The Opera Tattler

Reviews of Performances and their Audiences

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Category: Concert Review

  • Isabel Bayrakdarian at PBO

    * Notes * Philharmonia Baroque's first performance of The Queen of Egypt concert occurred last night in San Francisco. The evening started with the overture from Graun's Cleopatra e Cesare, and Isabel Bayrakdarian sang the aria "Tra le procelle assorto" from that work. The horns had a few sour notes, and Bayrakdarian warbled a bit,…

  • Blomstedt Conducts Mozart at SFS

    * Notes * Herbert Blomstedt, conductor laureate and former music director of the San Francisco Symphony, is currently conducting an all Mozart program, which includes Divertimento in D major, K.251, Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat Major, K.482, and Symphony No. 38 in D Major, K.504, Prague. The last performance is tonight over at Davies…

  • Hugh Wolff at Berkeley Symphony

    * Notes * Kent Nagano's 30th season as music director of the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra will be his last, and the search for his replacement is on. Over this season and the next there will be a total of six guest conductors, one of which may emerge as the next music director. The first of…

  • Metzmacher and Grimaud at SFS

    * Notes * Last week Ingo Metzmacher conducted San Francisco Symphony in a program of Ligeti's San Francisco Polyphony, Bartók's Piano Concerto No. 3, and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 6. Pianist Hélène Grimaud was the soloist for the Bartók, and she played splendidly, without any of the silly dramatic flourishes one often sees with famous pianists.…

  • MTT and Deborah Voigt at SFS

    * Notes * Yesterday Michael Tilson Thomas conducted San Francisco Symphony in a program of Knussen's Symphony No. 3, Strauss' Vier letzte Lieder, Barber's Andromache's Farewell, and Beethoven's Symphony No. 4. Soprano Deborah Voigt returned to San Francisco Symphony as the soloist for the Strauss and Barber, a performance she will reprise with MTT at Carnegie…

  • Messiah at SFS

    * Notes *  Of Händel's 29 oratorios, Messiah is far and away the most performed, and is the composer's most famous work. Messiah has returned again to San Francisco Symphony for a couple of performances, conducted by Ragnar Bohlin, who is the new director of the San Francisco Symphony Chorus. Bohlin made his debut conducting…

  • Requiem in D minor, KV 626

    * Notes * I haven’t been to hear UC Berkeley’s University Chorus since a 2004 performance of Rachmaninoff’s Vsenoshchnoye bdenie at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Ascension in Oakland. Imagine my surprise at not seeing Marika Kuzma, as she is on leave this school year, and Aya Ueda is the Guest Director. The evening…

  • Angela Gheorghiu Concert at LA Opera

    * Notes * Soprano Angela Gheorghiu gave a concert in Los Angeles last Saturday. The program was divided into a French section and an Italian section, there was much Gounod, Massenet, and Puccini. The orchestra played several overtures, some interspersed with the arias to give Gheorghiu time to rest or change outfits. Gheorghiu’s technique is…

  • Triple Concerto

    * Notes * The Eroica Trio played Beethoven's Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Piano in C major, Op. 56 with San Francisco Symphony in the second week of March. They were quite attractive but their playing was lush and rather romantic. This was not altogether bad given what they were playing, but at times it…

  • The Passionate Violin

    * Notes * Viktoria Mullova played Beethoven's Violin Concerto in D major with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra from February 8-11, 2007. The Saturday performance in Berkeley sold-out. Mullova's playing was fast and raw, at times she seemed out of tune. As for the orchestra, they could have been slightly more legato. I must admit, the…