Carol Benet

“La Tragédie de Carmen” at Merola Program

Carol Benet

The 2026 Merola Summer Festival presents the first of the two operas, “La Tragédie de Carmen”, on July 9 and July 11.

This is the Peter Brook’s reinterpretation of Bizet’s masterpiece, an opera that has lasted for decades and is one of the most produced at all opera companies. Peter Brook was the enfant terrible of the theater and film director who, based in Paris, changed the way the traditional masterpieces that he created to those that exemplified his idea of “empty space”, a pared down version. Before his death in 2022 he created plays, operas, films from 1943 through 2013.

The Merola participants presented an 80 minute without intermission opera on a bare stage highlighted with wonderful projections (Camilla Task). The principal cast of seven was substituted for what is usually a crowded, busy with movement, chorus, dance in a many peopled version. Brook’s “Carmen” consists of the most famous arias and duets and whips along with what the Merola portrays as a psychological drama about Carmen (Ariana Maubach) and Don José (Charles Styles) tragic relationship.

Starting with the sweet Micaëla’s (Anna Thompson) message to the Don from his mother, it is evident that she loves him but this is unrequited as he is fixated one the beautiful and tempestuous romani Carmen who has other suitors that arouses his jealousy. The suiitors are the bullfighter Escamillo (Raül Morales Velazco), Zuniga (Ryan Bryce Johnson) along with John Mburu as Garcia and Logan Wagner as the bartender Lillas Pastia.

A former Merola ’09 winner Stephanie Rhodes Russell conducts the fine Marius Constant chamber orchestra, with some chosen from the SF Ballet as is gifted harpist Annabelle Taubl plus the pianist a current Merola artist Deven Shah at the piano. The Brook idea of adding a recording of Bizet’s Overture is an innovation.

The director Mo Zhou (Merola ’15) was inspired by Buddhist scripture in this version of Carmen with its ideas of the reoccurrence of the Don’s love for Carmen and his eternal desire for what he cannot possess.

The Merola participants for “Carmen” are ready for their professional careers as they are excellent singers and convincing actors as well. In the future we will see them often on the opera stages worldwide.

The second Merola opera this summer is Ricardo Strauss’ “Ariadne aug Naxos” on July 30 and August 1. The operas takes place at the Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, 50 Oak Street near Davies Symphony Hall. Tickets merola.org or box office 415 864 3330.

Carol Benet

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Merola “L’Anima Napoletana” 

For All Events

Carol Benet

The recital of the 2026 Merola Summer Festival, “L’Anima Napoletana”, was a joyous event with 13 Merolini participants presenting a three part program of  enchanting solos and duets with piano accompaniment.  

Taking place at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall at 50 Oak Street, San Francisco, it was almost a sold-out  event.  This summer’s winners of the Merola Opera training program chose 28 talented singers, accompanists, coaches, conductors  and directors out of 1500 applicants. It is a prized institution associated with the San Francisco Opera that has instruction not only in musical presentation but in the development of the artists in leadership, financial planning, mental and physical wellness, public relations and branding.  The Merola is the only young artist program to provide support for five years after participation and offers aid for essential career development. 

Thirteen artists from this summer’s program presented the music of southern Italy with themes for the three parts as little scenes.  In part one soprano Stella FitzGerald and tenor Mcllquham tell their story of young love. The 7 songs sung in local dialect translated on screens above the stage have two accomplished accompanists, Deven Shah for 5 songs and Sakurako Jayne Abe for two.

The first two songs are familiar ballads, “Santa Lucia” by Teodoro Cottrau and “La Danza” by Rossini.  All of the selections are from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  Stage direction is by Claire Choquette who brings out all the drama of the situations calling on the vocal and acting ability of the singers which is of a very high level. 

The second part with 7 solos and duets features tenor Logan Wagner and soprano Charlotte Kelso who sing  of their love for each other with a tinge of jealousy at times.  Kelso, a beautiful woman stays in her part throughout, even when she is only present and not singing during Wagner’s solos.  Her accompanists Abe and Sakurako Jayne Abe  and Eric Head provide sometimes fiery piano.

Charlotte Kelso Soprano

The third part has three singers in a love triangle where sometimes love is dying but new love arrives.  Bass Theo Harrah and soprano Shannon Crowley are one couple with tenor Chester Seungyup Han the third member of the triangle who vies for her love.   Accompanists here are Tony Stauffer and Yue Qi Zhang.

