When the wooden planks and white roofs of society party tents start going up in the neighborhood, it is a sign that the foggy San Francisco summer is about to end, and the High Culture Season is about to begin.
The San Francisco Opera has an oddly weighted schedule this fall, probably out of a need to economize on the cost of union stagehands tearing down and reassembling repertory productions every day. September starts with one production double cast for twelve performances, followed by three operas in repertory through October and the first half of November, and ends with another single opera with a double cast for twelve performances.
September belongs to a revival of Verdi's Rigoletto in the old Michael Yeargan production which is serviceable and not much more. Though I have problems with the opera itself, particularly the deliberate cruelty of its anti-royalist story and the chirpy masochism of the innocent heroine Gilda, the music is great and the A-Cast Rigoletto is the Serbian baritone Željko Lu�ić, who is being hailed as the best singer of the role in the world right now. There's also the luxury casting of Italian bass Andrea Silvestrelli in the role of Sparafucile, the scary assassin for hire. Music Director Luisotti is conducting and will probably be fabulous in this music.
The three repertory operas start with a new production of Bellini's "I Capuleti e I Montecchi" or as the SF Opera is calling it "The Capulets and The Montagues," distantly related one presumes to the Hatfields and McCoys. The narrative follows the Italian version of the tale rather than the Shakespeare adaptation, which means that Romeo and Juliet are already secret lovers before the curtain goes up, and the two families are warring political clans. Romeo tries to bring about peace but Juliet's father is a warring badass, and you know the rest of the story with Father Lorenzo and poison and lots of bel canto singing while dying.
This production premiered last year at the Bavarian State Opera, and from the photos at the operacritic site, it looks spectacularly beautiful. The costume designer is none other than Christian Lacroix, and if he's good enough for Patsy and Edina of AbFab to worship, he's good enough for me. The luxury casting here is mezzo Joyce DiDonato as Romeo and bass Eric Owens as the bad daddy Capellio.
Sharing the stage with the Bellini is a new opera based on Melville's Moby Dick by Jake Heggie that has received reviews in Dallas and Calgary that ranged from happily surprised to rapturous. Ben Heppner shares Ahab duties with Jay Hunter Morris, and baritone Robert Orth returns in a character role. I have not been interested so far in any music that Heggie has written, but maybe this will be the revelatory moment. Or not. In any case, the world premiere production is reportedly very good simply as theatre.
This plays in repertory with Wagner's Lohengrin, the tale of a mystical knight and a swan and an evil mezzo and baritone conspiring against beauty and purity as represented by a tenor and soprano, for four-plus hours. This was the opera that sent Mad King Ludwig of Bavaria completely around the bend in his worship of Wagner. The production is from the Houston Grand Opera which coproduced it with the Grand Theatre de Geneve (click here for some production stills). The midcentury Stalinist updating by British director Daniel Slater supposedly doesn't get in the way of the medieval fairy tale story, according to reviews of the 2009 Houston production which starred this summer's Chairman Mao, none other than Simon O'Neill. San Francisco will be hearing Brandon Jovanovich as Lohengrin in his role debut while music director Luisotti will be conducting his first Wagner opera at the house. This could spell either disaster or triumph (or both).
The season ends with twelve performances of Puccini's Tosca, with Angela Gheorghiu and Patricia Racette swapping duties as the tormented diva. Even though I admire both Gheorghiu and Racette immensely, life is too short to waste time and energy at another Tosca ever again. If you are an opera newbie, it's not a bad starter opera: short, melodramatic, and with recognizable tunes. But if you have seen it one too many times, the damned thing is painful.
Bizet’s first three-act opera, The Pearl Fishers, wascreated in time of Western idealization of the far away exotic lands, perceivedromantic adventures, and noble sacrifices in lush ornamental environs. 
