S.F. Opera Commissions ‘The Death of Klinghoffer’

The announcement was delayed by last month’s earthquake, but now the news is out: San Francisco Opera is commissioning an opera based on the 1985 hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro.

“The Death of Klinghoffer” is being done in collaboration with the Los Angeles Festival, Theatre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, Opera de Lyon, the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Glyndebourne Festival. “Klinghoffer” (Leon Klinghoffer was the wheelchair-bound American murdered by the hijackers) will reunite the production team which created “Nixon in China”: composer John Adams, librettist Alice Goodman and stage director Peter Sellars.

The opera is expected to contain two acts plus a prologue and epilogue, to be sung in English by a cast of 12 principals in multiple roles, and with an extensive choral part, plus ballet choreography by Mark Morris, who made the dances for “Nixon in China.”

Composer Adams--on tour, somewhere between New York City and Bowling Green, Ohio--was not available for comment Wednesday. In Los Angeles, stage director Sellars revealed: “We’ve already been working on this project for a year and a half--and I must say, I think it’s going to be a very beautiful and serious piece. At least, the preliminary results are very thrilling.

“But Alice and John are creating the work. I’m just helping out. It’s a long, involved process.”

The world premiere is scheduled for Brussels, on March 19, 1991, to be followed by openings in Lyon (April 12, 1991), Brooklyn (May, 1991), Glyndebourne (July, 1992), Los Angeles (September, 1992) and San Francisco (October, 1992).

The San Francisco and Glyndebourne performances will be conducted by the composer. The performances in Brussels, Lyon and Los Angeles will be led by Kent Nagano; the conductor in Brooklyn will be announced later.

The commissioning of “The Death of Klinghoffer” is made possible in part by funds from the Meet the Composer/Reader’s Digest Commissioning Program, a grant originally given to BAM and the Los Angeles Festival.

HOROWITZ RECORDINGS: From his arrival in this country in 1928, Vladimir Horowitz--who died Nov. 5 in New York--made recordings for a number of producers, most notably for RCA (1928-62, 1975-83), CBS (1962-75) and Deutsche Grammophon (beginning in 1985).

Representatives of all three of those companies last week told The Times that no special reissues have been planned since the legendary pianist’s death at the age of 85.

Recent RCA reissues on CD have included four albums of music by Clementi, Rachmaninoff, Schumann and Scriabin, a company publicist said. In addition, she pointed out that four more historic Horowitz recordings are due for reissue in February: a Chopin album (called “Volume I”); a recording called “Encores”; the historic Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto recording made with Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony in 1943, and Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto with Fritz Reiner and the in-house RCA Symphony.

“By the end of 1990, we will have reissued all of Horowitz’s RCA recordings on CD,” she said.

Jack Pfeiffer, who produced the pianist’s RCA recordings from 1950 until 1962, said: “Those were challenging years--Horowitz gave all of us many opportunities for problem-solving. We won’t forget those times.”

CHOREOGRAPHERS: The National Corporate Fund for Dance Inc. has announced the recipients of the third annual American Choreographer Awards: David Dorfman, Miriam Mahdvani, Sara Pearson and Shapiro & Smith, all of New York, and Liz Lerman of Washington. Established to recognize emerging choreographers who “have exhibited talent, commitment and promise,” the awards this year will distribute a total of $25,000 to the five recipients.

Chris Pasles contributed to this column.