All singers and accompanists are already so professional and seasoned that one wonders what else can they learn from the summer program   They have already performed in many operas.  With the Merola winners you will see them on the stage soon many more times.

The program without intermission lasted one hour and 20 minutes.  The last three events of the Summer Merola Festival are two operas, Peter Brook’s reinterpretation of  Bizet’s “Carmen” July 9 and 11 and Richard Strauss’ “Ariadne auf Naxos July 30 and August 1.  The Merola Grand Finale at Davies Symphony Hall featuring all participants is on August 15.  

Tickets 415 864 3330 and more information merola.org.

Carol Benet

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For All Events

Carol Benet

Merola:  The Merola Opera Program is revered in the world of emerging artists aspiring for a career.  This year over 1,500 international contestants applied and 28  were chosen and just started their summer training.  Singers, pianists, coaches, directors arrived in San Francisco and were already placed in performances.

The 2026 Merola Summer Festival started April 1 with recitals by former participants.  Concerts, and two operas, training sessions, master classes and a Grand Finale follow until the program ends August, 2026. 

A recital on June 16 featured well-known opera singer bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen accompanied by the master pianist Carrie-Ann Matheson who is also the Artistic Director of the Merola program. Six recent Merlini, as the new Merola winners are called, performed a duet solos and a portion of  Puccini’s “Tosca” where Ketelsen sang the villain role of Scarpia to a very talented Soprano Charlotte Kelson as Tosco.  

In the first part of the program  Ketelsen sang three solos by Ravel” and a Mozart duet with Shannon Crowley .  Extremely talented participants, tenor Chester-Seungyup, baritone Paul Jang and tenor Ryan Bryce, also sang solos, duets and after the intermission, they all sang and acted in a very dramatic  excerpt from “Tosca”.  The director of the concert was Claire Choquette and a second piano accompanist Deven Shah are both this year’s Merola winners.

Scheduled for the rest of the summer are another concert, two operas and the Grand Finale. 

On June 25 “L’Anima Napolitana” is a recital of songs from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries from Napoli.  July 9 and 11 is a rendition of Bizet’s opera by the innovative and famous producer/director Peter Brook’ who rethought  “La Tragédie de Carmen”.  On July 30 and August 1 is the second opera, Richard Strauss’s “Ariadne aux Naxos”. Both operas are performed at the SF Conservatory of Music’s Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall, 50 Oak Street, San Francisco.

And the culmination of the Merola summer program is the very popular Grand Finale on August 15 with conductor William Lang and current Merola participant director Claire Choquette. This takes place at the War Memorial Opera House.

More information on the world famous Merola Summer Festival look at merola.org.

Carol Benet

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“Doubt” at Opera Parallèle

Carol Benet

One of the highlights of classical music in the San Francisco Bay is Nicole Paiement’s Opera Parallèle that since 2007 has created brilliant operas complete with orchestras, minimal sets, lighting, sound — all the attributes of the grand opera but in smaller venues.  Opera Parallèle is dedicated to new and exciting works.

Their production that appeared the last three days of May 2026 at the beautiful Presidio Theatre was “Doubt” a reimagining of the original Broadway hit play that became a movie and a grand opera.  It was to have taken place in 1964 in a Catholic school with “doubts” about what really happened between a priest and the school’s only black student.  

With only four characters for the chamber opera with libretto written by John Patrick Shanley, each one has their opinions about the facts and only “doubt” remains as the conclusion.  The date predates all the publicity about abuses within the church that have filled the news and closed parishes worldwide ever since.  So the current audience has that news in mind when witnessing this work making it even more complex.

The composer Douglas J. Cuomo, well-known for his concert, theater, opera, television and film scores, writes a gorgeous work with a nod to jazz rhythms at times but is mainly  contemporary classical music.  It is interesting that among OP’s Honorary Board Members are Philip Glass and Jake Heggie, two  masters contemporary opera.  An  excellent  orchestra of 13 qualified musicians in this performance are placed on the stage to the right of of the action with Nicole Paiement as conductor.

The concept for the set was conceived by the director Brian Staufenbiel.  It represents the interior of a church with gothic framed windows from which the characters enter and from which Father Flynn (Matthew Worth) gives his sermons.  We, the audience are meant to be seated in the nave of the church and with clever execution of video slides portraying the church interior, the offices, surrounding buildings, birds and ocean.  Floating feathers highlight one of Father Flynn’s parables about the dangers of gossiping that becomes like feathers that can not be put back into the slashed pillow from which they come. The audience feels as if there are in the middle of the action, something that Staufenbiel’s production wants to achieve so that we all have our “doubts” during and even after the play.

