OPERA TROUPE BENEFITS FROM ROAD EXPERIENCE

When last seen in these parts, the touring arm of San Francisco Opera was known as Western Opera. That was 1980, when the junior company presented “La Traviata” in Pasadena. Now, four years later, the name has changed, but the goals remain the same.

Saturday and next Sunday at Santa Ana High School, San Francisco Opera Center, as it is now known, will present Rossini’s “Cinderella” (La Cenerentola) as part of a 53-performance, 21-state tour.

“It’s a non-threatening performing forum for the singers,” says S.F. Opera assistant booking director Mark Bowers. “They’re able to relax and have some fun--along with the audience. They rotate in the principal roles, but all the singers remain for the full tour. They really get to know the opera. In fact, even the production staff can sing it. The experience for the singers is invaluable.”

At this particular stop on the tour, the 14 members of the cast aren’t the only ones benefiting from the experience. Though the company travels with its own 23-piece orchestra, the pit will be occupied by members of the hosting Orange County Pacific Symphony, led by Robert Baustian of the Opera Center.

For the orchestra’s music director, Keith Clark, the Saturday performance allows the players “to get into an opera pit for the first time.” (The Sunday afternoon performance is a shortened version, with two-piano accompaniment, designed for secondary-school children.)

“This visit by the San Francisco company is the first of an ongoing series,” Clark explained. “Next year, they’ll do ‘Don Giovanni’ here. It’s a valuable experience for the orchestra.”

Is Clark hinting of a possible affiliation with future operatic endeavors in Orange County (i.e. New York City Opera’s possible annual visits to the half-built Music Center)?

“I can’t comment,” he replies. “It’s a very political matter.”

The “Cinderella” production is directed by Paolo Montarsolo, one of the world’s leading interpreters of opera buffo.

“Mr. Montarsolo spent last summer with us,” Bowers explained, “as part of the Merola training program (now included in the umbrella organization known as the Opera Center). He created the production at that time. Having someone like Montarsolo work with the singers was a special treat.”

“EINSTEIN” UPDATE: Have you given up hope of ever seeing the heralded Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) production of “Einstein on the Beach” in Los Angeles? Well, don’t. Yet.

“We are close to working out an arrangement with BAM,” Bernard Greenberg insisted during a conversation held recently. Greenberg, a locally based lawyer, formed an ad hoc group late last year to present the Robert Wilson/Philip Glass opera here. The road has not been easy: First, February dates were proposed, then April, then May, then June. Now, Greenberg says, the five-hour production might be mounted here in August.

“Right now, the biggest problem is scheduling,” he pointed out. Not as far as performers are concerned--most of the BAM principals “seem to be available” in August. The dilemma involves securing a theater for the production.

“We’ve been looking to the Ahmanson (Theatre) as a site, since it would be less expensive to mount there. But, of course, the Ahmanson is hoping to fill up that 16-week hole left by the loss of Center Theatre Group, and we can only give them two weeks. So they may prefer one production for the full stretch. Thus, we still have to consider Pasadena (the Civic Auditorium) as a possibility. The problem is it’s not as fully equipped as the Ahmanson, and would be more costly.”

Money, then, becomes another hurdle--one made a bit higher by BAM. “They (the Brooklyn Academy) want a substantial increase over their original run cost--in excess of a third more,” Greenberg says. “We couldn’t do that, but we did promise them an increase. We can’t raise the money till we have a definite arrangement.” That, he feels, is not the problem some might think.

“The people who are interested in Wilson and Glass are special people. We are assuming that if we get it together by the end of the month, we’ve got a substantial amount of time to raise the money.”

When will we know? “By the end of the month (January), it will be together, or go down in flames,” Greenberg says.