On March 31, 2019, San Diego Opera presented Georges Bizet’s opera “Carmen” to a mostly sold out audience at the Civic Theatre. Kyle Lang was both stage director and choreographer of this thoughtful and elegant production that began with two male dancers, Laurence Gonzalez and Lester Gonzalez, as a soldier and a bullfighter dancing for supremacy during the the overture. {…}
On Sunday, Mar. 24, 2019, attendees of the second George London Foundation recital of the season were treated to a wonderful display of vocal talent and theatricality. Tenor Anthony Dean Griffey, a regular on the stages of the world’s leading opera houses, and soprano Amy Owens, winner of the $5,000 prize during the 2018 George London Competition, were featured in {…}
Pocket Opera’s “The Two Widows” was a treat. A Smetana rarity, Pocket Opera performed the work with gusto. The opening performance at Berkeley’s historic Hillside Club provided an intimate setting for this charming production directed by Nicholas A Garcia, Pocket Opera’s current Artistic Director. Donald Pippin’s English version of the original Czech libretto by Emanuel Züngel, aptly enhanced the music. {…}
Wagner’s “Die Walküre” took center-stage at the Metropolitan Opera on Monday, March 25, 2019 to what is likely to have been the most enthusiastic audience of the season. After every act, the artists were showered with tremendous ovations, each more effusive than the last. It was emblematic of an evening that just seemed to grow in stature as the night {…}
There was a major success at Teatro Real with the presentation of Cavalli’s ”La Calisto” in its Madrid premiere. It is always a pleasure to discover a new opera, and with the baroque renaissance we are experiencing in recent decades, it wouldn’t surprise me if “La Calisto” became a regular in the repertoire. “La Calisto” is a mythological tale where {…}
This review is for the performance on March 24, 2019. The crux of its concept a curse, Verdi’s “La Forza del Destino” relies on motifs as portentous as ravens. With its harrowing theme of inescapable fate rearing its head in the overture, the early murder of the Marquis of Calatrava heralds the “maledizione:” a hounding lethal curse that will hunt {…}
“Dreamers,” an oratorio, composed by Jimmy Lopez, Libretto by Nilo Cruz, brought today’s immigration drama to the stage at Cal Performances, UC Berkeley. Composer and Conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen led the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, the UC Berkeley Chamber Chorus, Volti, a professional vocal and new music ensemble, and soprano Ana-Maria Martinez in the world premiere of the work to an {…}
Roulette recently presented world-renowned vocalist and sound artist Joan La Barbara’s “What’s Left of Me Is Here,” from her opera-in-progress with librettist Monique Truong titled “Dreams of Water Beyond One’s Depth.” Pushing boundaries of thought and expression via singing and an emotionally vast range of design, La Barbara’s musical composition is reminiscent of Britten’s “The Turn of the Screw.” Together, {…}
The 1848 Californian gold rush has an almost mythical place in American cultural history, with its associations of lucky strikes and the pioneering spirit, as well as more negative connotations of lawlessness, hard toil and poverty for those who were not so lucky. It has spawned Hollywood films, documentaries, books and songs, while opera-goers are also likely to associate it {…}