Thursday, July 23, 2009

SF Opera Preview CD

The San Francisco Opera sends out a season preview from David Gockley to subscribers, & I got mine today. It's 2 CDs & an insert, packaged in a nice fold-out holder. Mr. Gockley is on the CD, introducing the season's productions with plot summaries, program notes & excerpts from the company's archives. The bits from Fanciulla del West with Carol Neblett & Placido Domingo in 1979 sound great. We appear to be getting a concept production of Entführung, & Mr. Gockley is almost apologetic when describing it. I'm wondering if I should be offended by the reference to "so-called Ring nuts" in his Die Walküre commentary. He also refers to the entire cycle as "the whole banana."

4 comments:

John Marcher said...

I think those cd's are a waste of money. Last year I tossed it in the trash after about a minute and a half. Gockely is so annoying. I like the old books they used to send out- so much easier to reference. The cds are Davey G.'s little vanity project- full of his pithy thoughts and condescending attitude.

Immanuel Gilen said...

Did he promise "no Eurotrash" for the second year straight?

John Marcher said...

btw, I'm enrolling in an anger management class on Monday.

Axel Feldheim said...

Mr. Gockley did not quite say "no Eurotrash", but he did say that he is delivering on his promise that "the SF Opera will once again be a glamorous international opera company." He'll do this by putting Verdi "prominently on display in the coming seasons."

Some of us are clearly not the audience that he is courting & will have to manage our responses as best we can.