Arts & Events

On Friday, September 23, San Francisco Symphony kicked off its 2022-23 season with an Opening Night Gala Concert and After-Party. Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen led the orchestra, chorus and guest artists in music from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Felix Mendelssohn. African-American Shakespeare Company performed scenes from Shakespeare’s play interspersed between music Mendelssohn composed for each scene. Mendelssohn’s music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream actually spans nearly his entire career, since his Overture was composed in 1826 and in 1843 he added music for seven scenes from Shakespeare’s play. 

The Overture, once rewritten in its final form by Mendelssohn, beautifully encapsulates the fairylike atmosphere and plot of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In this concert, the Overture received a splendid rendition led by conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, and at its conclusion the Davies Symphony Hall audience gave the orchestra and its conductor an appreciative ovation. 

Then L. Peter Callender, artistic director of African-American Shakespeare Company, stepped forth to introduce the first of seven scenes from Shakespeare’s play about a group of Athenians gathering in the woods for a midsummer night’s celebration. Following this came the scampering Scherzo music with solo flute that accompanies Puck’s encounter with an elf. Puck was humorously played by actor Jonathan Moscone. As the play develops, we meet various characters such as Lysander, played by Rodney Jackson, Hermia, played by Tyra Fennell, Demetrius, acted by Devin Cunningham, and Helena, acted by Lisa Vroman. These young people engage in amorous pursuits of one another. We also meet the characters Hippolyta/Titania played by Debbie Chinn, Theseus/Oberon played by L. Peter Callender, and the comical character Nick Bottom played by Chris Sullivan. Now and then, plot details are filled in by narrators Raj Mathai and Tony Bravo. 

Next we heard the Act II song “You Spotted Snakes,” containing some of Mendelssohn’s most evocative fairy music. This song was beautifully performed by a pair of soloists who are Adler Fellows at San Francisco Opera: soprano Anne-Marie MacIntosh and soprano Elisa Sunshine. The soloists were splendidly accompanied by members of the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, whose director is David J. Xiques. Meanwhile, as the play developed, one slight drawback was the fact that several of the actors had not memorized their lines and simply read them from printed notes they held in their hands. Though this tended to break the dramatic illusion, some of these actors nonetheless gave highly expressive readings of their lines; and only one actor seemed a bit hesitant and unsure of herself. In any case, the plot involves Puck’s efforts, at the urging of Oberon, to first mix up the amorous couples with a magic flower’s sap that puts them to sleep and ensures that when they awaken they will fall in love with the first person they see, and later to reverse this ploy and restore the lovers to their original partners. The music for the sleep scene is Mendelssohn’s elegiac Nocturne with its splendid horn solo. And of course the comic highlight of the play occurs when Nick Bottom is fitted with an ass’s head and Titania, Queen of the Fairies, awakens to fall in love with this grotesque donkey. 

Once Puck’s ploy is reversed and the original lovers are restored, a wedding ensues uniting all the lovers in this play marked by Mendelssohn’s famous Wedding March, elegantly performed here by the SF Symphony. Next we heard the African-American Shakespeare Company perform the play-within-a-play involving Pyramus and Thisby plus a character who plays “the wall” that separates these doomed lovers. When both Pyramus and Thisby die by self-inflicted wounds, and once the actor playing “the Wall” has taken her bows, a Funeral March by Mendelssohn ensues. And the evening’s entertainment concludes with a Finale that brings the SF Symphony Chorus back for one last song in which the fairies wish everyone with good fortune; and the orchestral music comes to a close with a repeat of its opening chords.