July 3, 2011
San Francisco Opera concludes their Ring Cycle
The End of a World
The final curtain came down on Götterdämmerung, the closing opera in San Francisco Opera’s production of Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelung, and moments later the...
opera
July 1, 2011
A post-modern “Siegfried” at San Francisco Opera
An American "Siegfried"
Our culture—that of American post-modernism—is less...
June 28, 2011
SF Opera Ring Cycle, Das Rheingold and Die Walkürie
Forging the Ring
The San Francisco Opera undertook Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle this summer, a mammoth production feat with fifteen hours of vocal pyrotechnics and brass fanfares.
It was mythic in more than one sense, especially the underlying mythos, the Icelandic Volsunga Saga and the Norse and Germanic Eddas. And it was a myth-making event for the Bay Area, with a new production by Francesca...
May 21, 2011
Two gems—a clear win for West Bay Opera
They say that love will have its day. But it won’t have it at West Bay Opera, where love was the clear loser in two short operas. Brilliant direction, strong voices, and real acting kept the audience enthralled Friday night, May 21 for the opening of Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and Manuel de Falla’s La Vida Breve at Palo Alto’s Lucie Stern Theatre. And the simple sets and effective lighting polished the...
March 25, 2011
Castleton Opera at Zellerbach
The brutal and the ridiculous—as art.
It is seldom possible to view works of art in context. We need to allow for the mores and prejudices of their time. That was painfully apparent at Zellerbach Hall last weekend, where the denigration of women was the context, if not the heart, of the Castleton Opera Project.
Thursday and Friday they mounted The Rape of Lucretia,...
March 4, 2011
Lucia di Lammermoor at Metropolitan Opera
A night at the Met: murder, madness and popcorn.
The promise of technology is fickle, intersecting our lives in ways that can be devastating or impersonal. But occasionally that promise comes through, and our world makes small changes for the better.
Two years ago the Metropolitan Opera started an experiment in simulcasts, and it has taken off like wildfire. Now thousands of movie theaters around the world are...