Younis Raza – Page 27 – Repeat Performances

February 22, 2014

Lamplighters’ Die Fledermaus at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

Lamplighters go “batty” The Lamplighters, a venerable Bay Area institution adept at the high camp and broad humor of Gilbert and Sullivan, proved last weekend that they could branch out of their comfort zone and put their signature on grand opera. Their production of Die Fledermaus (The Bat), seen last Friday Feb. 22 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, was accessible and tightly executed, largely thanks to a new translation into English by David...

Categories: opera

February 14, 2014

“Elixir of Love” in Palo Alto

West Bay Opera brings home gold Readers may find it tiresome when a reviewer repeatedly gushes, or names some company “the best operatic experience of the Bay Area.” Still, one wonders how Palo Alto’s tiny West Bay Opera can so bespell an audience. In the interest of journalistic balance, I will try for a more severe look sans superlatives. Of course, seeing Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love, which opened last Friday on...

Categories: opera

February 10, 2014

Earplay at ODC Theater

Finding heart in the abstract “Music begins where poetry leaves off…” was the title and premise of Earplay’s season opening concert, held last Monday, Feb. 10, at San Francisco’s ODC Theater, and their program seemed to bear that out. The five short and thoughtful pieces all quoted past forms, but made it vital and truly personal, just as poets pay homage to lasting truths while looking out of their own window. ...

Categories: music

February 6, 2014

Samuel Adams violin concerto with Berkeley Symphony

On Thursday, Feb. 6, Joana Carneiro led the Berkeley Symphony in three works that at first glance had little to do with each other. But a deeper look revealed two clever connections: these three composers returned to older forms to make a modern case, and all three did so without the Sturm und drang of so many new dramatic efforts. Pulcinella Suite was written as Stravinsky was transitioning from his primal early works into sophistication, and leaving behind the...

Categories: music

January 26, 2014

Cypress Quartet at Palo Alto’s Woman’s Club

Up-close with an extraordinary foursome Last weekend, the Cypress String Quartet performed three salon concerts in intimate venues around the Bay Area. This is the second year of their Salon Series, designed to bring intense music into such close quarters with the audience that the experience borders on the visceral. After one night each in Berkeley and San Francisco, on Sunday, January 26, their lush sound overflowed the small hall of the Woman’s Club...

Categories: music

January 11, 2014

Alexander String Quartet and Robert Greenberg at St. Johns

SF Performances’ popular concert/lecture series in Berkeley Our appreciation for music often deepens with knowledge and familiarity. When a top Bay Area string quartet and a top musicologist join...

Categories: music