Arts & Events

b On Saturday, October14, Museo Italo Americano at Fort Mason presented a one-day symposium on the many ways the history of opera in San Francisco is intertwined with the city’s Italian community, which was largely responsible for making San Francisco a major opera center in the USA and worldwide. Also featured at the Museo Italo Americano was, and still is, a wonderful exhibition entitled BRAVO illustrating the participation of so many illustrious Italian singers, conductors and composers who have thrilled San Francisco audiences with their performances here. Both the one-day symposium and the BRAVO exhibition were the work of a team that included Bianca Friumdi, Curator of Museo Italo Americano; Kip Cranna, Dramaturg Emeritus at San Francisco Opera; and a whole host of others, all of whom were graciously thanked by Bianca Friundi in her welcoming remarks at the start of the symposium.  

On a personal note, Bianca Friundi noted that having grown up in Milan, Italy, she had long considered Milan’s Teatro alla Scala the worldwide center of opera. Then, on coming to San Francisco as Curator at Museo Italo Americano, she was thrilled to learn of the deep Italian roots of opera in San Francisco and of how Italian-Americans here were so influential in making San Francisco a world-class center of opera. This symposium and the BRAVA exhibition, she said, are testaments to the contributions of Italians and Italian-Americans to that history of opera in San Francisco.  

Following her opening remarks, Bianca Friundi introduced Marina Romani, Lecturer at UC Berkeley, who then gave a talk on the life and work of Gaetano Merola (1881-19580. Born and raised in Naples, Merola first came to San Francisco in 1906, where he immediately was impressed by the musical passion and potential of this city. Merola revisited San Francisco in 1909 as conductor of the traveling International Grand Opera Company; and he returned here in 1919 as conductor of the San Carlo Opera Company, a group he also conducted here in 1920 and 1921. Later that year Merola and his wife Rosa moved permanently to San Francisco, which he called “my other Italy.” In her talk, Marina Romani noted that a major step forward was taken when Gaetano Merola attended the “Big Game” at Stanford Stadium in the fall of 1921 and was greatly impressed with that stadium’s wonderful acoustics. This discovery led Merola to present four staged open-air opera performances at Stanford Stadium in 1922, all starring the great Italian tenor Giovanni Martinelli. So successful were these performances that in 1923 Merola founded San Francisco Opera, with funding provided by a dozan Italian-Americans, who are now duly honored with their names on a plaque at San Francisco Opera’s War Memorial Opera House. San Francisco Opera’s first season opened on September 26, 1923 at the Exposition Auditorium (now known as the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium). Ten different operas were offered that first season, all but one were Italian. 

On August 30, 1953, at an outdoor concert of the San Francisco Symphony at Stern Grove, Gaetano Merola, age 72, was felled by a stroke and died while conductiong soprano Brunetta Mazzolini in the aria “Un bel di vedremo” from Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. 

The next speaker was Kip Cranna, Dramaturg Emeritus of San Francisco Opera, who began his talk by noting that the very first operatic music heard in San Francisco came in the first year of the Gold Rush. Verdi’s aria, “Ernani, involami” was performed on November 4, 1850 at the Jenny Lind Theatre. Cranna noted that the heroine’s rousing call to be saved from marrying the aged and reviled suitor must have appealed to the overwhelmingly male population of San Francisco at this time. Cranna then played for us a video recording of Leona Mitchell performing this aria at the Met in 1982. Leona Mitchell’s performance was thrilling, perhaps even a bit over the top in her improvised and heavily embroidered cadenza at the close of Ernani, involami.” In February 1851, two Bellini operas — La Sonnambula and Norma —were performed at the Adelphi Theatre, and in April of that year, the first complete Verdi opera — Ernani — was performed by the Pellegrini Company at the Adelphi Theatre. Since the company lacked a suitable baritone for the role of Don Carlo, Matilde Korsinsky Von Gulpan sang the role transposed to a soprano key. In spite of Ernani’s initial success during Gold Rush times in San Francisco, it is a curious fact that San Francisco Opera did not present Ernani until 1963. By then, it seems, the oompahpah style of Verdi’s fifth opera was clearly out of favour.  

Following Kip Cranna’s talk, we were treated to a musical interlude by soprano Eileen Meredith, accompanied by keyboard artist Ron Valentino. Meredith sang two arias from Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Butterfly’s Un bel di vedremo, an aria from Puccini’s La Rondine, and Vissi d’arte from Puccini’s Tosca. Then we took a lunch break to enjoy the boxed lunches provided by Museo Italo Americano.  

When we reassmbled at 1:40 we heard a presentation by Jeffrey McMillan, Public Relations Director at San Francisco Opera. McMillan’s talk was entitled The Importance of Italian Diva Claudia Muzio. McMillan duly noted all the qualities that made Claudia Muzio special. Above all, there was her fierce commitment to each and every role she performed. Muzio debuted at San Francisco Opera in 1924 as Maddalena in Andrea Chenier opposite Italian tenor Beniamino Gigli. Over the next decade Muzio sang often at San Francisco Opera, and in 1932 she inaugurated the new War Memorial Opera House by singing the lead role in Tosca. In her total dedication to each and every role, noted Jeffrey McMillan, Claudia Muzio was like Maria Callas, who came after Muzio and modeled her performing style on that of Muzio. Other singers who were inspired by Muzio included Magda Olivera, Aprile Millo, and Ailyn Pérez. McMillan played recording clips of Muzio singing Mimi’s farewell aria from La Bohème, Violetta’s reading of the letter from Georgio Germont when on her death bed, and the ensuing cabaletta È tarde!  

A panel discussion brought the symposium to a close. Amid many questions from the audience, two artists were invited from the audience to join the panelists. One was graphic designer Alice Amiigassi, who designed all texts and photos for the BRAVO exhibition; and the other was muralist Cindy Salans Rosenheim who talked about all the planning that went into her choice of subject for the main mural — a view of the War Memorial Opera House circa 1932. Her remarks provided a fitting end to a most informative symposium on the history of the Italian community’s involvement in the early days of opera in San Francisco.