The Opera Tattler
Reviews of Performances and their Audiences
Month: May 2012
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Michael Schwab has created a poster for San Francisco Opera‘s upcoming Nixon in China. The opera has a Bay Area premiere on June 8, 2012. Schwab made a lovely poster last year for the Ring. The graphic artist will be signing his work at the San Francisco Opera shop on June 17, 2012, after the…
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* Notes * A new production of Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night opened at the Apollo Theatre in London last month. Directed by Anthony Page, the play stars David Suchet as James Tyrone and Laurie Metcalf as Mary Cavan Tyrone (pictured left, photograph by Alastair Muir). The detailed set, designed by Lez Brotherston was…
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From a press release on May 17, 2012. Gwyn Hughes-Jones will make his Met role debut as Manrico in Il Trovatore on September 29 and sings the role on October 4, 8, 12, 17, 20, and 25. Carmen Giannattasio will replace Sondra Radvanovsky as Leonora in Il Trovatore on October 12, 17, 20, and 25.…
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* Notes * Last night Alan Gilbert and New York Philharmonic (pictured left) played a second performance at San Francisco Symphony. The evening began with a very cheerful Le Corsaire Overture by Berlioz. Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 1 was sober in contrast, and soloist Glenn Dicterow played elegantly, with long lines. Dicterow listened carefully to the…
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* Notes * A revival of La Bohème (Act IV pictured left, photograph by Robert Millard) opened Saturday night in Los Angeles. The performance marked the Los Angeles Opera debut of conductor Patrick Summers, and the orchestra played clearly, with only a slight harshness in the brass at one point in Act II. The chorus…
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* Notes * Kronos Quartet gave two performances under the title Women's Voices in San Francisco this weekend. The program featured four female composers and two female performers. Friday's concert began with the wry "Death to Kosmische" by Nicole Lizée, whose sense of humor came through the piece rather beautifully. Laurie Anderson's quieter Flow, arranged…
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* Notes * New Century Chamber Orchestra end the 2011-2012 season with a world premiere by Ellen Taafe Zwilich (pictured left). The Berkeley performance last night began with Grieg's Fra Holbergs tid, which was played with much vim. The likeable Zwilich piece, Commedia dell'Arte, followed. Music Director Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg was soloist, and stood surrounded by…
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* Notes * Last Sunday and Monday San Francisco Conservatory Opera Theatre presented works by Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann, and Johannes Brahms. The performance, entitled Trio Appassionato, was held as a salon in which the biographies of aforementioned musicians were covered. Frederica von Stade (pictured left) hosted, with Darryl Cooper and Curt Pajer accompanying four…
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* Notes * The second Ring cycle the Met this season came to a rather disappointing conclusion with Götterdämmerung yesterday. Though there were many fine individual contributions to the piece, in the end both playing and staging fell short. Robert Lepage’s production was not consistent with the earlier parts of the cycle. Why should Grane finally…
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