Monday, September 15, 2008  The Bonesetter's Daughter  There was
plenty of excitement and anticipation involved with San
Francisco Opera's ninth world premiere in its history, "The
Bonesetter's Daughter" with a libretto by Amy Tan and music by
Stewart Wallace. Because so many of the performers were direct
from China, the opera company had even put up signage translated
into Chinese all over backstage directing people to stage left
and stage right.  I've seen all of San Francisco's world
premieres since Andrew Imbrie's "Angle of Repose" in the 1970s,
which was a huge bore since there are certain composers who are
just not meant to be opera composers and the late Imbrie was one
of them. Writing well for the operatic voice is a special gift,
and he didn't seem to have it. Neither does Stewart Wallace, who
penned the the drab docu-opera "Harvey Milk" in the early 1990s,
and now is giving us another effort that is almost as bad.
General Director David Gockley actually turned down the idea
some years ago while he w