Reviews, appreciation and analysis of all things opera
The following are four of the operas I am scheduled to review taking place at the San Francisco Opera during 2023, celebrating the centennial of the company’s founding. Die Frau ohne Schatten (Richard Strauss), San Francisco Opera, June 4 (m), 10, 20, 23 and 28, 2023 San Francisco Opera, the company that mounted the United … Read more
Since the year 2006, I have reviewed each of the opera productions mounted by the San Francisco Opera in the War Memorial Opera House, providing each with a letter grade. Like the seminars associated with Ph.D. programs, I do not grade “on a curve”, but, instead expect that a San Francisco Opera performance of any opera, like … Read more
Operawarhorses.com reviews San Francisco Opera’s new production of “La Traviata” included
The operas of Christoph Willibald Gluck have rarely been performed by the San Francisco Opera. Gluck’s most famous opera, “Orpheus and Eurydice”, received only a couple of stage performances in a 1959 production. For the company’s centennial season, San Francisco Opera presents it in its original 1762 Italian version, “Orfeo ed Euridice”, which premiered in … Read more
A review of Poulenc’s “The Dialogues of the Carmelites”, which returns to San Francisco Opera, the site of its 1957 United States premiere.