A warm, sunny, breezy Sunday afternoon.

Below, the Pacific Ocean flows into San Francisco Bay under the red towers
of Golden Gate Bridge.

Above, on the cliff, the Palace of Legion of Honor, the most splendidly
located museum in all creation.

A place fit for the gods.

"An exclusive residential area," says the man with the beret at the
keyboard.  "Olympian Heights."

And so, the gods, still at their Sunday nap, sing:

   "Sleep on, sleep on! Lower the lights.
   Come, join the drowsy crew.
   For here on these Olympian heights
   There's never a damn thing to do.
   You folk out there, I have to warn ya:
   Here it's worse than Southern California.
   Mmmmm..."

As it happens, I don't have a copy of Jacques Offenbach's "Orpheus in the
Underworld" handy, to check on the original text by Cremieux and Halevy,
but I bet my bottom dollar that Donald Pippin's translation conveys the
meaning of the authors and the exact text for singing the music.  Was
Offenbach, the French Gilbert & Sullivan, concerned with La-La-Land?
Possibly not.  But he made contemporary jokes and so does Pippin.

The man in the beret is not only founder-director of Pocket Opera -- an
institution as uniquely San Franciscan as "Beach Blanket Babylon" -- but
he has also done his translation magic for 52 full-length and 14 one-act
operas in what he terms "25 years of obsession." His vital involvement with
opera goes back much further, starting in North Beach restaurants and cafes
(including the hungry i, Opus One, and the *original* Spaghetti Factory)
before forming the company and spending half of each year translating
works.

And so today, in the Legion's miniature jewelbox Glorence Gould Theater,
Donna Petersen comes downstage to introduce herself and Pippin's
translation of "Orpheus" --

   "My rightful name is Public Opinion;
   Although I play a thousand roles,
   And kings are under my dominion,
   At home, I'm simply called The Polls.

   "The mind of man cannot unravel
   The mystery of how I travel,
   The speed with which cover ground;
   In other words, I get around."

That would be the Donna Petersen who was understudy to Leonie Rysanek
during her 25-year career with the SFO.  She is in the company of
youngsters from New Zealand (Maria Kavanaugh, the Eurydice) and from
around the corner -- such as the wonderfully talented Kamala Stroup,
shining brightly in the small role of Cupid.

Pippin's company has always included "amateur singers" and students with
dreams of great professional careers.  The late, beloved Kaaren Herr
Erickson was one of Pippin's Pride.

The next Pocket Opera "original Pippin," June 6-27, is "Carmen." Pippin has
worked on it long and hard, found it a difficult challenge, with the verse
structure, the requirement to end rhymes on the same consonant, but "not
wanting to have the rhyme hit the listener over the head.  He enjoyed the
"verve and vitality" he found in the ensemble numbers, was surprised as he
went deeper and deeper into the text how different the final scene is from
the rest of the opera in every way.

Pippin is self-taught in German, French and Italian.  He has also
successfully tackled Smetana's "Bartered Bride" and "The Two Widows."
He produces only singing translations, for performance.  "I just won't
translate what I know we cannot do:  "Rosenkavalier" is not for us.  Pity."

The ever-kind and polite Pippin has only good words for his predecessors,
including the Martins, the couple responsible for so many English-language
versions:  "They meant a vast improvement over what preceeded them, all
the muddy, obfuscated, antiquated, artificial, archaic translations; they
drastically simplified, to make the language clear and simple, even if
at times became hopelessly banal," Pippin says.  He admires Don White,
especially for his translation of Offenbach's "Robinson Crusoe."

Pippin who has produced many Handel works does not present those in
English:  "The text is not essentially dramatic, the audience would not
be rewarded if there was a translation at the expense of the pure Italian
sound."

Pippin sees a "`mixed blessing" in projected translations, allowing that
it's better for the audience to know what's going on, but finding it
difficult for himself to follow both the performance and the titles.

The former Spaghetti Factory pianist who is now running an opera
company with a $400,000 annual budget remains "an ardent believer in the
possibilities of opera in English," doing his part to make what is merely
possible a reality.

Pippin's Carmen sings at Lillas Pastia:

   "To castanets and tambourine
   The gypsy pulse is all a-tingle;
   The fiery dance and music mingle
   To spark a hot, hypnotic scene.

   "No crystal ball or fat card
   Is needed here to give the answer;
   Bewitched and dazzled by the dancer,
   The hero's heart must stay on guard."

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