Reviews, appreciation and analysis of all things opera
William Burnett 
The following interview is with Signora Jolanda Meneguzzer, a lyric-leggiero soprano from Florence, Italy, whom I saw perform several roles at the San Francisco Opera in the 1962, 1963 and 1965 seasons. Her responses to my questions are shown in Italian, followed by their translation into English. [Below: Jolanda Meneguzzer; edited image, based on … Read more
San Diego Opera revived its 2008 John Coyne production of Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci”, whose single set portrays a rustic village with a small stage on which a traveling troup of commedia dell’arte players are scheduled to perform that evening. [See Cura, Futral Shine in New San Diego Opera “Pagliacci” – March 22, 2008.] For the 2014 revival Australian … Read more
Houston Grand Opera’s 2013-14 season is notable for the introduction to North America of two ambitious projects. The most ambitious effort, scheduled for April 2014 is the first set of a collaborative venture in mounting Wagner’s four opera “Ring of the Nibelungs” with Valencia, Spain’s Fura dels Baus. One opera a year will be introduced … Read more
Houston Grand Opera mounted Verdi’s “Rigoletto”, providing East Texas the opportunity to experience a youthful cast, comprised of strong contenders for operatic superstar status. The conductor was Houston Grand Opera’s Music Director Patrick Summers, who is the opera company’s co-manager (with general director Perryn Leech). Summers’ career has been devoted to mentoring many of the world’s … Read more
Note from William: The following interview with the Opéra de Montréal’s General Manager, Pierre Dufour, took place in the administrative offices of the Opéra de Montréal. [Below: Opéra de Montréal General Manager Pierre Dufour; edited image of a publicity photograph.] Wm: You became general manager during a time of financial crisis for the Opéra de … Read more
Fifty years ago, as a college sophomore, between studying, term papers and fraternity parties, when the interest and opportunity arose, I would purchase an orchestra seat to the San Francisco Opera. The spring semester over and finals done with, I took in the final performance of San Francisco Opera’s Spring Opera Theater production of Rossini’s … Read more
The following interview took place in the administrative offices of the Opera de Montreal, whose facilitation of this interview is deeply appreciated. [Below: Bass-baritone Burak Bilgili; edited image, based on a Alvaro Jaramillo photograph, courtesy of Burak Bilgili.] Wm: You attended the music conservatory of the Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts in the … Read more
Note from William: In celebration of the upcoming 50th anniversary of the San Diego Opera, I will be re-printing program notes that the opera company commissioned me to write. The second of these, re-printed with the kind permission of the copyright holder, the San Diego Opera, contains the program notes for their April and May 2011 … Read more
At various times in Calendar year 2013, I have posted remembrances of each of the 11 live opera performances that I saw (all at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco) 50 years ago in 1963. Remarkably, all but two of these 11 live performances were of operas that I reviewed 50 years later … Read more
Note from William: This post continues my series of observances of historic performances that I attended at San Francisco Opera during the general directorship of Kurt Herbert Adler. This is the last of ten such observances of performances from the company’s 1963 Fall season. San Francisco Opera’s final 1963 Saturday night series performance was a … Read more
San Francisco Opera launched a new Leni Bauer-Ecsy production of Verdi’s “La Forza del Destino” as a vehicle for Leontyne Price. James McCracken was her Don Alvaro in a stirring performance led by Italian Conductor Francesco Molinari-Pradelli. [Below: the Leni Bauer-Ecsy sets for the monastery scene in “La Forza del Destino”; edited image, based on … Read more
The next offering on my 1963 Saturday night San Francisco Opera subscription was a revival of the acclaimed George Jenkins production of Mozart’s “Cosi fan Tutte” that had been my first performance of a Mozart opera seven seasons before [See Cosi Fan Tutte – October 25, 1956.] Elizabeth Schwarzkopf was again Fiordiligi, joined by three artists … Read more
