San Diego Spotlight : The Mainly Mozart Festival Streamlines Programming

Last year, David Atherton said, the Mainly Mozart Festival tried to do too many things for too many people. This year, it’s going to be different. The format will be simpler and reflect what the patrons want.

Atherton, artistic director of the festival at the Spreckels Theatre, was discussing programming and artists for the nine-day summer concert that opens May 30.

The former San Diego Symphony music director will conduct four orchestra programs, each performed twice, complemented by two matinee chamber music recitals. Atherton made minor changes in the new season’s format, which lacks the matinee family concerts introduced last year. The preconcert lectures will be continued, however.

“Last year we had a little too much diversity,” Atherton explained. “It was our first year indoors, so it was experimental in a way. We took an audience survey last season, and this year’s programming reflects what the audience wants.”

Among the returning festival soloists are violinist William Preucil, violist Cynthia Phelps, cellist Ronald Thomas, flutist Timothy Day, and horn player David Jolley. Newcomers to the local Mozart festival are pianists Jon Kimura Parker and Andre-Michel Schub.

Atherton noted that, after the move indoors to the Spreckels Theatre in 1991, the festival doubled its total attendance over each of the two previous seasons, which were held mainly at the outdoor Lowell Davies Festival Stage in Balboa Park.

“This year represents a consolidation, and I think it gives the program more focus,” Atherton said.

The opening concert (May 30 and 31) will include Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G Minor and Parker soloing in Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto. The second concert will feature Mendelssohn’s rarely heard Concerto for Violin and Piano, and Thomas will play Tchaikovsky’s “Andante Cantabile” for Cello and Strings.

Phelps will solo in Telemann’s G Major Viola Concerto in the third concert, and Schub will play Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 27 in the final all-Mozart offering. Subscriptions and additional information: 233-4281.

Opera Mecca. At Opera America’s annual conference, held at San Diego’s downtown Doubletree Hotel, about 300 opera professionals from North America, Europe and Australia have been networking since Thursday morning. Gerard Mortier, director of Brussels’ Theatre de la Monnaie and artistic director of the Salzburg Festival, gave a highbrow pep talk to his colleagues at the opening convocation.

The conference closes this afternoon with an address by John Frohnmayer, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts.

To opera administrators coping with the vicissitudes of a weak economy and general cultural antipathy, Mortier made his case for a “new world order” in which the cultural sphere would share equal importance with the economic and the political arenas. He readily conceded that the arts are usually seen as a mere appendix to the real world of politics and economics.

“But if we want to give someone a feel for ancient Egyptian civilization, we take them to see the pyramids. Only after that experience are they moved to discover how Egyptian society was organized and what their economic system was about,” Mortier said. “Similarly, our touchstone with the Middle Ages is the Gothic cathedral, and with the Renaissance, it’s the sculptures of Michelangelo. When future generations want to learn about us, they will look to the art we have produced.”

Mortier had a few critical words for his colleagues, however. He pointed out how little the creator is valued in the contemporary opera world, while the singer is treated like a God.

“When Olivier Messiaen composed his wonderful opera, ‘St. Francis of Assisi,’ he was paid a mere 80,000 francs, which was about $12,000. Tenor Luciano Pavarotti makes that for a single evening’s performance.”

Before Mortier gave his keynote address, Opera America Chief Executive Officer Marc Scorca reviewed the 1991 North American opera scene. (One of the functions of the organization is to compile statistics about the opera industry.) After the bad news--more than 50% of the opera companies affiliated with Opera America ended their recent fiscal year in the red--he described how Mozart dominated opera in 1991.

“Not only were the operas of Mozart the most frequently performed in 1991, but 17% of all main stage opera performances were Mozart’s,” Scorca noted.

In 1991, the most frequently staged opera composers after Mozart were, not surprisingly, Puccini, Verdi, Johann Strauss and Richard Strauss. Scorca noted that in the Mozart bicentennial year, the one evergreen composer who was edged out of the Top 10 list was Richard Wagner.

Scorca’s anecdotal report included color slides of a production in Western Canada of an opera performed in canoes on a lake while the audience watched from the shore. He also noted that Detroit Opera staged a Pavarotti look-alike contest, the sole item that elicited a hearty laugh from the assembled impresarios.

And those impresarios, like opera fans, can never overdose on their artist vice of choice. The visiting professionals will attend San Diego Opera’s opening-night production of Richard Strauss’ “Der Rosenkavalier” tonight at Civic Theatre, and many will travel to Costa Mesa on Sunday for a matinee performance of Opera Pacific’s “Tosca.”

Auditions. Two local vocal ensembles will hold auditions this week. Musique Classique, a 16-voice group that performs classical, jazz and popular music, will hold auditions for all vocal parts Jan. 21 and 28 at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Pacific Beach. Heidi Lynn directs the ensemble, which performed with the San Diego Symphony Pops for two seasons and gave the premiere of Kenneth Nelson’s “Cantata for Four Saints.” For an audition appointment, call 295-7152.

Xiamora di Maio, director of Las Voces, an ensemble devoted to performing music by 20th-Century Latin American composers, will hold auditions for all vocal parts Feb. 1, 1-5 p.m. A mastery of the Spanish language is not required, but singers should prepare a classical piece of their choice. Call 294-2049 for an audition appointment.

CRITIC’S CHOICE

ISAAC STERN AT THE CIVIC THEATRE

The legendary Isaac Stern plays the Civic Theatre at 8 p.m. Wednesday. For the better part of the century, the virtuoso violinist has dominated the cultural scene as performer, arts administrator (he was president of Carnegie Hall for 30 years) and humanitarian.

With pianist Robert McDonald, Stern will play Beethoven’s “Spring” Sonata, Webern’s Four Pieces for Violin and Piano, Dvorak’s Romance in F Minor, and Brahms D Minor Sonata.

According to the sponsoring La Jolla Chamber Music Society, the house for Stern is sold out, but intrepid Stern fans may line up for returned tickets an hour before the performance.