[From www.sfcv.org]

It was generally understood that the Music Critics Association of North
America, which rarely ventures to the West, would be prompted to do so
next year, in order to attend the Los Angeles Philharmonic's opening of
Disney Hall in October.  Through postponements and indecision, however,
San Francisco became the favorite and it looks like the MCANA convention
is heading this way in June.

Attractions here, besides the tattered remains of the country second-best
baseball team, include the San Francisco Symphony's "Wagner, Weill and
the Weimar Republic" Festival.  The highlight is a series of "Flying
Dutchman" concert performances, Michael Tilson Thomas conducting the
cast, which included Mark Delavan (Dutchman), Jane Eaglen (Senta), Mark
Baker (Erik), Eric Cutler (Steersman), Stephen Milling (Daland).

During the same period, the San Francisco Opera's summer season will
offer Rossini's "La Cenerentola" (with Sonia Ganassi and Juan Diego
Florez, Patrick Summers conducting), Verdi's "Il Trovatore" (with Marina
Mesheriakova, Dolora Zajick, Richard Margison and Carlos Alvarez, Marco
Armiliato conducting), and Berlioz's "The Damnation of Faust" (with
Marguerite Angela Denoke, David Kuebler and Kristinn Sigmundsson, Donald
Runnicles conducting.

On Monday, Runnicles received a contract extension of his other job
(besides being the SF Opera music director), as principal guest conductor
of the Atlanta Symphony, to run for a total of five years.  Both Runnicles
and Atlanta music director Robert Spano have contracts through the
2006-2007 season.  In other city exchanges of music directors, MTT is
due in Disney Hall in December, to conduct the LA Phil in Mahler's Sixth
Symphony, while that orchestra's Esa-Pekka Salonen will appear in Davies
Hall during the following season.

Janos Gereben/SF
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