A rigid Sister Aloysius (Roslyn Jones, former Adler Fellow of the San Francisco Opera) has imagined a scenario where Father Flynn has given the school’s only black student some wine from his chalice and who knows what happens after that.  All doubtful scenarios are part of the sister’s imagination.

Sister James (Naomi Steele) listens to her diatribes and does not agree but  is afraid to challenge her authority.  An interview with Father Flynn becomes fiery and the music fits all occasions.  The boy’s mother (Deborah Nansteel) comes and begs that he not be expelled for  there are only a few months to the end of the school year for if ihe is her  violent husband might kill the boy.   In 10 short scenes the intrigue evolves and Father Flynn’s eventual placement is described.  Yet we all are left with “doubts”.

Nicole Paiement conducts the fine orchestra.  She is the genius behind the entire Opera Parallèle.  The 2026-2027 season has been announced  with premiers of “Salt & Sea” November 14-21, 2026:  “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, March 11-14. 2027; “Taking Up Serpents”, May 2027.

For more information go to Operaparallele.org

Carol Benet

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“Der Rosenkavalier” at Sante Fe Opera

Carol Benet

Richard Strauss’ “Der Rosenkavalier” with the libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal at Sante Fe Opera festival 2024 could not have had a better production.  The fantastic third act is a deconstruction and amplification to the original.  The opera is the story of an aging aristocrat, the 32 year old  Marshallin (Rachel Willis-Sørensen), who is having an affair with a 17 year old Count Octavian (Paula Murrihy) and its aftermath.  

Aging and the passing  of time are the main themes of Strauss’ famous opera of 1911  The tale is timeless and the portrayal of Viennese society of the time historical.  The boorish uncle of the Marshallin Baron Ochs (Matthew Rose) pursues women of all levels of society and here he chases the maid Mariandel, non other than Octavian dressed as a woman, and Sophie (Ying Fang), the rich daughter of Herr von Faninal (Zachary Nelson).  Och’s marriage to Sophie would satisfy both him and Faninal wishing to elevate family’s social standing.  Baron Ochs, like many nobles, is in need of money.

“Der Rosenkavalier” is a four hour opera with one long intermission needed to change the set for the 3rd act.   Gary McCann’s set is brilliantly conceived and executed along with his fanciful costumes of traditional aristocracy in wild abandon of party goers. The third act is a dream scene when all the former pregnant victims and the illegitimate  children of the predatory Ochs come back to haunt him.  It is in a claustrophobic room set in two psychedelic colored neon-framed boxes.  Ochs is imprisoned in this a room with all his victims from which he cannot escape. Matthew Rose’s portrayal of Ochs with his excellent bass voice and comic acting  is one of the highlights of this production.  He is perfectly played as an overweight, toupee wearing bore whose name Ochs (“ox” in German) is appropriate.   Maybe Strauss is turning in his grave at this re-enactment of Act 3 but the audience loved it.

The correct coupling takes place at the end when Sophie and Octavian are together yet the Marschshallin blesses them both in this inevitable end of her affair. Sørensen aria’s and duets with Octavian are wonderful in her strong soprano voice and fine acting.  Ying Fang’s voice is gorgeous as Sophie and Rose’s acting and singing ability as Ochs enlivens the entire production.

Conductor Karina Canellakis presented a lively rendition of the music that was fun loving and at time filled with pathos as the Marschallin reflects on her life.  Bruno Ravella’s direction of this complicated and demanding opera is excellently creative.  I hope the production moves on to other venues.  It should.

“Der Rosenkavalier”  runs through August 15, 2024 at the Sante Fe Opera.  

Carol Benet

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Sante Fe Opera Festival 2024

Carol Benet

In the middle of the most gorgeous scenery in the United States, with art everywhere and the dozens of restaurants with delicious food, Sante Fe in northern New Mexico boasts of one of the most important opera events in the world, the Sante Fe Opera Festival.

Operas takes place July and August in an architecturally splendid outdoor auditorium seating more than 2000 (Polshek Partnership Architects and acousticians Purcell & Noppe & Associates). Some operas are timed so that they start just before and during sunset so the wonderful  open background on the stage for two operas this season is filled with rich colors of the western vista introducing the universal and timeless beauty of nature.  

