The Opera Tattler

Reviews of Performances and their Audiences

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  • SF Opera’s Orlando

    _37A0773* Notes * 
    It is a joy to hear Händel's beautiful music live in San Francisco Opera's latest production (pictured left, photograph by Cory Weaver) of Orlando, which opened this afternoon. Set in the early autumn of 1940, in a hospital in West London, the staging turns out to be fairly dull though the singing is all very lovely.

    The set is based on a real hospital from 1933, and has green floors and basically three different configurations. Mostly they simply turn the stage around. The scenes move quickly but don't have much visual impact, people aimlessly wander through. There are projections, but all are rather literal. We see a diamond ring and Angelica's eyes many times. For the most part it was tame, but I was outright annoyed by the bombing that took place at the end of Act II during Orlando's music. It didn't add anything to the drama and only got in the way of experiencing the opera.

    Maestro Christopher Moulds seemed very relaxed in conducting the orchestra, it was all very pretty but perhaps could have used a bit more sharpness and precision. The singing too was attractive on all sides. In the title role, mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke has some glorious high notes, very warm and legato. Some of her lower range was swallowed up by the orchestration, but she sounded great in her Act III aria "Gia l'ebro mia ciglio."

    Both sopranos, Christina Gansch as Dorinda and Heidi Stober as Angelica, are splendid. Gansch has a tawny brightness while Stober is more icy. The contrast works well. Gansch's Act III aria about love ("Amore è qual vento") was particularly charming.

    Bass-baritone Christian Van Horn is a powerful Zoroastro, while countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen is a tender Medoro. Nussbaum Cohen has a brilliant, strong, and smooth voice, one can hardly believe he is only twenty-five. His trio with the sopranos at the end of Act I ("Consolati o bella") was memorable as was his Act III aria "Vorrei poterti amar."

    * Tattling * 
    I am just getting over a bad cough, and took something to suppress it just so I could make it through the opera along with six lozenges and some hot mint tea. While I managed to get through the three hours and twenty minutes without a coughing fit, I did notice a lot of unwrapping of drops and not a small amount of outright coughing.

    I really enjoyed the standee to my right, he was adamant about shushing a man in front of us who was rifling through a bag during the overture, and he asked the usher and a latecomer to "please stop talking." He also tattled on a woman in front of him who was resting her bare feet on one of the chairs. I wish I had the wherewithal these days to confront people about their bad behavior, but sadly simply can't muster the energy for it!

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  • SF Opera’s Carmen

    37A8979* Notes * 
    “Enjoy your hundredth Carmen!” teased my husband as I left for the opening of the latest production of this opera at San Francisco Opera last night. Quite an exaggeration, at best I’ve seen this opera twenty-five times, though I have seen this staging by Francesca Zambello way back in 2007 at Royal Opera, Covent Garden in London.

    As it turns out, the performance was enjoyable. The playing was lovely, there was lots of good singing, and the production is attractive and sleek. I very much remembered the warm orange-reds of the stage and the orange tree in the middle of the stage in Act I. The set is efficient, there’s no dead time in-between acts, and the performance clocks in under three hours since is only one intermission and cuts to the dialogue.

    I always like Zambello’s humanistic details, as with Captain Zuniga’s struggle to get free when he is bound at the end of Act II and the possible observers to Carmen’s tragic end up at the top of the arena. It was clear she was able to engage the audience.

    Maestro James Gaffigan conducted a sprightly orchestra. The overture had a fine transparency. There were brief unfocused moments, as when the children’s chorus entered or in the smugglers quintet in Act II. However, the many soli throughout the piece were all very nice, particularly the clarinet solo at the beginning of the last act.

    The cast is youthful and attractive. The Adlers all were great, I especially liked mezzo Ashley Dixon and soprano Natalie Image as Mercédès and Frasquita, they are well matched and charming.

    Bridges is remarkably consistent, her voice had only the slightest few catches at first. Otherwise she gave a strong, vital performance. Though her dancing lacks verve, she moves with a lank grace, and her Carmen is robust. Her Don José, tenor Matthew Polenzani, has a depth of emotional range that is palpable in his voice. In his last aria, he moves from imploring to cajoling to demanding, every phrase with a different color with an immediacy that doesn’t require knowledge of French to understand.

    * Tattling * 
    This is a great first opera, and I hope the production brings out lots of new people, as it seems to have so far. The only problem with this is there were quite a lot of whispering and phone screens out during the music at yesterday’s opening, so you won’t see me at Carmen again this summer.

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  • Opera Parallèle’s Today It Rains

    Tir9079 * Notes * 
    Opera Parallèle is presenting the world premiere of Laura Kaminsky’s Today It Rains this weekend at Z Space. This chamber opera based on Georgia O’Keefe’s first trip to Santa Fe is contemplative and features some beautiful singing and stagecraft.

