The Opera Tattler
Reviews of Performances and their Audiences
Category: San Francisco Opera
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San Francisco Opera’s revival of Fidelio opened last night. The production is directed by Michael Hampe and designed by John Gunter. The set is clever, with floors that lift up, and walls that can be moved aside. This facilitates scene changes, which went seamlessly throughout. The contrast of the openness in the final scene and…
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San Francisco Opera's new production of Verdi's La Forza del Destino, directed by Ron Daniels, opened last Wednesday. They used the revised 1869 version and not the 1862 version that premiered in St. Petersburg. In this revised version Don Alvaro does not throw himself off a cliff, and there is something of a sense of…
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San Francisco Opera’s new production of La Forza del Destino opens next week on Wednesday, November 2nd. The opera company invited subscribers to see a working rehearsal yesterday, and the experience certainly was educational. One could hear the director, Ron Daniels, screaming at the performers, and this is quite a different view than one usually…
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The Canadian Opera Company’s production of Norma opened at San Francisco Opera last Sunday. The cast is strong, so it is certainly worth seeing. The production itself is uninspired. Remember those tiny houses you built in 3rd grade with your meticulously saved popsicle sticks? The set, designed by Allen Moyer, is reminiscent of these crafts,…
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John Adams' Doctor Atomic had its world premiere on the first day of this month at San Francisco Opera. The opera is in English and is set in New Mexico in July 1945. It starts off with the chorus singing something like "Energy! Matter can neither be created nor destroyed!" It was difficult not to…
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Yesterday someone pulled the fire alarm at just ten minutes before curtain time for the last performance of L’Italiana. Everyone filed out in an orderly fashion, but it took quite a long time to get back inside and settled in again. During the performance I wanted to note that in Act II, Vivica Genaux does…
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The alternate in the title role for San Francisco opera’s production of L’Italiana in Algeri is excellent. I was not impressed by mezzo-soprano Vivica Genaux in Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria, but I think her voice is better suited to something airy and light like L’Italiana. Her voice was incredible in the role of Isabella,…
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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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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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