The Opera Tattler
Reviews of Performances and their Audiences
Month: December 2007
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Today NPR’s Morning Edition aired a story on Sony and Saawariya, a film based on Dostoevsky’s 1848 "White Nights." Saawariya was released the same weekend as Om Shanti Om, but was panned by critics, including Komal Nahata, the regular reviewer on the BBC Asian Network’s Love Bollywood, who was interviewed for this story. Both Saawariya…
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The seven new Adler Fellows for 2008 are Tamara Wapinsky, Daveda Karanas, Daniela Mack, Andrew Bidlack, Alek Shrader, Kenneth Kellogg, and Lara Bolton. They join current fellows Heidi Melton, Ji Young Yang, Katharine Tier, and Matthew Piatt. Daniela Mack will be singing at a Schwabacher Debut Recital on Sunday, April 6, 2008, as will Heidi…
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Last June I went to San Francisco Opera sixteen times (seventeen if one counts the rehearsal of Der Rosenkavalier I went to), and while that is excessive, one should note that there were only three productions, and only twenty-one performances. I only missed one performance of Don Giovanni because one of my best friends was…
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* Notes * The Rake’s Progress closed today with a Sunday matinée, and to my surprise, I attended, as I was offered a seat from a friend. This season I have avoided Sunday performances, as they are extraordinarily popular. Also, the last performances at the end of the year are crowded, after my experience with…
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Someone one pulled a fire alarm just a few minutes before yesterday’s performance of The Rake’s Progress was to begin, so we all had to file out and everything started half an hour late. This hasn’t happened in awhile, but I remember a rash of fire alarm pulling in 2005. Later, everyone laughed at the…
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* Notes * The alternate cast of Madama Butterfly performed the first of two performances at San Francisco Opera yesterday evening. Julian Smith did not take the tempi as fast as Runnicles, and though the orchestra was together, some of the woodwinds and horns did not sound their best. I believe the oboe sounded especially…
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Of late, every time I pass Dress Barn I think of San Francisco Opera's most recent promotional materials for subscriptions. "A Season of Glamour," indeed. This is the worst time of the year for me, because by next week, San Francisco Opera will have finished the Fall part of the season, and it will be…
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A couple of weeks ago I left my credit card at the North Box Bar, I think I must have been overwhelmed by the opening of Macbeth. The card was turned into lost and found, but I did not manage to get there in time, so they supposedly sent it to the War Memorial Executive…
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At the moment I am reading the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation of War and Peace. Though I attended a performance of Prokofiev’s opera at the Met a few years ago, I stubbornly refused to read the titles. Thus I did not manage to piece together the plot, as my Russian skills are minimal, so the book has…
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* Notes * Yet another revival of Madama Butterfly opened today at San Francisco Opera. When I heard this opera was added to the season, I wondered if I would avoid it. I was pretty bored by it already the last time it was here in the summer of 2006, despite not having seen it…
The Opera Tattler 