Opera San José hits it out of the park with its immensely moving new virtual production of Three Decembers, the chamber opera by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer, based on an unpublished play by Terrance McNally. Due to popular demand, streaming access has now been extended through January 31, 2021. It’s about a family of three – diva Maddie, played by world-renowned mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, and her two adult children Bea and Charlie, played by Opera San José Resident Artists Maya Kherani and Efraín Solís. In a swift 90 minutes, the three journey from a place of disconnect to a place of understanding and ultimately healing.
BroadwayWorld spoke with Ms. Kherani shortly after she had completed filming 'Three Decembers.'
This holiday week the Virtual Opera Tour’s Magic Opera Flying Carpet is making its first stop at Opera San Jose for their magnificent online performance of Three Decembers. It costs $40 to watch on demand.The price is a bit steep, but the story is affecting, the music is fabulous and the performances are riveting.
Talking to Khori Dastoor, General Director of Opera San José brings to mind that old quote from Elizabeth Taylor when she was faced with unimaginable adversity, “Now is the time for guts and guile.” Just one year into her tenure as GD, Dastoor is faced with an almost impossible situation due to the Covid pandemic. Out of all the arts, opera, the artform which she has made her life’s work, arguably has the biggest challenges. After all, the act of singing operatically produces enormous amounts of aerosols, the core audience is older and thus especially at risk for Covid, and the population at large may not consider opera to be essential to their lives. Since creating new works is practically impossible, many GD’s are offering a sort of greatest hits of former glories, video snippets from past years that were already in the can. Or maybe something like a “reading” of an old holiday chestnut like Der Rosenkavalier, presented Brady-Bunch style on Zoom.
So what does Dastoor do instead? She goes bravely programs a brand-new, beautifully-produced production of Jake Heggie’s Three Decembers, starring no less than world-renowned opera star Susan Graham, alongside two of Opera San José’s super-talented Resident Artists, soprano Maya Kherani and baritone Efraín Solis. This immensely moving chamber work is based on an unpublished play by Terrance McNally, adapted by librettist Gene Scheer, and tells the story of a family struggling to connect during the early years of the AIDS pandemic. The work premiered in 2008, yet somehow feels more relevant than ever, given the parallels with what we’re all going through today, as evidenced by McNally’s death from Covid earlier this year. The opera is currently available for streaming through the end of December. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit operasj.org.
BroadwayWorld spoke with Dastoor shortly after the filming of Three Decembers had been completed. Dastoor was remarkably open and forthcoming about the challenges of the opera world right now, even as her passion for growing the artform burns stronger than ever. We talked about how she managed to produce Three Decembers during Covid, her successful earlier career as a lyric soprano, and the imperative to keep the arts alive during these difficult times. Her responses to my questions were invariably thoughtful, often surprising and not without humor. And, as a rare woman of color leading an opera company, her understanding of the need to open up her artform runs deep. Above all, though, she is just plain fun to talk to - effortlessly engaging, whip-smart, emotionally transparent, and without an ounce of pretension.
Faced with the inability to perform live opera because of COVID, Opera San Jose opted to film an opera that could be made to fit California health regulations in its new Fred Heiman Digital Media Studio. General director Khori Dastoor chose Jake Heggie’s three-person chamber opera, Three Decembers. Since it’s an opera that needs a big star to play famous actress Madeline Mitchell, Dastoor engaged Susan Graham.
While performing arts organizations around the world are dusting off existing productions of the usual chestnuts during the month of December, Opera San José is taking a more audacious approach with its holiday programming. They are presenting a new, fully-staged production of Jake Heggie’s immensely moving chamber opera, Three Decembers, featuring world-renowned mezzo-soprano Susan Graham in the central role, alongside celebrated Opera San José Resident Artists soprano Maya Kherani and baritone Efraín Solís.
Based on the unpublished play Some Christmas Letters by Tony-winning playwright Terrance McNally, Three Decembers follows the story of a famous actress, Madeline Mitchell, and her two adult children, Beatrice and Charlie over three decades (1986, 1996, and 2006). With a witty and touching libretto by Gene Scheer and a soaring musical score by Jake Heggie, Three Decembers is a 90-minute fullhearted American opera about family – the ones we are born into and those we create. The world-class digital production is offered via on-demand streaming through December 31, 2020. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit operasj.org or call (408) 437-4450.
BroadwayWorld speaks with charismatic baritone Efraín Solís, who plays son Charlie.
If you've attended theater in the Bay Area with any degree of regularity over the past few decades, chances are you've seen actress Lorri Holt - a lot! Since the 1980's, Holt has become a veritable local treasure, performing with theater companies large and small across the Bay Area, creating roles in scores of new plays along the way. Among many career highlights, she was part of the fabled Eureka Theatre Company that commissioned Tony Kushner to write Angels in America where Holt originated the role of Harper Pitt.
Holt's latest performance, in Who Killed Sylvia Plath? by award-winning playwright Lynne Kaufman, is enjoying a virtual return engagement on MarshStream November 28th and 29th after winning the award for Best Full Length at the recent MarshStream International Solo Fest. The play had premiered at The Marsh in 2019 before being adapted into a virtual offering for Solo Fest. For further details on the livestream, visit the MarshStream website. BroadwayWorld speaks with Holt from her home in Nevada City, California where she relocated just prior to the Covid pandemic.
Boys will lift their voices in song while sheltering in place as Ragazzi Boys Chorus begins remote rehearsals for the Fall 2020 semester on Wednesday, September 9. The acclaimed boys chorus has cancelled in-person gatherings to prevent the spread of Coronavirus, instead opting for choristers to continue singing and learning new music from home.
