When it comes to bel canto in the Bay Area, San Francisco Opera is the giant redwood dominating the western landscape. But this mighty institution, one of the oldest opera companies in the nation, has nurtured a lush environment underneath its canopy where numerous species thrive.
The region’s gloriously verdant opera ecosystem is nourished by an environment containing an extensive, discerning audience that supports ambitious reimaginings of classic works, traditional productions exploring the canon and new creations. And the latter is critically important if this centuries-old art form is to survive and thrive in the modern world.
Though the pandemic shuttered or severely set back several long-running arts organizations, there are more than a dozen opera companies now active around the Bay Area. These are some of the most interesting, from an East Bay company staging an opera set in Mendocino County to a modern wonder whose recent immersive works have been inspired by Mount Everest, Billie Jean King, Jay Gatsby and more.
Opera Parallèle
Founded and directed by renowned Quebec-born conductor Nicole Paiement, San Francisco-based Opera Parallèle would be the apex company in most other cities. Since its 2007 launch with the world premiere of Lou Harrison’s final version of “Young Caesar,” Parallèle has cut a brilliant path with a bevy of important endeavors, including the innovative graphic opera “Gesualdo, Prince of Madness” commissioned from Dante De Silva, Luciano Chessa’s commissioned opera “A Heavenly Act,” and the commissioned chamber version of John Harbison’s “The Great Gatsby.”
Mezzo-Soprano Nikola Printz rehearses a scene for Birds & Balls, an Opera Paralléle production. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
Paiement, who’s also director of the San Francisco Conservatory’s New Music Ensemble, is dedicated to creating opportunities for artists hailing from beyond the usual musical niches via Hands-on-Opera. In many cases, the program recruits composers who’d never thought about writing for opera, including jazz bassist/composer Marcus Shelby. Working with librettist Roma Olvera, he composed “Harriet’s Spirit,” a one-act opera inspired by abolitionist Harriet Tubman that premiered at the Bayview Opera House in 2021.
Designed to bring new audiences up close to the art form “so that they’re participating rather than having them be static observers,” Paiement said, Hands-on-Opera isn’t just about creating new works. The productions often involve youth choirs and younger musicians performing alongside professionals, wearing costumes and getting swept up in “all the things that make opera magical,” she said.
Opera Parallele conductor Nicole Paiement, left, speaks with pianist Taylor Chan during a rehearsal for Birds & Balls on Thursday, March 21, 2024. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
Opera Parallèle’s performances this year included the SFJazz Center double header ,“Birds & Balls,” which combined the West Coast premiere of the comedic one-act opera “Vinkensport” by 2024 Grammy-nominated composer David T. Little and librettist Royce Vavrek, and the world premiere of the one-act opera “Balls” by 2024 Oscar-nominated composer Laura Karpman and librettist Gail Collins. It was inspired by the notorious 1973 “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs.
On June 21-23, the company will present the West Coast premiere of “Fellow Travelers” at the Presidio Theatre, an opera based on Thomas Mallon’s McCarthy era novel adapted by composer Gregory Spears and librettist Greg Pierce.
Opera San José
Marking its 40th year, Opera San José was founded by the late mezzo-soprano Irene Dalis, who guided the company for three decades as general director. Now directed by Shawna Lucey and music director Joseph Marcheso, OSJ has maintained admirable financial and artistic stability with an array of opera options, including extensive digital programming via its Heiman Digital Media Studio and Initiative, community performances that often take place outdoors and youth and adult educational programs.
Costume designs and hats await a rehearsal at Opera San Jose. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group)
Part of what sets Opera San José apart is that it maintains a resident company of principal artists, which provides long-term opportunities for nurturing rising vocalists. The company also has an impressive track record when it comes to bringing important work to the stage, such as the Bay Area premiere of Mexican composer Daniel Catan’s masterpiece “Florencia en el Amazonas,” which runs through May 5 at the California Theatre. Inspired by the magical realism of Nobel Prize-winning Colombian novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the company’s first Spanish-language production marks the return of director Crystal Manich following her acclaimed “West Side Story.” The season continues Sept. 14-29 with composer Alma Deutscher conducting Mozart’s fanciful “The Magic Flute” Sept. 14-29, directed by Brad Dalton.