Joining the resident company of principal artists thisseason is Cecilia Violetta Lopez, who performs the lead part of Leila on selecteddays, with her crystal-sounding soprano of effortlessly delivered impressiverange, and significant dramatic talent. Principals Alexander Boyer as Nadir, Evan Brummel as Zurga,and Silas Elash as Nourabad create an exceptionally harmonious ensemble, seamlesslysupported by the Opera San José chorus and dancers. 
Conducted by AnthonyQuartuccio, with stage direction by Richard Harrell, choreography by Lise LaCour, set design by Charlie Smith, costume design by Elizabeth Poindexter, lightingdesign by Pamila Gray, 
If we may assume that Picasso saw himself in his Boy Leadinga Horse – a solitary figure with no possessions, moving across an arid planeunder the blind sky, following a road only known to him, ruling a beautifulbeast – it probably won’t be a far stretch to imagine that William S. Paley,who bought the painting on the spot when it was offered to him in a skiinghotel lobby in Switzerland in 1936, also felt a definite affinity toward thesubject matter. In 1905, when the painting was created, Picasso was justentering the Parisian world of modern art, where Henri Matisse’s scandalousfame challenged him, Fernande Olivier’s big heart embraced him, and GertrudeStein’s friendship supported him, helping him realize that his Blue Period wasover, and that the future held plenty of roses for the boy and his art (horse).Paley, a son of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants, rose to power inAmerica as a broadcasting titan of the 20th century, the founder ofColumbia Broadcasting System (CBS), and made his name known in the world ofmodern art as a trustee and then chairman of the Board of The Museum of ModernArt, New York.He donated Picasso’s Boy Leading a Horse to the Museum, aswell as many other masterpieces by Henri Matisse, Paul Cezanne, Henri deToulouse-Lautrec, Edgar Degas, Andre Derain, Paul Gauguin, Pierre Bonnard, andothers from his private collection. Paley’s manner of collecting in the 1930s reflected hisindividualist spirit and his appreciation for the new art, mostly characterizedby irreverent bold colors and brushstrokes, bohemian subject matter, and theprevailing mood of pushing the boundaries of public acceptance. Characteristically, the affluent collector limited hisacquisitions in the 1950s, when the market for modernism became safe, inflated,and overcrowded by late-bloomer fans of previously dubious artists. It’s a well –documented fact that Paley was first mostlyimpressed by Cezanne, buying his Self-Portrait in a Straw Hat from the artists’son, and thus starting the private collection geared toward his personal tasteand kept in his primary residence where he could cohabit with the art he loved.
Among the Cezanne paintings from Paley collection, presentedat the current de Young exhibition, there is Milk Can and Apples, a still lifethat reads like a mountainous landscape with descending horizon line, fruitscattered like boulders around the snowy peaks of a crumpled napkin, and wallpaperflowers coming out of their natural environment. It’s paintings like this – intimate in scale, denselysaturated with life (still or otherwise) that made the overall mood of Paleycollection so intriguingly pervasive, reaching out to a contemporary viewerwith the immediacy of here and now. Renoir’s Strawberries, Matisse’s Odalisque with aTambourine, Toulouse-Lautrec’s Mme Lili Grenier, and Manet’s Two Roses on aTablecloth are just a few of the significant modernist artworks
Gauguin’s The Seed of the Areoi holds a special place in theexhibition. The painting that has a long and controversial history all its own,reflects the artist’s fascination with the Tahitian landscape that he said“dazzled and blinded” him, as well as with the special beauty of the islanderwomen, the legends of the land and the lifestyle of the tribe the artistbelieved was informed of a higher truth, or the better world. If William Paley’s dream world came true in his collectionof modern art, all the art lovers in the world benefit from it today, and withthe traveling show originated by MOMA, The William S. Paley Collection: A Tastefor Modernism is currently reaching the Western frontier at the de YoungMuseum, San Francisco. The show runs through December 30 at de Young Museum, GoldenGate Park, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, San Francisco, California. Call formore information: 415-750-3600 or visit www.deyoungmuseum.org. Images courtesy FAMSF.