Month: September 2017

For its Fall 2017 season, San Francisco Opera has divided twelve performances of Puccini’s “Turandot” into two casts, the first performing six times during September and the second in late November and early December. This season, I reviewed the first cast on the season’s opening night [Review: San Francisco Opera’s “Turandot” – Sonic Splendor, Visual … Read more

The final opera to be conducted by Maestro Nicola Luisotti during his nine-season tenure as Music Director of the San Francisco Opera is Verdi’s “La Traviata”. The opera, presented in British Director John Copley’s classic 1987 production, was the occasion for the San Francisco Opera debuts of Aurelia Florian, the Violetta; Atalla Ayan, the Alfredo; … Read more

The San Francisco Opera mounted a magnificently sung performance of Richard Strauss’ “Elektra”, with an augmented 95-member San Francisco Opera Orchestra, led by Hungarian Maestro Henrik Nánási. British Director Keith Warner’s accessible and eye-catching production – a San Francisco Opera co-production with the Prague National Opera (where it debuted last year) – set the opera … Read more

San Francisco Opera has presented David Hockney’s enchanting realization of Puccini’s “Turandot” for five of its seasons since it debuted at the War Memorial Opera House, under Hockney’s direct supervision, in 1993. The vibrant colors of Hockney’s sets and of Ian Falconer’s exotic costumes exude splendor. A co-production with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the … Read more