North Stage Door-Episode 2

North Stage Door

(3:04) The Marriage of Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro), Cosí fan tutte and Don Giovanni are three of opera’s most well-known works. San Francisco Opera’s new production of The Marriage of Figaro premiered in 2019, and despite his familiarity with this opera, the production left a profound impact on Company Music Librarian and North Stage Door producer Michael Bragg, who shares his story along with production cast members Nicole Heaston (Countess Almaviva), Michael Sumuel (Figaro) and San Francisco Opera’s Director of Diversity, Equity and Community Charles Mc Neal.

(14:34) Mozart and Da Ponte never intended for these three operas to become a trilogy. So what the… General Director Matthew Shilvock and Michael Cavanagh, director of the Company’s new Mozart-Da Ponte Trilogy—set in an American house across a 300-year timespan, and continuing this season with the premieres of his new productions of Cosi fan tutte (Nov/Dec 2021) and Don Giovanni (June/July 2022)—explain.

(24:34) San Francisco Opera Assistant Stage Manager and North Stage Door producer Rachel Garoon has a confession….and gets through it with the help of Dr. Kristi Brown-Montesano, chair of Music History at the Colburn Conservatory of Music and author of “Understanding the Women of Mozart’s Operas,” stage director Shawna Lucey, and marriage and family therapist Kathleen Shiltz.

(37:02) Did you know that Mozart was one of many composers who borrowed music from other operas for his own shows? San Francisco Opera Public Relations Director (and jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan biographer) Jeffery McMillan take us on a musical quotation treasure hunt.

(49:02) How would you have written the end of Don Giovanni? North Stage Door executive producer Molly McBride talks to Bay Area-native Daniel Handler—author of seven novels, including Why We Broke Up, We Are Pirates, All The Dirty Parts and, most recently, Bottle Grove; and who, under the pen name Lemony Snicket, is also responsible for the thirteen-volume A Series of Unfortunate Events—about writing, music, opera, and his relationship with all three.