Tensions rise with San Francisco music director
OrchestrasAn orchestra player writes:
The latest drama from SF Opera:
Eun Sun Kim feels the need to be seen from the audience at the expense of balancing the singers. She insists on breaking 100 years of tradition and keeping the adjustable-height orchestra pit as high as it will go, and orchestra members are having to play at whisper dynamics, just so that the maestro can be seen. Ego over musical integrity. Even for Wagner. She agreed (after much talking-to and references to Bayreuth) to lower the pit six inches for Lohengrin, but *kept her podium at the same height.*
When she first started the raised-pit nonsense, she accused the orchestra of sounding like noise when they played at their usual dynamic. When the orchestra complained at the insult (someone posted printouts saying “I would rather hear nothing than your noise”, and was nearly fired for doing so), she told the orchestra simply to stop taking things personally.
The latest crazy news is this: during a rehearsal two days ago, an older chorister tripped and fell down on his face, and was lying for five minutes in a pool of blood (dead for all anyone knew) and all she said was “when can I continue rehearsing?” Everyone was aghast.
having played twice under her in two major german opera houses……our first question was,how can such an amateur get such gigs???????
I am afraid I agree. I heard her conduct the Verdi Requiem at Netherlands Opera and was appalled. The Rotterdam Phil. in the pit must have been over the moon.
It was shameful
“over the moon” = happy (in English)
I heard more than one performance. If the Rotterdam Phil. had played what she was directing, it would have been even worse! She even gave the soloists incorrect entrances. In my opinion she was not much better than a metronom, which would have been much cheaper and more reliable. Good Lord, what is classical music coming to? Funds are being cut wherever one looks, agents are even more “Lords of the Ring” than they ever were, there are soloists singing major roles who would not have even been allowed to sing in opera choruses some 40 years or so ago, “political correctness” is becoming a disease … Whatever ever happened to the good ole days, when conductors knew what they were doing, singers had command of their roles, and producers respected the genius of composers and librettists … ?
Um, do you really have to ask?
I’ll give you three guesses, the first two don’t count!
Just to clarify……I am a strong supporter of high class female conductors…Karina Cannelakis is one of the greatest conductors i encountered, every performance i heard or played under her was a relevation. Marie Jacquot, Chloe Rooke, Joana Mallwitz, Anna Rakitina…all those ladies are fabulous. But Mrs.Kim,regardless of her gender, was an absolute joke.We shook our heads in disbelief at the intermission. I just read she debuts with the Berlin Phil this season….How can this be ????
Don’t be naive.
Oh! I can play this game too. I’ve worked and played under two of the conductors you named and I found them quite dull, unprepared in one case and a bit generic.
” Generic” dangerous choice of words…
Marin Alsop in congenial repertoire.
Her husband is one of the top arts managers…..
https://www.lewin-management.com/artists
That’s how she gets the gigs….
simple answer to your first question: go to San Francisco!
Her husband is leading one of the biggest agency in the world . She is a catastrophic conductor and should never been hired .
She has led a massive Lohengrin of the ages in SF. Shut it.
It’s called equity, diversity and inclusion – and you wanted it!! Please enjoy and don’t complain to us.
She’s a female condictor. A trend du jour. Sometimes it seems like no males should bother anymore to enter the profession. And what about the one that was conducting at the Met? other than gender nothing.
She won’t get through the first rehearsal if she tries Vienna… and that”s beung generous.
It would be great if you formulate one sentence in English correctly in English.
She checks the right boxes.
And yet people still wonder why there aren’t more female conductors out there…
I’m so glad that I don’t sit around all day trying to find ways to shoehorn the word “woke” into everything.
It’s so, so nice having a life that doesn’t revolve around resentment. You should try it. You might actually be able to get over that massive mountain of misogyny you’re stuck behind.
(I do have a bit of a chicken-and-egg question about which came first, the resentment of women, or the bleating about “woke”…)
Chicken 1st, egg 2nd
Horrible concoction of the American far right, now being peddled shamelessly in the UK by the claque of far-right rags! Its original meaning was perceptive, of course, but much resented by the far-right philistines whom were running scared at being found out! Can we please, please ban it?!
@Mel Cadman: Typical of the left. Ban everything with which you disagree. Grow up.
You tell us, since you were part of the ‘woke’ movement and you obviously want to now project resentment onto others because it is failing.
The emperor has no clothes.
Are you actually saying that she is failing because of “wokeness”? Cuz that’s quite the leap.
Unless of course you think no woman could win a conducting spot on her own…. is that what you think?
