The Opera Tattler
Reviews of Performances and their Audiences
Category: Opera Review
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The Oakland Opera Theater's production of Philip Glass' La Belle et la Bête was fully-staged instead of using Jean Cocteau film. Tom Dean & Garrett Lowe's set took inspiration from the film, but the staging also had a bit of a circus influence. There was stilt walking and contorting, which may have been my favorite…
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The production of Händel’s Rodelinda currently at San Francisco Opera is one from the Bayerische Staatsoper, and I had attended a few performances of it in Munich a few years ago. It is one of the tamer offerings of this particular director, David Alden. The opera is set as 1930s film noir, Buki Shiff’s costumes…
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The production of Rossini’s The Italian Girl in Algiers currently at San Francisco Opera belongs to Santa Fe Opera, where it was premiered in 2002. The style of director Christopher Alexander is possibly more suited to this comic opera. The last opera he directed at San Francisco was Turandot in 2002, which looked like something…
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The current Los Angeles Opera production of Pagliacci is surprisingly good, especially when one considers the opera company is a mere 20 years old. Franco Zeffirelli brought the staging into the 20th century, the set was urban, the costumes were fit for a disco, but there was also a roller blader, so a bit of…
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Last month I attended a performance of The Queen of Spades at San Francisco Opera. The Russian operas are always very well attended here, so generally there is one each season, though surprisingly, Eugene Onegin was also given earlier in the 2004-2005 season. The production presented is owned by the Welsh National Opera, and the…
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Seattle Opera is especially dedicated to the works of Richard Wagner. The founder of this opera company, Glynn Ross, apparently adored Wagner at a time in which his works were generally neglected by most American opera houses. Seattle Opera has built its reputation on staging Wagner in a traditional manner, a reaction to the ultra-minimalism…
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The last opera of the season was Così fan tutte, which also had opened it last Fall. The co-production, owned by Opera Monte Carlo and San Francisco Opera, was produced by John Cox and directed by Jose Maria Condemi. Robert Perdziola’s charming set was updated to a WWI era resort, which worked splendidly. Fiordiligi does…
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The joint San Diego Opera and Michigan Opera Theatre production of Les Pêcheurs de Perles might have been pleasant, despite its absurd Orientalist plot, unsynchronized dancing (courtesy of the San Francisco Ballet), and lurid set, but in the end it is Bizet who lets us down. One should not end one's opera by sending away…
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The Netherlands Opera production of Eugene Onegin ended its run at San Francisco Opera today. Director Johannes Schaaf finally brought us something that is stripped down but works, unlike the ugly minimalism of Kát’a Kabanová, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, or Il Barbiere di Siviglia. The lines are clean, but one doesn’t feel as if one…
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The last performance of Der Fliegende Holländer this season was this evening. The production came from the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and was directed by Nikolaus Lehnhoff. Raimund Bauer’s set was stark and Andrea Schmidt-Futterer’s costumes were reminiscent of samurai from space. Denni Sayers’ choreography was slightly clunky, the women spinning their hair was especially…
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