The Opera Tattler

Reviews of Performances and their Audiences

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Month: October 2013

  • Luisotti Conducts Verdi’s Requiem

    * Notes * Last night Nicola Luisotti conducted Verdi's Messa da Requiem at the War Memorial Opera House with the combined orchestras and choruses of Real Teatro di San Carlo and San Francisco Opera. The volume was occasionally deafening, especially the repeated part when the chorus sings "Dies irae" and the trumpets play. The piece felt…

  • SF Opera’s Holländer Media Round-Up

    Production Web Site | SF Opera’s Blog Reviewers agree that the chorus is strong in San Francisco Opera’s Der fliegende Holländer (Act II pictured left, photograph by Cory Weaver). Performance Reviews: San Francisco Chronicle | San Francisco Classical Voice | San Jose Mercury News

  • SF Opera’s Der Fliegende Holländer

    * Notes * A co-production of Der fliegende Holländer (Greer Grimsley as the Dutchman and Lise Lindstrom as Senta pictured left, photograph by Cory Weaver) with Opéra Royal de Wallonie opened yesterday at San Francisco Opera. Petrika Ionesco designed the set and was to have directed as well, but it seems that he was asked to…

  • Lisette Oropesa Replaces Heidi Stober

    Soprano Lisette Oropesa (pictured left, photograph by Matthew Murphy) will replace Heidi Stober as Nannetta in Falstaff on October 15, 2013. Stober is ill but expects to recover by the October 20 performance. Production Web Site | San Francisco Opera Press Releases

  • SF Opera’s Falstaff Media Round-Up

    Production Web Site | SF Opera's Blog So far, the reviews of San Francisco Opera's Falstaff (Act II pictured left photograph by Cory Weaver) are positive. Performance Reviews: San Francisco Chronicle | San Francisco Classical Voice | San Francisco Examiner | San Jose Mercury News

  • Lise Lindstrom’s SF Opera Debut

    Soprano Lise Lindstrom (pictured left) will have her San Francisco Opera debut as Senta in Der fliegende Holländer, which opens on October 22, 2013. Lindstrom replaces Petra Maria Schnitzer, who has withdrawn from the production for health reasons. Production Web Site | San Francisco Opera Press Release

  • SF Opera’s Falstaff

    * Notes * Lyric Opera of Chicago‘s current production of Falstaff (Act II, Scene 2 pictured left with Ainhoa Arteta as Alice Ford and Bryn Terfel as Sir John Falstaff, photograph by Cory Weaver) had an opening performance at San Francisco Opera yesterday. The set, from Frank Philipp Schlössmann, is a bit like a pop-up book…

  • New Music at the Met 2013

    The Metropolitan Opera has announced the addition of three new composers to its Met/LCT New Works Program: Matthew Aucoin, David T. Little, and Joshua Schmidt. Two new premieres were also announced, namely Thomas Adès' The Exterminating Angel, to be seen in the 2017-18 season and Osvaldo Golijov's adaptation of the Euripides play Iphigenia in Aulis,…

  • Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater at PBO

    * Notes * Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra's 2013-2014 season opened with a set of performances entitled "Pergolesi in Naples." The San Francisco performance was held at the SFJAZZ Center, which has an intimate feel and a dry, crackly acoustic. Maestro Nicholas McGegan described Pergolesi's Sinfonia from L'Olimpiade as having "vim and spritz," the Händel duets and arias…

  • 2014 Adler Fellows

    The incoming 2014 Adler Fellows are Maria Valdes, Zanda Švēde, Pene Pati, Efraín Solís, and Noah Lindquist. They join current Adlers (pictured left) Erin Johnson, Jacqueline Piccolino, A.J. Glueckert, Chuanyue Wang, Hadleigh Adams, and Philippe Sly. The outgoing 2013 Adler Fellows are soprano Marina Harris, mezzo-sopranos Laura Krumm and Renée Rapier, baritone Ao Li, bass-baritone…