Please explain: what does her gender have to do with her conducting?
If it was not mandatory these days to promote female conductors and if hiring was strictly on merit, she may not have been hired. Also, someone mentioned her husband heads an agency. If we it two and two together….
It has nothing to do with her sex.
What hell does her gender have to do it? There are bitches of both genders mounting podiums around the world.
Because she wouldn’t have got the job if she wasn’t a woman. She’s there because the liberal-minded management, under pressure from the media, said “it’s time we had a female music director.” And this approach of hiring people because they fit a particular social agenda rather than on the basis of their skill is massively reducing the quality of work across the whole industry. Not to mention horrible for the people in those roles, who live with imposter syndrome, feeling that they are only their because of their gender, race or some other irrelevant quality.
Bingo. And now the snowflakes don’t like it. So much easier to chant, endlessly, ‘equity, diversity and inclusion’ – until it affects you!!
Shallow doesn’t even cut it!!
How do you know that?? It’s so transparent when people pretend to know something; they just want it to be, so they can make their point. You betray yourselves ALL the time.
Actually if you had followed this at all you would have read that SF Opera was trialing several people for the role, including men, and the orchestra actually overwhelmingly voted for her over everyone else after a particularly exceptional experience they had with her guest conducting Rusalka. But perhaps that doesn’t fit your angry, anti-woke narrative?
Oh no! It appears that you are a victim of faulty generalization! You should look up this bias before you further embarrass yourself. Good luck
Oh, you mean identity politics!! Got it now. A faulty (read ‘fawlty’) generalization on an industrial scale.
“There aren’t more female conductors out there” because of sexism, not because of a lack of talent. There is nothing inherently male in the job of conducting.
That‘s simply wrong. In the current quickly changing climate, the supply of female and minority conductors can‘t keep up with the demand. Which is why too many ‚not ready yet or good enough‘ women are ending up in situations they are not qualified for (yet).
Naturally it takes a few generations to ‚level the field‘ if it ever will, if interest at entrance to the carreer, at entrance to a college degree program, is shown equally across the musically inclined small group of the population.
I can hardly imagine being so blinded by misogyny that you cannot fathom a woman being able to have faults without attributing them to her gender.
Brilliant comeback, and right on point.
LOL. This is the age of women good/men bad!!
When you start the rot about gender and DEI please be good enough to own the consequences when it goes belly-up.
Perhaps YOU’VE learned that gender specificity doesn’t necessarily equate to ‘TALENT’. This is something my 8 year old grandchild could have told you.
Have you ever heard most if- any of- the people whose gigs you ascribe to wokeness? Just a tiresome idealogue stuck in a rut!
Gender does not equal talent. And vice versa. For all genders. Some outstanding female conductors like Maelkki. Superb!
Not fair. Nothing to do with her bad behavior. Is just plain sexism, as in many other fields, why there aren’t more female conductors. .
She conducts the Berlin Philharmonic this season.
Discuss.
OK. Her manager and Kirill Petrenko’s is the same?
And her former husband.
And there is great demand for female conductors. Not necessarily for good conductors, but for FEMALE conductors (and if they are good that is a plus).
You’ve nailed it. So funny to watch the left instigators of strict occupational apartheid when the outcome isn’t to their liking!! Their men or women-splaining are often byzantine.
There haven’t been any complaints about the Vienna Philharmonic today. Must be other things to think about. For some.
What a misinformed, incurious, repetitive poster. Never an original or unpredictable thought, just a lot of resentment and sloganeering. Again, have you ever heard Kim conduct?
why discuss? stay cool. who cares? more important issues. orchestras deserve allways the conductors they invite. especially the Berliner are not known to be a shup-up orchestra and not lacking of the need to having a share of Choosing-Conductor-Procedure
Got a headache trying to decipher your English…….
Andy, just shut up! Learn English, like Maestro Kim has. Oh, she speaks Korean, Czech, German, and Italian, too. But keep bit a bitter little sad ant.
We had her in Madrid at TR for two years as assistant conductor to López Cobos and I can’t say the experience was positive (with either, to be honest).
Why she has such a great career? She is a woman (some people appreciate that over quality these days ) and it’s public knowledge (and has been cited in many places, including this website) that she was married to a very powerful music agent.
Yes, I was present during her tenure at Teatro Real. On the surface, she appeared pleasant, but it was evident that she lacked the necessary professional preparation for the role and, when collaborating with her, it became clear that she came from a position of privilege and wasn’t accustomed to having her artistic decisions scrutinized. It was indeed not a good experience.
