Books That Sing: Operas Based on Great Novels

November is National Novel Writing Month. To celebrate it, San Francisco Opera’s Dramaturg Emeritus Kip Cranna and Music Planning Associate and Opera Librarian Michael Bragg will take you on a journey through compelling novel passages and their corresponding opera scenes.  They’ll lift the curtain on the artistic process that happens as words are lyrically transformed. 

Clifford (Kip) Cranna is Dramaturg (Scholar in Residence) Emeritus of San Francisco Opera, where he served on the staff for 40 years. In 2008 he was awarded the San Francisco Opera Medal, the company’s highest honor, and in 2012 he received the Bernard Osher Cultural Award for his work with the Company. He holds a Ph.D. in musicology from Stanford University. Dr. Cranna teaches opera appreciation at the Fromm Institute at USF and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes (OLLI) at SF State University, Dominican University and UC Berkeley, and is a frequent speaker on opera at the JCC.

San Francisco Opera Librarian, Michael Bragg, has served on the artistic staff for 6 seasons. He holds a Bachelor of Music from Westminster Choir College and a Master of Music from the Cleveland Institute of Music, both in performance and has enjoyed an international operatic career. Michael has given numerous lecturers and talks across the bay and has been a frequent lecturer on the Opera Aficionado series presented by San Francisco Opera.