Wonders Are Many

Ulrica was delighted to find, in her Yahoo Mail Inbox, an SF Opera announcement of a screening of the documentary Wonders Are Many: The Making of Doctor Atomic (2007) at the fabulous Castro Theater on Saturday, April 28th, as part of the San Francisco International Film Festival; with an additional screening at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley on April 30th.

As devoted readers of The Spearhead will remember, Wonders was filmed during the rehearsals for John Adams and Peter Sellars’ masterful Doctor Atomic during the 2005 season. Spearhead-liner Lynn Meinhardt has been tracking the film's progress from the filmmakers' initial press release to its successful world premiere at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.

Super Acting Contingent appearances notwithstanding, the film has a magnificent pedigree: filmmaker Jon Else’s oeuvre includes The Day After Trinity: Oppenheimer and the Atomic Bomb (1980), detailing many of the events covered in the Atomic libretto, and Sing Faster: The Stagehand's Ring Cycle (1999) set backstage during the 1990 SF Opera production of Wagner's Ring. Lynn and fellow WAC Yvette Forte Rosedale were prominently featured in one of the official publicity shots for the film, which augurs well for Super appearances within the film.

The Atomic future includes revivals in Amsterdam, Chicago, the English National Opera in London and, reportedly, the Metropolitan Opera. Wonders Are Many is scheduled for a PBS airing at some undetermined time in the future, but who wouldn’t rather see Supers in WWII drag up on the big screen?

The winter months are usually an operatic desert here in San Francisco, but fortuitously the SF Symphony mounted the U.S. premiere, in March, of the latest Adams/Sellars opus, A Flowering Tree, and, of course, Ulrica was there. In direct contrast to the broad scope and doom-laden drama of Dr. Atomic, A Flowering Tree provided, through a retelling of an ancient Indian fairy tale, a message of redemption and forgiveness, performed by three singers (including Dr. A’s Eric Owens), three renowned Javanese dancers, and the massive voice of the SFSymphony chorus, whose members wore brightly colored shirts -- at the suggestion, we suspect, of Peter Sellars himself.

Further drama occurred when Ulrica's elevator car was disturbingly rocked during intermission. The cause? Not deteriorating conditions at Davis Hall as Ulrica supposed, but a minor earthquake.

Unexpected cultural combinations are to be expected in Peter’s productions. In this case, we saw an Indian folktale set to contemporary American music influenced by Grand Opera (Ulrica heard references to Das Rheingold and Turandot), Indonesian gamelan orchestras with Javanese ballet dancers (one of whom performed on Madonna’s last tour), and choral singing in Spanish because the chorus for the original Viennese production happened to be Venezuelan. Oh, boy. It was an enchanting evening and one hopes that it will return some day for more than the three performances offered this time.

Spotted in the lobby was Symphony Chorus husband, Super, and Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Ron Mann (below). Ron’s wife Melody sings with the SFS. Ron is almost always Super-cast against type as a menacing heavy (most notably Vlad the Impaler in the 2005 season opener, L’Italiana in Algeri), when really he is one of the nicest guys you could meet.

The Ulrica Archipelago
The slow, hypnotic movements of the Javanese dancers and the rhythmic chiming of the gamelan transported Ulrica back to her recent Asian adventure; two weeks on the islands of Bali and Java. The nation of Indonesia is a huge string of 1700 islands stretching from Malaysia to Australia and has been subjected to innumerable disasters, natural and man-made, over the past few years, including the 2004 tsunami in Sumatra, a major earthquake in May ‘06, terrorist bombings in Bali, an unparalleled environmental disaster in NW Java, ferry boat sinkings and mysterious airplane disappearances. As a result tourism to the country has fallen off drastically but it is a vast country offering a rich and exotic experience.

During the course of this all-too-brief visit, Ulrica toured rice paddies, marveled at the tenth-century ruins of Prambanan and Borodobur, was enraptured by the Ramayan Ballet, ignored Avian Flu warnings to explore the bird markets of Yogyakarta, purchased dozens of ikats and batiks (they will eventually find homes on the walls of Peet’s Coffee stores) and fell in love with the landscape and the people. However the trip was not without its dangers…

On the Rocks
Ulrica’s very own Indonesian Disaster came about during an ill-advised attempt at snorkeling off the North Coast of Bali. Strong currents and a complete disregard of the dive master’s advice combined to cause Aquatic Ulrica to lose her way and be washed ashore on the coral reef, causing, with knees, elbows, and flippers, untold damage to the delicate eco-structure of the region.

Uncharitable voices might suggest that Ulrica was washed up a long time ago, but her desperate attempts to right herself and recover dignity were the stuff from which opera buffa is made.

Around the World in 80 Ways
Ulrica’s brush with death in Bali was as nothing compared to the intrepid travels of canoodling Super Emeritus Bradly Hamilton. Bradly and his partner Thom are midway through a world tour and, when last heard from, were in Christchurch, NZ heading towards Japan. Prior emails described cruising Tierra Del Fuego, a stop at the Falkland Islands, and a breathtaking flight to Antarctica.

“We arrived in Punta Arenas where I took a three-and-a-half hour plane ride to Antarctica. It was the most beautiful place I have ever seen and am truly blessed that I was there. I saw ring neck penguins, gentoo penguins, Antarctic fur seals, and humpback whales. Although it was sunny, the wind would whip up and it was cold at some points of the tour… I really can’t describe in words how spectacular Antarctica is.”

Of special interest to my dear readers would have been an “hilarious” performance of Aida that Bradly attended in Buenos Aires.


