Tchaikovsky

The opening of The Jacobs Music Center at Copley Symphony Hall will not be happening this spring. The hall was initially scheduled to open in November of 2023 and then in March of 2024. Delays in the process have resulted in a complete reshuffling of the concert deck for the remainder of the 2023-2024 Jacobs Masterworks Series.

Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas was to make his debut with the SDSO this March but a mutual agreement was reached to postpone that until next season. Pianist Lang Lang will still be performing with the symphony on Friday, April 12, at The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park. Lang Lang will be performing Camille Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No. 2. That concert will also include Pytor Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake Suite. 

International cello legend Yo-Yo Ma is joining SDSO at The Civic Theatre on Tuesday, May 7. Yo-Yo Ma will be the soloist in Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto. Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 and Richard Wagner’s Prelude to Act III of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg will also be performed. It’s hard to imagine a more robust program than that.

While those are fine, fine concerts, the crown jewel comes on Saturday, May 18, at The Shell. The first piece is Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. Mendelssohn’s effort sits between Beethoven’s transcendent violin concerto and Johannes Brahms’s offering in the idiom. While Mendelssohn might not have the same stature as his German counterparts, his violin concerto is a gem of the romantic era that has remained popular since its premiere in 1845.

As fine as the Mendelssohn is, the headliner for this concert is Act I of Wagner’s Die Walküre. Act I of Die Walküre is often performed and even recorded as a stand-alone piece. I used to have a recording with Placido Domingo in the role of Siegmund. For the concert, the role of Siegmund will be performed by tenor Viktor Antipenko. When I YouTube’d him the results yielded a video I had watched at least a decade ago. At the time, I was going through the roster of AVA (Academy of Vocal Arts) and trying to listen to all of the artists who were studying there at the time.

AVA is the premiere opera program in the United States. Founded in 1933, AVA is extremely competitive. In any given year there are only about 30 singers in the school. Emerging artists from around the world apply for this immersive program that is provided free of tuition due to the generosity of its founders.

Playing the role of Seigmund’s fraternal twin is soprano Jennifer Holloway. She will be making debuts at both The Dutch National Opera and the Vienna State Opera. For both houses, she will be performing the vocally and dramatically demanding role of Salome in Richard Strauss’s Salome. 

The role of Hunding will be sung by bass Peter Rose. He is the best type of opera singer—mature and seasoned. Rose has been performing internationally for decades and is an established Wagnerian singer.