What transpired was that certain influential individuals were determined in 2008 to have a woman conductor at Teatro Real merely for the sake of making that claim, and they successfully appointed her to fulfill that agenda.
Many people were relived when she left, and even more so when López Cobos did… what came after López Cobos tenure (the Mortier and Ivor Bolton years, for different reasons) made some of us wonder if López Cobos’ tenure was God’s gift to us.
Se won an opera conducting competition and the prize was a 2-year engagement as assistant conductor at Teatro Real.
Once again, Michael Lewin. Michael Lewin. Michael Lewin.
Can somebody please explain how he does it? Does he have compromising material on all the opera and orchestra managers in the industry? How is it possible that one man has so much power to do as he pleases?
He must have. There really is no other explanation.
Michael Lewin is an extremely talented and knowledgeable manager. His conducting clients include deBilly, Jordan, Weigle, vanZweden and K Petrenko. His artists would never allow leveraging one to benefit another. He is successful because he is good at what he does !
Are we talking to a 5 year old here? Your last question is preposterous and only one a child would ask.
Does she raise the pit when she conducts in other opera houses?
As a guest you usually don’t have that power. But you do as the MD.
Pathologically huge egos can poison collaboration. It is that the case here?
The commercial for SFO on TV indicated that she was an ego-maniac. It filmed her walking through the streets of SF while people stopped and stared. At the end of her walk she appeared in the opera house conducting. All the focus was on her and the commercial didn’t entice me or anyone to attend the opera.
Apparently it is according to the orchestra player that posted this.
As someone that was present for this rehearsal, the writer of this post doesn’t have the full grasp of the situation.
This post in general is beneath you Slipped Disc.
We’re talking about Washington, right?
It’s obvious that this gal has a serious ego-maniacal problem which is on the verge of proving fatal as least as far as her musical future goes! She should try politics next!
“Gal”? If you’re going for invective, you should zarathustra harder.
I love Magnard if that’s what your handle refers to!
Yes sir!! Gotta watch those inclusive gender pronouns and monikers. The Thought Police are watching.
There are no thought police watching, as shown by the fact that you, day after day, rant about wokeness (with a heaping helping of barely-veiled racism/misogyny) and there’s no one stopping you. No one’s even moderating your comments, let alone arresting and/or suing you. You are not a victim, and you are not being persecuted.
She is not a victim because she is not writing using her real name here but a pseudonym. The moment she used her real name, her job, like mine if I did the same, would be in danger.
Yes, there is a “self-appointed” group that dictates what is and isn’t correct, safe, acceptable, modern, and non-racist/misogynistic, etc. They utilize various forms of media, including the internet, to prejudice, harm, and cancel those who do not conform to their views.
Won’t affect you, as no thought is evident from your comments.
She sounds wonderful — on so many levels.
As for the audio level, an Internet search reveals no comment by any critic saying that she mutes the orchestra. Perhaps the volume complainer is someone who is resentful that her raised seating blocks the audience’s view of him (sic) blowing through his (sic) spit valve.
Well, she’s had her ups and downs.
She sounds very green and insulated. Maybe has trouble with social skills. Please do not blame her inadequacy on her gender. No one. No one would say that if she were male.
Asian female conductor. San Francisco – giant Asian community. 2023 – identity over quality.
Wwwwwwhaat? No way. Don’t say the Americans embrace identity over quality. One day you might need heart surgery!!!
She is a totally overrated conductor.
Karajan used to do the same in Salzburg – but he was a short man (though, strangely, a Google searh for his height yields 5’9 1/2″ or 1.77, slightly taller than Bernstein. I saw both and find this unlikely. Karajan was almost certainly a better conductor than Kim and leading a better orchestra. Both evidently suffered from personal insecurities about their appearance.
with aging often comes shrinking in height?!
So true. But the converse is growing in assets!!
She’s mediocre at best. She hit her SFO position for obvious reasons.
You like Kamala Harris and Willie’s BBC?
This article is trash. I am a chorus member of 28 years. I was on the stage when the gentleman, a dear friend and colleague, fell. At first for a very brief moment, he wasn’t moving and then he said “I’ll be all right. I just need a towel.” During this time, when the stage crew and others were attending to the fallen chorister, Maestro Kim was very respectful, and everybody was very quiet. After the gentleman was escorted off the stage, walking and talking, Maestro Kim then asked the stage manager when they could begin again. It was a very sensitive situation and she observed it. Please stop getting one-sided comments from people who are obviously bitter about some thing.
Yeah that anecdote in the original story was laughably untrue.
