Reviews, appreciation and analysis of all things opera
Happy birthday, Wolfgang. Today is the 250th anniversary of your birth, and October 25th of this year is the 50th anniversary of my first time experiencing a live performance of one of your operas (Cosi Fan Tutte) with a wonderful Mozartean cast of Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, Nell Rankin, Patrice Munsel, Richard Lewis, Frank Guarrera and Lorenzo … 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
64 year old Placido Domingo demonstrated to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion audience that Wagner, sung beautifully, is magical. His incredible voice, its legato still intact, brought to his Parsifal the sensitivity and dramatic expressiveness that I vividly recall from seeing him perform, among other roles, Don Jose in “Carmen” and Cavaradossi in “Tosca” in his … Read more