    Conductor Nicole Paiement had the 11 orchestra members well in hand. Kaminsky’s music can be disquieting, there’s quite a lot of instruments shared by the two percussionists including a rain stick, cocktail shakers, and vibraphone. There were times that I had visceral reactions to the brittle, jarring sounds of wine glasses and bottles being used as percussion.

    Kaminsky seems to like low strings, there were some beautiful lines for cello, though the solo for violin in Scene 5 when O’Keefe is dreaming is particularly lively and memorable as well. The clarinet solo in Scene 10, when porter Aubrey Wells is practicing on the caboose platform (pictured, photograph by Steve DiBartolomeo) is lovely too.

    The libretto, by Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed, stays out of Kaminsky’s way, and manages to be humorous without being embarrassing or stilted, even the lines about penetration and genitalia in Scene 3 as O’Keefe and fellow painter Rebecca “Beck” Salsbury Strand sneak drink and play cards.

    This piece is the third new opera I’ve seen in less than six months at includes a role specifically for an African American; angel Clara Odbody in Jake Heggie’s It’s A Wonderful Life and Leonard Bast in Allen Shearer’s Howards End, America both are recast from the original works. Here we have a clarinet-playing porter Aubrey Wells, who worries about lynching in Kansas, and perhaps plays on the trope of “Magical Negro,” helping O’Keefe see that she should go to Santa Fe despite her doubts. On the other hand, it encouraging to see people of color get chances to be in contemporary work. In this case, tenor Nathan Granner as Aubrey Wells was a stand out, his voice is smooth, clear, and vivid. He also moves with intention, his choreography crisp and precise.

    Tir8912The singing all around was fine. The four ensemble members had a ton to do moving the set for the eleven scenes, but still managed to sound great, especially when they sang the words of art critics in Scene 3 and even in the nightmare scene as rowdy partiers at Lake George (Scene 7). Soprano Marnie Breckenridge (pictured, photograph by Steve DiBartolomeo) is amusing as Beck, her piercing quality very much a contrast to the throaty tones of mezzo-soprano Blythe Gaissert as Georgia O’Keefe. Gaissert’s voice seemed bottomless, her deep low notes betrayed no effort.

    The production is immersive, Kimberly Reed’s evocative projections of water and paint on glass are effective and Brian Staufenbiel’s production design kept everything moving without the slightest awkwardness. I loved how O’Keefe and Beck got on their train seats and were pushed into place by the other characters, and all the artful transformations of the set design such as the train windows turning into frames for a gallery exhibition.

    * Tattling * 
    The seats at Z Space can create a lot of noise if people shift just so, the squeaks are alarming at times. There also seemed to be a problems with people dropping things in the audience, and a smattering of chatter once in awhile during last night’s performance.

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  • Today It Rains Preview

    TodayItRainsShoot5243Tons of new operas are being performed everyday, the most successful perhaps are Jake Heggie’s Moby-Dick (recently at Opera San José) and Mason Bates’ Grammy-winning The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs. Closer to home, Howards End, America by Allen Shearer had a world premiere only last month in San Francisco.

    Opera Parallèle, devoted to contemporary works with social relevance, is presenting a world premiere about Georgia O'Keefe called Today It Rains (Blythe Gaissert as Georgia O’Keeffe and Marnie Breckenridge as Beck, pictured) next week at Z Space in San Francisco. The music is written by Laura Kaminsky, who is fast becoming one of the most prominent composers today. Her first opera, As One (2014), about a transgender woman, has been produced dozens of times, everywhere from Honolulu to Berlin, including in Oakland by West Edge Opera in 2015. She's also working on an opera about an ICE raid in Postville which will premiere at San Francisco Opera in 2020.

    It is interesting that though so many popular operas are centered around female characters – La Traviata, Carmen, Tosca, Madama Butterfly – nearly all are written by men. Here in the progressive Bay Area, San Francisco Opera has only presented three operas by women in its 96 year history. Notably none of these were mainstage performances at the War Memorial.

    Things are changing. Kaminsky sees this as a faculty member of Purchase College/SUNY, where she is the head of the composition department. "The 15 to 18 composition students are not all male now, and the applications are pretty even" she says when I speak to her and her librettist, Mark Campbell, during an early rehearsal of Today It Rains. "We have to redefine opera" adds Campbell, "otherwise it won’t have a chance to survive."

    14932552237_846ae0aef3_o1Kaminsky came up with the idea of an opera about O'Keefe and brought the idea to Campbell (also the co-librettist with Kimberly Reed for As One, pictured together: Reed left, Campbell middle, Kaminsky right) and Opera Parallèle, whose Anya17, an opera about sex trafficking, deeply moved her. "I want to tell the stories of strong women," explains the composer, "No losers."