Thanks for the description. I almost tricked to this hateful article.
good to hear another side
Thank you for saying this, Kathy! As a full-time chorister who was also present during this incident, I am disgusted at the lies this author is trying to spread. I wonder why this website felt comfortable posting biased, highly emotional, incendiary monologging without stopping to check their sources and reaching out to others who were in the room for a more balanced perspective. I can only assume that this writer has a personal vendetta against maestro. Note how the writer failed to mention that WE SINGERS need to be able to see Maestro while onstage, and that raising the pit is therefore a necessary choice in some instances. Never mind the fact too that this incident happened while the curtain was down and that members of the orchestra could not see through it. I am confident that all of this would be a non-issue if we were talking about a white male conductor. This “article” is ridiculously disappointing on so many levels.
You wonder how all the opera houses in the world do it, with a usually lowered pit (except for baroque opera usually), making the conductor visible to the singers. Duh…
In Berlin State Opera for Wagner and Strauss the pit is so deep (for obvious sonic reasons) you don’t even see the conductor if you sit in the balconies. Barenboim requested this, and he is not known for a small ego.
“Check their sources” LOL
Correction: ‘I have been a chorus member for twenty-eight years’. Makes more grammatical sense.
No, Anthony, Kathleen’s grammar was correct; in fact, impeccable. If you’re confused, it’s only because your command of the language is more rudimentary than hers.
Her La Boheme two seasons ago at the Met was the most uninspiring performance of the piece I have ever heard in that theater, and I did see that piece more than half dozen times over there.
Played under her in Oslo, where she told us that she wants to do a ”different” kind of Carmen, and wanted all the fortes and fortissimi changed to mezzoforte. It was the worst experience of my musical life
If you asked singers their opinions, you would get different ones.
Certainly each are entitled to their own opinion, and this article represents the opinion of one person. Most within the opera community of San Francisco, myself included, would disagree! ESK leads a very fine orchestra at a historic company, and results over the first few years of her tenure have been quite promising.
after promising comes delivering… not good if after years the compliments are “promising”, one could think.
If I had a nickel for every time an orchestra member had soured on their conductor and wanted to malign them…
I’m a singer involved in this production, in the cover cast. I have been there for every room rehearsal and for every orchestra rehearsal in the house. I had never met Eun Sun Kim before this gig and didn’t know much about her work, so I have nothing to say about that. I can only talk about what I do know, unlike well practiced conjecturists who just want to stir things up.
From where I sit in the house during rehearsals (orchestra rear), the orchestra sounds incredible. In fact, they sound so good that you forget how good they are. That’s how consistently elite their output has been during dress week. To say that Eun Sun Kim is not an important part of that would be misguided at best. Yes, the orchestra usually sounds great because they’re one of the best in the world. And I’ve been hearing them for almost 30 years now. However, they are particularly clear and clean and consistent right now in this pit for this production. The orchestra is definitely not too loud, nor are they too soft. It’s just right. If a singer was not audible it’s because they were marking at that moment or were too far upstage. As a singer, I think her podium height is perfect, because I can actually see her baton when I’m upstage. There’s nothing worse for a singer than being on the stage and only seeing the conductor’s forehead. How useless is that? Both from the stage and from the hall, she’s at the perfect height.
Regarding the incident with the injured chorister, Eun Sun Kim was concerned but unfazed, patient, and respectfully waited until the situation was addressed and everyone felt safe. From the podium she asked stage management when they can resume again, which is exactly what she was supposed to do.
I’m sorry that some orchestra members dislike her, but that’s like saying I’m sorry that the sky is blue. There is no such thing as a unanimously loved maestro with zero dissent.
“Stop taking things so personally”
Hope this helps!
Orchestra rear is not a relevant position to judge overall sound quality of the orchestra and the overall balance between stage and the pit. Anyone worth his or her profession knows this.
Good one! You really know what you’re talking about!
The entire production staff, artistic staff, and the people actually taking notes on balancing issues sit just a couple rows in front of me. I guess none of them are worth their profession, because only YOU know about the acoustical properties of the War Memorial Opera House!
Maybe something lost in translation here. My bad in that case. I forgot that in the Anglo-American world what is called „orchestra“ is the seating area that in the old (opera) world is usually known as „Parterre“ or „Parkett“, so I assumed she sat behind the orchestra, literally.
With respect, how can anyone sit behind a pit orchestra during a staged opera?
Sometimes in some auditoriums it’s a very good place to sit and listen (e.g. Carnegie Hall) . It’s where conductors often go back to hear what’s going on (Levine). It’s much better than a few rows back from the pit. Your post makes me doubt your listening chops sir.
