Having attended “Ballo in Maschera”, featuring Leontyne Price, on Saturday night, November 18, I returned for San Francisco Opera’s Sunday matinee. This would be my first opportunity to attend a performance of two of most famous products of Modena, Italy — tenor Luciano Pavarotti and soprano Mirella Freni.
“Boheme” is Puccini’s (and arguably, the operatic repertory’s) most famous work. In the twelve years in which I experienced my first operatic performances, I had only seen “La Boheme” two previous times. Both of these “Bohemes” were star-studded San Francisco Opera performances.
My first “Boheme” was in 1962, featuring Spanish soprano Victoria de los Angeles as Mimi, with Italian tenor Renato Cioni as Rodolfo [Historical Performances: de los Angeles, Cioni, Horne, Baccaloni in “La Boheme” – San Francisco Opera, October 22, 1962].
In 1965, I experienced my second “Boheme”, in which Hungarian tenor Sandor Konya was Rodolfo and Italian soprano Renata Tebaldi was Mimi [Historical Performances: “La Boheme” with Renata Tebaldi, Sandor Konya – San Francisco Opera, September 23, 1965].
The opera’s arias and duets for the Rodolfo and Mimi (and the third act duet between Mimi and Marcello) have always been among my favorite operatic passages
Luciano Pavarotti’s Rodolfo and Mirella Freni’s Mimi
[Photo: Luciano Pavarotti as Rodolfo; edited image, based on a production photograph, courtesy of the San Francisco Opera Archives.]
I was seated in my Sunday matinee seat, awaiting confirmation that the tenor who had created such a buzz with San Francisco critics a few days earlier, was as amazing as the press reported.
Pavarotti’s vocal performance was extraordinary, exhibiting the attractive lyrico-spinto voice which the world would come to love. At this point in the latter half of the 1960s, Pavarotti was still relatively unknown.
Remarkably, in an era when the “stand at the place onstage that best favors your voice and sing from there” operatic tradition was giving way to a greater presence of singers who “act” intelligently. The 32-year old Pavarotti displayed an attention to the stagecraft of the performance’s stage director, Matthew Farruggio.
[Photo: Luciano Pavarotti, right as Rodolfo, with Mirella Freni, left, as Mimi; edited image, based on a production photograph, courtesy of the San Francisco Opera Archives.]
I regard “Boheme” as an excellent vehicle for assessing not only the tenor voice. It is the passages betwen Rodolfo and Mimi that begin with the aria ‘Che gelida manina’ in which Rodolfo formally introduces himself to the enchanting lady who has unexpectedly knocked on his apartment’s door. T
he exchange of arias between Pavarotti and Freni’s Mimi culminates in an ardent duet in which the two artists express their strong attractions to one another that, well sung, is a highlight if the operatic experience.
At the first act’s end, the opera house audience erupted into a sustained ovation. The audience for the third of the San Francisco season’s five strongly-cast “Boheme” performances, confirmed the presence of a new tenor sensation, performing with a world class Mimi.
Pavarotti’s five performances towards the end of San Francisco Opera’s 1967 season proved to be one of the highlights of the final decade and a half of the company’s General Director, Kurt Herbert Adler.
San Francisco Opera provided Pavarotti the opportunity for significant role debuts – Fernando in Donizetti’s “La Favorita”, Rodolfo in Verdi’s “Luisa Miller”, Manrico in Verdi’s “Il Trovatore”, Calaf in Puccini’s “Turandot” and Radames in Verdi’s “Aida”. In addition, Pavarotti’s vocal career was enhanced by his studies with Adler’s Music Director, Otto Guth.
It is instructive, that, although Pavarotti’s San Francisco Opera debut occurred in a Puccini role, that between San Francisco Opera’s 1967 and 1973 seasons, Pavarotti performed six roles – the aforementioned role one by Puccini, in 1967 and 1969, one by Verdi (Riccardo in “Ballo in Maschera”) in 1971 and three by Donizetti (Edgardo in “Lucia di Lammermoor” in 1968 and 1972), Nemorino in “L’Elisir d’Amore” in 1969 and Fernando in “La Favorita” in 1973.