As a college sophomore, in my third year as a subscriber to the San Francisco Opera, I had already experienced Bellini’s “Sonnambula” with Joan Sutherland, Verdi’s “Aida” with Leontyne Price, Regina Resnik and Sandor Konya, and Reri Grist, Cesare Valletti and Hermann Prey in Rossini’s “Barber of Seville” (I also had purchased seats off my … Read more
Beginning with calendar year 2006 (the year that the current San Francisco Opera general director David Gockley assumed his post), I have given letter grades to each of San Francisco Opera’s productions during that calendar year. I have only done this for San Francisco Opera productions, because I have attended at least one performance of … Read more
This interview was conducted at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco, with much-appreciated facilitation by the San Francisco Opera. Wm: You were raised in New York City, but your mother is Argentinean. How did your parents meet? IL: My mother was born in Argentina, but moved to the United States in the 1960s … Read more
Two nights after my first live performance ever of Puccini’s “Tosca”, I returned to my regular Saturday night series for the fourth offering of the San Francisco Opera’s 1963 Saturday night series – Tchaikovsky’s “Queen of Spades”. Only the second Russian opera (after Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov” that I had seen presented by the San Francisco … Read more
Note from William: In celebration of the upcoming 50th anniversary of the San Diego Opera, I will be re-printing program notes that the opera company commissioned me to write. The first of these, re-printed with the kind permission of the copyright holder, the San Diego Opera, will be the program notes for their March 2010 performances … Read more
On October 3, 1963, I attended my first performance ever of Puccini’s “Tosca” at the San Francisco Opera, in which Leontyne Price appeared in the title role, with Hungarian tenor Sandor Konya as Cavaradossi and Australian baritone John Shaw as Scarpia. Twelve days earlier I had seen Price, Konya and Shaw in Verdi’s “Aida” [See 50 … Read more
This feature highlights selected performances of Italian Operas in Texas and California during January and June 2014, each of which I am scheduled to attend and review. This supplements other lists of highlighted performances in these states during early 2014, including Italian Opera masterpieces of Donizetti at San Diego Opera and Los Angeles Opera [See … Read more
The Los Angeles Opera presented the American premiere of an extraordinary production of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute”. Imported from Berlin’s Komische Oper, the opera is performed live encased in an animated silent film as one of the cleverest hybrids of the visual and performing arts ever to be assayed. [Below: Tamino (Lawrence Brownlee, center) is … Read more
Several months ago, I posted a new title in my Quest and Anticipations series, relating to what I term as “high concept” production designers and stage directors of whose operatic innoavations I have approved. I reported on three new productions by Laurent Pelly, Lee Blakeley and Francesca Zambello, and a important revival of the Robert … Read more
Having attended and reported on the first night of the new Emilio Sagi production of Rossini’s “Barbiere di Siviglia” [see Lucas Meachem, Javier Camarena and Isabel Leonard Romp in Sagi’s Sprightly New “Barber of Seville” – San Francisco Opera, November 13, 2013], I returned to the War Memorial Opera House for the production’s second performance. The … Read more
San Francisco Opera unveiled in a spiffy new production of Rossini’s most famous opera, “Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville)” . Co-produced with the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theater, it contains the latest thoughts of Spanish production designer Emilio Sagi as to how this most popular of operatic comedies should be staged. … Read more
The Los Angeles Opera, whose tribute to the celebration of the bicentennial of Giuseppe Verdi’s birth included a mounting of his early opera “I Due Foscari”, unveiled a new production of Verdi’s final masterpiece, “Falstaff” in an appealing production, starring Italian baritone Robert Frontali. [Below: Roberto Frontali as Sir John Falstaff; edited image, based on … Read more
In a production that began its life in Opera Australia’s Sydney and Melbourne homes, Johann Strauss’ quintessentially Viennese operetta, “Die Fledermaus” was mounted by Houston Grand Opera with a stellar cast – with some unexpected role assignments. The story, transformed from mid-century Austria to a North American metropolis of the 1930s, was translated from German … Read more