The Opera Tattler
Reviews of Performances and their Audiences
Month: November 2011
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* Notes * A new production of Faust, directed by Des McAnuff, opened at the Metropolitan Opera last night. Robert Brill’s set is pleasingly spare, and the twin spiral staircases were put to cunning use. The transitions from scene to scene were clean and simple, aided by lighting designer Peter Mumford and video designer Sean Nieuwenhuis.…
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* Notes * Los Angeles Opera's last performance of the year was the matinée of Roméo et Juliette today. The production, directed Ian Judge, ran smoothly. John Gunter's tiered set elegantly framed the space and moved easily. At times the transparency of this set did not serve to create much of an illusion, as we…
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* Notes * Michael Tilson Thomas is conducting San Francisco Symphony in a program of Wagner and Brahms this week. Yesterday's performance began with the Prelude to Act II of Lohengrin. For some reason, without the rest of the opera, this music struck me as being a bit more absurd than it usually does. The brass…
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San Francisco Opera's Serse (Michael Sumuel and Heidi Stober pictured in the first image below, Susan Graham and Lisette Oropesa pictured in the second; photographs by Cory Weaver) just finished a run of six performances last Saturday. 31. October 2011: Opening Media Round-Up 4. November 2011: From Orchestra Standing Room Opera Tattler Review 8. November…
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* Notes * San Francisco Opera‘s revival of Turandot (Susan Foster and Walter Fraccaro, in Act II pictured left, photograph by D. Ross Cameron/San Francisco Opera) returned for a second time this season with three new cast members and a fresh conductor yesterday evening. There were several synchronization problems between the singing and playing, and one…
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Jay Hunter Morris (pictured left, photograph by Ken Howard) in the title role of the Metropolitan Opera’s Siegfried, on April 21 and 30, 2012, as part of Ring Cycles 1 and 2. Morris will also sing Siegfried in Götterdämmerung for the second RingCycle on May 3, 2012. Lehman has withdrawn due to illness. The Met’s…
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* Notes *Anita Rachvelishvili (pictured left, photograph by Cory Weaver) is singing five performances as the leading lady in Carmen at San Francisco Opera this month. Rachvelishvili has an arresting voice, resonant and earthy. Her pronunciation of French may have been imperfect, but she seemed fully committed to her role. Rachvelishvili never looked like she…
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Production Web Site | SF Opera's Blog Reviews of San Francisco Opera's Carmen (Act II pictured left with Kendall Gladen as Carmen and members of the San Francisco Opera Chorus, and supernumeraries; photograph by Cory Weaver) are trickling in. Performance Reviews: San Francisco Chronicle (Kendall Gladen) | San Francisco Chronicle (Anita Rachvelishvili) | San Francisco…
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* Notes * Cal Performances presented a recital of Bach's French Suites played by Davitt Moroney yesterday afternoon. There were three harpsichords on stage: one from UC Berkeley's music department, one belonging to Davitt Moroney himself, and one lent by Peter and Cynthia Hibbert of Palo Alto. All three were made by John Phillips from 1995…
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* Notes * Last night a double bill of La voix humaine (pictured left, photograph by P. Kirk) and Pagliacci opened at Opera San José. It is something of an odd juxtaposition, one imagines it is based on the duration of these two operas and the fact that it would be difficult to present the…
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