San Francisco Opera Season Preview

Every year the Library presents a series of lectures and film screenings for the upcoming San Francisco Opera Season. This month we will present abridged performances of four operas preceded by commentary provided by members of the San Francisco Opera Guild. Each screening will be approximately 60 minutes in length and will be shown in the Koret Auditorium on the Lower Level of the Library at 12 noon.

August 2 – Tannhäuser by Richard Wagner. A 2004 Oper Zurich production conducted by Franz Welser-Most starring Peter Seiffer (who will sing this role with the SF Opera) as Tannhäuser, Solveig Kringelborn as Elizabeth and Roman Trekel as Wolfram von Eschenbach.

August 9 – La Rondine by Giacamo Puccini. This 1958 production at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples stars Rosanna Carteri, Ornella Rovero, Giuseppe Gismondo and Giuseppe Vladengo.

August 16 – Macbeth by Giuseppe Verdi. Carlos Alvarez as Macbeth, Roberto Scandiuzzi as Banquo, and Mario Guleghina as Lady Macbeth. Bruno Campanella conducts the Symphony Orchestra and Chorus of the Gran Teatre del Liceu in this 2004 recording.

August 23 – Ariodante by Georg Frideric Handel. This 1996 co-production of the English and Welsh National Operas stars Ann Murray, Joan Rodgers, Gwynne Howell and Christopher Robinson.

Note – there is no program on August 30.

These programs are co-sponsored by the Art, Music and Recreation Center and Audiovisual Center of the San Francisco Public Library and are supported by the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library. All programs at the Library at free.

Wolfram's "Song to the Evening Star" from Tannhäuser
from Das Buch der Motive aus Opern und Musikdramen Richard Wagner's