Reviews, appreciation and analysis of all things opera
In the final days of Pamela Rosenberg’s controversial tenure as General Director of the San Francisco Opera, a production of Bellini’s “Norma” new to San Francisco was mounted, starring Catherine Naglestad as Norma, Irene Mishura as Adalgisa, Zoran Todorovich as Pollione, and Attila Jun as Oroveso. The production and performance, in the context of the performance history of Bellini’s … Read more
The following conversation. discussing the new “operawarhorses.com” website took place between myself and Peter V. Lee, MD of the University of Southern California. November, 2005 PVL: “Bill, It’s a great start. . . . Did you realize that “warhorse” in this sense [an often-performed opera] was first used only in 1947, by Alfred Einstein, in Music … Read more
This is the second of two reviews of performances I attended a month apart of Verdi’s “La Forza del Destino”, the first of which took place at the Zurich Oper [Reviews of Two “Forza del Destinos”, Part 1: Zurich Oper October 19, 2005]. In both cases I sat in the row behind the conductor, which … Read more
Fifty years ago, the Standard Opera Repertory was narrower than it is today. In the United States, impresarios such as Sir Rudolph Bing at the Metropolitan Opera and the newly empowered Kurt Herbert Adler at the San Francisco Opera set out to increase the number of operas that could be considered standard fare. And they … Read more
This is the first of ten observances of historic performances of the San Francisco Opera that I attended during the company’s annual tours of Southern California On November 3, 1955, the San Francisco Opera performed Gounod’s “Faust” at the Fox Theater in San Diego. [Below: New York tenor Jan Peerce in 1953; edited image, based on … Read more