If you’re referring to my comment, I never said anything about sitting right next to the pit or in the pit or anywhere near it.
I said Orchestra Rear.
When you buy opera tickets in America and want to sit on the main floor, that main floor is called Orchestra. You can buy a ticket for Orchestra Front, Middle, or Rear. Orchestra Rear is towards the back of the hall, just a few rows behind where the entire administration, production team, and all staff sit and do their work. Hope that clears it up!
The orchestra sounds incredible because it’s made up of elite musicians chosen at the conclusion of a grueling and intensely competitive audition process where literally hundreds of musicians vie for one single position. Many of these come from the very best schools and conservatories of the world, where the level is already very high. I suggest you visit the YouTube account of “Les Dissonances,” a conductor-less orchestra in France that sadly will cease operations this year, and see videos of them performing Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring or Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe — without a conductor. You might be shocked at to how good an orchestra can sound, without a conductor, when players are of a very high level — not just on their own instrument, but also in their musical understanding of a given work as a whole. A vast majority of today’s conductors don’t have even a fraction of the musical understanding of the repertoire of any member of any major orchestra.
Your point is well taken, and I fully appreciate and understand how elite orchestra musicians have to be just to get an audition at a place like this. And of course I know that orchestras can conduct themselves, no different than a band without a band leader. To clarify, the SFO orchestra is consistently amazing, and particularly clean and clear right now in this production.
As a singer, in a staged production, an orchestra without a conductor would be useless to me. We are all in this together!
Who cares what the players in this comment section and elsewhere think? The 63-year-old white male (surprise, surprise) critic from the local major newspaper loves her. That is all that matters.
It’s interesting how these platforms work and who writes here. Fact is that the orchestra of the major opera houses of the world – Vienna, New York, Milano, etc. rate her under the best conductors they had in recent years. And if a few musicians in SF find it to exhausting to play piano – who cares? She works with the orchestra hard and you hear the results. The rest is rubbish.
Vienna and NY musicians both rated her very low on post-performance evaluation. She’s a time beater without musicality who wouldn’t be in any of those theatres with a different manager.
This is a lie. First of all there are no such evaluations in Vienna and the response of the orchestra to the Management was unanimous positive. I don’t know about such evaluations in New York, but I know that the orchestra reported unanimously positive to the Management.
What makes your reply questionable, is your statement of unanimous positive feedback. Orchestras in all their plurality very rarely react unanimously on the perceived competences of visiting conductors, particularly not top bands like Vienna or the Met.
Not a single conductor comes to my mind, Vienna unanimously rated positively. Not even Carlos Kleiber.
Wow the tabloid style article and the comments here make me wonder. Where am I? When I go to the SF opera everyone is so polite, dignified and kind. Are opera fans this depraved and suppressed? I like Eun Sun Kim. Is something wrong with me?
You are fine. This is par for the commentariat on this site. Lots of people with unfulfilled lives who have to direct their bitterness somewhere.
What a sad little tantrum you just had. Even if this is completely true, it’s cowardly to vent online instead of raising your concerns through the avenues that are available to you at the workplace. It seems that the conductors actions were in stark contrast to your own, when you leapt up onto the stage, ran to the fallen chorus member and ripped off your shirt to stop their nosebleed while offering to perform CPR. You were quite the hero! But, if you spend your time working in a pit, you likely spend most of your time fellating a pipe, raking horses ass over cat gut till it streaks, or banging sticks against random objects to make noise. See how easy that was?
I’m sure you and the haters piling on in this thread spend many hours on trying to perfect your musicianship and your technique, but your work doesn’t end there. When you go to work, you can choose to be kind and spread a little joy amongst your co-workers rather than making them endure your miserable company. It’s up to you.
Wouldn’t it be better to try to work with your colleagues and raise your art to a higher level for the enjoyment of the audience? Maybe some people in the audience want to see what the conductor is doing. Ever consider that?
I’ve never met or worked with your conductor. It’s possible she has a reason for what she’s doing, but who knows? I’m sure she waves her arms around like a crazy person, and I might find that distracting. Probably so distracting that I would find myself sinking up with her and doing my work in the same rhythm that she waves her arms. I wouldn’t like that personally. It sounds like you don’t like it either. If you’re having difficulty playing at the dynamics that the conductor is requesting from you so that, I don’t know, your sound compliments the singers rather than drowning them out, then I can only wish you good luck at your next audition. Or, if you’re really so miserable where you’re at, you could quit. I’m sure you’re irreplaceable and the audience will note your absence of the next performance.
