It's beginning to feel a lot like the fall arts season. With so many opening nights on the horizon, Out There sent the old soup-and-fish to the dry cleaners so we'll be formalwear-ready. Then last week the grandes dames of the San Francisco Opera Guild, President Charlot Malin and Opera Ball 2016 Gala Co-Chairs Sandra Farris and Patricia Sprincin, graciously hosted us for a press luncheon at Trou Normand to herald the upcoming Opera Ball 2016, La Revolution et L'Amour.
Table talk was about the French-themed San Francisco Opera opening gala and the main event it will celebrate, Umberto Giordano's French Revolution-set opera "Andrea Chenier." SFO dramaturg Kip Cranna filled us in on the opera's back-story. "Chenier" is based on an actual historical figure, a poet not much honored in his own time, but rediscovered after his death. Interestingly, he supported both the Revolution and the monarchy, believing in some sort of constitutional democracy. Giordano's opera premiered in 1896, the same year as "La Boheme." It was part of the SFO's very first season, in 1923, under the baton of the SFO founder, Neapolitan conductor Gaetano Merola. So you might say the opera has deep revolutionary roots here.
Trou Normand is named after a French culinary tradition. Translating as the "Norman break," it's usually a shot of apple brandy served to cleanse the palate between courses, and to stimulate the appetite. No brandy was served at the Opera Ball lunch, but there was plenty else to entice the tastebuds on the farm-to-table menu, including housemade charcuterie & salumi, pate, pork loin, and for dessert, yogurt cake with whipped creme fraiche and raspberries, all washed down with some yummy French wines. It's on the ground floor of the Timothy Pflueger-designed art deco PacBell Building.
As their 94th season approaches, this week the San Francisco Opera Archives unveiled its inaugural photo exhibition, "Looking through the Lens," at the Diane B. Wilsey Center for Opera in the Veterans Building. More on the fascinating memorabilia on display, including memorable press stills, next week.
Fortunately there's no shortage of great music in this town. The Bay Area Rainbow Symphony's next concert is coming up this Sat., Sept. 3, 8 p.m. at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. The program will consist of Saint Saens' "Cello Concerto #1," Elgar's "Sea Pictures," and Brahms' "Symphony #4." The soloists are Emil Miland, cellist, and Jill Grove, mezzo-soprano. Grove recently sang in Jenufa at the SFO, and will be singing in Andrea Chenier next week. She is an internationally recognized lesbian singer and has sung Erda from the Ring Cycle in Munich, at the Met, Los Angeles Opera and the SFO. For more information, check out bars-sf.org. And bring on the new season!