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Summer Opera Opens with Verdi Requiem
By Chenier Ng
San Francisco Opera opened its summer season on May 29 with a single performance of the Verdi Requiem conducted by Donald Runnicles in his last appearance as music director and principal conductor.
The summer opera season takes place in June and into early July at the Opera house with productions of Tosca (Giacomo Puccini), Porgy and Bess (George Gershwin), and La Traviata (Giuseppe Verdi).
Completing seventeen years with the opera, Runnicles opened the summer season by leading the orchestra, chorus and soloists in Verdi’s Requiem Mass. Guest artists included soprano Heidi Melton, mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, tenor Stefano Secco and bass Andrea Silvestrelli
Besides the maestro, star performances were turned in by mezzo Blythe and bass Silvestrelli.
Among the mezzo-sopranos in the world today, Blythe would be the top choice for this repertoire and proved it by delivering rich and naturally balanced phrases throughout. Bass Silvestrelli’s powerful and dark voice reached to the deepest registers as he approached his role in dramatic operatic fashion, while tenor Secco used more of a bel canto lyric for his passages. The surprise of the evening was soprano Heidi Melton replacing Patricia Racette who was ill. Melton is a third-year Adler Fellow with a long string of credits to her name. As part of a new generation of opera singers, she has a young and beautiful spinto soprano that grew more fantastic as the production unfolded. In the final section, the “Libera me”, Melton moved the audience with her soprano solo, “Deliver me, Lord... Grant them eternal rest... Deliver me.”
Runnicles’ conducting was especially powerful and passionate, spirited in the crashing choruses and dramatic contrasts and tonalities of the Verdi masterpiece. At the end, the audience acknowledged his years of musical accomplishment and gave their maestro a prolonged standing ovation.
SF Opera Summer Season Operas: Tosca (Giacomo Puccini) - June 2, 5, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 26; Porgy and Bess (Gershwin) - June 9, 12, 14, 18, 21, 24, 27; La Traviata (Giuseppe Verdi) - June 13, 16, 19, 25, 28, 29, July 1, 2, 5.
For more information on showtimes and players, visit sfopera.com.
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