In every way possible, Nicole Paiement wants to bring opera to the people. The founder, conductor and artistic director of San Francisco’s Opera Parallèle, she’s spearheaded the company’s Hands-On-Opera initiative, which makes its first foray to the Mission this weekend with three performances at ODC Theater.
For the company’s seventh Hands-On-Opera presentation, Parallèle commissioned Japanese composer Kenji Oh to write his first opera, in collaboration with veteran librettist Kelley Rourkem. The hour-long production is based on an adaptation of “The Emissary,” an award-winning 2014 climate fiction novel by Japanese author Yoko Tawada (featuring English translation by Margaret Mitsutani). Published in Japan with the title “The Last Children of Tokyo,” it’s a dystopian satire set amid increasing anxiety over environmental degradation and the pressure-cooker stresses bearing down on the younger generation.
Paiement, who’s also director of the San Francisco Conservatory’s New Music Ensemble, met Oh as a student at SFCM “where I conducted some of his works,” she said. “After graduation, I often develop relationships with composers, and Kenji had stayed in touch with some of his choral writing, which was beautiful.”
Dedicated to developing new works for opera, Parallèle seeks to create opportunities for artists from outside the usual musical channels. In 2021, the organization commissioned “Harriet’s Spirit,” by jazz bassist/composer Marcus Shelby and librettist Roma Olvera, which premiered at the Bayview Opera House.
“We take a long time to think of the composer and librettist,” Paiement said. “We look for the right time and place, because we want it to be something that will help their career. With Marcus, he had never written an opera, but he’s a very experienced composer, so we teamed him with a young librettist. We combined Kenji with an experienced librettist who could guide the storytelling structure.”
Featuring soprano Angela Yam, baritone Bradley Kynard, and the Lick Wilmerding High School Chorus, “The Emissary’s” creative team also includes director, choreographer and veteran ODC dancer Yayoi Kambara, chorus director Tony Asaro, scenic and costume designer Matthew Linzer, and New Conservatory Theatre Center lighting designer Spenser Matubang. Paiement conducts the performances on Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 4 p.m., and Jaco Wong takes over the podium for Saturday’s 1 p.m. matinee.
Like previous Hands-On-Opera productions, “The Emissary” is designed to bring new audiences close to the art form, “so that they’re participating rather than having them be static observers,” Paiement said. “It’s not just about creating new works. We involve youth choirs and seek out intergenerational collaborations so that, rather than coming to a kids’ opera, they’re inside. They get to sing beside professionals, wear a costume and see the whole development process. All the things that make opera magical.”
“The Emissary” kicks off Opera Parallèle’s 14th season, which also includes the paired one-act operas, “Birds & Balls,” April 5 to 7, 2024, at the SFJAZZ Center. David T. Little and Royce Vavrek’s bittersweet comic opera “Vinkensport” was inspired by the obscure Flemish folk sport of Finch-Sitting, while “Balls,” a world premiere by Grammy Award-winning composer Laura Karpman with a libretto by New York Times columnist Gail Collins, recounts the epochal 1973 “The Battle of the Sexes” tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs. The season closes with the West Coast premiere of the opera adaptation of Thomas Mallon’s novel “Fellow Travelers,” adapted by composer Gregory Spears and librettist Greg Pierce. Presented by Opera Parallèle and the Presidio Theatre, the production runs June 21 to 23, 2024, at the Presidio Theatre.
A Sunday program with Matt Small
ODC Theatre isn’t often home to opera, but the campus has a long history as a forum for new and improvised music, which is one reason Mission Bay bassist/composer Matt Small returns to the venue again and again. His nonprofit Small Art Music Projects presents two iterations of his Crushing Spiral Ensemble Sunday afternoon, a program that brings together many of the region’s most formidable improvisers.
As a composer who combines intricately notated music with passages based on various improvisational strategies, Small has forged deep relationship with a brilliant cadre of players. Sunday’s concert features two overlapping sextets, including a set with ROVA Saxophone Quartet’s Steve Adams, reed expert Cory Wright, trumpeter Chris Grady, pianist Erika Oba, drummer Jon Arkin, and Small on six-string bass. Small and Wright are also on hand for the second set, with alto saxophonist Beth Schenck, trumpeter Henry Hung, pianist Motoko Honda, and drummer Jordan Glenn.
“Part of what I love about performing at ODC, is sort of a reminder that the theater has some new music history that’s really interesting,” Small said. But his affinity for the Bay Area’s premiere showcase for modern dance isn’t just aesthetic. Small has designed his nonprofit, Small Art Music Projects, “to emulate what happens in the dance community. There’s such a vibrant dance community here, supported by small organizations. We need more of that model for composer/performers. That kind of saved me during the pandemic. Freelance work comes and goes, and the organization provides some stability.”
Music In-Takht at the Red Poppy Art House
While Egypt’s status as the Arab world’s cultural powerhouse has faded in recent decades, the region’s most populous nation has a deep and expansive history as home to leading artists in film, literature, and music. Dedicated to sharing and preserving Egyptian musical heritage, the recently launched Bay Area ensemble Music In-Takht makes its debut performance Saturday at the Red Poppy Art House with “Eternal Petals: Instrumental Gems and Flower Songs of Egypt.” Founded by Cairo-raised, Juilliard-trained violinist Basma Edrees, Music In-Takht also features Moe El Shazly on oud and Mohamed Abdelradi on dumbek and other Egyptian hand drums.
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