San Francisco Opera Center announced today that the 1957 creation of the
Merola Opera Program (by Kurt Herbert Adler and James Schwabacher) will
be marked next year by the premiere of a commissioned work from Thomas
Pasatieri.

"Hotel Casablanca," to be performed on Aug.  3 and 5, is based on Georges
Feydeau's 1907 "Une puce a l'oreille" (A Flea in Her Ear), but in a 1940s
Texas setting.  (A once-and-futureTexan, SF Opera boss David Gockley,
commissioned Pasatieri's best-known work, "The Seagull" in 1972, at the
beginning of Gockley's 33-year-long run as general director of the Houston
Grand Opera.)

Other anniversary-year Merola events include a gala concert on May 19;
Rossini's "Cenerentola" (Martin Katz / Jose Maria Condemi / Erik Flatmo),
July 13 and 15 (coaches to include Frederica von Stade and Thomas Allen);
a free performance in Yerba Buena Gardens, July 29; and the Merola Grand
Finale, Aug.  18, conducted by Patrick Summers.

Although a July 1, 1957, performance in Stern Grove is the official
beginning of Merola, there were training programs here since before 1954,
but not in the current format and organization.  There are now more than
1,000 former participants ("Merolini") in what is believed to be the
oldest existing opera-training program in the world.

Janos Gereben/SF
www.sfcv.org
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