“Harriet’s Spirit” rises in young voices

Once again Opera Parallèle, that unique and valuable company founded and directed by Artistic Director and Conductor Nicole Paiement and Creative Director Brian Staffenbiel, showed us the relevance of opera to contemporary life. Not through reworkings of traditional opera but through the active writing and producing of new opera. For several years, Opera Parallèle has developed an educational program that offers multiple opportunities for school children – from attending rehearsals to...

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Carey Perloff’s farewell: Harold Pinter’s “The Birthday Party”

In response to a description of the landlady at the house where I was renting a room in Exeter in the southwest of England, an English friend told me, “We have a tradition of eccentric landladies.” The landlady in The Lavender Hill Mob flashed into my mind, though she didn’t have a lot in common with my landlady. Even so... In Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party, which opened last week in an A.C.T. production at The Geary Theater in San Francisco, the odd landlady...

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