"Before the curtain rises, Supers are stationed throughout the house in full Egyptian garb posing like British Royal guards not allowed to look or move. The principals came out belting every word and the more they screeched, the better the crowd roar. The entire chorus stared out into the crowd making eye contact with everyone as if it were a recital and they were not part of a story at all. Best yet, however, during the triumphal march the Supers and chorus came down the aisles of the orchestra passing out stale crusts of bread to the audience with naked painted ladies in the worst 'Cats Musical' make-up. Members of the audience actually ate the damn bread. At intermission, I thought a martini would be more fun than a second act, and left."

As we all know, even without stale bread and naked ladies, that Triumphal March can be an obstacle course of embarrassing anachronisms, substandard synchronization, wardrobe malfunctions, and other misadventures. Once again, Ulrica is reminded that the benchmark of a true Super is that he or she has never seen a Triumphal March – he or she has always been marching in it.

Ballet Boys
Over lunch at Chow last week, Eddy Gordillo described his stint supering in the SF Ballet’s recent production of Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty (yawn….). Supers of Character were gathered for the opening Royal Court scenes; their "character" contra punto to the youthful vigor of the Ballet School students...

Another participant in that production was Dan Melia; undoubtedly our community’s brainiest member (Dan has appeared on, and excelled at, TV’s smart quiz show Jeopardy). March 17th also saw Dan on local television providing background info on that day’s Saint Patrick. Dan is a Professor of Celtic History at UC Berkeley and was able to enlighten stay-at-home celebrants on the historic, snake-repelling St Patrick. Now if only someone would explain to Ulrica the phenomenon of people of all ethnicities wearing “Kiss Me I’m Irish” buttons and Leprechaun hats…

Long since consigned to the compost bin but still very much alive in Ulrica’s memory is the striking floral arrangement by our own Laurel Winzler that was on exhibition at the De Young Museum as part of its annual "Bouquets to Art" exhibition last month. Laurel’s floral sculpture was inspired by, and outshone I might add, a green and silver Venetian glass piece by Seattle master Dale Chihuly.

Never forget that the Super Committee is always working tirelessly on our behalf. Their selfless expedition to the Scharffen Berger chocolate factory shows how far they will go to provide leadership to the Super corps and maintain discipline among Supers as warranted.

Ruth Ann vs The Met
Looks like the Met is at it again – soprano abuse that is. Following celebrated "firings" of superstars Kathleen Battle, Angela Ghiorgiou (“that wig goes on with or without you”), and Maria Callas, it now looks as though SFO favorite Ruth Ann Swenson is getting similarly shabby treatment (NYTimes article) – and at a time of great personal struggle, too. Ruth Ann is recovering from surgery and chemotherapy for breast cancer and, regardless, deserves better than to be replaced by Renée Fleming - she of the endless legato and reckless rubato - whose Rusalka second act remains, IMHO, her greatest achievement. States Met GM Peter Gelb, “any day that we can get Renée Fleming is a good day for the Met." Ulrica has to concede that the Met does need every good day it can lay its hands on.

The Met is damn lucky to have Ruth Ann singing Cleopatra to David Daniels’ Giulio Cesare this month (it will be broadcast live on April 21st). Ruth Ann’s 2002 SFO appearances in the role were not only radiantly sung but, as always, exhibiting elusive qualities that her competition seems to so completely lack: wit and charm.

I’m sure the SFO Supers join me in wishing Ruth Ann a quick and complete recovery. We can only imagine the reception she’ll receive when she returns to San Francisco in 2008 for another Handel role in a luxuriously cast Ariodante (Susan Graham and powerhouse contralto Ewa Podles will co-star).

An anonymous observer reports seeing Peter Gelb recently on Charlie Rose. He came across as a typical populist impresario and more or less said that he wanted to replace older and fatter singers with younger and prettier ones in order to attract new audiences and "reinvent" opera.

Glamour, Glamour, Toujours Glamour
The Season of Glamour will be here before we know it “so glamorous that it needs two galas,” but IMHO Glamour has always been in season. Ulrica throws her arms open to welcome long overdue debutants, petite belle chanteuse Natalie Dessay (above) and raven-haired Angela Ghiorgiou (below), and is a-quiver with anticipation about seeing La Rondine and the new Phillip Glass work on the stage of the War Memorial.

The Little Prince and a reprise (presumably sans Pamela Rosenberg as a tree, below) of Flute for Kids are all well and good but once again our efforts to find new audiences ignore one whole sector of the opera-going public, the decrepit Opera Queen. Ulrica would like to advocate special performances, with AARP discounts, of Flute for the Forgetful – the Queen of the Night aria repeated over and over and over again; Flute for the Incontinent – lots of very short acts with many brief intermissions; and possibly Flute for the Flatulent – outdoor performances only.

If you want to hear the sound of Super feet rushing the SF Opera stage, tune in to the series of broadcasts of performances from the past two seasons coming up on KDFC Radio. The series began this past Sunday with the broadcast of last year’s Super-intensive Manon Lescaut. Ulrica can’t say for sure, but she thinks she heard a Chorus Lady’s scream during the whore-branding scene.

Idle Gossip

I’m told there is no truth whatsoever to the rumor that Supers will be coming under the jurisdiction of Janitorial in a new SFO departmental shuffle.

Doubts have been expressed regarding the authenticity of this document, purportedly found in a recycling bin on Franklin Street and dated April 1st, which recently came into Ulrica’s possession but her sources are working (Nessun Dorma!) to verify its authenticity.

Grab your brooms. It promises to be a Season of Glamour for all but we Supers. Ahimè.

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