The Opera Tattler

Reviews of Performances and their Audiences

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  • Der Fliegende Holländer at SFO

    The last performance of Der Fliegende Holländer this season was this evening. The production came from the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and was directed by Nikolaus Lehnhoff. Raimund Bauer’s set was stark and Andrea Schmidt-Futterer’s costumes were reminiscent of samurai from space. Denni Sayers’ choreography was slightly clunky, the women spinning their hair was especially absurd.

    Soprano Nina Stemme was good as Senta, her voice is has a fine clarity. Bass-baritone Juha Uusitalo was sufficient as the Dutchman, certainly a very strong voice, perhaps lacking in beauty.

    The thing that struck me the most about this performance was not the production, but the music. It is filled with drama and excitement, it is more like opera than Wagner’s later works. The lack of intermission made the whole work very immediate, one stays in the same world for 150 minutes.

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  • Le Grande Macabre

    The last performance of Ligeti’s Le Grande Macabre this season was this afternoon. I must admit, I only went out of force of habit, as I had attended a performance of this the previous month and was duly unimpressed. Ligeti’s music is cacophonous, the libretto is absurd, and the production involved cross-dressing, spousal abuse, Venus suspended in mid-air, her nipples modestly covered with pasties.

    Amando and Amanda’s choreography was particularly odd, though the singers, Sara Gulgoni and Anne-Sophie Duprels had pretty voices. The White and Black politicians (John Duykers and Joshua Bloom, respectively) were amusing, readily understood as the opera is in English. Caroline Stein sang well as both Venus and Gepopo, especially the latter. Her voice is clear and cold. Her movement as Gepopo was also excellent.

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  • Tosca

    Sara Jobin conducted this particular performance of Tosca, and it was her San Francisco Opera debut, and the first time a woman has conducted during the main season of this opera house. The production is one owned by San Francisco Opera, and is revived every two or three years.

    Soprano Carol Vaness has the dubious honor of being one of my least favorite singers. She was much more quiet than previously as Floria Tosca and somewhat breathy.

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  • La Traviata

    The alternate cast for San Francisco Opera’s La Traviata was stunningly good. The perennial favorite, soprano Ruth Ann Swenson, was replaced by Mary Dunleavy in the last two performances. Swenson is very precise, her tone is extremely sweet and bell-like. Dunleavy is perhaps more vital, her voice is very strong. Baritone Željko Lučić sang beautifully as Germont, his aria in Act II, "Di Provenza il mar," was excellent.

    Otherwise, tenor Rolando Villazón was impressive as Alfredo, his voice is also quite sweet and rich. The flamenco dancers in Act III were disappointing, those ballet dancers have nothing like duende. John Conklin’s set and David Walker’s costumes were just as one would expect, Verdi would not be surprised, at any rate.

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  • Akhnaten

    Oakland Opera Theater is just finishing a run of performances of Philip Glass’ Akhnaten at the Oakland Metro. This was the West Coast premiere of this work which dates from 1984. Director Ellen Sebastian Chang did not have much to work with, yet she was able to pull it off somehow, setting the opera both in the contemporary and ancient. The singing was pretty good overall, but the music itself sounded like something fit for a movie score.

    Cast:
    Akhnaten – Paul Flight, countertenor
    Nefertiti – Katherine Growdon, mezzo-soprano
    Queen Tye – Angela Dean-Baham, soprano
    Horemhab – Martin Bell, baritone
    Aye – John Minagro, bass
    Amon – Alan Cochran, tenor
    Amenhotep – Michael Mohammed, baritone

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  • Billy Budd

    Britten’s Billy Budd returned to San Francisco Opera for the second time in twenty years. Willy Decker’s sedate and elegant production was designed by Wolfgang Gussmann and staged by Sabine Hartmannshenn. The music was certainly more charming than Britten’s work Death in Venice, particularly the absurd duet "Don’t Like The French!," whose words include "hoppity-skippity ways." No one less than E.M. Forster wrote the libretto. Baritone Nathan Gunn in the title role did rather well, he is also a good actor.

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  • Lohengrin

    LohengrinseattleStephen Wadsworth's production of Lohengrin at Seattle Opera was dull. The set, designed by Thomas Lynch, was angular and somewhat tawdry. The worst part was definitely the end, when the swan appeared. It was this over-sized robot, reminiscent of a Disneyland character. The best part may have been soprano Jane Eaglen, who is certainly more suited for Ortrud than for Turandot or Ariadne.

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  • Don Pasquale

    The Merola Opera Program is an 11-week summer program of performance and study under the auspices of the San Francisco Opera. The program culminates in two fully staged and costumed productions, in this case, Donizetti’s Don Pasquale and Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia.

    The two performances of the former production were held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, a rather staid venue. As charming as Donizetti’s music is, the cast was mediocre, no one particularly stood out as truly gifted, though it must be said, the acting was solid. The production itself was a bit dull, soprano Rhoslyn Jones first appeared as Norina in a bubble bath, o-la-la, indeed. Her voice is nothing special, not so comfortable in the high range. Baritone Alexander Tall (Malatesta) and tenor Jeremy Little (Ernesto) both lacked vocal power and vitality.

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  • Faust

    Ferruccio Busoni’s Doctor Faustus ended the 2003-2004 season at San Francisco Opera. It was a co-production with Staatsoper Stuttgart, which was immediately apparent, as the set looked very much like the inside of a laboratory. I felt I was suddenly transported back to Munich! The music was unmemorable, neither pleasing nor displeasing. Rodney Gilfry’s voice is quite good, but the music did not show this.

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  • Cunning

    The saving grace of Leoš Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen is this opera’s brevity, a mere 1 hour and 45 minutes. San Francisco Opera’s co-production with the Bregenzer Festspiele and Grand Théâtre de Genève closed Thursday, 1. July 2004. The set and costumes were all quite bright, something out of a fairytale. I’ll admit that I enjoyed the frog in his raincoat and galoshes and also the chickens. I find Janáček’s music unbearably boring though.

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