Historical Performances

This is the seventh of ten observances of historic performances of the San Francisco Opera that I attended during the company’s annual tours of Southern California Leonie Rysanek, in the second of four seasons that she performed with the San Francisco Opera in the last half-decade of the 1950s, introduced Richard Strauss’ “Ariadne auf Naxos” … Read more

This is the sixth of ten observances of historic performances of the San Francisco Opera that I attended during the company’s annual tours of Southern California San Diego’s Fox Theatre has been an imposing landmark since it was launched in 1929 as a great movie palace, in ceremonies attended by visiting delegations of Hollywood stars. … Read more

This is the fifth of ten observances of historic performances of the San Francisco Opera that I attended during the company’s annual tours of Southern California On October 24, 1956 our mothers drove Stephen and myself from San Diego to the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles where I saw my first Italian Opera – Verdi’s … Read more

This is the second of ten observances of historic performances of the San Francisco Opera that I attended during the company’s annual tours of Southern California Five decades ago, the San Francisco Opera company would conduct a Southern California tour at the conclusion of its Fall season. The addition of the San Diego to its … Read more

This is the fourth of ten observances of historic performances of the San Francisco Opera that I attended during the company’s annual tours of Southern California This year marks the 50th anniversary of my first performance of Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly”. The San Francisco Opera performance was held on the first of November at San Diego’s Fox … Read more