Session 3: Italian Roots

In partnership with the Oral History Center at UC Berkeley and the Company's Archives, SF Opera's 6th general director, David Gockley sat down with Paul Burnett, director of the OHC, to discuss his life, career, and tenure at SF Opera.  This audio excerpt focuses on the necessity and value of early training programs both at SF Opera and Houston Grand Opera.

(run time ~ 17 minutes)

Ira Siff, voice teacher, repertory coach, director, writer, radio commentator for the Met's Saturday broadcasts, and authority on historic singers does a deep dive on Claudia Muzio, one of SF Opera's earliest and most adored divas.

(run time ~ 42 minutes)

Grammy award winning, respected producer, re-recording engineer, and jazz pianist Ward Marston sits down with Jeff McMillian to discuss the art of preserving recordings from the past, and in particular, SF Opera's 1932 Tosca.

(run time ~ 12 minutes)

Arthur Kaplan, then staff writer in San Francisco Opera’s Public Relations Department, interviewed Montserrat Caballé and Luciano Pavarotti. The opening of Turandot had taken place several days earlier, and the artists talked about their experiences in performing what for both of them had been firsts in their operatic careers. 

(run time ~ 15 minutes)

Kip Cranna and Francesca Zambello continue their engaging conversation as they discuss directorial challenges, Pavarotti, Freni, Kazakhstan dancers, and more.

(run time ~ 13 minutes)

San Francisco Opera’s scene shop foreman, John Del Bono, and Pierre Cayard, the Company’s Master Builder for over three decades, recently sat down together in the Company’s Burlingame scene shop to discuss the history of the scene shop and building sets for the War Memorial Opera House stage.

(run time ~ 20 minutes)

So what exactly IS a dramaturg?  Join Kip Cranna, SF Opera dramaturg emeritus, as he discusses dramaturgy, midwifing, commissioning, and the ones that got away.

(run time ~ 32 minutes) 

"Citizenry of San Francisco, join me in a greeting of welcome, and in extending you a cordial invitation to join us in the glory of the opera, a dream long denied fulfilled, and the opera house in which the most enthusiastic opera lover could feel a just and glowing pride ... "

(run time ~ 14 minutes)

Listen in as Terry McEwen, SF Opera's third general director, engages his dear friend Bidú Sayão in a lively conversation recorded for radio broadcast in 1979 -- 40 years after her Company debut in Manon.

(run time ~ 31 minutes)

One of opera's most promising rising stars, countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen discusses San Francisco Opera’s rich history of countertenor singing, begining with the American premiere of one of the great operatic masterpieces of the 20th Century, Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, starring Russell Oberlin as Oberon. 

BY ARYEH NUSSBAUM COHEN
(read time ~ 6 minutes)

Baritone Richard Bonelli, was a frequent artists with the San Francisco Opera from 1926 to 1942.  During that time, his wife Mona frequently could be found, camera in hand, filming whatever activity might be going on.

The San Francisco Opera footage, from the Richard Bonelli Collection held at Stanford University, captures some of the first offerings of the Opera at the War Memorial Opera House, which opened in 1932. Footage includes performances, dress rehearsals, and backstage activities. 

(https://library.stanford.edu/collections/richard-bonelli-collection)