She leaned against the standing-room rail in the back of the War Memorial.
As the music surged, anticipating the tenor's high note, she pulled
herself up to her full height, raised herself on her toes, and did a
silent high C with body language alone.

She stood where she used to stand, night after night, 40 years ago, even
though now she has two whole boxes of her own, and she could sit wherever
she wanted.

But tonight, Pamela Rosenberg, in the middle of yet another crisis the
San Francisco Opera general manager must face daily, reverted to that
passionate opera fan of long ago, the one who couldn't afford a seat.
And for that split second of trying to will the high note from the back
of the auditorium, the "boss" was just one of us, fans.

Rosenberg had a tough day and a less than happy night.  Both tenors
alternating in the title role of "Otello" were sidelined tonight, at the
second of eight scheduled performances.  The announcement had Jon Fredric
West ill "with something that may be bronchitis" and Timothy Mussard is
reported to have withdrawn from the production.

A few hours before the performance, the call went to Richard Decker,
here to sing Tichon in the upcoming SF Opera production of "Kat'a
Kabanova." The hastily printed bio note says he attended the Manhattan
School of Music, made his professional debut as Tamino with the Bronx
Opera, his European debut in Zurich, in 1984, in "Die Meistersinger"
(but his first Walther didn't come until last year.  According to the
note, he has sung "a wide range of roles, including Parsifal, Tristan,
Florestan, Bacchus" and, yes, Otello.

The lanky singer made his first appearance to heartfelt outbursts of
"Evviva" from the good Cypriots, who didn't seem half as enthusiastic
on opening night, when West urged them to exult.  Decker's own expression
of "Esultate!" came from a light baritone, squeezing out the high notes,
but not offensively - just not meeting the expectation for a true tenor.

Decker's projection and diction are fine, he brings intelligence to the
text, even if the acting is tentative.  His pitch wavers occasionally,
especially in preparation to hitting the high notes - Rosenberg's help
notwithstanding.  The tenor seemed to tire rather quickly, and I'd guess
the last two acts (which I couldn't hear, duty calling to another event)
might have gone downhill.

As on opening night, the chorus sang very well, Patricia Racette's
Desdemona was excellent (and a great deal more "romantic" than vis a vis
West), but Sergei Leiferkus' Iago and, once again, the absence of a
compelling title character have rendered the performance lackluster,
bland, unexciting.

Backstage reports place Eduardo Villa in the Moor's cape next. . .
unless West recovers fast and unexpectedly.

 [The previous engagement, in next-door Herbst Theater, didn't work out
well.  While it served, happily, as yet another occasion to hear the
tabla master Zakir Hussain, one of the finest musicians on any continent,
the featured attraction was Shankar (one name only, not Ravi) and Gingger
on 10-string double violins, supposedly presenting "classical South
Indian music." They did nothing like that, giving instead an over-amplified
contemporary Indian pop approximation of classic ragas.  If Zakir
participated in "Otello," I would have gladly returned to the War
Memorial.]

Janos Gereben/SF
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