The Opera Tattler
Reviews of Performances and their Audiences
Month: March 2009
-
* Notes * San Francisco Symphony gave a concert of Gabrieli, Ligeti, Ravel, and Liszt last Friday. In ecclesiis from Gabrieli's Symphoniae sacrae was lead by chorus director Ragnar Bohlin. The piece sounded both clear and lovely. Michael Tilson Thomas took over for Ligeti's Requiem, an eerie work in which both wails and hives could…
-
* Notes * New Century Chamber Orchestra gave a series of performances featuring Russian composers. The first half of the evening began with Prokofiev’s Visions Fugitives, with soloist Anne-Marie McDermott at the piano. The brief piano pieces were rather romantic and impressionistic, the string orchestra arrangement by Rudolf Barshai worked well. McDermott launched directly into Shostakovich’s Piano…
-
* Notes * Pocket Opera opened the 2009 season with Offenbach's La belle Hélène last month in Berkeley, with subsequent performances in San Francisco. The production was almost cloyingly sweet. Everyone was perfectly adorable, especially the charming pianist and narrator Donald Pippin. The musical values were appropriate for the small venue. Megan Stetson certainly made for…
-
November 6-15 2009: Carmen February 4-7 2010: The Turn of the Screw March 12-23 2010: Ariadne auf Naxos April 23- May 4 2010: Idomeneo Press Release [PDF] | Official Site
-
* Notes * The Conservatory Baroque Ensemble of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music gave a delightful student performance of Rinaldo last Saturday. The vocalists were very fine, and Rinaldo's "Cara sposa" was sung particularly well. The musicians were not always perfectly together, exposed as they were by the smallness of the group and, simply,…
-
September 9 2009: Gala with Lang Lang (Liszt, Ravel, Rodgers, Prokofiev) September 10-12 2009: Liszt, Ravel, Rodgers, Prokofiev September 16-20 2009: Susan Graham sings Rückert-Lieder, Mahler's 1st September 23-26 2009: Thomas Hampson sings Mahler September 30- October 3 2009: Scelsi's Hymnos, Mahler's 5thOctober 7-10 2009: Brett Dean, Haydn's 94th, BrahmsOctober 11 2009: Murray Perahia, pianoOctober 14-18…
The Opera Tattler 