Commentaries

Here is the sixth in Arthur Bloomfield’s occasional series of Time Machine trips into the world of opera three or four generations ago, focusing on the conductors’ art. [Conductor Vittorio Gui; resized image of a historical photograph.] VITTORIO GUI (1885-1975) It’s not my habit to lunch with countesses, but some years ago thanks to the … Read more

The following summarizes the story line of the third opera of Wagner’s “Ring of the Nibelungs”, with my impressions of three very different approaches to performing the opera, from respectively the Seattle Opera, Los Angeles Opera and San Francisco Opera. For the two previous features in this series, see: Gods and Nibelungs on the Pacific Coast: the … Read more

This web-post continues previous discussions about the expansion of opera’s standard repertory. (See Opera in Live Performance, Thoughts and Assessments at the End of 2010, Part One and Opera in Live Performance, Thoughts and Assessments at the End of 2010, Part Two.) Preparing for the Verdi Bicentennial We are just over 23 months from the … Read more

This web-post continues previous discussions about the expansion of opera’s standard repertory. (See Opera in Live Performance, Thoughts and Assessments at the End of 2010, Part One.) Most observers of the contemporary state of opera performance will concede that Bizet’s “Carmen” is the most durable representative of the French repertory, and I have argued that … Read more

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Note from William: Since 2006, at the end of each calendar year concurrent with the David Gockley administration at the San Francisco Opera, I have given letter grades to each of the productions performed by the company that year. The criteria are simple. An “A” reflects a musical and theatrical performance and production that would … Read more

This post continues the essay I began in the feature Opera in Live Performance: Thoughts and Assessments at the End of 2009, Part One. I don’t know if I would characterize the Part One as necessarily pessimistic, even though I argued that a considerable amount of the revenues that operatic performance received from philanthropy may be … Read more

For the past four years, I have published my thoughts on the performance of grand opera, usually as reviews of live performances that I have attended, mostly in the American West (defined here as a line from mid-Pennsylvania to the Pacific Ocean), but I also include reviews from such non-American West outposts as France and … Read more

In 2009, I personally reviewed 48 performances of operas at 11 different opera companies in the United States and Germany. Time and logistics make it impossible to see every production at every company I visit each year. However, I have managed to attend at least one performance of every main season production mounted by the … Read more

The “standard repertory” of opera is dominated by works created by citizens of four European countries – Italy, Germany, Austria and France. Many of the singers, conductors, set designers and stage directors associated with opera production are themselves from those four countries, although if you look at the world supply of operatic performers, there would … Read more

San Francisco Opera’s General Director David Gockley became the sixth person in history to hold that position at the beginning of Calendar Year 2006, technically midway in the 2005-06 season. For the San Francisco Opera’s administrative purposes (including the important function of selling season tickets), the opera “season” is considered to run from September to … Read more

In mid-summer, acceding to requests that I get my reviews of San Francisco Opera performances out earlier in the performance cycle, and simultaneously to requests that I continue the longer analyses of each performance, I suggested that I would from time to time publish “snapshots” of my first reactions to each of the 2007 performances … Read more

This website has reviewed several live operatic performances over the past two years that I believe are worthy of the attention of the wider community of opera aficionados. Some I have characterized as “world class”, suggesting that it would have been worth the effort for an opera aficionado to have gone to some considerable trouble … Read more

In recent decades, the San Francisco Opera has organized its performance schedules to present seven or eight operas as a “Fall Season” from September to December (and occasionally January) and another three operas in repertory as a “Summer Season” centered in June. Although originally the Summer and Fall seasons were administratively separated (you could subscribe … Read more

Last year, the Wall Street Journal’s opera critic Heidi Waleson called Gounod’s “Faust” a “silly opera”, employing a phrase apparently designed to show her condescension to the task of reviewing the Met’s then new production. There was no accompanying essay explaining why Ms Waleson so characterized the venerable French opera. I have always looked forward … Read more

The Wall Street Journal published an unflattering essay (“A Hissy Fit Too Far”) about tenor Roberto Alagna’s recent unsuccessful appearance as Radames in La Scala’s Franco Zeffirelli production of Verdi’s “Aida”. The article, under the byline of Ian Brunskill, obituaries editor(!) of the Times of London, held forth the proposition that Alagna has been promoted … Read more

David Gockley assumed the general directorship of the San Francisco Opera in the middle of the 2005-06 season, when three operas were still do be performed in the 2006 “summer season”. This was earlier than originally announced, but his predecessor, the embattled Pamela Rosenberg, announced that she “missed her grandchildren in Germany” and would depart … Read more

[The following tribute to Adler Fellow Eugene Brancoveanu complements my review of the 2006 performances of the San Francisco Opera production of Rossini’s “Barber of Seville”.] Piano, pianissimo senza parlar The first words of “Barbiere” are sung by Almaviva’s henchman, Fiorello.  Before I get into the main body of the performance critique (see: Deconstructing San Francisco … Read more

Fifty years ago, when I saw my first Puccini opera, his “Turandot” was only 30 years old   (To put this in  the perspective of time, consider the age of three operas that did not exist in 1956. Adams’ “Nixon in China” has been around for 19 years, Britten’s “Death in Venice” for 33 and Poulenc’s … Read more

This two-part essay attempts to address four seemingly disparate issues. The first part celebrates a great interpretation of Stravinsky’s “Rake’s Progress” and begins a discussion of why that opera does not appear to be a candidate for the Standard Opera repertory, and certainly will never become an operatic “warhorse”. The second part will compare the … Read more

The ten productions and principal casts of the San Francisco Opera’s 2006-07 season were announced on January 12th, 2006 by newly installed San Francisco Opera general director David Gockley. An analysis of the prospective season, with my comments, is displayed here. [Below: General Director David Gockley; edited image of a publicity photograph.] Recognizing that most … Read more

Stephen promised an exposition of his thoughts on Robert Wilson’s “Parsifal”. It is presented here: Hi Bill: Well, here it is. PARSIFAL is my desert-island opera. I first saw it at the Met on Good Friday in 1960, then the summer I spent at Bayreuth (1966) studying with the Wagners. I saw Wieland’s breathtaking production … Read more

Nine of the ten operas of Richard Wagner’s maturity abound in magic and spells – enough potions, curses and enchantment to fill a whole semester in Harry Potter’s School of Wizards. Even in the tenth opera, “Die Meistersinger”, the hero’s prize song comes to him, as if by magic, in a dream – fully orchestrated … Read more