The Opera Tattler
Reviews of Performances and their Audiences
Category: San Francisco Symphony
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* Notes *Michael Tilson Thomas and San Francisco Symphony are concluding a three-week Beethoven Festival with a semi-staged Fidelio. The opening performance last night featured grand singing and an austere, but effective staging. The opera boasts a stunning cast. Nina Stemme is a searing Leonore, her sound is luminous and clear. She pierces to the…
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* Notes *Michael Tilson Thomas and San Francisco Symphony recently recreated a 1808 concert at the Theater an der Wien of Beethoven works. The engaging performance on Saturday night lasted four hours and forty minutes with three intermissions and required a chorus, two different versions of the orchestra, seven vocal soloists, and a pianist. Undoubtedly…
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* Notes *Charles Dutoit (pictured left) conducted San Francisco Symphony in its first performance of Ravel's L'Heure espagnole last night. The orchestra sounded elegant and the cast had a wonderful sense of comic timing in this concert version of the piece. Mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard (Concepcion) has a vivid, smoky voice. She was able to convey…
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Charles Dutoit is conducting San Francisco Symphony in a concert version of Ravel’s L’Heure espagnole from June 4 to 6, 2015. The cast includes mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard (pictured left, photograph by Becca Fay) as Concepción, tenor Jean-Paul Fouchécourt as Torquemada, tenor John Mark Ainsley as Gonzalve, baritone Jean-Luc Ballestra as Ramiro, and baritone David Wilson-Johnson…
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* Notes * John Eliot Gardiner, the English Baroque Soloists, and the Monteverdi Choir (pictured left, photograph by Paul Burns) performed a beautiful L’Orfeo, Favola in musica at San Francisco Symphony‘s Davies Hall last night. The playing was elegant, even the brass instruments sounded clean. The singing was even and lovely. The vigorous choristers sounded together.…
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Sir John Eliot Gardiner (pictured left, photograph by Sheila Rock) is touring the United States with the English Baroque Soloists and the Monteverdi Choir from April 19 to May 1, 2015. They are performing a concert version of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo at Davies Hall in San Francisco on April 27, 2015. This concert and others are…
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August 20 2015: MTT conducts Schoenberg and Beethoven; Yuja Wang, piano August 21 2015: MTT conducts Schoenberg, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky; Yuja Wang, piano August 22 2015: MTT conducts Ives, Bartók, Mahler; Yuja Wang, piano August 27- September 14 2015: European Festival TourSeptember 24 2015: Opening Gala: MTT conducts TBASeptember 25-26 2015: MTT conducts Ravel, Chopin, Respighi;…
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* Notes * Conductor Paul Goodwin (pictured left, photograph by Manny Espinoza) is leading the San Francisco Symphony in a rather traditional program of Bach and Mozart this weekend. Goodwin, however, is anything but staid. He has a clear point of view and the orchestra sounds powerful under his direction. Last night's concert began with a…
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Soprano Lydia Teuscher (pictured left) is having her San Francisco Symphony debut this Thursday, January 29, 2015 at 2pm with performances on the following two days at 8pm. She will be singing "Al desio, di chi t'adora" from Le nozze di Figaro, "Ruhe sanft, mein holdes Leben" from Zaide, and Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten (Wedding…
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* Notes * This weekend Michael Tilson Thomas (pictured left, photograph by Kristen Loken) is conducting seven members of the San Francisco Symphony in performances of Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du soldat. The vivid piece is narrated by Elvis Costello, who does a fine job declaiming his lines. Nick Gabriel (The Soldier) is earnest and Malcolm McDowell (The…
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