I work for the company. She is not what she pretends to be. Mediocre is the least of her problems. A diva disguised as an easy-going person. An entitled harasser who is enabled by company management.
In the opera house the orchestra should be heard not seen as at Bayreuth, this sounds like vanity to me.
Furtwangler hated the covered Bayreuth pit because he couldn’t be seen by the audience. (Toscanini loved the hidden Bayreuth pit for the same reason ) When Stokowski was at the Met leading Turandot he wanted to make sure he was seen including the shadows of his hands reflected on the walls. So to be fair this isn’t really a gender issue.
There’s no doubt that being an Asian woman checks all the necessary boxes these days, and the SF Opera management is hyping that. I play under her, and am somewhat in the middle about her ability. She is a competent, routined conductor and highly intelligent, but her intelligence exceeds her talent. I don’t think she is on the required level for a Music Directorship of a major opera company, and am convinced they could have got someone more qualified, but ….. the hype would have been lacking, so …….
Please remember than an opera includes singers, too. In fact, we play a good part.
You are lacking in that understanding and she’s delivering worlds of information and support to singers that maybe has you convinced she’s lacking, but I’d argue you’re lacking in couth.
In the defense of SFO, Neither Houston Grand (Patrick Summers), nor Chicago Lyric (Enrique Mazzola) have music directors that are at the highest level. Boards are now more concerned with ticking boxes and listening to consultants than actually finding the best people.
OH NO, a conductor with an ego? Don’t know if the music world can survive this
As someone who witnessed this accident you’re absolutely insane. The man was on the stage for about 45 seconds, the rehearsal stopped completely. We sat in silence for 5 minutes with the curtain down. She was absolutely respectful. I just witnessed an inspired prelude to Lohengrin. This article is so sexist and racist. Her conducting of Wagner is sensitive. It’s beautiful and dramatic. People need to grow the fuck up.
Perhaps she is vertically challenged or…?
This article grossly misrepresents what occurred at the dress rehearsal in question. I was onstage a mere 5ft from where my colleague fell. He was motionless momentarily and the rehearsal was swiftly halted. He then said “I’ll be okay”, and was attended to by numerous members of SFO staff. After around 5 minutes of silence, Maestro Kim asked the stage manager for an update since the curtain had been drawn so neither herself nor the orchestra could see what was happening. ESK dealt with the incident with professionalism and grace.
The notion that she should’ve acted differently is steeped in misogyny and bitterness.
Put Alex murdaugh in her place
Then terminate her. She lied on her resume . So obvious
Not true? And she led an incredible show tonight. I would know. I sing a leading role. Grow up.
Has she seen the movie ‘Tar’ or was she inspiration for it?
I think you are getting her confused with someone who worked in Baltimore and Colorado before that.
Asian? Woman? Does it matter?
Does she produce great results? No. Does she create positive working environment ? No.
To many of us, she does. Who are you?
From what I’ve seen of her, she’s very short, possibly under 5′, and from my seat at SF Opera, in the middle near the front, she doesn’t appear to be noticeably higher than other conductors. She may well have a big ego, but the biographies of humble orchestra conductors would not even fill a pamphlet. Her Il Trovatore on this season’s opening night was one of the finest opera performances I’ve heard in 25 years of attendance.
Sounds like she’s serving her ego rather than the composers.
This is what happens when diversity and inclusion come before professional abilities when it comes to getting a job done.
She’s an incredible conductor and gets the job done very, very well. She knows the score better than anyone I’ve worked with.
no one is complaining about her abilities, and many comments here praise her abilities. stop being racist and sexist.
Sorry I can’t help it, seeing your profile photo…
For anyone who remembers “Gentleman Prefer Blondes” and Jane Russell’s response to a society matron who insists “You’ll find I mean business!” To which Miss Russell’s character responds, “Oh, really? Then why are you wearing that hat?”
Somehow seems fitting here.
As a member of the SF Opera orchestra for over 40 years Every new conductor has moved the pit lip and down to suit there own tastes, this is the first time it’s been written about, maybe because all the others were men. This is not unusual at all when a new music director comes. This article is totally unfair and unfounded. I speak as a first hand witness. ESK a fine conductor and no worse than many many conductors we’ve played for. I’m proud to be a major company that has balls to hire a talented conductor that HAPPENS to be a woman.By the way, I just happen to be a man.
Not according to the U.S. federal government, you don’t HAPPEN to be a main or a woman, you were ASSIGNED at birth.
Then you can no doubt name the other conductors who insisted the pit be raised to its highest point for Wagner and had to be persuaded to lower it a few inches.