Thus Pavarotti performed a Verdi role in one San Francisco Opera season, a Puccini role in two seasons and three Donizetti roles in four seasons. On the success of his Edgardo, his Nemorino and his Fernando, I had no problem regarding him as the leading ‘bel canto’ tenor of this moment in operatic performance history.
During my 2009 interview Iconducted with the then General Director of the San Diego Opera, Australian-born director Ian Campbell [Interview with San Diego Opera’s Ian Campbell, Part II] he gave his account of key events in Pavarotti’s ascending career in the three years prior to his San Francisco Opera debut. Campbell’s responses in that interview were illuminating insights into keystones in Pavarotti’s career before his 1967 San Francisco Opera debut.
[Photo: Mirella Freni as Mimi; edited image, based on a production photograph, courtesy of the San Francisco Opera Archives.]
The excitement surrounding Pavarotti’s five 1967 performances might have stolen some of the limelight from the debut season of his co-star Mirella Freni. However, she performed brilliantly in the first of five seasons she sang with the San Francisco Opera..
She would not return until San Francisco Opera’s 1983 season, when she performed the title role in another Puccini masterpiece, “Manon Lescaut”, opposite tenor Ermanno Mauro. I have remarked that in my decades of attending San Francisco Opera performances there were two Saturday night performances in which the ovation, which included widespread foot-stomping, was so loud that it seemed to shake the War Memorial Opera House. The first of these perforances was a 1977 “Tosca” with Italian superstar Magda Olivero in the title role. The second was the 1983 Freni-Mauro “Manon Lescaut”.
Also memorable were her three additional seasons – 1985, when Freni performed the title role of Cilea’s “Adriana Lecouvreur” on the season’s opening night; 1986, in which Freni sang the role of Tatyana to her husband Nikolai Ghaiurov’s Gremin in Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin: and 1988, when she and Pavarotti both returned for performances of “Boheme” that resulted in a recording for DVD.
Ingvar Wixell’s Marcello and Jeanette Scovotti’s Musetta
Swedish tenor Ingvar Wixell was a sonorous Marcello, excelling in the inspired music of the character’s arias and duets.
Wixell had made his San Francisco Opera debut a month earlier as Sergeant Belcore in Donizetti’s “L’Elisir d’Amore” [Historical Performances: Grist, Kraus, Wixell and Bruscantini Excel in Lotfi Mansouri’s Lively Production of “L’Elisir d’Amore” – October 29, 1967]. Earlier in November, Wixell had performed the role of Valentin [Historical Performances: Gounod’s “Faust” Starring Kraus, Ghiaurov, Saunders and Wixell – San Francisco Opera, November 4 and November 12, 1967].
There would be three additional occasions at San Francisco Opera when I would see Pavarotti and Wixell perform together. In 1969 they would appear as Belcore and Nemorino in “L’Elisir d’Amore” and again as Marcello and Rodolfo in “Boheme”. Wixell also appeared with Pavarotti in one of the productions mounted for Pavarotti role debuts – in 1975 as the Conte di Luna for Pavarotti’s first series of “Trovatore” Manricos.
I had admired the vocal fireworks of New York soprano Jeanette Scovotti’s Queen of the Night earlier in the season [Historical Performances: Geraint Evans, Stuart Burrows, Jane Marsh Welcome “The Magic Flute” into the San Francisco Opera repertory – September 23, 1967 and October 8, 1967]. Scovotti’s lustrous coloratura-lyric voice with its gentle vibrato was enlisted for the role of Marcello’s on-again, off-again sweetheart, Musetta, which proved to be my last opportunity to attend a Scovotti performance.
