The Opera Tattler
Reviews of Performances and their Audiences
Category: San Francisco Opera
-
Halloween is my favorite holiday, though I think I could do without the time change that always happens before it. We went to Tosca with our lovely friends and had a splendid time. The opera was beautiful, all the singing was adequate. Eva Urbanov has a pretty voice. It was odd seeing the same production…
-
Yesterday I went and saw Saint-Saëns most famous opera Samson et Dalila with my father, who was here for the weekend, ostensibly for a pre-auction showing at Butterfields that didn’t happen. The opera was the best one overall that I’ve seen this season. The music and singing were all fairly good, and Olga Borodina, the…
-
Yesterday we just decided to try to see the rescheduled performance of Tigran Chukhadjian's Arshak II, and managed to finagle inexpensive tickets for the orchestra. The performance was supposed to have happened last Tuesday, but most of San Francisco shutdown that day, and it was canceled. The performance started with a moment of silence, and…
-
Last Friday we went to the opening night of the San Francisco Opera. They played Verdi’s Rigoletto. The soprano Désirée Rancatore was very good, her voice is sweet and light. Maybe just slightly cold, slightly frail. The tenor Frank Lopardo was acceptable, a bit inconsistent. His voice was not as strong as the title baritone…
-
Simon Boccanegra at San Francisco Opera was excellent. Samuel Ramey (Jacopo Fiesco) and Paolo Gavanelli (Simon Boccanegra) were especially amazing. We got to see Carol Vaness again, who was in Don Giovanni as Donna Elvira and Tosca (as Tosca). She was the sole soprano in the production, and she was, predictably, awful. However, the opera…
The Opera Tattler 