The Opera Tattler
Reviews of Performances and their Audiences
Month: March 2011
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* Notes * The Sunday performance of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, conducted by Maestro Yuri Temirkanov in San Francisco, was sold out. The program of Rimsky-Korsakov, Shostakovich, and Brahms held together well. The orchestra played with dark warmth, perhaps a bit sloppily, but with confidence. Rimsky-Korsakov’s Russian Easter Overture No. 3 with dignity and cheerful bluster,…
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* Notes * The artistic director of New York Festival of Song, Steven Blier, gave a Schwabacher Debut Recital yesterday evening. Entitled Amores Nuevos, the program consisted of Spanish art songs, zarzuela arias and duets, Latin American art songs, and Latin American popular songs. As one would expect, Blier played piano for these selections, with David…
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* Notes * This weekend Cal Performances presented Castleton Festival‘s Albert Herring. The production involves much abuse of artificial fruit. It was particularly unsatisfying when the title character threw fake peaches against a Plexiglas window in Act II. The use of astroturf was, however, entertaining. The cast, as with The Rape of Lucretia, boasted not a…
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* Notes * Cal Performances presented Castleton Festival's The Rape of Lucretia this week. The opera itself struck me as highly contrived, even for an opera, framed by not one but two narrators. There was a lot of telling rather than showing. The production was not particularly illuminating, though it did have moments of beauty, especially…
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* Notes * New Century Chamber Orchestra opened a series of performances entitled "Mastery of Schubert" in Berkeley yesterday evening. They began with Bach's Violin Concerto in E major, with NCCO's music director, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, as soloist. Salerno-Sonnenberg has a very peculiar motor pattern, and seemed to be brimming with energy. The piece was played…
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Production Web Site | Press Release Reviews: New York Times | Classical Review
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* Notes * On Tuesday night Charles Dutoit conducted Chicago Symphony Orchestra in a program of Berlioz, Penderecki, and Elgar. The concert began with Berlioz’s Roman Carnival Overture. The brass was clear, and the piece was played with much charm. For some reason, I experienced the Concerto grosso for Three Cellos and Orchestra from Penderecki that…
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* Notes * Vivaldi's Orlando Furioso at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées was an airy, understated affair. Directed by Pierre Audi, the action seemed to involve much spinning around, overturning furniture, and the like. Particularly amusing was when Orlando sang to a slowing descending Venetian chandelier at the end of Act II. Patrick Kinmonth's sets and costumes were…
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This week the soprano Melody Moore (pictured left) performs with New Century Chamber Orchestra. She will be singing in Stephen Schwartz's Séance on a Wet Afternoon at New York City Opera next month, Gordon Getty's Plump Jack with the Münchner Rundfunkorchester in May, and returns to San Francisco for the world premiere of Christopher Theofanidis'…
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* Notes * Saturday night's performance of Death in Venice at Teatro alla Scala had a strong visual appeal. Unfortunately, since so many of the sightlines seem rather poor in the house, this aspect may have been lost on the droves of audience members that left at intermission. Jean Kalman's lighting was particularly beautiful, evoking the…
The Opera Tattler 