From ‘Swan Lake’ to Santana, It’s a New Season : Lots of Music, A Bit of Dance but Little Opera

Choosing best picks among the many upcoming classical music offerings is, fortunately, an increasingly attractive burden.

-- Orchestral: ‘Tis the season for three guest conductors to alternate with music director Keith Clark at the helm of the Pacific Symphony at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa. Each guest will be vying for the permanent position, which Clark vacates next spring.

Neal Stulberg, music director of the New Mexico Symphony, will be the first of the hopefuls, leading a program of Vivaldi, Beethoven and Walton on Nov. 1 and 3. Albany Symphony music director Geoffrey Simon makes his second appearance conducting the orchestra on Dec. 14 and 15, with music by Chopin and Bartok. Vakhtang Jordania, artistic director of the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera Assn., must wait until March 1 and 2 for his turn, with a program of Rossini, Mozart and Shostakovich.

Among Clark’s own six concerts, a Wagner program--with soprano Rita Hunter and basso Jerome Hines--on Nov. 23 and 24 is of particular interest. Hear and compare.

Visiting orchestras, arriving courtesy of the Orange County Philharmonic Society, will include the Sydney Symphony, kicking off its first American tour on Oct. 16 at the Center. Conductor Stuart Challender will offer music by Mahler, Tchaikovsky and Australian composer Carl Vine. The Philharmonic Society also will present Leonard Slatkin and the St. Louis Symphony at the Center on Sept. 28.

-- Opera: For the third year in a row, local opera enthusiasts face a dry season. Opera doesn’t even begin in the county until January, when three New York City Opera productions will be at the Center. One of these--Lehar’s “Merry Widow” (Jan. 21 and 22)--doesn’t even qualify as opera. The others are tried-and-true chestnuts--Verdi’s “Rigoletto” on Jan. 17 and 19, and Mozart’s “Die Zauberflote” on Jan. 21 and 22.

Orange County’s home team--Opera Pacific--kicks off at the Center on Feb. 11 with Dame Joan Sutherland and husband conductor Richard Bonynge in the first of four performances of Bellini’s “Norma” (the others will be on Feb. 15, 18 and 24). Concurrently at the Center, from Feb. 17 to 25, Sutherland and Bonynge will present seven performances of Rossini’s “Il Barbiere di Siviglia”. (Opera Pacific will bring Lerner and Loewe’s “My Fair Lady” to the Center in June.)

-- Vocal: The Choir of Westminster Abbey, London, will sing on Oct. 7 at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove. Conductor William Hall will open the Master Chorale of Orange County’s season with a Mozart program at the Center on Oct. 30. Conductor John Alexander and the Pacific Chorale will open their season on Nov. 4 at the Center with music by Brahms, Walton and Vincent Persichetti.

-- Chamber and recitals: The renowned Paillard Chamber Orchestra will appear at Laguna Beach High School on Oct. 3 as part of the Laguna Chamber Music Society Series. The Guarneri Quartet will play at UC Irvine on Oct. 30. The OC Philharmonic Society will bring soprano Leontyne Price to the Center on Nov. 6.

-- Dance: The Moscow Classical Ballet will be at the Center on Oct. 4-9, dancing “Divertissements,” “Creation of the World” and “Romeo and Juliet.” On Oct. 22 at UC Irvine, Andris Liepa, hot young star of the Bolshoi Ballet, will dance with Bolshoi-defector Valentina Koslova. (Unless the university moves this event into the inhospitable Bren Center, I doubt any campus venue will be large enough for the audience likely to show up for this pair.)

American Ballet Theatre will unveil a new production of “Swan Lake” during its Nov. 29-Dec. 11 run at the Center, where its mixed repertory will include its revival of Massine’s “Gaite Parisienne”, in which Christian Lacroix’s costumes vie with the dancers for audience attention.

Ethnic dance offerings are scarce. Check out the South Indian Dance program at Rancho Santiago College on Sept. 23 and the Tziganka Russian Gypsy Folk Ensemble at Orange Coast College on Nov. 13.

Meanwhile, Orange County continues to act as if modern dance doesn’t exist: The Akiko Ishii Repertory Dance Group, at Rancho Santiago College on Oct. 28 and 29, will virtually be the sole representative of this art form on the local scene.

Spectrum: Dance/Music will combine jazz, modern, tap and Spanish dance on Oct. 21 and 22 at Orange Coast College in a benefit for AIDS education.

-- And: Joseph Horowitz, author of “Understanding Toscanini,” will lecture on--What else?--”Understanding Toscanini” at UCI on Oct. 26. His book takes a trenchant look at the development of the American classical music scene in tandem with the rise of the famed Italian conductor.