The Opera Tattler

Reviews of Performances and their Audiences

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Month: September 2011

  • PBO plays Mozart, Beck, & Haydn

    * Notes * Nicholas McGegan and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra opened the 2011-2012 season with Mozart, Beck, and Haydn. The concert started with Mozart's Symphony No. 38 in D major. The playing lilted, the brass seemed slightly rawer in style compared to the strings and woodwinds. The featured soloist of the program was R.J. Kelley (pictured left,…

  • SF Opera’s Lucrezia Borgia Media Round-Up

    Production Web Site | SF Opera's Blog Reviews of San Francisco Opera's Lucrezia Borgia (Act I pictured left with Elizabeth DeShong as Maffio Orsini, Michael Fabiano as Gennaro, Renée Fleming as Lucrezia Borgia; photograph by Cory Weaver) are coming in. Performance Reviews: Out West Arts | San Francisco Chronicle | San Francisco Classical Voice |…

  • SF Opera’s Lucrezia Borgia

    * Notes * Washington National Opera’s production of Lucrezia Borgia opened yesterday evening at San Francisco Opera. The performances mark the return of Renée Fleming, who has not sung in an opera at the War Memorial for more than a decade. John Pascoe’s designs for Lucrezia are rather puzzling. The set is oppressive and the different…

  • NCCO plays Bloch, Mendelssohn, & Shchedrin

    * Notes * New Century Chamber Orchestra began the 2011-2012 season with a program entitled “Carmen Revisited,” including works from Bloch, Mendelssohn, and Shchedrin. The first performance last night in Berkeley commenced with Bloch’s Concerto Gross for String Orchestra with Piano Obbligato, the pianist in this case being Miles Graber. Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and the rest…

  • New Century Chamber Orchestra’s 20th Season

    * Notes * On Tuesday New Century Chamber Orchestra (pictured left, photograph by Kristen Loken Anstey) held a press luncheon in honor of the ensemble's 20th Anniversary Season. Executive Director Parker E. Monroe, Board President Paula Gambs, and Music Director Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg all spoke about how things have been going for the ensemble of late. Ticket…

  • LA Opera’s Così fan tutte

    * Notes * Nicholas Hytner's 2006 Glyndebourne production of Così fan tutte (Act II pictured left with the Los Angeles Opera chorus, Aleksandra Kurzak as Fiordiligi, Saimir Pirgu as Ferrando, Ruxandra Donose as Dorabella, and Ildebrando D'Arcangelo as Guglielmo; photograph by Robert Millard) opened at Los Angeles Opera last Sunday. The scenic design from Vicki Mortimer…

  • LA Opera’s Eugene Onegin

    * Notes * The 25th season of Los Angeles Opera opened with Eugene Onegin (pictured left with the Los Angeles Opera chorus, Ronnita Nicole Miller as Filipievna, Margaret Thompson as Madame Larina, Oksana Dyka as Tatiana, and Ekaterina Semenchuk as Olga; photograph by Robert Millard) last night. The 2006 production originates from Royal Opera House,…

  • MMDG’s Dido and Aeneas

     * Notes * The Mark Morris Dance Group (pictured left, photograph by Beatriz Schiller) opened the new season at Cal Performances with Dido and Aeneas yesterday evening. The audience seemed completely rapt by the experience, and I have never attended a Baroque opera with so little fidgeting or noise. Morris fills all the music with choreography,…

  • Puccini and Lucca in San Francisco

    * Notes * The Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco has collaborated with the Giacomo Puccini Foundation, the City of Lucca, Associazione Lucchesi nel Mondo, San Francisco Opera, and San Francisco Opera's BRAVO! Club to host an exhibition entitled "Puccini and Lucca in San Francisco," which opened on September 15 and will close October 13. The…

  • Opera San José’s Idomeneo

    * Notes * Last weekend the 28th season of Opera San José opened with Idomeneo. The production (Act I pictured left, photo by P. Kirk) directed by Brad Dalton, is gorgeous. Steven C. Kemp's set looks meticulously researched, and Johann Stegmeir's costumes were quite pretty. The choreography, from Dennis Nahat, did not always go with…