The Opera Tattler

Reviews of Performances and their Audiences

Recent posts

  • ROH’s 2009-2010 Season

    September 7-14 2009: Linda di Chamounix
    September 15- October 1 2009: Don Carlo
    September 19- October 18 2009: Tristan und Isolde
    October 3 2009- June 26 2010: Carmen
    October 17-28 2009: L'Heure Espagnole /Gianni Schicchi
    October 30- November 14 2009: Artaxerxes
    November 20- December 8 2009: The Tsarina's Slippers
    December 7-22 2009: Der Rosenkavalier
    December 19 2009- January 11 2010: La Bohème
    January 22- February 3 2010: The Rake's Progress
    January 29- February 17 2010: Così fan tutte
    February 11-27 2010: The Gambler
    March 5-20 2010: Tamerlano
    March 19- April 1 2010: The Cunning Little Vixen
    April 3-19 2010: Il Turco in Italia
    April 26- May 12 2010: Powder Her Face
    April 27- May 16 2010: Aida
    May 11- July 17 2010: La Traviata
    May 17- June 4 2010: La Fille du Régiment
    May 31- June 30 2010: Le Nozze di Figaro
    June 22- July 10 2010: Manon
    June 29- July 15 2010: Simon Boccanegra
    July 3-16 2010: Salome

    Covent Garden just announced their season this week. Eglise Gutiérrez stars in Linda di Chamounix. Stephanie Blythe sings Baba the Turk in the revival of The Rake's Progress. Kurt Streit shares the role of Bajazet in Tamerlano with Plácido Domingo. Streit also sings in The Gambler, and Domingo sings the title role in Boccanegra. Dmitri Hvorostovsky returns as Germont for the May performances of La Traviata. Natalie Dessay stars opposite of Juan Diego Flórez in La Fille. Erwin Schrott sings the title role in Le Nozze, with Mariusz Kwiecien and Jacques Imbrailo sharing the role of the Count.

    Press Release [PDF]| Official Site

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  • Gabriel Kahane and Holcombe Waller

    Gabriel-kahane * Notes *
    Gabriel Kahane opened for Holcombe Waller at Café Du Nord last night. Though his banjo playing was less than impressive, his piano playing and singing were not unpleasant. It might have been nice had he not been amplified and been playing an actual piano, rather than the monstrous keyboard that was present, as the venue is small. Kahane's Craigslistlieder are exceedingly entertaining, he spoofed the nineteenth century Late Romantics with aplomb. The eighth and last piece, "Opera Scene," gave me a fit of giggles that I only barely recovered from.     Holcombe Waller was perfectly charming. His lovely, flexible voice is quite bright, and his songs are pretty. His rendition of "Nothing Compares 2U" was particularly rousing, and his dancing was great.

    * Tattling *
    The rather small audience seemed attentive and enthused.

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  • Emerson String Quartet

    Emerson-quartet * Notes *
    Since Angelika Kirchschlager canceled her Berkeley recital for yesterday afternoon, I stayed in San Francisco and heard an evening performance of the Emerson String Quartet instead. They began with a spirited rendition of Mozart's Quartet in B-flat Major, K. 589, the playing was sumptuous without being too showy. In contrast, Beethoven that came next, Quartet in F minor, Op. 95, was rather more strident but still sublime. The last movement was particularly vehement. Webern's Six Bagatelles, Op. 9 were light and amusing, though the audience's distaste for the Second Viennese School was palpable. Ravel's Quartet in F major was a good foil, being lusher and prettier than the Webern. The percussiveness of the second movement was great fun, and it was clear what a fine rapport the performers had with one another. The performance ended with an encore of the eleventh song in Dvořák's Cyprise, transcribed for string quartet.

    * Tattling * 
    The audience was highly respectful of the Mozart and Beethoven, only a few people whispered between movements. Someone was roundly hushed during the Webern. As far as I could tell, there was no electronic noise of any kind during the performance.

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  • Peter Grimes at San Diego Opera

    Peter-grimes * Notes *
    A revival of Peter Grimes opened at San Diego Opera yesterday evening. The production was originally built for San Francisco Opera and the Lyric in 1973, and the set has a certain grey brutality. Gary Marder's lighting was appropriately stark and moody. The costumes, from the Met's old production, are also perfectly traditional.

    Steuart Bedford conducted straightforwardly, the orchestra was together, but not always with the singers. The musicians had some lovely, delicate moments during the overtures. The chorus likewise was not quite together in the beginning, but did focus in at the end of the first act. Their vigor flagged after this, and the following two acts were less precise.

    The casting was apt, up and down the line. Priya Palekar and Priti Gandhi sang prettily as the nieces, and their auntie, Judith Christin, certainly embodied her role. Rod Gilfry was a stern but sympathetic Captain Balstrode. As Ellen Orford, Jennifer Casey Cabot began rather coldly, her voice is metallic and a bit light. However, her acting was strong, and her scene with the apprentice in Act II was beautiful. Anthony Dean Griffey proved convincing in the title role. His voice is exceedingly sweet, his volume is good, and yet he can be quite forbidding.

    * Tattling * 
    There were more young people than usual at San Diego Opera for Peter Grimes. The audience spoke aloud during the music, though more so in the beginning than at the end. There was significant attrition in attendance, a couple next to us left at the first intermission, as did 6 people in front of us.

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  • Charlie Brown at SFCM

    Charlie-brown  * Notes *
    Last night the Musical Theatre Ensemble of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music gave a student performance of You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown, which they will repeat tonight with a different cast. The performance certainly was heartfelt and sweet. The vocalists used microphones, as to be heard over the instrumentation, which, at times, involved electric bass, saxophone, and rather heavy percussion. The simple staging was suited to the venue, and the choreography was very good, though not perfectly together. The musical itself is a bit too kitschy in the wrong sort of way, it has all the earnestness of Schultz's Peanuts, but is somehow not as poignant.

