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James Conlon’s Wilde Program at the San Francisco Symphony

Jun. 01, 2006

On June 9 and 10, James Conlon conducts the San Francisco Symphony through an Oscar Wilde inspired program. Conlon himself has arranged Three Dances based on Oscar Wilde for the first half of the program, stitching together music from Franz Schreker's Der Geburtstag der Infantin, Alexander Zemlinsky's Der Zwerg and Richard Strauss' Salome. Zemlinsky’s A Florentine Tragedy, based on the Oscar Wilde text of the same name, comprises the second half of the program, with Carol Vaness as Bianca, Kim Begley as Guido Bardi and James Johnson as Simone.

James Conlon comments:

As a part of the San Francisco Symphony festival, devoted to music inspired by literature, I have created a program entitled "Homage to Oscar Wilde." Three extraordinary one act operas and a ballet were created from the circle of German composers who were expanding the confines of their contemporary operatic world. Strauss' Salome is of course the best known...but the contribution of Alexander Zemlinsky to this genre is extremely important. The two one act masterpieces, A Florentine Tragedy and Der Zwerg, complete a Wilde trilogy which we have set forth to present in part to the public in San Francisco. Franz Schreker's eponymous ballet, like Der Zwerg, is based on Wilde's short story The Birthday of the Infanta.

For more information on Zemlinsky and Schreker and their music, please visit www.universaledition.com. To learn MUCH more about the Wilde program at San Francisco Symphony, please visit www.sfsymphony.org.

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