The Opera Tattler

Reviews of Performances and their Audiences

Recent posts

Category: San Francisco Opera

  • SF Opera’s Dream of the Red Chamber

    * Notes * Bright Sheng and David Henry Hwang's Dream of the Red Chamber had a world premiere at San Francisco Opera on Saturday night. The music was upstaged by the breathtaking stagecraft (pictured in Act I, photograph by Cory Weaver), and marred by an ungainly libretto. Based on the Qing Dynasty epic by Cao Xueqin,…

  • 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…

  • Dream of the Red Chamber Preview

    * Notes *My preview of San Francisco Opera's Dream of the Red Chamber up on KQED Arts. The opera, by Bright Sheng and David Henry Hwang, premieres on Saturday. * Tattling * Co-chairwoman of the committee for the world premiere Doreen Woo Ho (pictured left at a press event with designer Tim Yip, General Director…

  • SF Opera’s Jenůfa

    * Notes *My review of San Francisco Opera's Jenůfa up on KQED Arts. * Tattling * A very enthusiastic couple were in Row L Seats 13 and 15 of the orchestra level. At least one of them was crying during the performance and they were among the first to stand during the ovation. They screamed…

  • John Adams’ World Premiere at SF Opera

    Girls of the Golden West, a new opera set during the 1850s California Gold Rush by composer John Adams and librettist Peter Sellars (pictured left, photograph by Terrence McCarthy), will have a world premiere at San Francisco Opera in November of 2017. More details will be released next January as part of the Company's 2017–18…

  • 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 Carmen (Ginger Costa-Jackson)

    * Notes * The second cast of San Francisco Opera's current Carmen (Adam Diegel as Don José and Ginger Costa-Jackson as Carmen in Act II pictured left, photograph by Cory Weaver) production was performed a day after the first. The production is consistent, and it was impressive to me seeing it this time from Row…

  • SF Opera’s Carmen (Irene Roberts)

    * Notes * Calixto Bieito’s new production of Carmen (The chorus in Act IV pictured left, photograph by Cory Weaver) San Francisco Opera marked his US debut last night. Directed here by Joan Anton Rechi, the show was not nearly as shocking as some of Bieito’s work. In fact, the staging was quite deft, and…

  • SF Opera’s Les Triplettes de Belleville

    * Notes *SF Opera Lab hosted a cine-concert version of Les Triplettes de Belleville in mid-April. The 2003 animated film was projected on the south wall of the Atrium Theater as composer-conductor Benoît Charest not only lead seven instrumentalists and the chanteuse Doriane Faberg, but also played guitar. The last evening of the run, on…

  • SF Opera’s Svadba-Wedding

    * Notes *SF Opera Lab had its first new production premiere last night with Svadba-Wedding last night. The a cappella opera for six female voices by Serbian Canadian composer Ana Sokolović is the perfect scale for the Atrium Theater and director Michael Cavanagh's made use of the whole space. Sokolović's opera is pretty without being…