The Opera Tattler

Reviews of Performances and their Audiences

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Category: Nicola Luisotti

  • SF Opera’s Manon Lescaut

    * Notes * A very loud revival of Manon Lescaut opened at San Francisco Opera last night. All the singing was strong, and the orchestra sounded exuberant under the baton of former San Francisco Music Director Nicola Luisotti. My main memory of this production way back in 2006 is of Karita Mattila in the title…

  • SF Opera’s La Traviata Review

    * Notes * San Francisco Opera's recent La Traviata is very pretty both in the orchestra pit and on stage. This is Maestro Luisotti's last series of performances as music director, and the orchestra sounded spirited during the Sunday matinée last weekend. I felt like I could hear every individual instrument from the back of the…

  • SF Opera’s Andrea Chénier

    * Notes * The 94th season of San Francisco Opera opened last night with Andrea Chénier, Umberto Giordano’s concise verismo piece about the poet killed in the French Revolution. The opera has a number of gorgeous arias, and the cast assembled (pictured in Act I, photograph by Cory Weaver) was certainly up to the task. Especially…

  • SF Opera’s Don Carlo

    * Notes * The latest Don Carlo (Valentina Simi as Countess of Aremberg, Ana María Martínez as Elisabetta, Nadia Krasteva as Princess Eboli, René Pape as King Philip II, and Mariusz Kwiecień as Rodrigo in Act II Scene 2; photograph by Cory Weaver) that opened at San Francisco Opera this afternoon is impeccably cast from…

  • SF Opera’s Luisa Miller

    * Notes * The 93rd season of San Francisco Opera opened Friday with Luisa Miller, a Verdi rarity only seen on the War Memorial stage a dozen times before. The opera has a quintessentially Verdian plot: a protective father, an innocent daughter, a secret identity, and a love triangle that ends in a protracted death scene.…

  • SF Opera’s Un Ballo in Maschera (Hampson)

    * Notes * A fourth performance of San Francisco Opera‘s A Masked Ball this season was held yesterday. The orchestra and singers were more synchronized, but there were times when the former was slightly ahead of the latter. At times this was excitingly chaotic. There were lovely soli from the cello, English horn, and clarinet. The…

  • SF Opera’s Un Ballo in Maschera (Mulligan)

    * Notes * Last night San Francisco Opera performed A Masked Ball a second time this season. The traditional production is the same as the one seen here in 2006, Jose Maria Condemi’s direction is similarly straightforward, if not slightly bland. The ball scene (Act III pictured left, photograph by Cory Weaver), however, is quite festive.…

  • SF Opera’s Norma (Thomas)

    * Notes * The fifth performance of San Francisco Opera‘s new production of Norma was held yesterday. This was the third go with tenor Russell Thomas replacing Marco Berti. I also heard that as of the Friday, September 19th performance, Sondra Radvanovsky (pictured as Norma with the chorus in Act I, photograph by Cory Weaver) and…

  • SF Opera’s Norma (Berti)

    * Notes * The 92nd season of San Francisco Opera opened last night with a musically luminous Norma. Maestro Nicola Luisotti conducted with vigor, and the orchestra never overwhelmed the singers, only briefly getting ahead of them once or twice. The woodwinds were particularly beautiful. The chorus sang well, the chorus members sounded unified and together.…

  • SF Opera’s Madama Butterfly

    * Notes * Jun Kaneko's production of Madama Butterfly (Patricia Racette as Cio-Cio-San, Brian Jagde as Pinkerton, and Brian Mulligan as Sharpless in Act I pictured left; photograph by Cory Weaver) had a fifth performance at San Francisco Opera last night. The set and costumes have an elegant guilelessness. The staging, directed by Leslie Swackhamer, is…