The Sweet Music of the Season – San Francisco Opera & Symphony

San Francisco natives will have no shortage of must see events and programming this opera and symphony season. San Francisco Symphony and San Francisco Opera’s 2011-2012 season lineups are both programs filled with must see events.

This season marks a very special anniversary – San Francisco Symphony is celebrating its 100th season with 11-months of events and concerts. The American Mavericks Festival makes a reappearance next year with four world premieres by notable names like John Adams, Meredith Monk, Mason Bates, Morton Subotnick, joined by soloists Jessye Norman, Emanuel Ax, Paul Jacobs, Jeremy Denk, Joan La Barbara, the St. Lawrence String Quartet and the SF Symphony Chorus. The American Mavericks series will make stops in New York, Ann Arbor and Chicago.

[highlight_text] The symphony season opened with a weeklong calendar of events, including the opening gala with Lang Lang and Itzhak Perlman. [/highlight_text]

Beloved Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas will lead an eclectic mix of works from the symphony’s first year, including Bartók’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, Debussy’s Le martyre de Saint Sébastien and Stravinsky’s Petrushka, in celebration of the symphony’s milestone season. MTT, as he is affectionately referred to by San Francisco residents and symphony aficionados alike, is also leading the United States premiere of a new piece by Sofia Gubaidulina, in celebration of another major milestone – Gubaidulina’s 80th birthday. He will also conduct Thomas Adès and Tal Rosner’s new piece Polaris, complete with video projections.

This season also marks a rather innovative collaboration between San Francisco Symphony and several other notable musical groups – Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic and The Philadelphia Orchestra, proving once again that there is power in numbers.

This season will also be graced with performances by Joshua Bell and Mason Bates, who will participate in Project San Francisco, the symphony’s artist and composer residency program. Former music directors Herbert Blomstedt and Edo de Waart will also return to the podium to conduct.

And there’s no shortage of parties either. The symphony season opened with a weeklong calendar of events, including the opening gala with Lang Lang and Itzhak Perlman. An All-San Francisco Community Concert and even a free outdoor “Birthday Bash” concert with Lang Lang at San Francisco’s Civic Center Plaza was slated in honor of the centennial. Like the many others that came before it, this season will also provide support for musical programs in San Francisco schools.

This season is also marked by a large community presence, including a book, documentary and new virtual experiences. For more information on the symphony’s centennial season, visit www.sfsymphony.org.

If the symphony isn’t your thing, San Francisco Opera also has an impressive lineup, kicking off their season with Turandot, Giacomo Puccini’s final piece of work.

The masterpiece is conducted by Nicola Luisotti, who also brought the work to life in 2009 at the famed Royal Opera House in London.

If you can’t make the live performance, don’t fret; catch the Webcor Builders Presents Opera at the Ballpark simulcast of Turandot at AT&T Park at 2 p.m. September 25.

The opera’s opening night has already passed, but it was a joint celebration with the Opera Ball 2011 and BRAVO! CLUB’s Opening Night Gala sharing the spotlight. The ball raises money to benefit San Francisco Opera and San Francisco Opera Guild’s outreach and educational programs.

A highlight of this year’s opera season is the world premiere of Heart of a Soldier. This operatic masterpiece has literary roots, as it was based on the non-fiction work penned by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist James B. Stewart and lives of Susan Rescorla, Rick Rescorla and Daniel J. Hill. Another highlight of opera season is the return of legendary soprano Renée Fleming to San Francisco Opera after a decade. Fleming will perform in the company premiere of Lucrezia Borgia.

Also slated for the lineup are Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Handel’s Xerxes, another company premiere, Bizet’s Carmen, and the new American classic Nixon in China. The Bay Area premiere of this popular production is directed by Michael Cavanagh, and the cast is rounded out with Brian Mulligan, Maria Kanyova, Simon O’Neill, Hye Jung Lee, Chen-Ye Yuan and Patrick Carfizzi. Lawrence Renes will conduct the San Francisco Opera Orchestra.

Attila will also take the stage during this year’s opera season, a joint venture of the San Francisco Opera and Teatro alla Scala. Cast members include Ferruccio Furlanetto, debut Lucrecia Garcia and Fabio Sartori; Mozart’s The Magic Flute is another must see.

The season rounds out with two concerts with Music Director Nicola Luisotti and San Francisco Opera Orchestra. For those with little ones who many not be able to fully appreciate the sophistication of the opera, productions of Carmen for Families, a 2 ½ hour version of the original, is perfect for children ages 10 and up and is conducted by Giuseppe Finzi. For more information on this season of the opera, visit www.sfopera.com.

Haute List

Our picks for the can’t miss shows this season.

Must See Symphony

-Mass Transmission

-Barbary Coast and Beyond:

-Music from the Gold Rush to

-the Panama-Pacific Exposition

-Polaris: Voyage for Orchestra

-Absolute Jest

Can’t Miss Opera

-Turandot

-Heart of a Soldier

-Nixon in China

-Carmen for Families

-Attila