The Opera Tattler

Reviews of Performances and their Audiences

Recent posts

Category: Thomas Hampson

  • Final Dress Rehearsal of Appomattox

    * Notes * The final dress rehearsal of Appomattox was last night. On the whole, I found the music, libretto, and production rather dark and a bit heavy-handed. The music, unsurprisingly, is reiterative and the singing style more declamatory than lyrical. There are no soaring high notes, but this does keep the text clear, at…

  • Simon Boccanegra at the Met

    * Notes * Giancarlo del Monaco's current production of Simon Boccanegra at the Met is traditional, the set and costumes, by Michael Scott, are lavish and exceedingly beautiful. The one weakness was the scene changes, some took a long time and people would start chattering and momentum was lost. Even still, Fabio Luisi had a…

  • Le précaution inutile

    On 13. January 2004, I attended my third performance of Il barbiere di Siviglia at San Francisco Opera. This new production is owned by San Francisco Opera, but the stage director, set designer, and dramaturge have all worked at the Stuttgart Opera, and it showed. The set looked very much like a German fantasy of…