The Opera Tattler
Reviews of Performances and their Audiences
Month: September 2015
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Ted Hearne's Dispatches is having a West Coast premiere at San Francisco Symphony next week starting Wednesday night as part of the New Voices project which fosters the careers of emerging composers. Hearne (pictured left, photograph by Nathan Lee Bush) is perhaps best known for setting U.S. Army private WikiLeaks leaker Chelsea Manning's words to music…
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Matthew Shilvock (pictured left, photograph by Cory Weaver) has been named General Director of San Francisco Opera and will become the Company's seventh director on August 1, 2016 with a five-year contract through July 2021. Mr. Shilvock is currently SF Opera's Associate General Director since 2010 and has been with the Company since 2005. Press…
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As rumored, Diana Damrau has withdrawn from San Francisco Opera's upcoming Lucia di Lammermoor, in order to remain on vocal rest for the next six weeks. She is replaced by Nadine Sierra, who in turn will be replaced as Pamina in the first four performances of The Magic Flute by Sarah Shafer. Lucia di Lammermoor…
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* Notes * Dazzling soprano Ailyn Peréz (pictured left, photograph by Paul Marc Mitchell) replaced Susanna Phillips in New Century Chamber Orchestra's 2015-2016 season opener last night in Berkeley, traveling to the Bay Area between her performances of La Bohème at La Scala and the world premiere of Jake Heggie's Great Scott in Dallas. The…
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* Tattling *My review of Opera San José's Tosca is up on San Francisco Classical Voice. * Tattling * Someone's cell phone on the orchestra level would not stop ringing at the start of the opera.
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* Notes *My review of San Francisco Opera‘s Sweeney Todd is up on KQED Arts. Perhaps I’m not high-brow enough for Sondheim’s work, normally at the opera I am swept off by the music — the drama, though important, tends to be secondary and the words are rarely a concern. I found myself exhausted by focusing…
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* Notes * The 93rd season of San Francisco Opera opened Friday with Luisa Miller, a Verdi rarity only seen on the War Memorial stage a dozen times before. The opera has a quintessentially Verdian plot: a protective father, an innocent daughter, a secret identity, and a love triangle that ends in a protracted death scene.…
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My reflection on David Gockley's time as general director of San Francisco Opera is on KQED Arts. I talked to a ton of people for this piece, and it was amusing to hear so many different stories and opinions. Definitely kept in mind the comments I've heard from readers of this blog, so thank you…
The Opera Tattler 