Nicole Car, Evan LeRoy Johnson, Brittany Renee Lead Alternate “La Boheme” Cast – San Francisco Opera, June 13, 2025

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This review continues my discussion of the San Francisco Opera’s 2025 revival of John Caird’s production of Puccini’s “La Boheme” posted at Review: A Superbly Performed “Boheme”, Starring Pene Pati, Karen Chia-Ling Ho, Andrea Carroll and Lucas Meachem – San Francisco Opera, June 15, 2025.. This review discusses the performances of three alternate cast members … Read more

Review: A Colorful Production of Mozart’s Melody-Rich “Idomeneo” – San Francisco Opera, June 14, 2025

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The last production of San Francisco Opera’s 2024-25 season to open was Mozart’s “Idomeneo” The earliest of Mozart’s seven most important operas, it dates from 1781 when Mozart was not quite 25 years old. Matthew Polenzani’s Idomeneo The opera takes place in the aftermath of the Trojan War on the Island of Crete. The Kingdom … Read more

Review: A Superbly Performed “Boheme”, Starring Pene Pati, Karen Chia-Ling Ho, Andrea Carroll and Lucas Meachem – San Francisco Opera, June 15, 2025.

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For the Spring 2025 weeks of its 2024-25 season, the San Francisco Opera scheduled nine performances of Puccini’s “La Boheme”. For six of those perfomances the lead roles of Mimi, Rodolfo, Musetta and Marcello were to be sung by four artists designated as the “first cast”. Four other artists were scheduled to alternate those four … Read more

Historical Review: Grist, Kraus, Wixell and Bruscantini Excel in Lotfi Mansouri’s Lively Production of “L’Elisir d’Amore” – October 29, 1967

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A Weekend of Schuller’s “The Visitation” and Donizetti’s “L’Elisir d’Amore” During a three-day mid-October 1967 weekend in San Francisco, I experienced my first ever performances of Charpentier’s “Louise” and Puccini’s “Manon Lescaut”, followed by a stellar performance of “Der Rosenkavalier”. Two weeks later, I returned for a Saturday evening-Sunday matinee weekend consisting of the American … Read more