Having worked with Maestro Kim a few times, she’s always been the consummate professional and much loved by administration and pit musicians alike. Meanwhile, one looks to the sextuple piano dynamics of Verdi and wonders why a career opera musician is complaining about having to play whisper dynamics…it’s in the job description!
From the SFO website about Lohengrin –
“A medieval epic with sword fights and witchcraft, this Wagnerian masterpiece pairs legends about the Holy Grail with songs that have become pop-culture staples, including “Here Comes the Bride.”
Doesn’t sound like a very serious institution.
OK, THAT is hilarious, if not deeply telling of a marketing director who should be fired immediately.
You must consider this in the context of the location. SFO downtown is turning into a crime ridden and homeless people dystopian inner city. In the suburbs you have the Silicon Valley dot com crowd, hardly a population with vested support of the classical high arts. A bit of cross over marketing lingo might be indicated, to lure anyone with excess income for opera tickets into the inner city in the late evening.
Buddy, you outed yourself as an out of touch German further up in this thread. Please spare us your remote diagnoses of American social ills. You clearly haven’t been over here in decades and have decided in advance to see everything non-European with disdain.
Yes, let’s fool them into thinking they are seeing a new installment of Harry Potter.
Audience development?Give me a f*king break.
Do you think everyone is just born knowing who Wagner is? You need to attract new opera goers or literally the seats will be empty.
No, but there are many other operas for those first discovering the art form. Lohengrin is not an entry-level work.
Lohengrin was my second opera and I loved it. My first was Fliegende Hollander. The Ring was next. Worked for me. Bohene, Aida, etc. came later.
Now I’m wondering what the other “pop culture staples” there are in Lohengrin. And I’ve been listening to it for over 50 years.
She should be fired immediately! Disgusting and disrespectful behavior must not be tolerated from a narcissist condescending conductor under any circumstances.
Seems she should be on her way out.
Played with her this summer. Uninspired interpretation, comments and musical suggestions vague, bordering on awkward and could easily be deemed offensive. But she is competent and mostly clear with the stick. Surprised she is at the helm at SFO and has a guest appearance in Berlin.
I’m all for hiring a female Asian conductor to fit with both the demographics and the image that SFO wants to to project.
Xian Zhang would have been a better choice. She’s a brilliant conductor but doesn’t have the PR machine that would have launched her into the next level.
Xian Zhang has that soothing speaking voice going for her as well. Nothing brings out the best in my playing like getting being shouted at like I’m in a prison camp. 😉
the singers and musicians saying “this isn’t true” clearly indicates a culture of intimidation and fear running rampant throughout the institution. sycophants trying to score brownie points.
Some of us are just very good and appreciate people expecting the best from us. Do you really think, on an anonymous platform, that any of us are concerned about brownie points? Maestro Kim does not hire singers at SFO. If you knew anything, you’d know that, you sad sap. You know nothing about success in the industry, and you should probably stop with your fast fingers. Punctuation is key.
No one can have any semblance of respect for a keyboard warrior without a shift key.
Go watch whatever antiquated crap you worship.
A man who played for a decade with Luisotti is complaining about the orchestra being too loud and covering the singers? As if. The last time I heard Luisotti conduct at SFO was Manon Lescaut with Lianna Haroutounian and Brian Jagde. They’ve got massive voices, and it was the first and only times I’ve heard either of them pressed by Luisotti’s loud, insensitive conducting. Kim led an excellent Rusalka in SF a few years ago and supported her singers beautifully. If the pit thing is true, maybe it’s that Kim wants her singers to rely on her conducting them over a prompter, something we sadly see less of these days anyway at numerous major houses. Frankly, this entire story makes SFO’s orchestra members sound like entitled brats.
I am a tenured chorus member at SFO and the ego, vitriol, misinformation and bias leveled at ESK in this post is absolutely egregious. Firstly, the chorister who injured themselves did not “lie lifeless in a pool of blood for five minutes.” Almost immediately, they insisted that they were okay and kept asking if they could get cleaned up and go back on with the cast. Or course that was not possible with their injury, but never were they unresponsive, or even outwardly expressing pain. Rehearsal stopped for ten minutes while the crew took care of the situation and cleaned up, and once things seemed clear, Maestro asked if we could resume. To also add context, the two instances mentioned in this post (the noise comment and the injury), occurred a year apart. While I cannot speak to the experiences of an orchestra member, I do know the level of attention to detail and overall musicality I’ve experienced under ESK’s baton has been nothing like any other musical experience I’ve had. The music we’ve all been able to make together, especially post lockdown has been truly special, as exemplified from all of the glowing reviews of nearly every performance, and the many scores of audience members who return again and again. This post is a gross misrepresentation of what is going at SFO (at BEST) and I hope people recognize this for what it is and take it with a grain of salt.
