Opera Videos on the Large Screen

 Avian arpeggios from Olympia's aria "Les oiseaux dans la charmille" in Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann

August is here, time for the annual series of Thursday large screen videos featured in the upcoming San Francisco Opera series, presented annually in association with the San Francisco Opera Guild. They feature selected clips of previously filmed productions of operas from the upcoming San Francisco Opera season. Narration and commentary is provided by Opera Guild director George F. Lucas.

The August 2 program features a screening Vincenzo Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi. We'll be showing clips from the 2005 production of Teatro Alighieri, Ravenna with Paola Gardina as Romeo, Valentina Farcas as Giulietta, Giacomo Patti as Tebaldo, Roberto Tagliavini as Capellio and Gabriele Spina as Lorenzo. The conductor is Pietro Mianiti.

On August 9 we will screen excerpts from Richard Wagner's Lohengrin performed in 2009 Production by Bayerisches Staatsoper, Munich. Jonas Kaufmann will appear as Lohengrin, Anja Harteros as Elsa, Wolfgang Koch as Telramund and Michaela Schuster as Ortrud. The conductor is Kent Nagano.

Excerpts from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Cosi fan tutte will be screened on August 16 featuring a 2006 production from Glyndebourne Festival Opera, with Topi Lehtipuu as Ferrando, Luca Pisaroni as Guglielmo, Nicholas Riveno as Don Alfonso, Miah Persson as Fiordiligi, Anke Vondung as Dorabella and Ainhoa Garmendia as Despina. The conductor is Ivan Fischer.

Our final screening on August 23 features Jacques Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann (Les contes d'Hoffmann). We will be screening a 2005 production from the Macerata Opera in Sofia. Vincenzo La Scola will perform as Hoffman, Desiree Rancatore as Olympia, Sara Allegretta as Giulietta, Annalisa Raspagliosi as Antonia, Elsa Maurus as Nicklausse and Ruggero Raimondi as Coppelius, Dappertutto and Dr Miracle. The conductor is Frederic Chaslin.

There is no Thursday noon video for August 30.

Each screening begins at noon at the Koret Auditorium, Main Library, Lower Level and will last approximately 60 minutes. All programs at the Library are free and open to the public. This program is supported by the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library.


The library has scores, libretti, and recordings of I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Lohengrin, Cosi fan tutte and Tales of Hoffman.