Kip Cranna Dramaturg Emeritus San Francisco Opera (415) 816 3285 www.kipcranna.com
update: October 20. 2022
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September 15-November 3, Thursdays 10:00-11:40am (in person)
Kip teaches "Viva Verdi: His Operas and Their Role in the Birth of Modern Italy" at the Fromm Institute (in person) 2130 Fulton Street (on the USF Campus)
Monday, November 5, 2022, 10:00am-12:00pm Kip talks online (and in person) on: "''Tis the Season: Operas with a Yuletide Theme"
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, San Francisco
The Christmas story is celebrated in countless musical works, but mostly for the concert stage, like Handel’s beloved "Messiah." But what about opera? Far from saying “Bah, humbug!," composers aplenty have found the Christmas Season a perfect backdrop for operatic storytelling. To help get you in a holiday mood, San Francisco Opera’s Dramaturg Emeritus will treat you to a glimpse of some Yuletide operas spanning the gamut from the silly to the sublime. Instead of a Wagnerian “Hojotoho,” it’s time for an operatic “Ho ho ho!"
Kip gives a talk for the San Francisco Early Music Society: GOING BAROQUE AT SAN FRANCISCO OPERA: An insider's perspective and listener's guide.
As San Francisco Opera observes its 100th Season, Dramaturg Emeritus Kip Cranna, a veteran of over forty of those seasons, will look back at the 29 Baroque operas presented by the Company and its affiliates during its first century: works by Claudio Monteverdi, Francesco Cavalli, Alessandro Scarlatti, Antonio Vivaldi, and (especially) George Frideric Handel. Using photos, recordings and video, Kip will survey stylistic changes in performance over the years, as well as evolving production concepts and audience reactions. And he will offer a short guide to understanding the inner workings of a Handel aria for better appreciation of the Baroque operatic art as it unfolds onstage.
