The Opera Tattler
Reviews of Performances and their Audiences
Category: Opera Review
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* 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.…
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* Notes * West Edge Opera‘s summer festival continued at the Ed Roberts Campus in Berkeley last weekend. Yesterday was the Bay Area premiere of Jake Heggie’s The End of the Affair. Again West Edge Opera was able make the most of the venue, despite the fact that the space is unconventional. The production, from…
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* Notes * Merola Opera Program‘s latest production of Don Giovanni (pictured left, photograph by Kristen Loken) opened with the first of two performances on Thursday night. Director James Darrah’s production goes against the text and the drama, with most of the action taking place in an artist’s studio, designed by Emily MacDonald and…
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* Notes * West Edge Opera is currently performing a summer festival at the Ed Roberts Campus in Berkeley. Today was the opening of Philip Glass' chamber opera Hydrogen Jukebox, with text by Allen Ginsberg. The space is not a typical performance venue, but West Edge Opera was able make suitable arrangements nonetheless. Elkhanah Pulitzer's…
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* Notes * André Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire was performed Thursday night by the Merola Opera Program at Everett Middle School in San Francisco. The production (pictured left with Julie Adams as Blanche DuBois and Casey Candebat as Harold “Mitch” Mitchell, photograph by Kristen Loken) directed by Jose Maria Condemi, is attractive. The set has…
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* Notes * The second cast of La Traviata (Ailyn Pérez as Violetta and Stephen Costello as Alfredo in Act I pictured left, photograph by Kristen Loken) at San Francisco Opera this season performed last night. This performance was presented as a live simulcast. Production Director Greg Weber narrated the set changeover during the first intermission,…
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* 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…
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* Notes * San Francisco Opera‘s 1987 production of La Traviata (Saimir Pirgu as Alfredo and Nicole Cabell as Violetta in Act I pictured left, photograph by Cory Weaver) was revived again last night. Originally conceived by John Copley, Laurie Feldman is the director this time. The set, designed by John Conklin, is splendid, as are…
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* Notes * Show Boat (Heidi Stober as Magnolia Hawks, Patricia Racette as Julie La Verne, Angela Renee Simpson as Queenie and Morris Robinson as Joe with chorus in Act I, Scene 2 pictured left; photograph by Cory Weaver) opened at San Francisco Opera today with a matinée performance. The production, directed by Francesca Zambello,…
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* Notes *Opera Parallèle has put together a double bill of Mahagonny Songspiel with Les mamelles de Tirésias at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. Opera Parallèle has embedded the Poulenc between the second and third parts of the Weill. Director Brian Staufenbiel never lacks for ideas and connects the two pieces…
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