Melissa Sondhi, playing Rosalba, and César Delgado, playing Arcadio, both singers cast in Florencia en el Amazonas perform at School of Arts and Culture at Mexican Heritage Plaza in San Jose, Calif., on Friday, March 22, 2024. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group)
West Edge Opera
Founded in 1979 by baritone Richard Goodman as Berkeley Opera and rechristened a decade ago as West Edge Opera, this scrappy company has earned a reputation for unearthing obscure works by notable composers and bringing unusual new works to the stage. Packed into two weeks from Aug. 3-18, West Edge’s summer festival at the Oakland Scottish Rite Center features three productions, starting with the world premiere of the company-commissioned “Bulrusher,” which is based on the acclaimed Eisa Davis play of the same title. Featuring Davis’ libretto and music by Nathaniel Stookey, the opera tells the story of an abandoned African-American girl coming of age in Mendocino’s remote Anderson Valley in 1955.
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Distilling Wagner’s epic four-opera recounting of Norse mythology into a three-and-a-half hour production arranged by David Seaman, the company’s popular “Legend of the Ring” returns for three nights. And the third production, “Jacqueline” by composer Luna Pearl Woolf and librettist Royce Vavrek, tells the story of virtuosic, short-lived cellist Jacqueline du Pré via her relationship with her cello. Du Pré is sung by renowned American soprano Marnie Breckenridge, who won the Dora Mavor Moore Award for outstanding performance for originating the role, while the role of the instrument is played by cellist Matt Haimovitz.
Pocket Opera
Founded in 1977, Pocket Opera had already been an essential San Francisco institution for more than a decade before that, beloved for bringing compressed, English-language versions of classic operas to venues like the hungry i and the Old Spaghetti Factory. The brainchild of pianist and translator Donald Pippin, who died in 2021 at the age of 95, Pocket Opera mounts fully staged productions that are marvels of concision, with top-shelf singers accompanied by the Pocket Philharmonic’s five to 12 players.
The 2024 season takes place at Berkeley’s Hillside Club, the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts and San Francisco’s Legion of Honor, with Otto Nicolai’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor” (June 16-30) and Puccini’s “La Bohème” (July 14-28).
Lamplighters Music Theater
Light opera is opera, too, and no Bay Area company has a lighter touch than Lamplighters, Gilbert and Sullivan specialists whose nets snare all sorts of musical shenanigans. The first season under newly appointed artistic director M. Jane Erwin, with Brett Strader in the newly created dual role of resident music director and LMT multimedia director, concludes with Rupert Holmes’ Tony award-winning “The Mystery of Edwin Drood.” Based on Dickens’ unfinished novel, it’s a deliciously farcical whodunit presented as a show-within-show. Playing May 4-5 at Hayward’s Douglas Morrison Theatre and May 11-19 at San Francisco’s Presidio Theatre, “Edwin Drood” ends the company’s 66th year in style.
The pandemic has taken its toll on the opera scene, with several long-running companies, such as Saratoga’s Bay Shore Lyric Opera, yet to bounce back. Several other companies have already concluded the 2023-24 season and have yet to announce the new calendar. Keep an eye out for Palo Alto’s West Bay Opera, Concord’s Solo Opera, Walnut Creek’s Solo Opera and Festival Opera and Vallejo’s Verismo Opera.
And sometimes, the most exciting productions come together independently, like the world premiere of “Before It All Goes Dark,” a new one-act opera by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer. Based on a true story reported by Howard Reich in the Chicago Tribune about an ailing Vietnam War vet who inherits a priceless collection of art looted by the Nazis, the production plays May 22 at the Presidio Theatre.
