Prodigal Son and Picasso

Prodigal son and former San Francisco Opera music director Donald Runnicles, one of the world’s leading interpreters of Wagner, returned to conduct an incredible international cast and the renowned San Francisco Opera Orchestra and Chorus last month. As one of the fortunate few to witness the entire Ring Cycle—the event was very nearly sold out—I can attest to the remarkable performance of the pit musicians.

Why, I wondered? The explanation came from a stagehand I spoke with. The orchestra is no longer playing for their boss, he said. Runnicles is a looser conductor when he’s just visiting, and the players just want to work harder for him.

Recipient of the 2009 San Francisco Opera Medal, Runnicles served as music director and principal conductor of San Francisco Opera from 1992 to 2009. He first led the Company in two Ring cycles in 1990 and has since conducted more than 60 productions here, including the world premieres of Adams’s Doctor Atomic and Susa’s The Dangerous Liaisons; the West Coast premiere of Wallace’s Harvey Milk; and the North American premiere of Messiaen’s Saint François d’Assise.

For those still waiting to get in to the de Young Museum’s major summer exhibition, Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris, we suggest you have a look at the lavishly illustrated catalogue co-published with Flammarion/Skira.

The catalogue contains brilliant images of all of the 150 important paintings, sculptures, prints and drawings created by Picasso and drawn from the permanent collection of the Musée National Picasso, Paris. The handsome publication chronicles the largest and most significant repository of the artist’s work in the world, which comes to the de Young as part of an international tour.

The artwork is touring because the Musée is currently closed and undergoing a multi-year renovation expected to last through 2012. Ranging from informal sketchbooks to finished iconic masterpieces, this unique collection of Picasso’s Picassos provides significant proof of the artist’s assertion that I am the greatest collector of Picassos in the world.

This once-in-a-lifetime exhibition is comprised of works from every phase of Picasso’s extraordinary career, including masterpieces from his Blue, Rose, Expressionist, Cubist, Neoclassical and Surrealist periods, said John Buchanan Jr., director of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. These works present eloquent testimony to his role as a protean figure who not only created and contributed to new art forms and movements, but also forever transformed the very definition of art itself. Following on the heels of our recent exhibitions of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, this exhibition represents a natural progression forward to the masterworks of the 20th century.

The catalogue is available through the Museum Store and online at the Museum Store website. $65/hardcover, $37.50/softcover.