Check out what Richard Scheinin had to say about last night’s performance. Nice! It’s always so good to read a positive review, and it’s great to see San Jose Chamber Orchestra get this sort of attention!
Jon Nakamatsu and Jon Manasse truly were out of this world amazing. They just ooze music. Michael Touchi’s new work was wonderful.
It’s really humbling to be in the presence of such fine musicians. I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to be there.
… and so now that it’s been announced, I can write just a wee bit about the situation.
I’m so sad to see that we will have two fewer performances (and two fewer rehearsals as well) next year for each of the operas. I’m even sadder to see that the six performances we do have are spread out over the same amount of time as our current season of eight performances.
What does this mean?
Most likely it will mean a good number of orchestra members will have to move to different jobs and leave OSJ after opening weekend, playing only the minimum number of required OSJ services. We need to make a living, and the cuts mean we are losing one full opera a year as far as our salaries are concerned. Having only two services for three weeks in a row means that those who get offered work elsewhere (and nothing is every just two services elsewhere) will have no choice but to leave the opera. We will be seeing a whole lot of subs in our pit. We have very good musicians in this area, so we know someone good will take our places, but it’s still sad. Opera has been my first love, but at this point I am having to re-evaluate what I will do.
Did I mention I was sad?
Seen over at Polyphonic.org. If you have comments please visit their site to leave those. Thanks!
Having said all that – and that’s a lot to applaud – the show clocked in at three hours and fifty minutes! We expect the opera to be long, but if you’re trying to be more modern… you can’t have a FOUR HOUR show!!! There was so much that could have been trimmed! Baby steps, we guess. Hopefully next season there won’t be shows longer than three hours!
Jennifer Lawrence plays the oboe.
She was a band kid.
This explains why she’s so freaking cool.
Opera San Jose has announced the 2014-2015 season.
I will write more about this later. Maybe.