    This opera takes place in 1929, when O'Keefe takes a train from New York to Santa Fe, a defining moment for her as an artist. The title comes from the end of a letter O’Keefe wrote to her husband Alfred Stieglitz. "She still loves him but is finding herself. The name conveys the feeling of the opera, though really it could have been called O’Keefe on a Train or Georgia on my Mind," jokes Campbell.

    Opera Parallèle, run by music director Nicole Paiement and creative director Brian Staufenbiel, of course, is no stranger to powerful women. Paiement is a rarity as a female conductor and a force of nature, who came to rehearsal straight from the airport after being at Seattle Opera where she was leading performances of  The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs. "It has been the best working with Nicole and Brian," says Kaminsky. "The visual component so important to Opera Parallèle," adds Campbell, which is essential in this piece about a painter and includes film work from Reed who has been given permission to use O’Keefe’s work, no small feat.

    The chamber opera is only 80 minutes, scored for 11 musicians and 8 singers, without an intermission. "The music is meditative and reflective," says Paiement in a quick interview with me during a rehearsal break. "Laura’s music doesn’t shy away from being textural, she is almost European in sensibility. It is very detailed work."

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  • LA Opera’s Clemenza di Tito

    Clemenza-di-tito-la-opera-2019* Notes * 
    Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito is nearly through a run at Los Angeles Opera. The singing is top-notch with strong support from the orchestra and a sumptuous staging.

    The new production, directed by Thaddeus Strassberger, who also designed the scenery, is recalls the Pre-Raphaelites, especially Frederic Leighton. There are many projections, and this helps to move the scenes along without fuss or noise. It was all very nice to look at though not necessarily that engaging, but certainly the direction did not get in the way of the music.

    Maestro James Conlon kept the orchestra going with a lot of energy and a fair amount of crispness. The overture was lively and the brass clear. The clarinet has a lot of beautiful soli and did very well with all his exposed music. The middle of Act II lost a bit of decisiveness, but everything got back in focus by the end.

    The cast is very fine indeed. Mezzo-soprano Taylor Raven (Annio) has a fresh sound. Both of her duets (one with Sesto and another with Servilia) in Act I were balanced. As Servilia, soprano Janai Brugger is sweet, with an airy breathiness. Soprano Guanqun Yu has some acting chops, she plays the villainess Vitellia well, and her change of heart at the end (“Non piu di fiori” ) seems sincere. She has a warm sound, with only a few slight gasps at first.

    In the title role, tenor Russell Thomas has a lovely delicacy with his pianissimo parts. Coupled with his authoritativeness, he seemed ideal for the merciful Tito. Best of all though is mezzo-soprano Elizabeth DeShong as Sesto. Her voice is incandescent, and she was utterly riveting in “Parto, parto, ma tu ben mio” in Act I. Her Act II aria “Deh, per questo istante solo” was also a highlight of the evening. I felt lucky to hear DeShong sing this gorgeous music right in front of me.

    Tattling * 
    I intentionally got a front row seat for this performance, as I find it easier to ignore the ill-behaved Los Angeles Opera audience when I can at least see the musicians and conductor without impediment. Of course, the woman in B 35 talked at full volume during the overture, and her husband dropped his phone toward the end of the act.

    They also could not stop touching each other or themselves, for instance, the woman rubbed her tattooed arms for a long time at the beginning of Act II. Nonetheless, they were easy enough to ignore, as were the people behind me in Row C, who got into an amusing conversation about Chicago during intermission and may have whispered a bit during the performance.

    My experience of this opera, which I have only heard once before, was enriched by having heard Cecilia Bartoli's Mozart Arias recording about a thousand times in the last three years because is my five-year old son's favorite CD.

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  • The Met’s 2019-2020 Season

    MetoperaSeptember 23 2019- February 1 2020: Porgy and Bess
    September 24- October 26 2019: Manon
    September 25- October 12 2019: Macbeth
    October 3 2019- April 25 2020: Turandot
    October 11 2019- April 11 2020: Madama Butterfly
    October 20- November 10 2019: Orfeo ed Euridice
    October 25 2019- May 7 2020: La Bohème
    November 8- December 7 2019: Akhnaten
    November 16 2019- February 22 2020: Le Nozze di Figaro
    November 29- December 21 2019: The Queen of Spades
    December 13 2019- January 4 2020: Der Rosenkavalier
    December 15 2019- January 4 2020: The Magic Flute
    December 27 2019- January 22 2020: Wozzeck
    January 10- March 19 2020: La Traviata
    January 25- February 15 2020: La Damnation de Faust
    February 6- March 7 2020: Agrippina
    February 15- March 14 2020: Così fan tutte
    March 2-27 2020: Der fliegende Holländer
    March 12- April 3 2020: La Cenerentola
    March 16- April 4 2020: Werther
    March 26- April 18 2020: Tosca
    April 10-25 2020: Simon Boccanegra
    April 28- May 8 2020: Manon Lescaut
    May 2-9 2020: Káťa Kabanová

