The Opera Tattler
Reviews of Performances and their Audiences
Category: Cal Performances
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* Notes *Mahler Chamber Orchestra played a couple of Mozart piano concertos with Mitsuko Uchida (pictured with the orchestra, photograph by A. Bofill) as director and pianist at Cal Performances last Sunday. The playing was crisp and animated. Uchida had the orchestra sounding clear and there was a sense of breath in the phrasing. The…
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* Notes * William Kentridge’s The Great Yes, The Great No (pictured, photograph by Monika Rittershaus) had a Bay Area premiere at Cal Performances last weekend. The choral music was composed by Nhlanhla Mahlangu and also performed by her and six other singers. The music director was Tlale Makhene who played percussion in the small ensemble…
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* Notes *Soprano Lise Davidsen (pictured, photograph by James Hole) made her Bay Area debut with a fabulous recital Cal Performances last Tuesday evening. Accompanied by pianist Malcolm Martineau, we heard an eclectic array of pieces ranging from Purcell to Grieg. Davidsen has a powerful voice, with beautiful low notes and pristine, completely effortless high…
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* Notes *Pianist Víkingur Ólafsson (pictured, photograph by Ari Magg) is playing Bach's Goldberg Variations all over the world in the 2023-2024 season and came to Cal Performances last Saturday afternoon. The recital he gave was potent and focused, getting all sorts of colors out of the instrument. He started off very sedately with the…
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* Notes *Tenor Mark Padmore sang Schubert's Winterreise at Cal Performances yesterday afternoon. Accompanied by the pianist Mitsuko Uchida ( pictured with Padmore, photograph by Justin Pumfrey) we were taken on an intense journey with these 24 songs. Padmore has a bright voice and clear German diction. He was able to convey the text not…
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* Notes *The Joffrey Ballet's Anna Karenina was presented by Cal Performances last night at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley for the first of three performances. The 2019 ballet with music by Ilya Demutsky was played live by Berkeley Symphony and conducted by Scott Speck. The music is eerie and busy, there is a lot going…
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* Notes *Soprano Erin Morley (pictured, photograph by Dario Acosta) sang a garden-inspired recital Cal Performances this afternoon. Accompanied by pianist Malcolm Martineau, we heard a number of unusual pieces by famous composers. Morley has a lucid toned soprano, she is very clear and precise without being boring. She began the performance with selections from…
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* Notes *The Bay Area premiere of Pina Bausch‘s The Rite of Spring was presented by Cal Performances last weekend at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley. It was performed with common ground[s], a duet between Germaine Acogny and Malou Airaudo. The duet, choreographed and performed by Acogny and Airaudo, was performed first. Both are septuagenarians. Acogny…
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* Notes * William Kentridge's SIBYL (scene from Part 2 pictured, photograph by Stella Olivier) had a US premiere at Cal Performances this weekend. The music composed by performer Nhlanhla Mahlangu and pianist Kyle Shephard was nothing short of mesmerizing. The presentation started with a short 22-minute film by Kentridge entitled The Moment Has Gone with…
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* Notes * William Kentridge performed the Dadaist sound poem Ursonate (ovation pictured) at Cal Performances last Friday in Berkeley as part of his UC Berkeley residency this school year. The piece involves Kentridge intoning Kurt Schwitters' nonsense words at a podium as images flash in the background on a large piece of paper. The effect…
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