The 2024 season features five operas with one world premiere and four beloved classics.  “The Righteous” with music by Gregory Spears and libretto by former poet laureate Tracy K. Smith, is a slog,  It is over three hours of a story that tries to incorporate too many themes drawn from the 1980’s such as feminism, the war on drugs, Mid-East conflict, AIDS, political power grabs, unfaithful husbands, hypocritical preachers, social inequality and the such.  The opera needed a serious editing job that would let it focus on one or only a few of these important themes.

But the production was in place with conductor Jordan de Souza, director Kevin Newbury, set designer Mimi Lien and costumes by Devario Simmons, Japhy Weideman lighting designer and chorus master Susanne Sheston.

Both the wife and budding feminist Michele (Jennifer Johnson Cano),  the countertenor Jonathan (Anthony Roth Costanzo) with his closeted love for the preacher showed both vocal and acting expertise.  The opera deals with the question of who is “righteous” and the spiritual search for truth and good these ordinary characters seek.  The production borders on the soap opera level.

Two of the other operas in the season were the kind that make the Sante Fe Festival famous.  The comic “The Elixir of Love” by Gaetano Donizetti has an update to the 1940s in a small Italian town.  The simple story of an itinerant salesman Dulcamara (Alfredo Daza) who peddles a remedy that he claims can cure everything.  The poor car mechanic Nemorino (Jonah Hoskins) is in love with Adina (Yaritza Véliz) and buys the phony love potion.  Adina falls for the army bigwig Belcore (Luke Sutliff)  and they are to marry when Nemorino, who has inherited a fortune, intervenes and the right couple is united.  

Director Stephen Lawless has brought this favorite classic comic opera to a new level with a flashy red car from the period and characters flitting around in real motorcycles.  Ashley Martin-Davis’s costumes and set are colorful and fun.  Roberto Kalb’s conducting of the fine orchestra and Susanne Sheston’s choral direction are top-knot.

Also during the season is the favorite Verdi’s “La Traviata” which was a pure pleasure.  The  Armenian soprano Mané Galoyanb as Violetta was as fine a singer as actress in this heart throbbing story  of a courtesan in love with Alfredo (Bekhzod Davronov) whose father Giorgio (Alfredo Daza) intervenes to save the marriage prospects of his daughter.  Galoyanb has a bright future ahead.

“La Traviata” is filled with beautiful areas and ensembles throughout.  The director Louisa Muller has brought a new staging (set and costumes by Christopher Oram) placing the opera in Paris of the 30s before the Nazi occupation when everyone was in a party mode.  The parties here are wild as if the era was coming to an end as it was. Choreographer Matthew Steffens helps with the lively fun-loving scenes.  Conductor Corrado Rovaris is masterful in bringing out the joyful scenes as well as the deeply pathetic ones.  

Two more operas “Der Rosenkavalier” and “Don Giovanni” are on the roster for the Sante Fe Opera Festival that ends on August 24. 2024.

santefeopera.org or 1 800-280-4654
505-986-5900

Carol Benet

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“Don Giovanni” at Santa Fe Opera

Carol Benet

One of the most popular opera’s ever written, Mozart’s “Don Giovanni”, is currently through August 23, 2024 at the  Santa Fe Opera. 

With an undated concept by director Stephen Barlow  and set and costume designer Yannis Tavoris, it is placed in Victorian London.  Their idea to make it  a sort of Oscar Wildean “Picture of Dorian Gray” yet the idea is only minimally achieved.  The set, artist painting a portrait and several of Giovanni on the wall refer to the novel. And If you are close to the stage, you can see  the portrait’s age changes at times.  I was in mid-auditorium and could not see this.  

Nevertheless, the success of  the novel idea or not, this production was a great success.  It was amazing that Rachel Willis-Sørensen could step into the demanding role of Donna Anna at the last moment.  This fabulous soprano beautifully sang the grilling 4 hour performance of “Der Rosenkavalier” that I saw the night before.  As Anna in Giovanni she was equally spectacular.

“Don Giovanni” is a Don Juan story with a rapacious Don (Ryan Speedo Green) chasing anything wearing a skirt.  His servant Leporello’s (Nicholas Newton) famous aria recounts the  lists of his conquests, country by country, ending with Spain -over one thousand.

As it opens, Giovanni is running away from Donna Anna whose father has saved her from an attack.  The father Il Commendatore (Soloman Howard) chases Giovanni and is shot dead.  The rest of the opera is more conquests and eventual punishment for the Giovanni’s many rapes and the murder.

