How low can SFO go?
On Thursday the San Francisco Opera sent out a survey to subscribers. I didn't get one, because I didn't subscribe this year. It seems I wasn't the only one to pass on one the most pedestrian seasons in recent memory. The Opera Tattler published three of the questions, and I think two of them are worth dissecting because they are surveys of the what the audience wants to see onstage. I've sorted the operas alphabetically by composer and added the last year it was performed in the house. In case anyone is interested in how I would have answered, I've put my votes in italics.
Question five: To help us plan for future seasons, please indicate which of the following operas you would be extremely interested in attending in the next five years. Please check all that apply.
Wait a minute! Out of the 30 operas they listed, 23 of them have been performed at SFO in the last 10 years AND 16 HAVE BEEN PERFORMED IN THE LAST FIVE! Why the hell should anyone be "extremely interested" in seeing them again? when we just. fucking. saw them???
Nixon in China (Adams)
Norma (Bellini) 2005
The Trojans (Berlioz) 1968
Carmen (Bizet) 2011/ 2006
Peter Grimes (Britten) 1998
Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti) 2008
Porgy and Bess (Gershwin) 2009
Cavalleria rusticana (Mascagni) 2003
Così fan tutte (Mozart) 2005
The Marriage of Figaro (Mozart) 2010
The Magic Flute (Mozart) 2007
Don Giovanni (Mozart) 2007
Tales of Hoffmann (Offenbach) 1996
La Bohème (Puccini) 2008
Tosca (Puccini) 2009
Madama Butterfly (Puccini) 2010
Turandot (Puccini) 2011/2002
The Barber of Seville (Rossini) 2006
Der Rosenkavalier (R. Strauss) 2007
Die Frau ohne Schatten (R. Strauss) 1989
Elektra (R. Strauss) 1997
Rigoletto (Verdi) 2006
Il Trovatore (Verdi) 2009
Aida (Verdi) 2010
La Traviata (Verdi) 2009
A Masked Ball (Verdi) 2006
Falstaff (Verdi) 2001
Die Meistersinger (Wagner) 2001
The Flying Dutchman (Wagner) 2004
Lohengrin (Wagner) 1996
Question Six: To help us plan for future seasons, please indicate which of the following works you WOULD CONSIDER ATTENDING. Please check all that apply.
I Puritani (Bellini) 1993
I Capuleti e i Montecchi (Bellini) 1991
Mefistofele (Boito) 1994
West Side Story (Bernstein)
Florencia en el Amazonas (Daniel Catán)
Adriana Lecouvreur (Cilea) 1985
Lucrezia Borgia (Donizetti)
Rusalka (Dvořák) 1995
Susannah (Carlisle Floyd) 1964
Andrea Chenier (Giordano) 1992
Ainadamar (Osvaldo Golijov)
Julius Caesar (Handel) 2002
Xerxes (Handel)
Moby Dick (Jake Heggie)
Jenůfa (Janáček) 2001
From the House of the Dead (Janáček)
Show Boat (Jerome Kern)
Pagliacci (Leoncavallo) 2003
Manon (Massenet) 1998
Don Quichotte (Massenet) 1990
Cendrillon (Massenet) 1982
Carmina Burana (Orff) 1971
The Dialogues of the Carmelites (Poulenc) 1982
Mosè in Egitto (Rossini)
La Cenerentola (Rossini) 2003
Les Misérables (Claude-Michel Schönberg)
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (Shostakovich) 2003
Sweeney Todd (Stephen Sondheim)
King Roger (Szymanowski)
Eugene Onegin (Tchaikovsky) 2004
Attila (Verdi) 1991
Ernani (Verdi) 1984
Nabucco (Verdi) 1999
The Portrait (Weinberg)
Really? No Berg in this list? No Saariaho? No Zemlinksi? Three Massenets? WTF.
The OT said in a response to a comment I left on her post, "many of the operas listed are co-productions we are committed to (Moby-Dick, I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Adriane Lecouvreur, and Mefistofele among them). Attila, Carmen, Don Giovanni, Turandot, and Xerxes will all likely be in next season."
Oh dear, the next couple of seasons are already looking pretty dreary. I hope the have some pretty big names lined up to stir up interest in what to me looks mostly like moldy, second-tier-and-falling standard rep.
There was another question which asked the responder to name up to five operas they would like to see in the near future. My choices would be:
Wozzeck (Berg) 1998
Lulu (Berg) 1999
Emilie (Saariaho)
Die Soldaten (Zimmerman)
Andrea Chenier (Giordano) 1992
But as fan of the art, I would consider attending any of those listed in question 6 except Les Miz, which I think would be better served by SHN's Best of Broadway, and Carmina Burana, which just sounds like a dumb idea. The ones would I be "extremely interested" in attending are those without dates listed next to them, followed by those which haven't been performed since the year 2000 (plus a couple of personal favorites- see the italics), and then the musicals, which I've previously stated is a good idea. SFO, you are welcome for that idea, by the way.
I'm not sure who compiled the list of operas and what SFO intends to do with the results, but at a time when Gockley himself has declared SFO to be "at the precipice," if this is really what they're thinking of doing, and this is the chosen path to renew interest in subscriptions and put more people back in the seats, well, as Madame Merle would say, "Game over, man!" Ugh!
