SAN FRANCISCO — As regular readers are aware, I enjoy conversing with arts executives who are thoughtful and innovative, whether they have long records, such as Kennedy Center president Deborah Rutter, or are just acceding to important positions. Such is the case with Matthew Shilvock, 40, who becomes the general director of the San Francisco Opera Aug. 1.
Shilvock, who is English, hails from Kidderminster, in Worcestershire, not far from Birmingham. When we met recently in the War Memorial Opera House, where both the San Francisco Opera and San Francisco Ballet perform, he noted that Kidderminster is most famous as the center of the carpet industry in Great Britain.
He studied music performance and history at Christ Church College of the University of Oxford. He arrived in the U.S. in 2003 thanks to an Opera America fellowship to work for David Gockley, then the general director of the Houston Grand Opera. When Gockley became the general director of the San Francisco Opera in 2006, Shilvock came along and moved up in the organization to become associate general director.
Shilvock will be the company’s seventh general director. The San Francisco Opera was founded by Gaetano Merola in 1923, who led it for 30 years before dying while conducting a performance of Madama Butterfly. He was succeeded by chorus master Kurt Herbert Adler, who remained until 1981. This meant that the company had only two leaders in its first 58 years. Then came Terence McEwen (1982–1988), Lotfi Mansouri (1988–2001), Pamela Rosenberg (2001–2005) and Gockley (2006–2016).
In my conversation with Shilvock I noted that it seemed unusual for the San Francisco Opera to promote someone to the top job from within the company ranks. It had only happened once before, when Adler replaced Merola in 1953. Steven Menzies, chairman of the search committee, remarked when the appointment was announced, “While Matthew was an inside candidate, he was subjected to the same screening and vetting” as the others.
Shilvock told me, “I think the board and audience feel very good about where the opera is artistically — there is not a cry for a fundamental artistic change.” Another virtue of this continuity is that while “a new person would program the 2019, 2020 and 2021 seasons without the benefit of knowing the company’s operations and staff,” Shilvock can draw on the relationships and experience he has already developed.
What composers might he consider adding to the classic mix of standard opera repertory and new commissions that are part of the company’s customary offerings? According to Shilvock, “I am pretty eclectic in terms of favorites. I am a huge fan of Mozart and Strauss for the great humanism in their music and stories. I also love Baroque opera because you can be contemporary with it in a way that you cannot with the major works of the 19th century."
Shilvock described the music of Jean-Philippe Rameau as having “tremendous proportion, energy and honesty in it” and singled out Castor et Pollux among his favorites, calling it “a deep and profound reflection on the strife of the individual.”
He acknowledged that it is a delicate and important challenge to create a mix of programming that combines timeless classics with works that are new, either because they are rediscovered treasures or world premieres. Shilvock said that audiences have asked for more Britten, Strauss and Russian repertory. “You want to find that sweet spot so that you do not lose the core audience. Whatever you do in this company, there is a hunger for something else.”
“Companies with large theaters,” he said, “such as the Met, Chicago and San Francisco, must be cautiously experimental rather than wantonly so.” The War Memorial Opera House, opened in 1932, has 3,146 seats but “has the advantage of not being shoebox-shaped. The balconies wrap around and create a sense of intimacy.”
The SFO does nine or 10 operas per season, with most presented in the fall and then a special June season that attracts many visiting audiences. Last month the company offered Carmen, Don Carlo (starring an excellent Michael Fabiano) and a stupendous revival of Jenufa that starred Malin Bystrom in the title role and Karita Mattila in a tour-de-force performance of her first-ever Kostelnicka, which she will bring to the Met this fall.
In 2018, the June season will feature a Ring Cycle staged by Francesca Zambello that is a co-production of San Francisco and the Washington National Opera. Casting will be announced soon.
I was quite intrigued by Shilvock’s view of core 19th-century works — especially those by Verdi and Wagner — that are the bread-and-butter of most opera companies along with popular bel canto works and the Puccini warhorses. He said, “I am fascinated by the interplay of Verdi and Wagner, how these two giants regarded one another and had similarities and differences as composers that make them even more great when they are viewed comparatively."
For Shilvock, one of the most important missions of his tenure will be to introduce new productions of Verdi and Wagner masterpieces because many of the current ones have run their course. Most were designed before or soon after the 1989 earthquake that caused significant damage to the War Memorial Opera House. “We have the opportunity to address these core works and will want to create productions of these classics that will last 20 to 30 years. Audiences will want to return to them when they are revived, which will enable us to combine these known quantities with more challenging stuff. These productions are like investments in the endowment. If they serve you well they can make other kinds of productions and co-productions possible.”
The new general director will have another, smaller theater to work with. The Diane B. Wilsey Center for Opera opened in February 2016. This 299-seat flexible space is a venue for more experimental performances and operas as well as education programs.
Anyone who has followed the recent history of San Francisco is aware that the city has filled up with people working in technology fields, many of whom have made a lot of money in the process. Their presence has driven out the diverse and culturally alternative populations that were part of what made this city so special. I asked Shilvock about this, not so much in terms of fundraising (important though that is) but about how tech-oriented audiences might relate to opera.
“We want to give people the license to enjoy this enriching entertainment without worry. Technology itself can have an important role in opera but not everyone wants it to do everything. The miracle of a singer making her voice heard without the use of technology and amplification is something people still marvel at once they realize how extraordinary that is. Opera offers everyone, include tech people, the opportunity to break away from their devices, from their solitude, and reflect on the many things that opera has the unique ability to inspire.”