San Francisco Opera Gives US Premiere to New Rosenkavalier Suite

San Francisco Opera will give the U.S. premiere of a newly arranged "Der Rosenkavalier Suite" on Nov. 6 at the War Memorial Opera House.

The single performance, titled "Strauss in Concert," will be conducted by Caroline H. Hume Music Director Eun Sun Kim and will feature Romanian soprano Adela Zaharia as soloist.

The suite itself is the newest thing on the program and the least tested. Swiss conductor Philippe Jordan and arranger Tomáš Ille built the arrangement, and San Francisco is its first American outing. The company has not said whether a recording exists or whether the work will travel beyond this one date. For now, the U.S. premiere and the concert are the same event.

What is on the program?

The evening runs in two parts:

• "Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks" opens the concert.
• "Sechs Lieder" follows, with Zaharia as soloist. The song cycle sets texts by the nineteenth-century Romantic poet Clemens Brentano.
• After intermission, Kim and the San Francisco Opera Orchestra present the U.S. premiere of the "Der Rosenkavalier Suite" in the Jordan-Ille arrangement.

That structure is conventional: a tone poem, a song set, then the headline item after the break. The novelty sits entirely in the second half.

Who is Adela Zaharia?

The source announcement names Zaharia as the featured soprano but gives no biographical detail beyond the assignment. What is known from the program itself is precise: she sings Strauss' "Sechs Lieder," the Brentano settings, with Kim conducting.

What does this change for Kim's tenure?

The concert adds a Strauss-only program to a music director whose tenure already spans a wide repertoire. According to the company, Kim has led the world premiere of John Adams' "Antony and Cleopatra," plus Wagner's "Parsifal," Verdi's "Simon Boccanegra" and Beethoven's "Fidelio."

She has conducted Strauss before, including "Ariadne auf Naxos" and "Elektra" — both operas, both staged. Nov. 6 marks a shift of emphasis rather than direction: symphonic Strauss and song, in a concert format, anchored by a premiere.

One caveat follows the promise. A new suite of familiar music is an arrangement, not a new work, and its staying power will depend on whether other orchestras take it up. The Nov. 6 audience hears it first; whether anyone hears it again is a separate question the announcement does not address.