New Operas Abound but Not in S.D. : Music: It is a banner year for opera premieres across the nation. But under the leadership of Ian Campbell since 1983, San Diego Opera has not undertaken any new operatic works.

Opera companies across the country open their seasons this month, and, despite the gloomy economic climate that has plagued the performing arts, it will be a banner year for opera premieres. Almost everywhere, that is, except San Diego.

Next month, New York’s Metropolitan Opera unveils Philip Glass’ “The Voyage,” and Lyric Opera of Chicago stages the world premiere of Pulitzer-winning American composer William Bolcom’s “McTeague.”

But producing new opera is not the sole province of the well-heeled, big-city companies. Next week, Nebraska’s modest but enterprising Opera/Omaha mounts the first production of “The Garden of Adonis,” the 10th opera by octogenarian U.S. composer Hugo Weisgall.

Later in the 1992-93 season, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, a company known for innovative programming and staging, will present David Carlson’s “The Midnight Angel.” In April, Reno’s Nevada Opera has selected a thoroughly American topic for “Mark Me Twain,” a new opera by American composer Bern Herbolsheimer. Although Opera San Jose is not one of the major league companies, in November it will stage its third world premiere since its founding in 1984, George Roumanis’ “Phaedra.”

And San Francisco Opera honors Bay Area composer John Adams with the West Coast premiere of “The Death of Klinghoffer” in November.

Under the leadership of general director Ian Campbell since 1983, San Diego Opera has not undertaken any new operatic works, although his predecessors were not daunted by such challenges. Both Alva Henderson’s “Medea” and Gian Carlo Menotti’s “Juana La Loca” were given their first performances by the local company.

San Diego Opera has been unwilling to gamble on a new opera production here.

“Audiences don’t accept failure or mistakes readily. Opera is littered with the bodies of one-opera composers. Too many audiences will not forgive opera companies for taking (such) risks,” Campbell said last year. (He could not be reached for comment this week.)

San Diego’s repertory for the coming season reflects this caution. The season brings back five operas from the standard repertory, four of which have already been staged by the company. The sole novelty is Bizet’s “Les Pecheurs de Perles” (“The Pearl Fishers”), a lesser-known 19th-Century opera that was produced by Orange County’s Opera Pacific last year.

Considering Campbell’s point of view, what the adventurous San Diego opera fan needs most is an alert travel agent.

SummerFest wrap-up. The La Jolla Chamber Music Society’s summer festival closed its books this week on an upbeat note.

According to executive director Neale Pearl, the 17-day festival that ended Sunday night attracted more patrons this year than in any previous season. The festival’s $280,000 budget was met and exceeded by a few thousand dollars, Perl said.

Looking to the future, Perl sees the festival producing its own compact disc. For the last three years, RCA has made a CD in New York immediately after the festival with SummerFest players. Perl sees a portion of the festival making its own tour after the La Jolla concerts, and he stated that next year, the younger “Rising Star” musicians would play run-out educational concerts in local schools that are on a 12-month schedule.

Benefit concert. Violinist David Chan, bronze medal winner in the 1990 Tchaikovsky Competition, will be the featured soloist in a benefit concert Sunday at 4:30 p.m. at the Church of the Good Samaritan in University City.

A string orchestra from the Fairbanks School of Performing Arts, Rancho Santa Fe, will perform under the baton of school director Michael Tseitlin to raise money for the school’s Zsusza Heiligenberg scholarship fund. Heiligenberg was a well-known local pianist who died last year; she had been the Rancho Santa Fe school’s accompanist for several years.

Chan, who is 18, studied with Tseitlin for 11 years before commencing Harvard. He now studies with the Juilliard School’s Dorothy DeLay. He will play Paganini’s First Violin Concerto in D Minor on the Sunday program. Other works include the premiere of Chris Meyer’s “Serenada de Lago Azul,” Vaughan Williams’ “Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis” and Barbers’ Adagio for Strings.

Contralto power. Former San Diego singer Martha Jane Howe returns to Lyric Opera of Chicago this fall for her third season with the Windy City company.

She will sing Ludmilla in Smetana’s “The Bartered Bride” and Mamma Sieppe in William Bolcom’s “McTeague.” Howe performed here earlier this year in San Diego Opera’s production of “The Rape of Lucretia” and in a March solo recital sponsored by the Musical Merit Foundation of Greater San Diego.

CRITIC’S CHOICE

BACH ON MISSION ORGAN

Labor Day may be just the right day to make a pilgrimage to the historic Mission San Luis Rey, 4050 Mission Ave. east of Oceanside. The Bach Society will present its third annual Labor Day concert, “Pipes and Reeds,” taking advantage of the mission’s beautiful sanctuary and generous acoustics.

Organist Myrl Hendershott will play J. S. Bach’s mighty Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C Major on the mission’s pipe organ, a modern German instrument well-suited to Baroque music.

Oboists Susan Barrett and Scott Paulson will play Zelenka’s F Major Sonata for Two Oboes, and soprano Kathryn Evans will sing Vaughan Williams’ “Blake Songs” for soprano and oboe.