Reviews, appreciation and analysis of all things opera
Robert, who has had the San Francisco Opera subscription seats across the aisle from me for decades, related a funny incident to me. According to him, a young woman, attending her first opera at a Los Angeles Opera performance of Puccini’s “Tosca”, came out at the intermission after the second act and remarked about Tosca … Read more
An ongoing feature of this website is the “Best Bet Revivals” series. When one opera company mounts a physical production of an opera that has been favorably praised by this website, and offers it with a cast of singers who are comparable (at least) to those seen previously, then we alert potential opera goers to … Read more
I suppose it is still taught in “opera appreciation” classes, that in the early 19th century Italy there were three composers (Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti), who constituted a bel canto “school” of opera. Later in the century, it is taught, Giuseppe Verdi and after him Giacomo Puccini replaced them in the Italian public’s and The … Read more
A famous recording I grew up with in the 40s was the 1933 abridged Der Rosenkavalier with that manic maestro Otto Klemperer’s onetime girlfriend Elisabeth Schumann, his maybe-almost-girlfriend Lotte Lehmann and the apparently unpursued Maria Olczewska, all under the baton of Robert Heger, not exactly a household name in the annals of conducting and one … Read more
This Thoughts and Assessments Feature dates from the end of 2009, in which I add some thoughts outside of such other posts as my live performance reviews, my memorializations of the 50 year anniversaries of performances I attended, and my interviews with artists who sing, play, conduct, stage, design or write operas. Each year, I … 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 sixth of six such observances of performances from the company’s 1961 Fall season. This series of memorializations of San Francisco Opera performances of a … 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 fifth of six such observances of performances from the company’s 1961 Fall season. Having become a subscriber in Fall 1961, as a college Freshman, … 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 fourth of six such observances of performances from the company’s 1961 Fall season. On the fourth night of my 1961 San Francisco Opera series … 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 third of six such observances of performances from the company’s 1961 Fall season. Fifty years ago, as a Freshman in college with an Orchestra … Read more
The New Orleans Opera, performing in the spacious Mahalia Jackson Theater, presented Verdi’s “Un Ballo in Maschera”, utilizing G. Alan Ruznak’s sets that place the opera in mid-19th century New Orleans. The performance (the first of two) was a vehicle for native son Paul Groves’ role debut in the lead tenor part of Riccardo. Thoughts on … 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 second of six such observances of performances from the company’s 1961 Fall season. As a college Freshman, who had been hooked on opera since … Read more
In 1868, the hottest ticket in Europe was the premiere of Charles Gounod’s “Roméo et Juliette”, at Paris’ Theatre Lyrique on the Seine’s East Bank (just a few hundred feet West from where the present Theatre du Chatelet is located). It was one of the most successful opening nights of any opera in history, with … Read more
Five years ago, Bizet’s “Carmen” was presented by San Francisco Opera, in the classic Jean-Pierre Ponnelle production (See my review at Halevy Triumphs in Ponnelle “Carmen” – S. F. December 3, 2006). Mezzo-soprano Kendall Gladen, then an Adler Fellow, the highest level of the San Francisco Opera Young Artists’ programs, was the Mercedes, the comprimario mezzo … Read more
Surfing the net the other day I stumbled on a bundle of pure anecdote heaven, the memoirs of Mr. Richard Temple Savage, the bass clarinet of London’s Covent Garden Opera back in the 30s-40s-50s. This charming book, titled A Voice from the Pit and originally published in 1988 — some of it was serialized in … Read more
Since I am on record as proposing that Sir Nicholas Hytner’s physical production of Handel’s “Xerxes” for London’s English National Opera be included on a list of “world treasures”, no one should be surprised at my high regard for San Francisco Opera’s presentation of Hytner’s conceptualization. I had reported last year on the production’s revival for … Read more
Teams of artists from Italy and the United States collaborated in creating the San Francisco Opera’s imaginative new production of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni”. Team Italy consisted of Conductor Nicola Luisotti, Soprano Serena Farnocchia singing Donna Elvira (her San Francisco Opera debut season), and four artists for whom this production was their American debut – Basso … Read more
As the world moves closer to the bicentennial year of the birth of opera composer Giuseppe Verdi, performances of his great 1875 “Requiem” memorializing Italian poet and patriot Alessandro Manzoni, will be part of the Verdi observances of the world’s great centers of European culture. Manzoni’s most famous work I Promessi Sposi strongly influenced the … 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 first of six such observances of performances from the company’s 1961 Fall season. Even as an entering college Freshman, I had a taste for … Read more
This is my third review of a performance of the John Pascoe production of Donizetti’s “Lucrezia Borgia” (see The Donizetti Revival, Second Stage: Radvanovsky, Grigolo in Pascoe’s WNO “Lucrezia Borgia” – November 17, 2008 and Fleming, Fabiano, Frizza Fuel San Francisco Opera’s Flaming, Fulfilling First “Lucrezia Borgia” – September 23, 2011) and the second one during the … Read more
Italian Opera Composer Gaetano Donizetti is usually identified – along with Rossini and Bellini – as one of the principal exponents of the bel canto school of the early 19th century, which, in the legends about the history of opera that gained currency in the late 19th and 20th centuries, was in decline by the … Read more
Already this year, I have posted two previous reviews of performances of the esteemed David Hockney production of Puccini’s “Turandot”. The production incorporates the Hockney’s set designs with the wondrous costumes designed by his one-time collaborator, Ian Falconer. The production provided the opening night festivities for the opening nights of both the San Diego Opera’s … Read more
A proper headline for this essay, and a banner one too, should proclaim: LEO BLECH GREAT VERDI CONDUCTOR. One rather expects a German with excellent Berlin credentials — and a crisp little name, by the way, that means “tin,” but Blech had no tin ear — to be the genius he was with Wagner. But the grace, drama … Read more
As the vehicle for her return to the San Francisco Opera after a decade’s absence, Renee Fleming introduced California audiences to an opera and production that she has championed, the John Pascoe production of Donizetti’s “Lucrezia Borgia”. The Fleming-Pascoe collaboration on Donizetti’s influential masterpiece – a milestone in Italian opera – is clearly a labor … Read more
