Photos capture history of S.F. Opera
Opera is famously a grand synthesis of all the arts, or at least so its devotees would have you believe. It combines orchestral and vocal music, theater, dance, visual arts, literature and, increasingly nowadays, a smattering of cinema as well.
Sometimes, though, just a well-chosen photograph can be enough to conjure up the essence of the operatic experience.
There are scores of such photographs to choose from in “Looking Through the Lens,” the sumptuous and often thrilling free exhibit now on permanent display at the Diane B. Wilsey Center for Opera on the fourth floor of the Veterans War Memorial Building. The 135 images here, drawn from the archives of the San Francisco Opera, cover the nearly 100 years of the company’s history with a sweep and vitality that are wonderful to behold.
At one chronological end is what may be the earliest image related to the nascent organization, a huge and meticulously restored group portrait from 1923 showing everyone connected with the production of Giordano’s “Andrea Chénier” that was the second offering of the company’s maiden season — the cast in full costume, the orchestra and chorus members, and at the center the founder and conductor Gaetano Merola, looking proud and proprietary (though perhaps not as proprietary as his wife, who sits next to him with her hand clamped possessively on his).
At the other end are photos taken during last year’s magisterial production of Berlioz’s “Les Troyens” — one of soprano Anna Caterina Antonacci as Cassandre in the grips of the character’s prophetic frenzy, another of Susan Graham as Didon, ruling over the sunny Carthage of Es Devlin’s witty set.
In between is a cornucopia of posed portraiture, performance shots, group photos and more, all amounting to a sort of tour of the development of opera in San Francisco over the decades.
“Looking Through the Lens” is the brainchild of Jon Finck, the company’s director of communications and public affairs, who saw a way to use the gallery space in the new Wilsey Center to shine a light on the Opera’s archival holdings. Some of the pictures have been seen before, in program books or publicity material, but most have been brought out of the files for the first time.
The display has been arranged with an eye to both elegant patterning and serendipitous interconnection. One wing of the exhibit is devoted to black-and-white images, the other to color prints. Small thematic groupings pop up here and there — most notably a cluster of religious imagery that includes moments from Boito’s “Mefistofele,” Messiaen’s “Saint François d’Assise” and others — without being too obtrusive about it.
To walk through the galleries, whether as an aficionado or a tyro, is to revel in the vitality and variety of the operatic experience. Here is the American baritone Lawrence Tibbet in 1936, scowling down with terrifying malevolence as Scarpia from Puccini’s “Tosca.” Here is soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, all sculpted cheekbones and elegant hauteur, commanding the stage as the Marschallin in Richard Strauss’ “Der Rosenkavalier.” Here are tenor Jay Hunter Morris as Ahab in Jake Heggie’s “Moby-Dick,” soprano Leontyne Price in her signature title role in Verdi’s “Aida,” and soprano Nina Stemme as Brünnhilde from the majestic “Ring” cycle of 2011.
There are historic moments celebrated as well, including the U.S. premiere in 1966 of Janácek’s “Makropulos Case” (now a repertory standard that is due for a revival in October) or the 1972 company debut of mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade in Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro.”
What’s striking, too, is to watch the advances in photographic technology over the years, and with them the shifts in convention. In the early years, it’s hard for the camera to register anything but posed shots with the requisite clarity (although there are exceptions, like a vivid 1938 action shot from Donizetti’s “Don Pasquale” in which the great comic bass Salvatore Baccaloni seems to burst out of the frame in the title role). There’s a fertile tension in the photographers’ efforts to convey something of opera’s kinetic quality without actually rendering the performers in motion.
But things improve over the years, and the advent of digital technology marks a sea change. A photo taken during the 2011 production of Handel’s “Xerxes” catches Graham and countertenor David Daniels in the midst of some brisk stage business — at once crisply delineated and full of momentum.
The only thing notably missing from the exhibit, perhaps, is the music. Opera buffs are likely to supply their own internal soundtracks, and others may be inspired to get to the Opera House for the full artistic experience.