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San Francisco Chronicle​

S.F. Opera's first Pride concert fills the house with color and community

Every June, the exterior columns of the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House become a symbol of LGBTQ Pride as they're illuminated in a rainbow scheme. Now, for the first time, the interior of the historic auditorium is a canvas. For the San Francisco Opera's first Pride Concert on Friday, June 27, stage artist Tal Rosner created immersive projection experiences that leapt off the stage. Rosner and San Francisco Opera General Director Matthew Shilvock were both excited by the technology's possibilities. 'Its an old building, it's beautiful and intricate,' said Rosner. 'Everything I do is part of the emotional journey of the audience, but we're also really celebrating the architecture of the building in a fun way. All these different songs have different environments.' The Pride Concert was presented in partnership with San Francisco Pride (the organization that organizes the parade and Civic Center festival) and showcased music by LGBTQ composers and songwriters. The night's singers were baritone Brian Mulligan, who is gay; mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, who is bisexual; and Nikola Printz, who is trangender and nonbinary. San Francisco Opera Music Director Eun Sun Kim and Robert Mollicone conducted the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, while 'RuPaul's Drag Race' Season 16 runner-up (and classically trained opera singer) Sapphira Cristál emceed. The night included a bevy of community co-partners: The Tenderloin Museum, the National AIDS Memorial, Compton's Cafeteria Riot, the Marigold Project, the GLBT Historical Society and the Castro landmark the Twin Peaks Tavern. Among the special happenings were a pre-show discussion with S.F. Pride director Suzanne Ford, a display of the AIDS Memorial Quilt and queer history art installations and exhibitions. 'When times are bad, you find out who your real friends are,' said Horn, who is also the president of the War Memorial Performing Arts Center. 'We have seen so many people who we thought were our allies disappear, the corporations, some of the nonprofit organizations, our lawyers. But the San Francisco Opera is proud to stand up.' Shilvock said there was never a question that the concert would go on. 'This is what the arts are for, to be in community, to allow us to be who we are,' said Shilvock. 'We've always been a part of Pride and in the parade since the 1980s. The Pride community has always been linked to the Opera, now let's bring the festivities in here.' The program, curated by San Francisco Opera's managing artistic director Gregory Henkle, opened with Leonard Bernstein's overture to 'Candide' conducted by Kim. The 1956 musical has some of Bernstein's best theatrical music, and as Kim approached the delicate excerpts from the song 'Glitter and Be Gay,' there were knowing titters. Explosions of color reminiscent of painter Marc Chagall filled the auditorium, while points of colored light highlighted the architecture of the opera house. Printz warmly sang San Francisco composer Jake Heggie's 'Vesuvio, il mio unico amico' from his 2015 opera 'Great Scott,' the story of an opera diva, Arden Scott, returning to her hometown. Heggie, who is gay, agreed that the LGBTQ community has long had an association with the opera world as both artists and ardent fans. 'It's highly emotional, dramatic, and a way to see something you were feeling inside expressed on the stage,' said Heggie, whose opera 'Dead Man Walking' returns to San Francisco Opera this fall with Barton in the lead. 'Historically, gay men and women could find each other at the opera house,' he said. 'Queer people didn't have a lot of places they could go and experience that.' Mulligan's fine delivery of Yeletsky's aria from Tchaikovsky's 'Pique Dame' and Barton's dark and rich 'Mon coueur s'ouvre á ta voix,' from Saint-Saëns' 'Samson and Dalila,' were treats before the rousing Bachanale from the same opera. The pop half of the program took flight with Barton and Printz' delightfully light, yet soulful, 'Closer to Fine' by the Indigo Girls. Singing the hit, re-popularized in 2023 by the ' Barbie ' movie, there was no 'opera singer doing pop music' stiffness. Among the night's best projections were the Saul Bass-meets-mass transit abstractions as the San Francisco Opera Orchestra took on Billy Strayhorn's jazz hit 'Take the 'A' Train.' Another visual highpoint was the sweeping images of San Francisco's queer history from the GLBT Historical Society Museum as Barton gave a moving take of Melissa Etheridge's 'Uprising of Love.' Mulligan's finest moments of the night were dramatically different: a tender, haunting version of Freddie Mercury's 'You Take My Breath Away' that contained layers of nuance about repressed queer desire. He let that emotion out in Jerry Herman's anthem 'I Am What I Am' in the boundary-breaking 1983 drag musical 'La Cage aux Folles.' The audience went there with him, cheering as he sang 'it's time to open up your closets.' Printz closed the night with 'I was Born his Way' (not the Lady Gaga song, Cristál joked) but the gay disco hit made famous by gospel artist Carl Bean, culminating in a dramatic burst of color overtaking the house. Following the performance, patrons were invited to a dance party in the lobby with San Francisco drag mother Juanita More spinning. The sounds of San Francisco disco queen Sylvester bumped from the speakers as operagoers bumped into each other on the dance floor. Regardless of what politics bring, plans are already underway for next year's Pride concert, Shilvock said. Surveying the crowd, San Francisco drag legend Donna Sachet remarked: 'This is proof we exist, even as the government is trying to erase us.'