Month: September 2018

The San Francisco Opera mounted Donizetti’s “Roberto Devereux” with a cast, conductor and production that would rival any performance of the opera in the 18 decades since its premiere. Sondra Radvanovsky’s Elisabetta (Queen Elizabeth I) Illinois soprano Sondra Radvanovsky displayed mastery of one of Italian opera’s most challenging soprano roles. Radvanovsky’s Elizabeth is the center … Read more

This is the second part of my review of San Francisco Opera’s presentation of Jose Cura’s production of the operatic double bill of Mascagni’s “Cavalleria Rusticana” and Leoncavallo’s “I Pagliacci”. This follows Review, Part I: San Francisco Opera Season Opening “Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci”, Nicely Sung, Brilliantly Staged, September 7, 2018. Cura’s production moved the locale of both … Read more

The most durable “double-bill” in opera is the linking of Mascagni’s “Cavalleria Rusticana” and Leoncavallo’s “I Pagliacci”, each performed separately with an intermission between them. Their similar tales of the lethal consequences of infidelity in small towns encouraged the Argentine singer, conductor, designer, director Jose Cura to create an imaginative production in which characters from … Read more