The 2017 class of the SFO Apprentice Singers. Photo by Robert GodwinThe 2017 class of the SFO Apprentice Singers will return to entertain us at 8 p.m. Sunday. Twenty-four of this year’s 44 apprentices appeared at least once in last Sunday’s program. Twenty-eight will appear at least once this Sunday, and eight will have performed in both programs.
Scenes for Sunday night’s program come from Stravinsky’s “The Rakes Progress”, Verdi’s “Falstaff”, Puccini’s “Edgar”.and Massenet’s “Werthe”’. After the intermission there are scenes from Strauss’”‘Der Rosenkavalier”, Pablo Sorozabal’s “La Tabernera del Puerto”, Sondheim’s “‘Sweeney Todd”, and Cimarosa’s “l matrimonio segreto”. Four of them have been SFO productions at least once since 1984.
There is a marvelous synergism between the company’s management and the young singers they invite to appear in each season’s productions. The lavish treatment the singers receive has provided the company with an incredible return on investment. In future years they return endowed with the high standard of quality the company maintains.
General Director Charles MacKay travels extensively each year to find the best talent available for the coming seasons, and this year there are six artists that will debut without having been an apprentice. This year’s roster includes nine former apprentices, more than the average of six during MacKay’s nine years at the helm.
In August of 2006 there was a Gala Concert, “50th Anniversary Arias” hosted by Frederica von Stade to benefit an endowment fund for apprentice singers and technicians. Former apprentice singers performing that night were William Burden, Patrick Carfizzi, Joyce DiDonato, Mark S. Doss, Andrew Funk, Robert Gardner, Keith Jameson, Nancy Maultsby, Kelly O’Connor, Susanna Phillips, Dimitri Pittas, Barbara Quintiliani, Jessica Rivera, Karen Slack, Kurt Streit, and Hyung Yun. Most of those singers have appeared often in our productions over the last decade.
Two of those former apprentices stand out in my memory of their apprentice seasons. Picnicking at Camp May with Keith Jameson in 1998 or 1999 began a friendship with Jameson that continues to bring pleasure. I’ve lost count, but I know he’s been a principle singer here in the majority of years since getting to know him. He has also written an opera for children based on Roger Duvoisin’s 1950 classic story “Petunia”.
Karen Slack was a dear acquaintance when she was an apprentice. One Saturday morning, I tuned into the Metropolitan Opera broadcast of “Luisa Miller”, and much to my delight Karen was singing the title role in Verdi’s opera because the scheduled singer was indisposed. I’ve also been able to see her in more recent productions on PBS.
Among the other former apprentices whose careers I’ve followed are Anne-Carolyn Bird and Adina Aaron. While I was a volunteer gardener, I would hear Aaron vocalizing, and in her second apprentice year, she was the Echo nymph in “Ariadne auf Naxos”. My mother had sung the nymph Niade in Madison, and the passages in that opera that are so dear to my heart will be heard next summer when it opens July 28.
Bird blogged every day during her apprentice years in 2005 and 2006. That is a wonderful account of the life of an apprentice. When Joyce DiDonato was Cendrillon and Jennifer Holloway was her Prince Charming, Anne-Carolyn was Noémie (one of the step-sisters). She took over at the beginning of this month as the Virginia Opera’s new executive/artistic coordinator.
There are so many former apprentices that have gone on to have great careers, which have included numerous performances in Santa Fe that I regret leaving out of the article. However, I’d like to remind our readers that Los Alamos’ Audrey Walstrom has begun her career following two years as an apprentice, and that apprentices that entertained us in Fuller Lodge June 18, soprano Abigail Rethwisch and baritone Kenneth Stavert will be on the stage until the season closes. Last Sunday, Rethwisch was charming as the spurned Adina in a scene from “The Elixir of Love”, and Stavert was powerfully dramatic as Jack Torrance in “The Shining” scene. Sunday night he will be Von Faninal in a “Der Rosenkavalier” scene. Rethwisch has covered Ida this season.
Through the 2008 season the program books only listed the apprentice names along with home states. Their pictures first appeared in 2009, and then in 2010 additional information about them was included. Currently we can find which roles they have, when they appear as more than choristers, and recent engagements. When they cover roles, that information is not listed. I applaud the company for better apprentice listings in the recent program books.
