If you went to the War Memorial Opera House tonight to hear an alternate
cast in "Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg," chances are you enjoyed the
performance.  But if you went to hear music, you might have been in
seventh heaven.

So often the unseen singing, coming from the "pit," is overlooked, but
if it 's the music you love, more than the stars front-and-center, you
couldn't help being carried away by five hours of virtual perfection
coming from Donald Runnicles's San Francisco Opera Orchestra - certainly
not tonight, surely I couldn't help it.

As on opening night, David Kadarauch's cello soared and sang, and there
was great music from concertmaster Kay Stern, principal violist Carla Maria
Rodrigues, principal flute Julie McKenzie, the three oboes (Janet Popesco
Archibald doubling, wonderfully, on English horn), the brass, the strings,
the strings, and again the strings. . .

And yet, all those virtuoso performances didn't matter nearly as much
as the totality of the orchestra's performance.  Even against Runnicles'
exceptional Wagner performances here over the years, tonight was a
breathtaking example of a sustained "rightness" - in tempi, balances,
a forward motion, but with spacious, relaxed, natural breathing

Supporting the singers every moment, Runnicles also luxuriated in the
orchestra's moments - the overture, those quiet, lyrical passages, the
prelude to the third act - casting a hushed, shimmering magic over the
house.  And the very best:  the perfection of the impossibly intricate
finales to the first and second acts (so different from, so superior to
the third act's "conventional" all-out tutti), Runnicles and the orchestra
doing the impossible.

If you heard Wagner like this in Berlin with Daniel Barenboim or at the
Met with James Levine (a few years ago, if not now), perhaps you'd take
the performance more in stride, but "out here," you may excuse a bit of
gushing.

And, yes, there was singing too.  The best news was Jay Hunter Morris'
Walther, the Texan tenor replacing Kansan Robert Dean Smith, a true
heldentenor (with an edge to the voice, although with signs of straining)
instead of one of the prettiest voices in Wagner today.  For those who
remember Morris as the student in the very first "Master Class" (his debut
as a singer) or even, years later, as the terrific Mitch here in "A
Streetcar Named Desire," hearing him as Walther is rather strange - it's
a different voice.

There is a chance that with a lot more Wagner under his belt (Parsifal
and Siegmund seem inevitable), Morris will sing with the same edge but
more relaxed and without the hint of squeezing that's audible today.  At
any rate, to hear two fine, youngish, American Wagner tenors in the same
production is remarkable - especially considering that this is an American
house, not the typical German company where such American talent has been
in ample (if incongruous) evidence.

The rest of the alternate cast was not as fortuitous. Elisabeth-Maria
Wachutka (SF debut) as Eva and Robert Orth as Beckmesser were both doing
well for music theater, but did not mesh with the operatic heights and
depths of the Runnicles performance, the rest of the cast; they were not
viable substitutes for the two great singers they replaced: Janice Watson
and Thomas Allen.

James Morris' Hans Sachs and Rene Pape's Pogner were both outstanding,
but a notch under their previous performances.  (The miracle, of course,
especially for Morris, is that they manage to sing one "Meistersinger"
after another at all.  Runnicles and John Del Carlo - the Friz Kothner -
finished the performance close to midnight, and both will be at a
"Falstaff" rehearsal at 8 a.m.  tomorrow.  How do they do that?)

Once again tonight, Catherine Keen (Magdalena) impressed and Michael
Schade dazzled.  His David sets a standard for diction, consistent voice
production, commitment to the drama (and comedy) - another exceptional
performance on a special night.

Janos Gereben/SF
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