Chance to hear an iconic music director.
Nicholas McGegan and Philharmonia Baroque have been good for each other
Nicholas McGegan is back in the Bay Area this week, preparing an innovative, gender-fluid production of Handel’s “Aci, Galatea, e Polifemo.” Innovative isn’t a word often used to describe early music performance, but McGegan, the acclaimed music director of the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, has been expanding the boundaries of the form for more than three decades. A co-production with the New York based venue and arts presenter National Sawdust, “Aci” opens Friday at San Francisco’s ODC Theater following a bracing 2017 run in New York. Handel’s experimental early opera is directed by Christopher Alden and stars countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, who recently conquered the opera world in the title role of “Akhnaten” at the Metropolitan Opera. Presenting Costanzo — who sings the female role of Galatea, with Lauren Snouffer as the male lead,
Aci, and Davóne Tines as Polifemo — is just the latest coup from McGegan, who has earned a reputation for bringing early music to contemporary audiences in new and exciting ways. “Aci” also marks one of McGegan’s final outings with Philharmonia Baroque; having raised the San Francisco-based ensemble to international prominence, he’s stepping down as music director at the end of this season. In a recent interview at the Berkeley Hills home he shares with his husband, producer and recording engineer David Bowles, the English conductor said the timing was right. “I’m very proud of how Philharmonia has grown and changed during my tenure,” said McGegan. “I think the orchestra is in a very good place right now. It’s a tribute, really, to our tremendous musicians. They’re a wonderful bunch.” News of McGegan relinquishing his post has brought questions about his health — he had a recent hip replacement surgery — but he says he’s feeling great. He’s leaving the orchestra, but definitely not retiring. He’ll maintain his international career, conducting and teaching throughout the U.S. and Europe. “I’m planning to spend my time making music, rather than going to board meetings,” he said. The conductor, 70, came to Philharmonia Baroque when it was still in its infancy — a tiny startup founded in 1981 by Berkeley harpsichordist Laurette Goldberg and a few early music enthusiasts. “It was slightly counterculture,” recalls McGegan, who joined the group for a tour in 1984, and was named music director in 1985. At that time, he says, many music lovers thought of early music as “the vegetarian option.” They don’t think that now. With a keen sense of the dramatic in Baroque and classical music, and a wide network of international collaborators, McGegan reshaped the orchestra’s profile, conducting and recording large-scale operas and oratorios with international stars such as Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Jordi Savall, Steven Isserlis, Susan Graham and Anne Sofie von Otter. In 2017, he brought a team of international artists to Cal Performances for an extravagantly staged production of Rameau’s opera “The Temple of Glory.” (Philharmonia released a live recording of the performance in 2018.) This spring, the same team will return to join McGegan in the orchestra’s season-ending production of Leclair’s “Scylla et Glaucus.” Among McGegan’s most significant collaborations are those with American choreographer Mark Morris and his Mark Morris Dance Group. Together, they have mounted numerous productions, including Handel’s “L’Allegro, il Penseroso, ed il Moderato,” and Rameau’s “Platee.” The two men share a deep understanding of Baroque style and a flair for the theatrical. “Working with Mark is about as much fun as you can have and still be legal,” said McGegan. Under his guidance, Philharmonia has also expanded the repertoire, commissioning new works for Baroque instruments by composers Jake Heggie, Sally Beamish and Caroline Shaw, whose oratorio “The Listeners” made its world premiere under McGegan’s direction earlier this season. Although there’s been very little turnover in his orchestra, McGegan says the early music scene has changed a lot. “The counterculture part’s all gone,” he said. “We’re establishment now, and early music is everywhere.” Still, McGegan has accomplished something rare. By presenting Baroque works with a difference, he’s turned a little Berkeley music group into one of the world’s most adventurous ensembles. “Aci,” in the intimate ODC space, continues the trend, and McGegan says the approach is fitting for Handel’s opera. “Handel is really pushing the envelope in this piece, and Christopher Alden is staging it in a very modern way,” he said. “It’s very San Francisco.”