When Pamela Rosenberg was an undergraduate in Berkeley, she stood in line
at the War Memorial Opera House for hours to buy a "Die Meistersinger von
Nurnberg" standing-room ticket, and then stood through the five-hour opera.
A few days later, she repeated the experience.

Today, after 30 years of managing opera houses in Europe, she officially
returned where her operatic journey began - making her first appearance at
a press conference in the opera house lobby as the company's next general
manager.

Legs still sturdy, she hit the ground at full throttle.  On top of her own
debut and the announcement of the SFO 2001-'02 season (planned mostly by
the current GM, Lotfi Mansouri), Rosenberg unveiled a big, ambitious plan
of presenting opera in the framework of seven intertwining themes over a
five-year period.

Her "Animating Opera" program of 25 works - including 12 local premieres
--includes the following plans:

- What the Opera calls the first uncut, single-evening presentation of
Berlioz's "Les Troyens" (2004)

- The first staged American production of Messiaen's "Saint Francois
d'Assise" (2002)

- Thompson's "The Mother of Us All" (2003)

- Busoni's "Faust" (2003)

- A contemporary opera from Zimmermann, Ligeti, Nono or Rihm (2004-'05)

The seven theme clusters are:  "Seminal works of modern times," "The Faust
project," "Composer portrait:  Janacek and Berlioz," "Women outside of
society," "Metamorphosis:  from fair tales to nightmares," "Utopia in the
Age of Enlightenment," and "Outsiders:  the nature of the human condition."

Just about the time when Rosenberg was getting her standing-room ticket in
San Francisco, I was listening to Glynn Ross, in his Seattle Opera office,
dream up an "Opera in the Forest" theme festival, similar to the Rosenberg
plan, but complete with symposiums, theater, ballet, and literary pieces on
the same theme.  I still remember that Ross' first two themes were Faust
and the fairy-tale cluster.  I was a great idea then, as it is now, and the
difference is that Rosenberg's plan will be implemented.

Responding to questions at the press conference, Rosenberg pledged her
"100% support" for SFO's training programs, ruled out amplification of
music in the War Memorial, and promised to commission and produce both new
operas and support the production of little-known works from the second
half of the last century.  (The event also brought the first official
announcement that the Bobby McFerrin opera commission has been withdrawn -
a much-ballyhooed Mansouri project Rosenberg apparently never even heard
of.)

The next season (for details see www.sfopera.com later today when the
new page opens) opens with "Rigoletto" (not as I speculated "Arshak II,"
which is the season's second program), continues with "Samson et Dalila,"
"Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg" (Rosenberg may not have to stand through
this time), "Tosca," "Falstaff," "Jenufa," "The Merry Widow," and - next
summer - Carmen," "Madama Butterfly," and "Giulio Cesare." More news about
"Arshak" - apparently, this will be the first performance of the 1864
original; during the Soviet era, a completely changed version (both text
and music) was performed in the then-Armenian Republic, but never what
Chukhadijian wrote, music described as similar to Verdi's "Macbeth."

Janos Gereben-SF
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