    The Met announced the 2019-2020 season today. The new productions are Porgy and Bess, Der fliegende Holländer, Wozzeck, Agrippina, and Akhnaten. Sunday matinee performances are being offered for the first time.

    Press Release | Official Site

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  • SF Opera’s Summer 2019 Cast Changes

    NUSSBAUM COHEN_AryehThis summer there are changes for all three operas on offer at San Francisco Opera. Countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen (pictured) makes his San Francisco Opera debut as Medoro in Orlando, replacing David Daniels who was fired last November after serious allegations of sexual assault. Bass Kristinn Sigmundsson is Vodník in Rusalka instead of Ferruccio Furlanetto, who has decided against adding the role to his repertory. Maestra Michelle Merrill takes the place of James Gaffigan conducting Carmen on June 20, though Gaffigan will be here for the rest of the performances.

    Orlando | Rusalka | Carmen |San Francisco Opera Press Release

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  • Other Minds Shostakovich Preview

    Other-minds-shostakovich-2019New music proponent Other Minds is presenting a West Coast premiere of two piano arrangements by Shostakovich, one of his Symphony No. 4 and the other of Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms. The performers are pianists Maki Namekawa and Dennis Russell Davies (who is also a well-known conductor).

    The concert promotes their February album release of Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4. The piece in question was long neglected, as at the time Shostakovich’s music was essentially banned, and the original score lost during World War II. In 1946, Shostakovich created the piano version for four hands with the orchestral parts that survived from the 1936 rehearsals, the full symphony did not premiere until 1961.

    The performance is this Sunday afternoon, February 10, 4pm at Taube Atrium Theater in the San Francisco War Memorial Veterans Building.

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  • LA Opera’s 2019-2020 Season

    Chandler_balconiesSeptember 14- October 6 2019: La Bohème
    October 12–20 2019: The Light in the Piazza
    November 16–December 15 2019: The Magic Flute
    February 1–23 2020: Matthew Aucoin's Eurydice
    February 22- March 14 2020: Roberto Devereux
    May 1-3 2020: Du Yun's Angel's Bone
    May 2-23 2020: Pelléas et Mélisande
    May 8 2020: Rodelinda (concert version)
    June 6–28 2020: The Marriage of Figaro

    Los Angeles Opera announced its next season last Sunday. Renée Fleming sings in the musical The Light in the Piazza while Placido Domingo takes is the Duke of Nottingham in Roberto Devereux.

    Official Site

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  • Adriana Lecouvreur at the Met

    ADL_1779a* Notes * 
    Francesco Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur had a final performance this season last night at the Metropolitan Opera. There was much prettiness in the music, staging, and singing.

    The new David McVicar production is very droll, everything looks nice and Rococo, as the piece is set in 1730. There is one long pause between Acts I and II, but McVicar puts in a sight-gag to draw the audience back in before the music starts up again.

    Maestro Gianandrea Noseda and the orchestra reveled in the loveliness of Cilea's music. It is not at all a surprise to read that Cilea admired Bellini. The opera has some fun Neo-baroque music, and I especially liked the ballet in Act III (Act III pictured left, photograph by Ken Howard).

    The cast had many strong singers. Baritone Ambrogio Maestri as stage manager Michonnet was endearing, he loves Adriana and is both funny and kind, the warmth of his voice was very nice for this. As Adriana's murderous rival, the Princess of Bouillon, mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili is simply a malevolent force. Her sound is deliciously dark and passionately evil, she's the perfect villain.

    ADLJR_0307aTenor Piotr Beczala is dashing as love-interest Maurizio, with a sunny, sweet tone. I was not initially impressed by soprano Jennifer Rowley, who shared the title role with Anna Netrebko. Rowley struck me as shrill, she has a lot of vibrato. She did win me over though, Act II was definitely better. Her Act IV aria "Poveri fiori" was moving.

    * Tattling * 
    We will be seeing this at the War Memorial at some point, as this is a co-production of the Met; the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London; Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona; Wiener Staatsoper; San Francisco Opera; and L'Opéra National de Paris.

    I was in standing room on the orchestra level, and was struck by how nice everyone was to each other. I was offered seats on no less than three occasions, which, of course, I turned down.

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