San Francisco Opera continues streaming performances as part of its Opera is ON initiative with Gioachino Rossini’s La Cenerentola (Cinderella) on July 18 and Leoš Janáček’s Věc Makropulos (The Makropulos Case) on July 25. The presentations, filmed live in high-definition at the War Memorial Opera House, will be viewable on demand for free at sfopera.com on the streaming date starting at 10 am (PDT) and expiring at 11:59 pm the following day.
La Cenerentola — July 18
San Francisco Opera’s 2014 presentation of Rossini’s La Cenerentola showcases Jean-Pierre Ponnelle’s “bursting with wit and vitality” (San Francisco Chronicle) production directed by Gregory Fortner with lighting designs by Gary Marder. The composer’s 1817 energetic opera, set to text by Jacopo Ferretti, stars French soprano Karine Deshayes as Angelica (Cenerentola) opposite American tenor René Barbera as her Prince Charming, Don Ramiro. The cast includes baritone Efraín Solís as Dandini, baritone Carlos Chausson as Don Magnifico, bass-baritone Christian Van Horn as Alidoro and soprano Maria Valdes and mezzo-soprano Zanda Švēde as Angelica’s stepsisters, Clorinda and Tisbe, respectively. Jesús López-Cobos leads the San Francisco Opera Orchestra in his final engagement with the Company (the Spanish maestro passed away in 2018). Chorus Director Ian Robertson prepares the “fabulous and comical” (San Francisco Classical Voice) men of the San Francisco Opera Chorus. La Cenerentola is performed in Italian with English subtitles and has an approximate running time of 2 hours, 38 minutes.
The Makropulos Case— July 25
San Francisco Opera’s 2010 co-production with Finnish National Opera of Janáček’s The Makropulos Case, praised by the Wall Street Journal for its “extraordinary excellence,” spotlights the creative collaboration of director Olivier Tambosi, production designer Frank Philipp Schlössmann and lighting designer Duane Schuler. The Company’s history with the Czech work launched in 1966 when it presented the American premiere (in an English translation). This presentation of the composer’s penultimate opera stars Finnish soprano Karita Mattila in her role debut as the enigmatic, renowned singer Emilia Marty. The late Jiří Bělohlávek conducts this 1926 Czech masterpiece full of “restless, sharp-edged, brilliantly scored music” (San Francisco Classical Voice). The cast also features Slovak tenor Miro Dvorsky as Albert Gregor, German bass-baritone Gerd Grochowski as Baron Jaroslav Prus and America bass-baritone Dale Travis as Dr. Kolenatý. The Makropulos Case is performed in Czech with English subtitles and has an approximate running time of 1 hour, 52 minutes.