The Opera Tattler
Reviews of Performances and their Audiences
Month: March 2012
-
* Notes * San Francisco Conservatory of Music‘s spring opera this year is Così fan tutte (Sergio González, Kate Allen, Julie Adams, and Efraín Solís pictured left in Act I, photograph by Betsy Kershner), which opened at Cowell Theater last night. The orchestra was lead by the resident conductor of San Francisco Opera, Giuseppe Finzi,…
-
It seems to be the season for contemporary opera in San Francisco, as Erling Wold's Certitude and Joy and David Lang's The Little Match Girl Passion had both opened last week. San Francisco Opera Center and ODC Theater are also presenting a world premiere of Love/Hate. This chamber opera, by composer Jack Perla and librettist…
-
September 23 2012- June 29 2013: Tannhäuser September 30- October 30 2012: Fidelio October 7 2012- July 24 2013: Tosca October 27 2012- July 21 2013: Babylon October 28- November 4 2012: Dialogues des Carmélites November 5-16 2012: Rusalka November 11 2012- July 3 2013: Lohengrin November 22- December 1 2012: Turandot November 24- December…
-
James Gaffigan has been named Principal Guest Conductor of the Gürzenich Orchestra in Cologne (Gürzenich-Orchester Köln), starting with the 2012-2013 season. Gaffigan is currently the Chief Conductor of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. He was the Associate Conductor of San Francisco Symphony from 2006 to 2009.…
-
* Notes * The amateur musicians of Symphony Parnassus barely all fit on the stage of San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Concert Hall yesterday afternoon. The performance began with Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man. The playing was not entirely clear but was quite hearty. Before the Der Rosenkavalier Suite and excerpts from that opera,…
-
* Notes * San Francisco Lyric Opera returned after a hiatus of more than two years with a performance of David Lang's The Little Match Girl Passion at ODC Theater last night. The new incarnation of this ensemble is sleek and fresh. Lang's piece is scored for four voices and half a dozen percussive instruments,…
-
The Spring For Music festival in New York is holding an arts blogger challenge that involves answering various questions on a weekly basis for a month. Though I am not much for competition or contests, this seems fairly harmless and the possibilities for the earnest and absurd are promising. The first question posed, apparently due…
-
* Notes * Erling Wold's chamber opera Certitude and Joy opened at Bindlestiff Studio in San Francisco this evening. The piece involves several pairs, these being two actors, two dancers, two singers, and two pianists. The action, directed by Jim Cave, took place on and around a small, beautifully-constructed pier in the middle of the…
-
Dawn Harms is conducting Symphony Parnassus in a spring concert this weekend with guest artist Frederica von Stade at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Harms also plays violin in the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and is Associate Concertmaster of New Century Chamber Orchestra. She spoke with The Opera Tattler on March 19, 2012. How…
-
* Notes * Clarinetist Brenden Guy presented a genial afternoon of Bay Area music at First Unitarian Universalist Church in San Francisco on Sunday. The performance began with David Conte’s rather lyrical Sonata for Clarinet and Piano (1978), played by Guy and pianist Miles Graber. Valinor Winds played Nicholas Pavkovic’s Eight Figments (2010), whose movements…
The Opera Tattler 