The action takes place on a rotating stage with scenes in the lobby and the outside entrance to the tony Savoy Hotel plus Giovanni’s portrait laden apartment.   Donna Elvira (Rachael Wilson), one of his conquests, pines for Giovanni throughout and there is much interaction between her and the Don and later Leporello with whom the Don has exchanged clothes to escape being caught.  

The Don also desires the servant girl Zerlina (Liv Redpath) on the night of her wedding to Masetto (William Guanbo Su).  He could do this legally due to  “le droit du seigneur”.  Donna Anna’s fiancé Don Ottavio (David Portillo) consoles Anna and helps her avenge her father’s murder .  His wonderful tenor voice sings two important arias. and the many ensembles.  In the end Giovanni is punished by the ghost of Il Commodore.

The opera has one famous song after another starting with the overture that anticipates many of them.  The singers in this performance are all excellent and well experienced in the great opera houses of the world including the Metropolitan (Willis-Sørensen, Green, Newton, Portillo, Howard, Su, Redpath).

Chorus Master Susanne Sheston leads the choruses in all this season’s operas.  The choruses are  made up of Apprentice Singers for all the operas.  They are participating in Santa Fe’s Opera program for young opera singers,  one of the most competitive and prestigious in the nation.

The entire  production “Don Giovanni” is one of the highlights of the season of five operas in the 2024 season of the Santa Fe Opera.  

santafeopera.org 

Carol Benet

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Carol Benet

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Asian Art Museum Open and Exciting

Carol Benet

The Asian Art Museum is now open and offers three extraordinary exhibits, all on the first level.  They attest to the  change in policies in the Asian that now wants to emphasize contemporary art as well as offer its traditional Asian art galleries on the upper levels which are also open.  

The three contemporary exhibitions welcome the viewer.  First, in the Lee Gallery is a display of over 50 short videos in “After Hope” where international political issues are addressed as well as Asian art motifs from the past.  On the wall facing the video screen are posters reflecting the pain of the anti-Asian violence that has just erupted in our country, thanks to the thoughtless remarks from the former president about the unproven claims that Covid 19 was caused by the Chinese.

The posters also advertise sentiments saying “Yellow Peril Supports Black Power” and “Asian for Black Lives” in addition to displays of cartoons, reproductions of short essays and other relevant out-cryings from artists in countries as diverse as Iran, China, Syria that have been targeted by prejudice.

Three socially distanced benches facing the screen invite visitors where they can take a rest or park the kids for awhile while they see the other parts of the display.

The second exhibit in the Hambrecht gallery shows “Mementos” by two artists with two impressive large works.  Jayashree Chakravarty’s large hanging derives from her memories of her hometown Kolkata in West Bengal, India.  She has constructed a kind of map of the city using cotton as the backing on top of which she layers rice paper and tissue .  On this background are small squares symbolizing houses, mountains, trees and roads outlined with stains of natural pigments including coffee and tea.  In some places she creates a golden and silver luminescence from special paints giving the undulating hanging a shimmering quality.  The work can be seen by walking around it.  It is very elegant.   

The other installation in this gallery is  a two sided video by Hong Kong artist Lam Tun Pang.  ‘A Day of Two Suns” has moving images of birds on branches, trees,  and rocks surrounded by rising water.  As you walk around the video screens your own shadow becomes incorporated in the work allowing an interesting interactive touch.

The Osher Gallery features the Bay Area Artist Zheng Chongbing whose works were commissioned by the Asian Museum and signal its emphasis on contemporary art.  A large painting in blacks and grey ink and acrylic take up an entire wall.  Facing this is a video with two separate screens around which you may walk to enjoy them from two sides.  And on another wall is a display of many of this artist’s sketches and works in process that resemble architectural designs.

Zheng Chongbin’s spectacular “I Look for the Sky” hangs above the Bogart Courtyard outside the Osher Gallery .  This is an impressive series of constructions that resemble architectural forms that could be taken as buildings. He  is one of the Bay Area’s most creative contemporary artists.

All three galleries on the first floor were donated by people who lived on the Tiburon Peninsula,  The Lee’s,  Osher’s and Hambrecht’s.  The Asian Art Museum requires reservations, but the day I went it was quite empty and they welcomed me.  It is  also open Thursday nights from 5 to 8 pm.  asianart.org                                                                                                     

Carol Benet

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