The Opera Tattler
Reviews of Performances and their Audiences
Category: David Alden
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* Notes * David Alden's Lohengrin opened at San Francisco Opera on October 15, but I only managed to attend the fourth performance on Tuesday. The orchestra sounded perfectly transparent and there was much lovely singing including a powerful chorus. Music Director Eun Sun Kim gets a very clear sound out of the orchestra, I feel…
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September 8- October 4 2008: Don GiovanniSeptember 16-29 2008: La fanciulla del WestSeptember 23- October 10 2008: La CalistoOctober 11-18 2008: La BohèmeOctober 23- November 11 2008: Matilde di ShabranNovember 9-24 2008: ElektraNovember 25- December 13 2008: Les Contes d'HoffmannDecember 9 2008- January 1 2009: Hänsel und GretelDecember 22- January 23 2008: TurandotJanuary 20-31 2009:…
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October 4-20 2008: TieflandNovember 11-30 2008: Le nozze di FigaroDecember 23 2008- January 14 2009: Simon BoccanegraJanuary 3-10 2009: El retablo de Maese PedroFebruary 3-15 2009: L'incoronazione di PoppeaMarch 17- April 18 2009: Die Meistersinger von NürnbergApril 20- May 2 2009: La cabeza del BautistaMay 18- June 2 2009: FidelioJune 19- July 7 2009: SalomeJuly…
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The English National Opera presented Lucia di Lammermoor for the first time this season, and the last performance was yesterday. The adorable Anna Christy made her British debut in the title role, despite recently suffering bronchitis. She has a sweet, warbling sort of voice, and from the reviews, it sounds like she was adequate, not…
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June 27- August 23 2008: FalstaffJune 28- August 22 2008: Le Nozze di FigaroJuly 12- August 21 2008: Billy BuddJuly 19- August 20 2008: RadamistoJuly 26- August 12 2008: Adriana Mater The next season at Santa Fe Opera includes the US premiere of Kaija Saariaho‘s newest opera. Naturally the production of Händel is from David…
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The production of Händel’s Rodelinda currently at San Francisco Opera is one from the Bayerische Staatsoper, and I had attended a few performances of it in Munich a few years ago. It is one of the tamer offerings of this particular director, David Alden. The opera is set as 1930s film noir, Buki Shiff’s costumes…
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The David Alden production of Rinaldo at the Bavarian State Opera was not particularly well-attended, and at each intermission, people left. This was more pronounced for this production than for Rodelinda. Part of the problem was the singers. None of them were particularly stunning. The lead, Ann Murray, has a voice that lacks substance and…
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Bayerische Staatoper’s production of Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria had almost no redeeming qualities. If they find Baroque operas so boring they shouldn’t bother putting them on. It shows very little respect to be making Monteverdi’s opera into a farce. It was so bad that even I could not sit through it twice, though I…
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Last Friday the Bavarian State Opera concluded their first run of Der Ring des Nibelungen as a cycle. This production of Götterdämmerung premiered 28. February 2003, and it was tamer than Die Walküre or Siegfried. Still a lot of drunken staggering, and cigarette smoking. Musically more compelling than Siegfried, Wagner brings his epic work to…
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Yesterday the Bavarian State Opera continued the Ring Cycle with Siegfried. David Alden premiered his production last November, and it was along the same lines as Die Walküre, so at least there was some continuity between the two. The only threads that tie Das Rheingold to the two others so far are the proscenia that…
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