The Opera Tattler
Reviews of Performances and their Audiences
Category: Opera Review
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* Notes * A revival of Rigeletto opened September 30th at San Francisco Opera. Mark Lamos’ production from 1997 inaugurated the last General Director’s tenure back in 2001. There were a few changes from the last time around, the dancers with exposed bosoms in the first scene were gone, and the lighting was less lurid.…
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* 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…
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* Notes * Deborah Voigt recovered enough to sing Amelia at the closing of Un Ballo in San Francisco on September 29th. Both she and Anna Christy (Oscar) stood out as good. I noticed that Marcus Haddock (Gustavus III) doesn’t have a certain staccato quality that is necessary for some of the music. After seeing…
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Soprano Deborah Voigt was ill with a stomach flu last night, and her understudy, Erin Wood, made her San Francisco Opera debut as Amelia in Un Ballo in Maschera. Wood’s voice is cold and pretty, but not nearly as expansive as Voigt’s. At times she was slightly shrill and had too much vibrato. Wood wore…
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* Notes * A Washington National Opera production of Un Ballo in Maschera opened the new season in San Francisco under the direction of Gina Lapinski. Entirely traditional in set and costume design, it was a spectacle quite pleasing to the eye with much Louis XIV splendor. There are six scenes but only one intermission,…
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Dieter Kaegi's production of Der Rosenkavalier was revived in Seattle last month. I remember seeing posters for the 1997 performances, in which Angelika Kirchschlager sang the role of Octavian. Alice Coote made her Seattle debut in the role this time around, and her voice was strong. She is petite next to Carol Vaness, but had…
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A revival of Madama Butterfly opened 27. May at San Francisco Opera. Directed by Ron Daniels and designed by Michael Yeargan, the production involves shoji screens that slide across the stage. This device was used quite a lot, and it was slightly tiresome. Also, the paintings and calligraphy on the screens in Act I were…
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A new production of Verdi’s Macbeth opened at Seattle Opera on May 6th. The director was Bernard Uzan, his work on Tosca at San Francisco certainly was different. The Tosca production was pretty, but somewhat boring. This Macbeth is both ugly and boring. Robert Israel’s set was a silver room with three doors and a…
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Wadsworth production of Händel's Rodelinda opened at the Met on Tuesday, May 2, 2006. I was surprised that Thomas Lynch's set was so beautiful, since his Lohengrin was reminiscent of IKEA, though admittedly, his Ring set for Seattle was gorgeous. The library set was particularly impressive to the audience, which gasped when it was revealed…
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The Met production of Händel's Giulio Cesare in Egitto opened at San Diego Opera last Saturday. This production was in San Francisco in 2002, so I was familiar with both the music and the staging. This was somewhat unfortunate, as it started off badly, Ewa Podleś, in the lead role, was ahead of the orchestra.…
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