South Korean coloratura soprano Hye Jung Lee was Ah Sing, who, through judicious management of her earnings from selling sexual favors to the miners, has achieved financial comfort. Theatrically, the meatiest of the three principal female roles, Bridges brought dramatic intensity to a part that includes a love affair and marriage proposal, her killing of an unwanted suitor who attempts her rape, and her death at the hands of a lynch mob. Washington mezzo-soprano J’nai Bridges sang the role Josefa Segovia, who bartends and works the tables at the gold-mining community’s Empire Hotel. For the hotel to survive, we are assured, it requires an attractive woman (like Bridges’ Josefa) working there. The opera is loosely based on the experiences of “Dame Shirley”, the nom de plume of an historical figure – a doctor’s wife who wrote 23 literary epistles describing her experiences in the gold fields of Northeastern California (although librettist Sellars has fictionalized much of her story). The part of Dame Shirley was stylishly sung by Missouri soprano Julia Bullock in her San Francisco Opera debut. The Girls: Julia Bullock, J’Nai Bridges and Hye Jung Lee Their collaboration produced an opera that chronicles the impact of California’s Gold Rush on seven principal characters, as declining prospects for gold inflamed racial and ethnic tensions in their mining community. Sellars and Adams joined forces again for “Girls of the Golden West”, with Sellars as both director and librettist. These young artists represent who the classical music world can expect to see on celebrated opera house stages throughout the world in the very near future.Three decades ago the team of composer John Adams and director Peter Sellars (with librettist Alice Goodman) created “Nixon in China”, one of the most durable operatic works of the late 20th century. Admission to Merola is based on talent rather than financial ability Merola pays all tuition, housing and travel expenses for the participants and also grants them a living stipend during their intensive training in San Francisco. From the Merola Opera Program, a select group of Adler Fellows is chosen to continue their education under the guidance of San Francisco Opera General Director David Gockley and Opera Center Director Sheri Greenawald. Approximately 23 singers, five apprentice coaches and one apprentice stage director are chosen each year out of hundreds of hopefuls from around the world, for the 12-week summer program.
The Merola Opera Program was founded more than half a century ago by San Francisco Opera’s second general director, Kurt Herbert Adler. Scenes from Merola’s Girls of the Golden West: The party did not stop there next there was dancing, dessert and mingling with the Adler Fellows on the terrace. Darwin - who generously supported Merola for many years.įollowing the auction, some 330 guests moved into the Fairmont’s Venetian Room for dinner and to watch Adler Fellows, Erin Johnson, Laura Krumm, AJ Gluekert, Hadleigh Adams, Phillipe Sly, Robert Mollicone and Sun Ha Yoon, perform songs from Donizetti, Gluck, Meyerbeer and Mozart. Girls of the Golden West celebrated four nonagenarians - Mrs. Dinner with Phillipe Sly, Merola Class of ’11, performing Schumann’s Dichterliebe, accompanied by Robert Mollicone (Merola ’11) at the home of Peter Winkelstein, was just one example of the highly sought auction items featuring events with Merola alumni in private homes.
Guests arrived early to get their bids in for signature items in the silent auction at Merola’s annual spring benefit gala, Girls of the Golden West, on April 23, 2013, at the Fairmont Hotel.
Laura Krumm, mezzo-soprano, performed “Nobles seigneurs, salute!” from Meyerbeers’ Les Huguenots, accompanied by Robert Mollicone, piano
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