Of the countless aspects of opera, Pamela Rosenberg's focus now is on
"psychology." At her press conference this morning, the San Francisco
Opera general director used the word a dozen times before I stopped
counting.  While she was talking about "getting under the skin" of
characters and "inner journeys," Rosenberg also appeared "psyched up" for
her first season here (San Francisco's 80th), excited about the "challenge
and promise" of her first season as she announced the lineup of works,
production teams and casting.

She pronounced the 2002-'03 season "a healthy mix of innovative productions
and standard works." Resisting pressures to scale down programs, even
cancel some productions because of the economic crisis and the "worrisome
climate" following Sept.  11, Rosenberg said the company will resist
shifting from the adventurous to the comfortable.  "We will provide
substance," she said.  "People in times like these need more art, not
less." There will be 12 productions presented in 88 performances between
Sept.  7, 2002, and July 6, 2003.

Rosenberg and music director Donald Runnicles (conducting five operas)
focused attention on the upcoming American premiere of Olivier Messiaen's
"Saint Francois d'Assise." A work of enormous size, it is also held by its
presenters in the highest esteem as a profound "psychological work, an
inner journey."

Messiaen's work is part of Rosenberg's previously-announced five-year
"Animating Opera" themes, next season's entry in the "Seminal Works of
Modern Times" series.  The others:  Leos Janacek's "Kata Kabanova" (part
of both the Janacek series and of "Women Outside of Society," Rosenberg
pledging to present all of Janacek's operas, "if I have enough time in the
job"); Hector Berlioz's "La Damnation de Faust" (another double-qualifier,
under the Berlioz series and "The Faust Project"); Engelbert Humperdinck's
"Hansel and Gretel," in English (in the "Metamorphosis:  From Fairy Tales
to Nightmares" series), with the surprising assignment of Baroque
specialist Nicholas McGegan as conductor; Handel's "Alcina" (another "Woman
Outside"); and Mozart's "Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail" ("Utopia in the Age
of Enlightenment").

The other works:  Puccini's "Turandot" and "Madama Butterfly," Strauss'
"Ariadne auf Naxos," Verdi's "Otello" and "Il Trovatore," and Rossini's "La
Cenerentola."

Preparations, Rosenberg said, have been going on for some time even
for productions not due for almost two years from now, with the help
of dramaturgical and production teams - in an approach more typical of
European opera houses (where the new general director comes from) than
those in the US.  Several of the coming operas have been staged already
in the War Memorial in form of a "building rehearsal."

Having emphasized her total involvement in productions, Rosenberg was asked
if ("hypothetically") she was not satisfied with the current production of
"The Merry Widow," directed by her predecessor, Lotfi Mansouri, could she
- would she - have interfered before it was videotaped for a national
screening on PBS.

She gave a two-pronged reply:  first, once a production is ready to go,
the general director shouldn't (and, based on a recent court case in
Dresden) couldn't make changes.  "If I am involved in a production," she
said, "it's during preparations, putting the team together, the rehearsal
process - and there only in form of non-invasive surgery if absolutely
necessary.  I engage in discussion, but will not use censorship.  When
the work is prepared, it becomes the intellectual property of those who
produced it."

Her second reply, more specific to "Merry Widow," was that "if this
happened under my direction, so to speak, I would have tried to influence
the production, but this was not my season, it was not my place to
interfere."

Details of the season:

TURANDOT

Sept. 7-Oct. 2 / Nov. 27-Dec. 8

Runnicles and Ian Robertson/Chris Alexander/David Hockney

Jane Eaglen/Audrey Stottler, Patricia Racette/Norah Amsellem, Jon Villars,
Antonio Nagore, Alfred Reiter/Attila Jun/Alexander Polianichko.

ARIADNE AUF NAXOS

Sept. 9-29

Jun Markl/John Cox/Robert Perdziola

Frank Hoffmann, Deborah Voigt, Lisa Livingston, Thomnas Moser, Claudia
Mahnke, Laura Claycomb, Daniel Belcher, Kevins Conners, John Ames, Greg
Fedderly, Saundra DeAthos

SAINT FRANCOIS D'ASSISE

Sept. 27-Oct. 17

Donald Runnicles/Nicholas Brieger/Hans Dieter Schaal/Andrea Schmidt-Futterer

Laura Aikin, Willard White, Chris Meritt, Johannes Martin Kranzle, Gran
Wilson, Jay Hunter Morris, Gabor Andrasy/Alfred Reiter

OTELLO

Oct. 9-Nov. 1

Runnicles, Emilio Sagi, Zack Brown

Ben Heppner, Patricia Racette, Sergei Leiferkus, Raymond Very, Eric Owens,
Catherine Cook

DIE ENTFUHRUNG AUS DEM SERAIL

Oct. 15-Nov. 2

Peter Schneider/Stephen Wadsworth/Tom Lynch

Regina Schorg, Paul Grove, Jennifer Welch-Babidge/Saundra DeAthos, Michael
Elder/Friedman Roehlig

KAT'A KABANOVA

Nov. 3-20

Runnicles/Johannes Schaaf/Erich Wonder

Karita Mattila, Helga Dernesch, Richard Decker, Albert Bonnema, Raymond
Very, Victor Chernomortsev, Catherine Cook, Philip Horst

HANSEL AND GRETEL

Nov. 17-Dec. 3 / Jan. 11-18

Nicholas McGegan/Linda Dobell/Richard Jones

Sara Fulgoni, Catrin Wyn-Davies, David Okerlund, Mary Lloyd Davies, Graham
Clark, Greta Feeney

ALCINA

Nov. 19-Dec 7

Roy Goodman/Jossi Wieler/Anna Viebrock

Catherine Naglestad, Catriona Smith, Helene Schneiderman, Toby Spence, David
Pittsinger, Sarah Castle

MADAMA BUTTERFLY

Jan. 10-19

Fabio Luisi/Ron Daniels/Michael Yeargan

TBA (Cio-Cio-San), Catherine Cook, Sergej Larin, John Hancock, Dennis
Peterson, Kyu Won Han

LA CENERENTOLA

June 7-July 6

Patrick Summers/Grischa Asagaroff/John Pierre Ponelle

Juan Diego Florez, Daniel Belcher, John Del Carlo, Sonia Ganassi, Eike
Wilm-Schulte

LA DAMNATION DE FAUST

June 10-July 3

Runnicles/Thomas Langhoff/Jurgen Rose

David Kuebler, Angela Denoke, Kristinn Sigmundsson, Gregory Stapp

IL TROVATORE

June 15-July 5

Marco Armiliato/Brad Dalton/John Conklin

Marina Mescheriakova, Richard Margison, Dolora Zajick, Carlos Alvarez, Mark
S. Doss

Janos Gereben/SF
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