CLASSICAL MUSIC / KENNETH HERMAN : San Francisco’s Chanticleer to Crow Loud and Clear

In its size and repertory, Chanticleer falls somewhere between the traditional college men’s glee club and the barbershop quartet. The San Francisco-based, 12-voice male vocal ensemble, which is sometimes called America’s version of England’s King’s Singers, will make a rare appearance tonight in UC San Diego’s Mandeville Auditorium. Unlike most American male choral ensembles, however, Chanticleer’s use of countertenors extends the group’s range well into the treble range that a typical mixed chorus of male and female voices encompasses.

According to Chanticleer’s music director, Joe Jennings, the group was started in 1978 by Louis Botto. Three of the original singers are still on the roster; Jennings joined the group in 1983.

“Originally, Chanticleer was 10 singers who did it just for fun. They would get together to sing early music once a week on Sunday nights,” explained Jennings. “They mainly sang Renaissance music at first, but when we started touring, we branched out into pop and contemporary music.”

In addition to spending about 22 weeks of the year on the road, Chanticleer’s annual schedule now includes both its San Francisco Bay Area series and residencies in area middle and high schools.

Chanticleer sometimes sings with instrumental accompaniment, but 99% of the performances are a cappella. In the last few years, the ensemble has commissioned a number of works from American composers, including an upcoming comic opera called “Go for Baroque” by P.D.Q. Bach’s alter ego, Peter Schickele.

The ensemble has just returned from a European tour and will return in April, 1990, to participate in a unique Dutch festival that will bring together all of Chanticleer’s counterparts.

“We will be performing with vocal groups from everywhere, including the King’s Singers, the Tallis Scholars, the Bulgarian Women’s Chorus, the Swingle Singers, as well as the American contemporary group, Sweet Honey in the Rock,” Jennings said.

According to Jennings, the name Chanticleer was chosen from one of Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales,” although it also comes from a French soundalike that means “to sing clearly.”

Brass fanfare. The Empire Brass, America’s trendy but serious retort to the Canadian Brass, will open the San Diego Community Concert Assn.’s 1989-90 season Sunday at Symphony Hall. These five globe-trotting brass players have impressed audiences from Moscow to Tokyo, as well as the less-tutored viewers of television’s “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.” They are no strangers to San Diego, either, having performed here in March of this year with the San Diego Chamber Orchestra.

Sunday’s program will open with a generous sampling of dance movements by Russian and Slavic composers, and the second half will be devoted 100% to Americana. In addition to Ellington and Copland, the Empire Brass will play Michael Tilson Thomas’ 1988 “Street Song,” commissioned by the quintet. Sunday’s curtain is 7 p.m.

Brushing up on ‘Boris.’ A relatively painless way to brush up on Russian history and the music of Modest Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov” is to attend Nat Merrill’s talk Thursday at 5:30 p.m. in the Civic Theatre’s Beverly Sills Salon. Merrill is in town to direct San Diego opera’s “Boris” production, the opening salvo of the Soviet Arts Festival. Merrill, general director of Opera Colorado, was resident stage director at the Metropolitan Opera for 28 years.

A grand historical opera, “Boris” is based on different accounts of turbulent Russian politics at the turn of the 17th Century. In addition to the complexities of the opera’s plot, the opera itself has had an intriguing history. Revised and reorchestrated after the composer’s death by Mussorgsky’s stylistically unsympathetic colleague Rimsky-Korsakov, “Boris” has more than one authorized version. Merrill is the authority to set the record straight, at least for the work’s San Diego incarnation.

In this production for the Soviet festival, Merrill will be working with Soviet conductor Jansoug Kakhidze and a mixed cast of Soviet and American singers. “Boris” opens Oct. 21 at Civic Theatre.

Symphony notes. Yoav Talmi, music director designate of the San Diego Symphony, flew into town last weekend to ready the orchestra for Friday’s opening-night concert of Mozart and Mahler. Although rehearsals begin today, Talmi was hard at work Sunday hearing auditions for a number of vacancies in the orchestra. Dr. Warren Kessler, physician and member of the UC San Diego School of Medicine faculty, is the orchestra’s newly elected board president. While he was on the board, Kessler chaired the committee that selected Talmi as music director.

Symphony patrons will now be able to park (for $5) in the newly completed garage above Symphony Hall. Regardless of which level you park on, however, it is necessary to take the elevator to the 12th floor and walk across to the Symphony Towers Sky Lobby before descending to the B Street entry to Symphony Hall.

In the black. Because a number of local arts organizations appear to specialize in red ink, it is worth noting that the San Diego Opera ended its 1988-89 season with a surplus. In the latest edition of “San Diego Opera Scene,” General Director Ian Campbell and his accountants note that, when the books were closed June 30, the company was $344,482 in the black.