Ruth Leon recommends… A Journey into Lohengrin – San Francisco Opera
Ruth Leon recommendsA Journey into Lohengrin – San Francisco Opera
This splendid film, recommended by my friend Harvey in San Francisco (thank you, Harvey) takes viewers behind the scenes as a musical Everest is readied for the stage. SF Opera’s remarkable new Music Director Eun Sun Kim leads the company as the many layers of Wagner’s epic work Lohengrin come together, offering a rare glimpse into the complex process of staging a monumental opera.
Kim is conducting this work for the first time, supported by an experienced cast which features some singers familiar with this opera (tenor Simon O’Neill and bass Kristinn Sigmundsson), and others (soprano Julie Adams, mezzo-soprano Judit Kutasi, and baritone Brian Mulligan), who are taking it on for the first time.
In this film they talk about the challenges of their daunting roles and orchestra members discuss their “Vulcan mind meld,” as large-scale rehearsals reveal the military-level precision and impressive artistry from hundreds of artists, company, and crew.
Directed by Elena Park, this illuminating film chronicles the collective pursuit of something transcendent.
Franky this is painful to watch. A house, chorus and an orchestra as illustrious as San Francisco Opera deserve a real musician. Someone with a clarity of vision, a concept of sound, eloquence in phrasing and sense of architecture. I have now heard her several times in San Francisco, but also with the Berlin Philharmonic (‘extrem langweilig’ according to one of the orchestra’s wind players) and in Amsterdam (with a terrible Verdi Requiem).
These political appointments (including the recent one with the Seattle Symphony, and in Europe with for example the WDR Orchester) have nothing to do with striving for excellence and will only contribute to the ‘dummification’ of classical music.
So “political appointment” is when a woman conducts? Unless you’re including Măcelaru in that description.
Hi Anna, better wording would have been ‘politically correct’. As in not choosing the best person for the job but choosing someone less good to satisfy politically correct viewpoints. Which is exactly what happened in San Francisco, in Seattle and in Cologne.
A number of years ago many people (also here on this website) were very upset because ‘slimmer’, more good-looking’ singers were (and still are) getting cast by opera houses around the world instead of better singers with more beautiful voices.
The arts administrators responsible for these appointments should be ashamed.
to follow Anna’s question so it is when women conduct it is “politically correct?”
Absolutely splendid film, and she is so good. Very looking forward to her Tristan.
Ignorance is bliss.
Maestro Kim is a mediocre conductor who is in over her head. Under her baton, the SFO orchestra sounds provincial: out-of-tune brass, thin and scratchy strings. They played poorly for her ‘Il Trovatore’: she pushed the tempi, leaving the cast in the dust. Several persons on the inside even claim the orchestra is deliberately playing shoddily, perhaps due in part to her rumored rudeness and condescension toward them. Why should we watch a film with a so-so cast, with a conductor learning the score on our time? If people were not so ignorant, they would watch much greater performances on YouTube, with a level of Wagnerian singing that is difficult to assemble nowadays. Opera has become such a second-rate joke. No wonder audiences are dying out.
Great film. Great conductor.