CLASSICAL MUSIC : When It Comes to Operas, ‘Phantom’ Has Bit of All

“There’s really no need to send up opera,” mused Barry Koron, “because the man in the street thinks it’s pretty funny just as it is.”

Koron, who is musical director for Ken Hill’s “Phantom of the Opera,” wryly summed up the author’s point of view in this pastiche of opera excerpts wedded to the Gaston Leroux story. Hill’s “Phantom”--known in some circles as the “other Phantom” to distinguish it from the megabuck Andrew Lloyd Webber musical--opens a two-week run tonight at Symphony Hall.

Koron has been with Hill’s “Phantom “ since it opened at San Francisco’s Theater-on-the-Square in August, 1988, although this scaled-down traveling version commenced in Washington’s Warner Theater in September. (The tour is booked through May, 1991, after which the producers are eyeing Japan and Australia.)

Koron directs his six-man pit orchestra from his stack of synthesizer keyboards, much like a conductor from the Baroque era conducted his opera orchestra from the harpsichord. He spoke by phone from Las Vegas, the production’s stop before San Diego.

“This ‘Phantom’ uses opera for musical comedy purposes,” Koron explained. “Hill went through the whole opera repertory and picked out what he deemed the angriest aria, the sweetest, the scariest, etc.”

Some detractors of the Hill “Phantom” point out that it appears to draw much of its box office appeal from audience confusion with Lloyd Webber’s latest musical showpiece. Though the show’s producers have admitted that their show would not be as successful without Lloyd Webber’s “Phantom of the Opera,” they also point out that Lloyd Webber derived his inspiration to write “Phantom of the Opera” after seeing Ken Hill’s original London production.

Koron explained that the greatest number of opera excerpts in Hill’s “Phantom” is drawn from Gounod’s “Faust” because a performance of “Faust” takes place in the story.

“In a way, the phantom’s plight contains a thematic echo of Gounod’s opera, where an individual with extraordinary knowledge gains temporary control over someone else.”

Other selections are from more operas with demonic overtones, from Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” and Offenbach’s “Tale of Hoffmann.” In one case, Hill pasted together a portion of the scary “Wolf’s Glen” scene from Von Weber’s “Die Freischutz” with the sorceress Ulrike’s aria in Verdi’s “Un Ballo in Maschera.”

And a final note of irony: When Hill’s “Phantom of the Opera” is playing at Symphony Hall, up the street at Civic Theatre, “Starlight Express”--another Lloyd Webber smash hit--will be playing a a five-night run from Dec. 27-31.

Up-to-date in Sacramento. Karen Keltner, San Diego Opera’s resident associate conductor, made a well-received Sacramento Opera debut last month conducting Donizetti’s “L’Elisir d’Amore.” (Keltner conducted Donizetti’s other popular opera buffa , “Don Pasquale,” in March, 1989, for San Diego Opera.) Although local audiences are accustomed to seeing Keltner in the orchestra pit at Civic Theatre--she has conducted the gamut of grand opera from “The Barber of Seville” to “Faust”--as a woman conductor, she was a novelty in Sacramento. Just before the opera’s opening, the Sacramento Bee ran a lengthy feature on Keltner, in which staff writer Robert Masulio noted that Keltner would be “the first woman ever to conduct a Sacramento Opera production.”

Minnesota pilgrimage. Believe it or not, there are worthy Minnesota traditions that predate Garrison Keillor’s mythical Lake Wobegon. KPBS-TV (Channel 15) will broadcast the 77th annual St. Olaf College Christmas festival concert Dec. 23 at 8 p.m. Every December, the Minnesota college that pioneered the a cappella choral tradition in North America masses all of its choral and orchestral forces to showcase the best sacred music of the Christmas season.

More Holiday Sounds. KPBS-FM, the local public radio station, will broadcast a generous sampling of seasonal music this weekend. Among the more unusual are two non-Christmas celebrations, the Western Wind Ensemble’s “Celebration of Light” (Dec. 23, 11 a.m.), which observes the winter solstice with Renaissance, Hanukkah and Native American music, and an all-Hanukkah concert featuring traditional Eastern European Jewish music performed by the Kleveland Klezmorim (Dec. 23, 9 p.m.).

For the traditionalists, the Dale Warland Singers celebrate Christmas with both familiar and rarely heard carols (Dec. 24, 1 p.m.), and tenor Jose Carreras leads the forces singing Christmas music from Latin America (Dec. 24, 3 p.m.). Holland’s leading Baroque specialist, Ton Koopman, will lead the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra in a concert of 18th-Century European choral and instrumental Christmas music (Dec. 24, 4 p.m.)