It is time for Robert Kelley to take a richly-deserved curtain call. June 30th will be his last day as Artistic Director of TheatreWorks Silicon Valley after a mind-blowing 50 years in that role. It is not hyperbole to state there isn't another individual who has had a more profound influence on the Bay Area theatre landscape. Kelley founded TheatreWorks as a scrappy, community theater company in April, 1970 and guided its transformation over the years into a Tony-winning powerhouse and nationally-recognized incubator of new works. BroadwayWorld had the pleasure of speaking with Kelley earlier this spring to discuss his half-century history with TheatreWorks.
Foothill Music Theatre has cancelled this week's final performances of The Mystery of Edwin Drood due to rising concerns about limiting the spread of COVID-19 (Coronavirus), and in adherence with Foothill College's updated COVID-19 policy cancelling events with over 100 people in attendance. Performing since February 27 at Foothill College's Lohman Theatre, Foothill Music Theatre is looking at options for remounting The Mystery of Edwin Drood in the future, when it is established that gatherings are no longer a health threat to the community. At this time, those holding tickets to the four final performances will be contacted with options to donate their tickets to the Foothill Foundation which supports its arts programs, request a refund, or accept a credit for a future performance of this or another future Foothill production.
Sometimes it IS enough just to be entertained, ya know? I don't care how socio-politically engaged you are, I think everyone needs at least an occasional break from all the angst and mishegas out there, and that's exactly what Foothill Music Theatre provides with its antic musical comedy 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood.' With book, music and lyrics by Rupert Holmes (yes, he of 'The Pina Colada Song' infamy. Apologies for implanting that deathless ear worm in your head for the rest of the day!), 'Drood' is truly sui generis. Based on an unfinished Charles Dickens novel of the same name, the show reimagines it as performed by a veteran troupe of British Music Hall performers circa 1895. When they reach the point in the story where Dickens left off, the audience is asked to vote on how it ends - who the murderer and secret detective are and - since this is a musical comedy a?' the pair they'd most like to see end up as lovers. The cast then plays out the concluding scenes and songs accordingly. Apparently, there are close to a mind-bogglingly thousand possible combinations, which just adds to the fun and unpredictability of the whole endeavor.
Heather Orth stars as mysterious opium den proprietress Princess Puffer in Foothill Music Theatre's new production of Rupert Holmes' rollicking musical comedy a?oeThe Mystery of Edwin Drood.a?? A Tony Award winner for Best Musical, the show is based on an unfinished novel by Charles Dickens. As the novel was left incomplete, so is the show - up to a point. When the cast reaches the part in the story where Dickens left off, they put a vote to the audience at each performance as to how the show will end. Ms. Orth has been gracing Bay Area stages with astonishing frequency as of late. She possesses a big, flexible voice and the ability to charm the pants off you or break your heart with her emotional transparency. BroadwayWorld caught up with her recently while she was still in the thick of rehearsals for a?oeDrood.a?? She has often played characters older than she is, and as she matures one gets the sense she may just be coming into her own as a musical theater performer, and even bigger opportunities may be on the horizon.
Thomas L. Beckmen, Board Chair of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, and Chad Smith, David C. Bohnett Chief Executive Officer Chair, today announced that Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel's contract will be extended through the orchestra's 2025/26 season.
The life and times of legendary showman George M. Cohan explode into the 21st century in a sensational musical, Yankee Doodle Dandy! For the first time, the complete recording of this remarkable new musical is available on CD, digital and streaming formats. The Seattle Times called the show, 'Irresistible!' It features a book by David Armstrong (Artistic Director Emeritus of The 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle) and new songs inspired by unfinished Cohan melodies, including the heartbreaking ballad, Pick Up Your Dreams, by Albert Evans (Nite Club Confidential, Pageant).
BWW Review: BULL IN A CHINA SHOP at Aurora Theatre dramatizes the love letters of early women's rights activist Mary Wooley, President of Mt. Holyoke 1901-1937.
Jason Graae is soon to star once again as the title character in a?oeScrooge in Love!a?? at 42nd Street Moon, where has found a sort of Bay Area artistic home in recent years. This eternally youthful performer is now a veritable showbiz veteran, having starred on Broadway several times, toured the country with legendary composer Jerry Herman, recorded almost 50 CD's and most recently played The Wizard of Oz in the national tour of a?oeWicked.a?? Known for his spirited comic performances and sterling vocals, you might expect Mr. Graae to be a lot of fun to talk to, and you would be right about that. While quick to express heartfelt gratitude to colleagues, he is also the irrepressible imp who can't resist entertaining you with his mischievous sense of humor.
In the summer of 1983, Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein put on a show that was light years ahead of the zeitgeist, vis-a-vis the awareness and acceptance of LGBTQ people in America, and about twenty years before the legalization of same-sex marriage. Yet, after a successful tryout at the Colonial Theatre in Boston, they boldly went where no Broadway musical had gone before when they opened LA CAGE AUX FOLLES at the Palace Theatre on August 21, 1983. Reagle Music Theatre of Greater Boston concludes its 51st Summer Season with LA CAGE, and I am pleased to report that the show continues to stand the test of time. The three most important components for a successful staging of this musical are the two actors who play the leading men, Georges (J.T. Turner) and Albin (James Darrah), and the dance troupe who comprise Les Cagelles, the drag performers at the Saint-Tropez title nightclub owned by the latter couple, and they collectively win the trifecta.
Following a successful World Premiere run at The Marsh San Francisco, Who Killed Sylvia Plath, written by award-winning playwright Lynne Kaufman and starring Lorri Holt, will transfer to The Marsh Berkeley this Fall.
