The Opera Tattler
Reviews of Performances and their Audiences
Month: May 2008
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Ruth Ann Swenson will be awarded the San Francisco Opera Medal after the final performance of Ariodante on July 6th. Press Release [PDF]| Date Lines | Ariodante | San Francisco Opera
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July 6 2008: Free Schwabacher Summer ConcertJuly 8 2008: Schwabacher Summer ConcertJuly 18-20 2008: Albert HerringAugust 1-3 2008: Don GiovanniAugust 16 2008: Merola Grand Finale Tickets go on sale today for the Merola Summer productions. San Francisco Opera's Merola Opera Program is an 11-week intensive training program for singers, coaches, and stage directors. Previous Merolini…
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This morning I checked my post office box, and it completely filled with opera flyers and solicitations for donations to opera-related causes. On the second point, it was amusing to see the form letter (complete with laser-jet printed fake signature) from the Adler Fellowship Program’s Making Voices Sing campaign was from Carol Vaness, whose voice…
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* Notes * The alternate cast of Seattle Opera‘s I Puritani was almost infuriating. It was as if the intensity had been sapped out of the whole cast, and then, for some sadistic reason, poured into the soprano. It is a pity that newcomer Eglise Gutierrez was not in the A cast as Elvira,…
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* Notes * Bellini’s last opera, I Puritani, had its Seattle Opera premiere at the beginning of the month, and Linda Brovsky’s production is magnificent. The sets, the work of Robert A. Dahlstrom, look inspired by the Getty Center, as there are many steel staircases and landings. This kept the action in the vertical…
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Though I have been in standing room at Seattle Opera for at least 9 performances, I never quite figured out how their system works. This is partially because standing room is never full, and partially because I let my erstwhile Seattle Opera companion, the Opernphrenologe, take charge, as she was living in Seattle up until…
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From Susan Elliott’s May 9, 2008 Article in MusicalAmerica.com: In addition to being virtually all-male, the Philharmonic is also all European. One player actually told me, without hesitation, that Asians are incapable of producing the "Vienna Philharmonic sound." I’ve been to Austria four times, and despite having a governor born in Thal bei Graz, I…
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October 2 2008- July 24 2009: Macbeth October 4-11 2008: Das Gehege / Salome October 5 2008- July 13 2009: Norma October 19-25 2008: Die Bassariden October 23- November 2 2008: Eugene Onegin November 1-6 2008: Die Entführung aus dem Serail November 8 2008- May 21 2009: Der fliegende Holländer November 10 2008- January 31…
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Lisa Hirsch points out that Ewa Podleś has withdrawn from San Francisco Opera’s Ariodante. It was to be her San Francisco Opera debut. Podleś has been replaced by Sonia Prina. Press Release [PDF] | Ariodante
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* Notes * Berkeley Opera is midway through a run of Béla Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle and Maurice Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges. The double bill makes for a short evening, a mere 2 hours and 10 minutes including an intermission. I was skeptical of the "unique multi-media staging," as both productions involved projections on an…
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