Opera Ball: The Centennial Celebration

PROGRAM:

“Si può?” from Pagliacci (Ruggero Leoncavallo)
LUCAS MEACHEM
Tonio, one of a troupe of traveling players, steps in front of the curtain to begin the
performance, explaining that the composer wishes to present a genuine “slice of life”
and show that, despite their comic posturing, the actors onstage are flesh-and-blood
beings with true human feelings.

“Che gelida manina” from La Bohème (Giacomo Puccini)
PENE PATI
The poet Rodolfo meets the seamstress Mimì when she knocks at his unheated garret
seeking to light her candle. Clutching her “freezing hand” to warm it in his own, he tells
her of his life and dreams, and confesses that her beautiful eyes have brought him
newfound hope.

“Ah! non credea non mirarti … Ah non giunge”
from La Sonnambula (Vincenzo Bellini)
NADINE SIERRA
In distress at being denounced as unfaithful to Elvino, Amina sleepwalks as she imagines
the flowers from her engagement withered in her hand. But when Elvino awakens her
and realizes her innocence, she rejoices in her unimagined happiness.

“Nessun dorma” from Turandot (Giacomo Puccini)
MICHAEL FABIANO
Princess Turandot has decreed that “none shall sleep” tonight, for by dawn she must
know the name of the stranger (Calaf) who has answered her riddles. If she learns it, he
must die. If not, she must marry him. Calaf sings that only he will reveal his secret, and at
dawn he will triumph.

Prelude to Act III from Lohengrin (Richard Wagner)
SAN FRANCISCO OPERA O RCHESTRA
With a brilliant flourish of orchestral excitement, Wagner prepares the audience for the
moment when the curtain will rise on the wedding night between Lohengrin and Elsa.

“Vieni, vieni fra queste braccia” from I Puritani (Vincenzo Bellini)
NADINE SIERRA, PENE PATI
Fearing that her beloved Arturo had abandoned her, Elvira temporarily succumbed to
madness, but when he reappears and assures her of his love, the two fervently pledge
their devotion.

“È lui! ... desso ... l’Infante! ... Dio, che nell’alma infondere”
from Don Carlo (Giuseppe Verdi)
MICHAEL FABIANO, LUCAS MEACHEM
Rodrigo urges his friend Carlo to forget his hopeless love for Elizabeth, and instead
devote himself to the cause of freeing the people of Flanders from Spanish oppression.
The two men swear an oath of eternal friendship.

“Ah, mes amis!” from La Fille du Régiment (Gaetano Donizetti)
PENE PATI
Tonio loves Marie, an orphan who has been raised by the soldiers of a French regiment.
In order to marry her, he has become a soldier himself and, after gaining the men’s
approval to wed, he rejoices (in this aria famous for its nine high Cs) in becoming a
“militaire et mari”—soldier and husband.

“C’est toi, mon père!” from Thaïs ( Jules Massenet)
NADINE SIERRA, LUCAS MEACHEM
The former courtesan Thaïs has embraced religious faith but is near death after months
of penitence. The monk Athanaël, who brought about her conversion, is now unable
to deny his passion for her, but in her transcendent final state she is oblivious to his
belated pleas.

fffanfare!! (Texu Kim)
SAN FRANCISCO OPERA ORCHESTRA
World premiere commission to celebrate the Centennial Season.
fffanfare!!—as in Fast-Forward Fanfare (also implying Fortissimo Fanfare)—celebrates a
wonderful variety of operatic repertory interweaving melodies from numerous works of
historical significance. (How many can you recognize?)

“Melodia Sentimental” (Heitor Villa-Lobos)
NADINE SIERRA
This sultry and evocative call for a lover to come and look up at the moon is part of
a suite for orchestra and voices entitled “Floresta do Amazonas,” on poems by Dora
Vasconcellos, which Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos originally intended as a film
score for MGM’s Green Mansions (1959).

“Parlami d’amore Mariù” (Cesare Andrea Bixio)
MICHAEL FABIANO
“Tell Me About Love, Mariù” was composed for singer/actor/filmmaker Vittorio De Sica
to sing in Mario Camerini’s 1932 film Gli uomini, che mascalzoni (What Scoundrels Men
Are!). Bixio dedicated the song to his wife Mary, known as “Mariù.”

“Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better)”
from Annie Get Your Gun (Irving Berlin)
TUTTI
Irving Berlin’s hit 1946 musical is loosely based on the life of the sharpshooter Annie
Oakley, star of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, and her romance with fellow sharpshooter
Frank E. Butler. This noted song of one-upmanship sets the scene for their rivalry in the
climactic shooting contest.

“Tonight” from West Side Story (Leonard Bernstein)
NADINE SIERRA, MICHAEL FABIANO
Bernstein tells a modern-day Romeo and Juliet story set amid gang rivalry on New York’s
Upper West Side. Maria, from a Puerto Rican family, falls in love with the American-born
Tony. ‘Tonight’ is their balcony scene where the two young lovers pledge themselves to
each other in love despite the worry of strong opposition from their families.

“A Te Tarakihi” (Traditional Maori)
PENE PATI
This ancient action-chant is a celebration of song and dance and nature in which the Maori
people practice their dancing while watching the rhythms of the cicada. The rhythmic folk
melody set to a 300-year old poem celebrates the steady, cheerful chirping of the cicada
during the warm summer months inviting listeners to clap in unison and stamp their feet to
the joyful rhythms of nature.

“Don’t Stop Me Now” (Freddie Mercury)
LUCAS MEACHEM
VICTOR CARDAMONE, EDWARD GRAVES, TIMOTHY MURRAY
The British rock band Queen featured this song on their 1978 album, Jazz, and released
it as a single in 1979. This joyous ode to pleasure-seeking became one of the band’s most
beloved hits and has been featured in films, commercials, and TV shows.

“San Francisco” (Bronislaw Kaper and Walter Jurmann)
TUTTI
Jeannette MacDonald sang this rousing title song, with lyrics by Gus Kahn, in W. S. Van
Dyke’s 1936 film San Francisco, and it soon became the city’s unofficial anthem. In 1984 it
was named one of two official city songs, the other being “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.”