Kim’s sensitive conducting found impeccable balance with the singers in their arias, scenes and duets, without losing an ounce of energy and flair from the band. The orchestra, arrayed across the stage before a newly constructed shell, played impressively in its three all-instrumental moments – Franz von Suppé’s Light Cavalry Overture (long a staple of pops concerts), the Polonaise from Dvořák’s Rusalka and the ‘Moonlight Music’ from Richard Strauss’s Capriccio. And it brought back the stars of that memorable production – soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen who sang the title role, and mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton who was Ježibaba. It was a reunion of the key players from June 2019’s superb Rusalka, in which conductor Eun Sun Kim won over the orchestra, the company and audiences in her debut. Rather than a parade of soloists, the concert focused on two singers, a conductor and the company’s excellent orchestra for a celebration of live opera’s return to a refurbished War Memorial Opera House after a year-and-a-half pandemic shutdown San Francisco Opera took a different approach to the traditional celebrity opera highlights concert with Friday evening’s ‘Live and In Concert: The Homecoming’. Richard Strauss – ‘Moonlight Music’ ( Capriccio) Saint-Saëns – ‘Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix’ ( Samson et Dalila) Verdi – ‘È strano…Sempre libera’ ( La traviata) ‘O don fatale’ ( Don Carlo) ‘Fu la sorte’ ( Aida)ĭonizetti – ‘O mon Fernand’ ( La favorite) ‘Dio che mi vedi in core’ ( Anna Bolena)ĭvořák – Polonaise and ‘Song to the Moon’ ( Rusalka) (HS) Rachel Willis-Sorensen (r), Jamie Barton (l) and Eun Sun Kim conducting the San Francisco Opera Orchestra (c) Corey Weaver United States ‘ Live and In Concert: The Homecoming’: Rachel Willis-Sørensen (soprano), Jamie Barton (mezzo-soprano), San Francisco Opera Orchestra / Eun Sun Kim (conductor).

San francisco opera fall 2021