The Opera Tattler
Reviews of Performances and their Audiences
Category: Opera Review
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* Notes * The 27th season of Opera San José opened with the West Coast premiere of David Carlson’s Anna Karenina yesterday evening. The libretto, written by Colin Graham, packed a lot of narrative into less than three hours. It felt a bit like hearing the Cliff Notes to Tolstoy’s novel set to music as…
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* Notes * The 88th season of San Francisco Opera opened in gaudy splendor with Aida last night. The ostentatious production, designed by Zandra Rhodes and directed by Jo Davies, did not fail to delight. The backstage noise of moving the sets was audible to the audience, and the flow of the masses of people…
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Miss LCU had a European jaunt this Summer. Her first of three reviews concerns the Greek National Opera's June 18th performance of Norma at the Athens Festival. * Notes * Now, I would like to preface the review portion with this: I am a pretty harsh critic when it comes to classical music, opera in…
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* Notes *Festival Opera‘s second production this season was Lucia di Lammermoor, which closed yesterday. The orchestra sounded robust under Michael Morgan, though the brass was out of tune at times. Overall the singing was very good. “Chi mi frena in tal momento,” featuring Angela Cadelago (Lucia), Thomas Glenn (Arturo), Brian Leerhuber (Enrico), Kirk Eichelberger…
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* Notes *The matinée performance of the Merola Opera Program's L'elisir d'Amore yesterday was completely sold out. We had yet again a slightly different cast than before, as Alexander Lewis (Nemorino) was well enough to sing, but Sidney Outlaw (Dulcamara) was not. Thomas Florio did an admirable job singing Dulcamara twice in less than 24 hours.…
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* Notes *The third performance of the Merola Opera Program's L'elisir d'Amore on Saturday went splendidly. Though there were brief moments in which one could pick out the individual voices, the chorus sounded more cohesive than before. The orchestra played at a fine clip, though there remained issues of synchronization. There were some intonation problems…
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* Notes *The second performance of the Merola Opera Program‘s L’elisir d’Amore was last night, with different leads. The orchestra still was not precisely together, but again the space in Cowell is challenging. The chorus looked like they were having fun. It certainly was fascinating to watch the same choreography on different bodies, the characterizations…
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* Notes *The Merola Opera Program's L'elisir d'Amore opened last night at Cowell Theater in San Francisco. The orchestra started off crisply under Martin Katz. Though the pit must be less than ideal, they did sound jaunty throughout. The trumpet and bassoon had fine soli. The cast was strong, a lot of lovely voices. The chorus…
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* Notes *Festival Opera‘s of latest production of Madama Butterfly opened last night in Walnut Creek. The orchestra sounded full and loud under Joseph Marcheso, although there were only thirty-six musicians. The brass was surprisingly clear and tuneful, but the strings fared less well. One of the celli was noticeably out of tune throughout the…
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* Notes * Die Walküre had a stunning opening last night at San Francisco Opera. There was never a dull moment from the orchestra pit, and Donald Runnicles kept the tempi apace, and rarely overwhelmed the singers. There were some notes that were out of tune or not perfectly clear from the brass, but for the…
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