    * Tattling * 
    The audience did talk and text during the performance, but was for the most part fairly well-behaved. At the end of the performance, the stage directors came out and danced with the students, and Michael Mohammed did 555 95472's moves convincingly.

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  • SF Opera’s Annual Meeting 2009

    * Notes *
    San Francisco Opera's Annual Meeting for 2009 was held yesterday afternoon, over in one of the rehearsal halls in Davies. Board of Directors President George H. Hume, General Director David Gockley, and CFO Michael Simpson all gave reports. The mood is considerably more gloomy than last year, the endowment is down by some $30-35 million, though ticket sales are quite strong. The Netrebko performances of La Traviata are sold-out, and Porgy and Bess will undoubtedly sell out as well. It was admitted that the cinemacasts have not been a success, and that the Met has a stranglehold on distribution to the major cinemas.

    In addition to canceling Peter Grimes next season, San Francisco Opera has reduced the number of performances, limited rehearsal times, cut a revival of La Bohème, and is not putting on family performances next year. However, three cycles of Der Ring will be performed in 2011, in the style of Bayreuth.

    The War Memorial Veterans Building is slated to be seismically retrofitted, and an annex may be added to alleviate some of the space limitations the opera has. Apparently San Francisco Opera has storage space out in Potrero Hill, a costume shop in SOMA, and an annex on Ivy Street. SFJAZZ has plans to move over to a new venue on Franklin near Fell, so it may also be the case that some smaller scale works may have a chance to be performed by San Francisco Opera in Herbst.

    There were five Adlers that performed, sopranos Leah Crocetto and Tamara Wapinsky, mezzo Daniela Mack, tenor Alek Shrader, and pianist Allen Perriello. Shrader's diction and control were good in "Ich baue ganz," though he sounded constrained at the top of his voice. Crocetto gave a powerful performance of "My man's gone now," she really sounded like she could shatter glass with her voice. Wapinsky sang "O mio babbino caro" fairly well, she has a lot of vibrato, but she stayed in tune. Mack and Shrader were perfectly charming in "Un soave non so che," both were deft and light in their approach.

    * Tattling *
    A cellular phone rang as Gockley introduced Crocetto. Also, it was confirmed that Le Nozze di Figaro is slated for 2010-2011, with Luisotti conducting. We also may well hear Dead Man Walking in the next 5 or 6 years.

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  • Portland Opera’s 2009-2010 Season

    September 25- October 3 2009: La Bohème
    November 6-14 2009: Philip Glass' Orphée
    February 5-13 2010: Così fan tutte
    March 26 -April 3 2010: Trouble in Tahiti
    May 7-15 2010: Il barbiere di Siviglia

    Monteverdi's Il Ballo Delle Ingrate and Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda are also being performed with Trouble in Tahiti.

    2009-2010 Portland Opera Site

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  • Angelika Kirchschlager News

    Angelika Kirchschlager has canceled her recital in Berkeley due to illness.

    Official Site | Cal Performances

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  • Bayerische Staatsoper’s 2009-2010 Season

    September 19 2009- July 20 2010: Ariadne auf Naxos
    September 20 2009- July 6 2010: Lucrezia Borgia
    October 4 2009- June 12 2010: Carmen
    October 11 2009- July 9 2010: Jenůfa
    October 15 2009- July 29 2010: Lohengrin
    October 31 2009- July 8 2010: Don Giovanni
    November 1-8 2009: Eugene Onegin
    November 13-25 2009: Il turco in Italia
    November 27- December 25 2009: Hänsel und Gretel
    December 1 2009- July 27 2010: L'elisir d'amore
    December 2-12 2009: Der fliegende Holländer
    December 6-20 2009: Die Zauberflöte
    December 15-30 2009: La bohème
    December 29 2009- January 9 2010: La Traviata
    December 31 2009- February 16 2010: Die Fledermaus
    January 6- July 22 2010: Don Carlo
    January 13- July 31 2010: Tannhäuser
    January 15- July 26 2010: Così fan tutte
    January 22- February 2 2010: Madama Butterfly
    January 31- February 7 2010: Salome
    February 3- July 24 2010: Macbeth
    February 21- July 4 2010: Roberto Devereux
    February 22- July 12 2010: Die Tragödie des Teufels
    March 7- July 17 2010: Le Nozze di Figaro
    March 10-21 2010: Il barbiere di Siviglia
    March 28- July 13 2010: Les dialogues des Carmélites
    April 4-18 2010: Palestrina
    April 16-24 2010: Wozzeck
    May 12-23 2010: Aida
    May 22- June 2 2010: Die Entführung aus dem Serail
    June 7-29 2010: Medea in Corinto
    June 28- July 19 2010: Tosca
    July 20-30 2010: Die schweigsame Frau

    Mariusz Kwiecien and Erwin Schrott share the role of Don Giovanni. Kwiecien also sings Almaviva in Figaro. Nadja Michael stars opposite Ramón Vargas in Medea in Corinto, current Adler Alek Shrader has the role of Egeo. Shrader also sings Almaviva in Il Barbiere. Mattila sings Tosca opposite Jonas Kaufmann, with Juha Uusitalo as Scarpia.

    Official Site | 2009-2010 Season

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  • LA Opera’s The Birds Media Round-Up

    Production Web Site | Press Photographs

    Reviews: The Opera Tattler | Out West Arts | OC Register | Variety | FT.com | LA Times | New York Times

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