Jaime Robles – Page 58 – Repeat Performances

September 25, 2008

San Francisco Opera’s ’Die Tote Stadt’

To live and die in Bruges Bruges is where the young couple, Paul and Marie, lived and walked during their short and happy life together. Once Marie dies, her spouse’s grief overwhelms him, not merely his life but also their apartment, the city—its canals and streets—transforming into “the dead city” of Die Tote Stadt. The opera, composed by Erich Wolfgang Korngold to a libretto by the composer and his father, takes this psychological phenomenon—an...

Categories: opera

September 14, 2008

An Interview with SF Opera’s Kip Cranna, Part 2

This is the second half of an interview with San Francisco Opera’s Musical Administrator, Kip Cranna. Post: How would you describe the current general director’s taste and interests? Cranna: David is a fascinating guy He has probably commissioned more American opera than any other general director. He has over thirty titles to his credit. Of the current projects he’s looking at there are some very fairly out there concepts....

Categories: opera

September 13, 2008

Mark Morris’ ‘Romeo and Juliet’ at Cal Performances

What would Mark Morris be without irony? And what is Shakespeare without words? Both of those questions are answered in part by the Mark Morris Dance Group’s performance of Romeo & Juliet, On Motifs of Shakespeare, which was presented by Cal Performances at Zellerbach Hall this past weekend. Not to say the Morris Romeo & Juliet lacked humor and whimsy. There were many touches of that in the production—especially the sets. Comprised of three trompe l’oeil...

Categories: dance

September 7, 2008

An Interview with SF Opera’s Kip Cranna, Part 1

How SF Opera Organizes its Season An Interview with SFO’s Musical Administrator Kip Cranna A historian by background, Kip Cranna organizes the opera house’s complicated schedules. He was recently awarded the prestigious SF Opera Award and given the title of Director of Musical Administration. In this first part of the interview he talks about his work at SFO and reveals some of the ways in which the company construct a season. The second part of the interview...

Categories: opera

July 17, 2008

Merola Presents Britten’s ’Albert Herring’

The virginal King of May A forceful young woman in tweed clomps across the stage and climbs onto a platform above rows of white wood file cabinets. From her exalted perch above stage and audience she surveys th e surrounding territory through a telescope: she is...

Categories: opera

June 29, 2008

Pamela Z Performs at Royce Gallery

Your fate swings from a point high above “When I was growing up, my mother often wrote long lists of questions about things that concerned her. She would then dangle a small object, such as a needle, key or trinket, on a thread...

Categories: theater