@WK: ‘They’? Was there more than one?
Indeed, just imagining all those collapsing chorus members.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we9_CdNPuJg
Tenure in a chorus and $4 will get you a cup of coffee. Actually in SF you need $10 for a coffee.
Field report from yesterday’s San Francisco “Lohengrin” openining – “a very vocal fan club for the conductor—she was cheered each time she came to podium!! “
Someone below mentions the “far right.” As opposed to the far left? Either way, scratch below the surface of the so-called far left and you end up with something analogous to Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution in the 1960s-1970s. Or perhaps ultra-woke? Or just woke, period?
I am frankly puzzled at a few things:
1) Why a purported music news website would publish the letter of only *one* orchestra player, with no comment, as if it was an articles, along with other actual articles?
2) I was also onstage when this event happened to our colleague: if I write you a “letter” like the orchestra player did, will you promise to publish it exactly the same way?
3) It is interesting how many people reacted with such passion re: the “negative” aspects in the letter with equal vehemence. Yet few readers have commented on the “positive” comments, especially those expressed by other artists. One reader went as far as to accuse all the *other* singers and musicians who did not agree with the *one* player as being sycophants, “clearly indicates a culture of intimidation and fear running rampant throughout the institution.”
I make to claims about ESK’s abilities, her gender, her ethnicity, her appropriateness for the job, blah, blah … I just find the general toxicity here a matter for consideration. Perhaps Mr. Lebrecht or someone from the website can comment? One would think that such a website as this would be more interested in supporting the arts that it is based on. I never mean pandering, of course, things cannot be all roses all the time. But this does seem at least a tad irresponsible.
https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/classical/review-lohengrin-sf-opera-18360752
Review: Eun Sun Kim makes her mark with S.F. Opera’s musically splendid new ‘Lohengrin’ | Datebook
https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/classical/review-lohengrin-sf-opera-18360752
In case anyone’s doubting the trend, here’s NY times still pushing for gender-based hiring.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/16/arts/music/gender-imbalance-at-us-opera-companies.html
There goes a racist SF musician can’t accept/ hates to play under an Asian conductor/ boss. This is typical racism going on in America. This racist is a coward and can’t reveal oneself!
To hire a woman as a conductor, just because she is a female conductor, with talent, but, perhaps, not enough years of experience, reminds me of a trend where a certain percentage of minorities, and now, perhaps, female conductors, is a main criteria when hiring, for employers! Many professional orchestras hold auditions, where instrumental players, play behind a curtain, where judges can’t see the ethnicity, or sex, of the person auditioning. Therefore, the winner is judged only on instrument technical proficiency. A conductor auditioning is not judged in that way, for obvious reasons! There are innumerable brilliant women conductors, who are well qualified, for employers to choose from!
Look at the reviews of Lohengrin. Watch it this Saturday if you can afford the stream. You will love it like everyone else has. She is a BRILLIANT conductor. Audiences, I must remind you, are not talented, and do not know good music making. The SF audience is one of a kind.
Runiccles conducted this orchestra during Frau and they still had dynamic issues. Sounds to me like this orchestra member doesn’t know how to play their instrument piano.
Donald has a huge gesture which is always inviting to an orchestra!
It looks and sounds like the only people who have negative opinions have absolutely not context for their comments. I went to the premiere and it was one of the finest Wanger evenings I’ve heard in recent years. Period.
And you already have several folks involved with the production commenting here about how patently false the post is. So I have a great idea….how about people just shut up with their stupid moralizing and values judgements and evaluate the veracity of the original post. And then reserve judgement until you’ve heard the actual performance. Then you might not sound like ignorant harpies.
I have colleagues with first hand disappointing experiences with this conductor. She dips into every decision making situation and she is almost communistic in her behavior. She is in over her head with this job, is obnoxious in her comments to the orchestra, has divided people, and uses the female and race card to her defense.
Very disappointing as so many were hopeful with her appointment.
I don’t think people know or care to understand the Korean vibe/tone. I won’t say racist. I’ll just say culturally ignorant.
…and why did everyone else just stand around for five minutes while this ancient chorus member laid in pool of his own blood? You expect her to be a doctor, too? Petty. Nonsense. Lies. So gross.
It’s obvious why she is where she is. The Glass Cliff can be a merciless place…