With pleasure, we offer the following complete and nearly complete performances from the San Francisco Opera on this disc. Information on the house and its company is provided here. Technical information on using this disc is available here.
Britten: Peter Grimes 9 November 1973
Donizetti: L'Elisir d'Amore 10 October 1975
Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor 17 November 1972
Ponchielli: La Gioconda 19 September 1967
Massenet: Werther 7 November 1975
Poulenc: Dialogues of the Carmelites October
1982
Puccini: La Boheme 12 October 1969
Puccini: Turandot 30 November 1968
Rossini: La Cenerentola 16 November 1969
Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos 26 September 1969
Strauss: Elektra
30 September 1966
Strauss: Salome 30 October 1970
Verdi: Aida 30 September 1960
Verdi: Aida 26 November 1969
Verdi: Falstaff 7 October 1970
Verdi: La Forza del Destino 7 November 1969
Wagner: Götterdämmerung 17 October
1969
Wagner: Siegfried 2 October 1970
Wagner: Tristan und Isolde 6 November 1970
Wagner: Die Walküre 29 March 1969 - in
Los Angeles
Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde San Francisco Symphony
- March 1970
Leontyne Price in Recital San Francisco Symphony -
28 February 1970
To many opera lovers, the United States is represented by The Metropolitan Opera in New York. The greatness of that house is unquestioned and its performances have been known for more than sixty-five years through its remarkable broadcast history. But another great house and company have consolidated in this century in San Francisco. With roots as deep and as respected as those in New York, this West Coast company formed in 1923 and moved to its home in the War Memorial Opera House in 1932. The driving force behind this consolidation of San Francisco's commitment to opera - dating back to the mid-19th century - was Gaetano Merola. Until his death in 1953, Merola was variously conductor, manager and fund-raiser; but above all, he was the force which assembled a great institution in what appeared at first to be a remote and provincial location. The company has gone on to international success, of which we have an example from their visit to Los Angeles on this disc. Similarly, the Opera House has hosted great performances by visiting companies and great artists; two such concerts are included to suggest the quality of those activities.
In 1953, Kurt Herbert Adler began his thirty-year reign as General Director; many feel that he is responsible for the greatness of the company. The number of American debuts made under Adler is staggering. Considering only sopranos, we must include Tebaldi, Nilsson, Rysanek, Borkh, Schwarzkopf, Jurinac, and both Leontyne and Margaret Price. The glory years of the 1970's through 1983, when Sutherland, Sills, Nilsson, Pavarotti, Domingo, Caballe, Vickers, Thomas and Price appeared regularly provided a new Golden Age in San Francisco. Broadcasts preserve much of this historic era at the Opera. Our survey concentrates on the exciting growth period just preceding, when innovations in repertoire, casting, conductors, and stage direction prepared us for the glories to come.
Most of the material on this disc was recorded privately. In some cases, inferior copies have circulated privately, but those here have been carefully transferred from original tapes. A few broadcasts are included to indicate that while the Opera was less prolific on the airwaves than the Met, it offered an exceptionally fine repertoire with artists of the highest rank. Note that every effort has been made to reduce the noise level of these recordings, but that wherever doing so would have significantly altered the musical content, the music was given preference. Several recordings are incomplete; unfortunately, they are among the most valuable and are included here despite that problem.
We do not mean to suggest that such American cities as Chicago, Philadelphia, Seattle, Saint Louis and Houston are in any way less signficant in opera, but none has achieved the breadth and quantity of programming which leads us to rank the San Francisco and New York companies among the great ones of the world. In time, we hope to represent all of those houses in the Audio Encyclopedia. Volumes on Paris, London, Vienna, Buenos Aires, Milan, Rome, Bayreuth and Salzburg will be substantial additions to the effort when material can be assembled and production can be scheduled.
Note that all of the selections here are provided in modest-fidelity, monaural sound. Where higher fidelity and stereo are available it is our hope that these selections will inspire their release. Our purpose in this overview is not to provide a sonic spectacular, but to celebrate the company, the house, and the great Kurt Herbert Adler. We hope that you feel we have succeeded.
Macintosh users are urged to read macread.htm or macread.txt on this disc as well as the following.
Most of the files on this disc are recorded in MP3 format. Players for such compressed audio are available for most platforms. Since most users of personal computers when this disc was published have 32-bit Windows installed on their systems, we include a licensed browser and a freeware player which handle not only MP2 and MP3 files but also a specific format of playlist for MP3 termed M3U. Most users of these discs will find that they automatically load the browser and its support programs; in that case, all functions should be directly accessible in the same way they would be with any other browser.
Those running Windows who do not find that the browser begins automatically may start it by running I_VIEW.EXE from the root of the CD-ROM drive. Those running other systems, such as Mac and Unix boxes, will need both a browser and an installed MPEG player. Even Windows users may use their preferred browsers equipped with MPEG players. Operation with any browser other than the one on the disc requires that you point it to the CD-ROM and WELCOME.HTM as the URL. We have used only one playlist on this disc because of difficulties with browsers other than I-View.
Every effort has been made to ensure that all files are accessible to all users. The prototype of this disc was tested on a variety of computers and all reasonably modern ones have managed to work in the configurations tested. There is little that can be done if your computer has problems with these files short of upgrading the computer. As an indication of its modest needs, the disc proved fully functional on a Pentium 75 laptop with 8 MB of RAM and a 2x CD-ROM drive.
Those using their own browsers will certainly need no assistance from me. That is fortunate, since it would be difficult to cover all the options of browsers and MP3 plugins and helpers. If you are running the I_VIEW browser on the disc, you should find all operations familiar. Simply click on a link to access it. If you have trouble seeing everything in the browser, please make sure that the page is maximized by clicking the icon one to the left and one down from the top-right corner. Unfortunately, the browser does not 'remember' that setting and you will need to click the icon each time you start the program.
One easy way to integrate MP3 playback into your own browser is to visit http://www.audioactive.com and to download and install the helper appropriate for your system. At the time of publication, they offered helpers not only for Win95 and NT, but also for Windows 3.x and Macintosh; however, the Macintosh browser at this time does not handle our files and the special Mac instructions should be followed instead.
The WinAmp player here is not the current, shareware version. However, it is an excellent freeware release quite sufficient for the needs of this disc. It has been preset to the values needed for operation - which is fortunate, since those values cannot be recorded to the CD-ROM and therefore will return to the presets whenever the disc is first accessed. This disc contains only monaural files and is preset for monaural playback. I urge those with more general interest in MP3 playback and those seeking players for other browsers to explore http://www.nullsoft.com/ and http://www.winamp.com/ for the current offerings for Mac and PC.