The Opera Tattler
Reviews of Performances and their Audiences
Category: Eugene Brancoveanu
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* Notes * The Bay Area premiere of Héctor Armienta's Zorro (Eugene Brancoveanu and Xavier Prado pictured, photograph by David Allen) opened last night at Opera San José in a crowd pleasing production with beautiful playing and singing. The orchestra sounded splendid under Maestro Jorge Parodi. The opera is earnest and heartfelt, the music quite pleasant…
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* Notes * Rigoletto opened at Opera San José last weekend, but I attended the fourth performance, today's matinée. The opera was very moving. Dan Wallace Miller's production has the title character with a large scar on the right side of his face, rather than a spinal deformity, while the Duke has pox on his…
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* Notes * A 2013 production of Falstaff (Act II pictured, photograph by David Allen) set in a wine cask returned to Opera San José last weekend. There was much lovely singing and comedic physicality. Based on Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor and scenes that Falstaff appears in from Henry IV, Parts 1 and…
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* Notes *Opera San José is in the midst of an appealing run of Il trovatore. The traditional production cleanly moves through the scenes and has a hint of humor plus lots of robust singing and playing. Though the synchrony of the brass-heavy orchestra and the singers was not always focused, the performance yesterday had…
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* Notes *My review of San Francisco Choral Society's Requiem by Verdi is up on San Francisco Classical Voice. * Tattling * The adolescent girl (who was there with her little brother and their mother) in front of me in Row H of the Orchestra level, had a seat for her purse that was full…
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* Notes *This weekend, Opera Parallèle is performing Leonard Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti (Lisa Chavez and Eugene Brancoveanu pictured right; photograph by Steve DiBartolomeo) at Z Space in San Francisco. The performances open with Samuel Barber’s ten-minute Hand of Bridge and simply flow into the Bernstein. Director Brian Staufenbiel‘s production makes the most of limited…
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* Notes * San Francisco Lyric Opera returned after a hiatus of more than two years with a performance of David Lang's The Little Match Girl Passion at ODC Theater last night. The new incarnation of this ensemble is sleek and fresh. Lang's piece is scored for four voices and half a dozen percussive instruments,…
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* Notes * Over the weekend Esa-Pekka Salonen conducted Los Angeles Philharmonic in the world premiere of Shostakovich's Prologue to Orango. The piece was orchestrated by Gerard McBurney, based on surviving piano sketches. There was relatively little singing in the 40 minutes of music, as the 11 parts included an overture and three dances. Some…
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* Notes *Virgil Thomson's Four Saints in Three Acts (Maya Srinivasan, Eugene Brancoveanu, and Brooke Muñoz pictured right, photograph by Steve DiBartolomeo) opened in a new production from Ensemble Parallèle last night in San Francisco. The performances are a collaboration between Ensemble Parallèle and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, in association with the…
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* Notes *Philip Glass‘ Orphée was performed impressively by Ensemble Parallèle last night in San Francisco. The 14 musicians sounded lush but clean under Maestra Nicole Paiement. Brian Staufenbiel‘s production involved rather stunning circus art, including Roue Cyr, aerialism, and juggling. However, the video art, especially in the beginning, did not quite work, and people…
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