The Opera Tattler

* Notes *
It was a distinct pleasure to see and hear the final dress rehearsal of San Francisco Opera's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Brandon Jovanovich and the cast pictured left) was held last night at the War Memorial Opera House. The cast is great, and I'm sure they will be even better once everyone is singing out for the first performance on Wednesday.

The orchestra beautiful and I loved hearing the musicians, despite Maestro Mark Elder's very slow tempi. It was so nice to see the violist carefully make notes in their scores and I appreciate sitting in the side boxes as to observe the members of the orchestra. The production is tame, there's some cute dancing, and the jugglers need to work on their act.

* Tattling *
It was fun to attend an Orpheus (the young people's donor program) event in the Jeannik Méquet Littlefield Intermezzo Lounge. I heard that the programming for the theater in the Diane B. Wilsey Center for Opera will be announced this week and while there is no Baroque opera, Matthias Goerne will be singing Schubert.

Also, it seems that some members (a violist and hornist?) of San Francisco Symphony are part of Orpheus, which is lovely to see.