Reviews, appreciation and analysis of all things opera
As related in the first article in this series, the Los Angeles Opera is mounting three cycles of Wagner’s four opera “Ring of the Nibelungs” in May and June 2010. A year later the San Francisco Opera will present the “Ring” in an entirely different production, with a different conductor and an almost completely different … Read more
Performances of Richard Strauss’ “Salome”, which can still be made to look very wicked even a century and half a decade after its scandalous (and lucratively successful) first performances, can be memorable. Those with long memories of performances of this work at San Francisco Opera will recall some of the most exciting afternoons and evenings … Read more
Vive la France! Donizetti’s late period comic masterpiece, “La Fille du Regiment”, not heard at San Francisco Opera for 16 years, introduced the lively imagination of French producer Laurent Pelly to the War Memorial Opera House. [Below: Marie (Diana Damrau) attends to the 21st Regiment’s laundry and ironing; edited image, based on a Cory Weaver … Read more
During the 65 years that spanned the first three general directorships of the San Francisco Opera, Mozart’s “Die Entführung aus dem Serail”, usually translated as “The Abduction from the Seraglio”, was never presented by the main company. Since 1990, it has been mounted in two productions in three separate seasons. The second of these is … Read more
