Month: November 2008

One might argue that the San Francisco Opera from its founding has been a house that seems dedicated to Puccini’s works, but that happens to do a great job of other parts of the operatic repertoire, as well.  The outgoing musical director, Donald Runnicles, is associated with Wagnerian and contemporary opera, but also excelled with … Read more

The Lyric Opera of Chicago mounted a new production of Alban Berg’s “Lulu”, under the direction of Paul Curran. Last season the Scottish Director developed Lyric Opera’s production of Richard Strauss’ “Die Frau ohne Schatten” and has established himself as an advocate for Benjamin Britten’s operas in the United States at the Santa Fe and Central City … Read more

The middle of the 20th century was an exciting time for those curious about the Italian bel canto operatic masterpieces of Gaetano Donizetti. First Maria Callas and then Leyla Gencer, Joan Sutherland, Montserrat Caballe and Beverly Sills used their stardom to advance the cause of Donizetti’s dramatic operas. I myself saw Caballe as Elisabetta in … Read more

Chicago’s civic pride in the ascension of a hometown African-American family to the world stage has created intense interest in the most famous opera about an African-American community. Two weeks after President-Elect Barack Obama’s victory celebration at Chicago’s Grant Park, the Lyric Opera added Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess” to its performance history. The community interest … Read more

Until the late 1960s, San Francisco Opera paid scant attention to Donizetti’s great romantic comic opera, “L’Elisir d’Amore”, having had only three performances of the opera in San Francisco in the first 44 seasons of the company’s history.  (If this seems incredible for an international house led for its first 30 years by an Italian-born … Read more

San Francisco Opera, as part of its efforts to increase interest in live operatic performance among younger audiences, has developed the “family matinee”, which takes place at the opera house, utilizing the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and Chorus and the production sets from one of the main season operas. This year’s family matinee is Donizetti’s … Read more

As a vehicle for veteran basso Samuel Ramey, San Francisco Opera mounted a production closely associated with him – the seven scene 1869 version of Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov”. Ramey was supported by memorable performances by the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, conducted by Vassily Sinaisky, in his debut season with the opera company, and the San … Read more