H I S Y E A R ’ S E M E R G I N G S TA R S C O M P E T I T I O N 8 | B eh i n d T h e Cu r t a i n

BENEFITS SPOTLIGHT

For the fourth year in a row, San Francisco Opera benefactors Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem are generously sponsoring the Emerging Star of the Year Competition and Award. Established through a multi-

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HELP US CHOOSE THE 2019 EMERGING S TA R O F T H E Y E A R !

BUILDERS CIRCLE We are excited to invite you to become a member of the Builders Circle, a new

year, multi-million dollar gift from the Shrems, the

giving program designed to foster ongoing

Emerging Stars Fund is supporting the appearance of

investment in the creation of these new

eight thrilling young artists on our stage throughout the

repertory productions. Tailor-made for our

2018-19 Season. These artists include J’Nai Bridges in

most dedicated supporters, this program

Carmen; Andriana Chuchman and Golda Schultz in

promises special opportunities — on top

It’s a Wonderful Life; Sasha Cooke and Christina Gansch

of regular membership benefits — that will

in Orlando; Daniel Johansson and Hye Jung Lee in

allow you to engage with the work made

Arabella; and Rachel Willis-Sørensen in Rusalka.

possible by your support.

You have a role to play this season too! Help choose the

This fall, Builders Circle members will be

2019 Emerging Star of the Year. Voting opens on July 9

invited to the final dress rehearsal of The

and runs through July 31. Visit sfopera.com/EmergingStars

Marriage of Figaro and a reception with

to learn about each artist, and cast your vote for your favorite. Soon after the voting ends, the people’s choice will be announced. In addition to recognition as the 2019 Emerging Star of the Year, the winning artist will be

Matthew Shilvock.

Joining the Builders Circle is easy: simply make an increased gift of 10% or more over

awarded a cash prize by the Shrems.

the prior year (with a minimum increase of

Every one of these talents is a rising star.

Prepare to choose your favorite when the voting begins on July 9!

you will qualify for this special program.

$500), or a new gift of $500 or more, and

If you are interested in joining, or have any questions about the Builders Circle, please contact membership at (415) 565-6416 or email membership@sfopera.com.

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ABOVE: Marketing Associate Farrah Hammond poses in front of the “Earn Your Wings” sculpture at a performance of It’s a Wonderful Life.

RIGHT: San Francisco Opera Adler Fellows and guest artists perform at the workshop of Laura Kaminsky and Kimberly Reed’s Postville: Hometown to the World.

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COMPANY HAPPENINGS

Students from A.P. Giannini and Aptos Middle Schools work alongside members of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and Chorus as part of the ARIA Music Performance Residency Side-by-Side Program.

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PHOTO BY BOB HEMSTOCK

Frederica von Stade works with students at Jefferson Elementary School as part of our ARIA Network Program.

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The 2018 Adler Fellows take a final bow at the end of their concert, The Future is Now.

Audience members strike a pose at the Family Day performance of It’s a Wonderful Life.

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PHOTO BY STEFAN COHEN

PHOTO BY MATTHEW WASHBURN

UPCOMING EVENTS

ALL ABOUT CARMEN June 23 at 11am & 12:30pm Wilsey Center Education Studio PHOTO BY MATTHEW WASHBURN

PHOTO BY MATTHEW WASHBURN

SCHWABACHER SUMMER CONCERT July 11 at 7:30pm SFCM Concert Hall

PHOTO BY DREW ALTIZER

PHOTO BY STEFAN COHEN

MEROLA GRAND FINALE August 17 at 7:30pm War Memorial Opera House

SCHWABACHER SUMMER CONCERT July 13 at 2pm SFCM Concert Hall

PHOTO BY CORY WEAVER

OPERA BALL September 6 at 5pm War Memorial Opera House

OPERA IN THE PARK September 8 at 1:30pm Golden Gate Park

SUPPORTING THE ARTS San Francisco Opera is thrilled to announce a new partnership with the iconic Chalk Hill Estate Vineyards and Winery in Sonoma County. “We are pleased to support the arts in San Francisco and believe it is a great synergy between Chalk Hill Estate and San Francisco Opera,” says Gerard Thoukis, Senior Vice President of Marketing for Foley Family Wines.

Chalk Hill’s acclaimed wines will be showcased in the War Memorial Opera House as well as at donor, subscriber and BRAVO! Club events throughout the year. Please support the partnership by visiting their tasting room in Healdsburg and telling them San Francisco Opera sent you!

W W W. C H A L K H I L L . C O M

TAKE THE CHALLENGE! Recently we launched our Spring Challenge fundraising drive with a goal of raising $500,000 by the end of our fiscal year on July 31. To help us reach this goal, longtime San Francisco Opera friends Ann and Gordon Getty have stepped forward for the third year in a row with a generous offer to match new and increased gifts made as part of this appeal. Any increase of $75 or more over last year’s gift will be matched dollar for dollar, while any new gift of $75 or more will be matched two-to-one!

Take the challenge and double — or triple! — your impact by making a new or increased gift of $75 or more before July 31. Your gift helps support every aspect of the Company’s activities, from staging the thrilling productions to providing vital training for the next generation of opera stars in our young artist training programs. Make your gift today to enjoy behind-the-scenes access while supporting the art form you love!

F E E L I N G I N S P I R E D ? V I S I T S F O P E R A . C O M / D O N AT E .