Pocket Opera is a professional
chamber opera
Chamber opera is a designation for operas written to be performed with a Chamber music, chamber ensemble rather than a full orchestra. Early 20th-century operas of this type include Paul Hindemith's ''Cardillac'' (1926). Earlier small-scale operas ...
company based in
San Francisco, California
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
that presents staged chamber productions of operas sung in English. The company, founded in 1978, offers performances of both famous and lesser-known selections of operatic literature, accompanied by its chamber orchestra the Pocket Philharmonic. Since its inception, Pocket Opera has developed a repertoire that now includes over 90 operas. Pocket Opera’s season typically runs from March through July and includes four to five productions. Its current artistic director is Nicolas A. Garcia.
History
The company’s founder and Artistic Director Emeritus,
Donald Pippin began creating English performance translations of opera libretti in the 1960s, which led to the founding of Pocket Opera. These accessible, highly singable, and often witty settings now include over 70 operas, and form the backbone of Pocket Opera’s productions. They have also been used by other companies, including Washington National Opera, San Francisco Opera Center, San Diego Opera, Juilliard School of Music, Aspen Music Festival, and companies in Canada, The UK, and Australia. Performance scores of Pippin’s translations are archived at Stanford University, and are available for rent through Pocket Opera.
Venues
Pocket Opera’s San Francisco venue is the historic Gunn Theater at the
Legion of Honor museum. The company also regularly performs at the
Hillside Club in
Berkeley, California
Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...
, and at various venues on the Peninsula and the North Bay.
References
Gereben, Janos (March 5, 2024)
Pocket Opera Plans a Versatile Season as It Approaches the Half-Century Mark ''Classical Voice''. Retrieved September 24, 2024
External links
Official WebsiteJoshua Kosman of the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' on Pocket Opera (April 22, 2002)Review of Pocket Opera's ''Rigoletto'' (July 7, 2006)Donald Pippin article at SF Classical Voice (April 13, 2010)
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California opera companies
Musical groups established in 1978
Musical groups from San Francisco
1978 establishments in California