In San Francisco Opera’s View, No Musical Work Is an Island

San Francisco Opera general director-designate Pamela Rosenberg unveiled an ambitious five-year programming plan for the company Tuesday in San Francisco.

Rosenberg, who takes over leadership of the organization from Lotfi Mansouri on Aug. 1, calls the plan “Animating Opera.” It weaves seven themes and series throughout the company’s performances beginning in the 2002-03 season.

The themes include “Seminal Works of Modern Times,” which is intended to be a guide to 20th century opera, and will begin in the 2002-03 season with the first complete staging in the U.S. of Messiaen’s “Saint Francois d’Assise. That series will continue with a modern opera in each of the next two seasons.

Another theme, “The Faust Project” creates a series over an unspecified number of seasons that will include four operas based on the Faust story and a new American “Faust” to be commissioned by the company for premiere sometime after 2004.

In “Composer Portrait: Janacek/Berlioz,” works by these two composers will be juxtaposed; “Women Outside of Society: Laws Unto Themselves” concentrates on operatic heroines; “Metamorphosis: From Fairy Tales to Nightmares” will include Achim Freyer’s production of Carl Maria von Weber’s “Der Freischutz”; other themes are “Utopia in the Age of Enlightenment” and “Outsiders or Pioneers?: The Nature of the Human Condition.”

In a telephone interview, Rosenberg, who comes to San Francisco from a nine-year post as joint general director and director of operations for Stuttgart Opera, said the theme concept is a way of linking operas thematically that will allow “the audience to become involved in more than just going to single performances, seeing a single piece in its own terms--to be able to start thinking about the issues in a piece and seeing it in a wider context.”

Rosenberg said that audiences will be made aware of how each opera fits into a theme, but the related operas will not be performed consecutively, nor will they be sold in ticket series packages. She added that the themes lend themselves to community outreach and interaction; an example would be to create film, literary series or museum exhibitions based on the “Faust” story.

Rosenberg, who received her undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley, in history with a minor in music, said coming to San Francisco Opera has given her the chance to return home. “How should I say it--fate sounds a little melodramatic, but it’s coming home, and I feel that I can bring all these years of experience in another culture back to where I came from, my first opera experience was here,” she said.

In all, Rosenberg announced plans for 25 operas that are part of “‘Animating Opera,” 12 of them company premieres. Many of the works will connect with more than one theme; all of the themes will be introduced in the 2002-03 season except “Outsiders or Pioneers?,” which is scheduled to begin in 2004-05.

Also announced were the extension of music director Donald Runnicles’ contract until 2006, and programming for the 2001-02 season. Planned by the outgoing Mansouri, next season’s offerings include the world premiere of the complete original version of Tigran Chukhadjian’s “Arshak II” (Sept. 8 to 30); a new production of Wagner’s “Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg” (Oct. 10 to 28); and Janacek’s “Jenufa” (Nov. 19 to Dec. 9).