Simon Estes’ Colline, Delme Bryn-Jones’ Schaunard and Other Cast Members
Rodolfo’s and Marcello’s Bohemian roommates Colline and Schaunard were performed respectively by Iowa bass Simon Estes and Welsh baritone Delme Bryn-Jones.
Estes’ association with the San Francisco Opera occurred in June as the Four Villians in Offenbach’s “Tales of Hoffmann”. [Historical Performances: Nicholas di Virgilio, Simon Estes Lead Impressive Cast in “Tales of Hoffmann” San Francisco Opera’s Spring Opera Theater [SPOT] – June 23, 1967]. Estes’ San Francisco Opera debut took place three weekends before this “Boheme” in the lead role of Carter Jones in Schuller’s “The Visitation”.
Bryn-Jones’ performances at the War Memorial Opera House were limited to the 1967 season, when, first, he performed the role of Lescaut [Historical Performances: Dorothy Kirsten and Robert Ilosfalvy in Puccini’s “Manon Lescaut” – San Francisco Opera, October 14, 1967]. A few days after this “Boheme”, he would be Donner in Wagner’s “Das Rheingold”.
In the first act the audience observes Rodolfo’s comic interplay with his three Bohemian roommates as they outwit their rent-seeking landlord, Benoit, performede by Italian bass-baritone Federico Davià
Canadian tenor Alan Crofoot was (rather oddly) cast in the bass role of Musetta’s money-bags date, Alcindoro. Tenor L. D. Clements was the toy-seller Parpignol. Bass-baritone Winther Andersen was a Customhouse Sergeant. Baritone Colin Harvey was a Customhouse Guard.
Maestro Mario Bernardi’s Conducting, Matthew Farruggio’s Direction and George Jenkins’ Production
Canadian Maestro Mario Bernardi continued a demanding San Francisco Opera debut month in which he led the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and Chorus in nine performances – five of “Boheme” and four of “Ballo in Maschera” – between November 11th and 26th.
As with the “Ballo” [Historical Performances: Leontyne Price Stars in “Ballo In Maschera’s” Boston-version revival – San Francisco Opera, November 18 and 26, 1967], both Orchestra and Chorus performed brilliantly under Maestro Bernardi’s direction.
[Photo: Director Matthew Farruggio; edited image of an histsorical photograph.]
The “Boheme” director was Matthew Farruggio, whose career with the San Francisco Opera had, early on, been centered in the Young Artists’ programs and the Spring Opera Theater [SPOT].
[See my remarks about Farruggio in a previous historical performance review [Historical Performances – “Rigoletto” with Glossop, Kraus, Grist and Kreppel – San Francisco Opera, October 16, 1966].
Farruggio would return in 1969 to direct Pavarotti again in “Boheme” (with Dorothy Kirsten). He would continue to direct operas in both the Spring Opera Theater and regular San Franciso Opera seasons through Fall, 1989.
One last opera remained on my performance schedule, Wagner’s “Das Rheingold”, the first salvo in the preparation for complete performances of Wagner’s four-opera “Ring of the Nibelung”, scheduled for the 1972 season.
The “Boheme” sets were a 1957 production. They were among the three San Francisco Opera productions created by Maryland =borndesigner and architect George Jenkins in the company’s 1956 and 1957 seasons.
I saw the other two Jenkins’ productions on their Southern California tours – the “Cosi fan Tutte” [Historical Performances: “Cosi Fan Tutte” with Schwarzkopf, Rankin, Munsel, Lewis and Guarrera, San Francisco Opera in San Diego, October 25, 1956] and the “Ariadne auf Naxos” [Historical Performances: Young Rysanek Promotes Strauss – “Ariadne auf Naxos” at L. A.’s Shrine Auditorium, San Francisco Opera, November 1, 1957].
Jenkins’ “Cosi” production was last performed by San Francisco Opera in 1963. The “Boheme” would be seen in San Francisco in 1969 and 1973 and the “Ariadne” in 1977.