opera

An enchanting romp in the South Bay. Palo Alto’s West Bay Opera opened its new season last week with The Marriage of Figaro, a perennial treat and one of Mozart’s most popular operas. This beguiling comedy, strongly conducted by José Luis Moscovich, played to a full house in the Lucie Stern Theater, with plot turns that had the audience as confused as the characters between laughter and tears. Mozart worked with writer/poet Lorenzo...

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  Emilia Marty must be the only opera heroine to die of extreme old age. Many of them, especially coming out of the 19th century, suffer an early demise from consumption or madness. However,...

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Don’t you love Donizetti? There is nothing quite like the sonic fizz of bel canto when coupled with the intricacies of plot and absurd characters of commedia dell’ arte theater. Fun and funny is what the current production of...

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  Dream of the Red Chamber Any moment in our lives is a distillation. Of our personal pasts, our societal setting, the slow evolution of the natural world. Theater, and arts in general, make...

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  There is no revolution without words It seems poets are at the center of San Francisco Opera’s opening productions in the 2016 season. While Dream of Red Chamber is laced with the elegant poetry...

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“If you want to know who we are …” When he is introduced into the plot of The Mikado, Ko-Ko, the tailor turned Lord High Executioner through an odd bit of topsy-turvy logic, reassures those surrounding him that he is not lacking for people he could execute. He elaborates his “little list / Of society offenders who might well be underground,/ And who never would be missed.” This is an opportunity that the Lamplighters seldom fail to take advantage of: to...

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Categories: opera