The Opera Tattler

Reviews of Performances and their Audiences

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Category: Mark Morris

  • MMDG’s Dido and Aeneas

     * Notes * The Mark Morris Dance Group (pictured left, photograph by Beatriz Schiller) opened the new season at Cal Performances with Dido and Aeneas yesterday evening. The audience seemed completely rapt by the experience, and I have never attended a Baroque opera with so little fidgeting or noise. Morris fills all the music with choreography,…

  • Orfeo ed Euridice at the Met

      * Notes * The latest revival of the Metropolitan Opera's Orfeo ed Euridice (pictured left, © Marty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera) opened last night. The production, directed by Mark Morris, is busy. Done without an intermission, every second seemed full of movement. Allen Moyer's set opened, closed, shifted, and spun. Unfortunately it was rather loud, especially noticeable…

  • MMDG’s L’Allegro, Il Penseroso ed Il Moderato

    * Notes * The Mark Morris Dance Group just finished a run of L'Allegro, Il Penseroso ed Il Moderato at Cal Performances. It seemed to be a success, the audience was entertained and amused. The dancing struck me, however, as sloppy. Many of the angles as far as arm and leg positions were not consistent on…

  • PBO’s 2008-2009 Season

    June 8 2008: Corelli by CandlelightSeptember 13-20 2008: Myth and the Muse (Arne and Rameau)October 17-24 2008: Bach ReconstructedOctober 25 2008: An Evening at the PalaceNovember 13-16 2008: A Classic Triple (Beethoven, Haydn, and Mozart)December 5-12 2008: Natale BaroccoFebruary 5-8 2009: Midwinter Magic (Mendelssohn)March 20-28 2009: Wind and WavesApril 18-25 2009: Handel's Wicked Queen (Athalia)May…

  • For folded flocks, and fruitful plains

    * Notes * Henry Purcell’s King Arthur or The British Worthy is not an opera in the usual sense, as the main characters do not sing. The Mark Morris Dance Group production had its American premiere in Berkeley last Saturday, and all of Dryden’s spoken dialogue is cut, meaning King Arthur himself never appears as…