(Photo credit: Pocket Opera) More than earning its cult following, San Francisco Bay’s Pocket Opera continues to enchant music-lovers of all ages and varying attention spans. Armed with the mission embraced by its founder Donald Pippin, the Pocket Opera breathes life into rare, under-appreciated, and flat out delightful operas. Sculpting them within a chamber setting—the final performance of Leoš Janáček’s {…}
California’s Pocket Opera has announced its 2024 season. The season opens with “La Cenerentola.” Performance Dates: Feb. 25- March 10, 2024 Next up is “Cunning Little Vixen” with Amy Foote, Spencer Dodd, and Hope Nelson. Donald Pippin provides a new translation of the Janacek opera. Performance Dates: April 14 – 28, 2024 Third on the schedule is “The Merry Wives of Windsor” {…}
San Francisco Opera’s Pocket Opera has announced its 2023 season. All four fully-staged productions will be sung in English and produced on a small, audience-friendly scale. First up is Johann Strauss’s “Die Fledermaus” featuring Cheryl Cain in her Pocket Opera debut as Rosalinde. Patrick Hagen will sing the role of Eisenstein, and Leandra Ramm as Prince Orlofsky. Adele is sung {…}
Comic? Sassy? Wagner? In English? That’s what’s on offer with Pocket Opera’s “No Love Allowed,” a bright, energetic revival of Richard Wagner’s second opera, “Das Liebesverbot.” The production features a translation by the company’s beloved founder, Donald Pippin, as directed by Stage Director Nicholas A. Garcia, and with music conducted by Jonathan Khuner. In this work, the Sorcerer of Bayreuth {…}
Pocket Opera has announced its 2022 season. The season will open with “The Merry Widow” starring Jennifer Ashworth and Orson Van Gay. Performance Dates: March 27 – April 10, 2022 Next up is Wagner’s rarely performed “Das Liebesverbot.” The opera will star soprano Leslie Sandefur and Patrick Hagen. Nicolas A. Garcia directs with Jonathan Khuner conducts. Performance Date: May 15 {…}
Donald Pippin, founder of Pocket Opera, passed away on July 7, 2021 in San Francisco. He was 95. He was born on Dec. 8, 1925 in Zebulon, North Carolina, and spent his early youth in Richmond, Virginia. He became a pianist and by 14, he was soloing with the National Symphony Orchestra. At 17, he went to Harvard on a {…}
San Francisco’s Pocket Opera has announced the second of its three virtual mini-concerts comprising the company’s aptly named PocketWatches series. “Handel with Care” features soprano Marcelle Dronkers and pianist Jefferson Packer performing arias from Handel’s “Agrippina,” “Alcina,” and “Rinaldo.” The concert will stream on Sunday, April 18, 2021, at 3:00 P.M. PDT, on Pocket Opera’s Facebook and YouTube channels. The {…}
I’m going to kick off this week’s edition of the top 10 operas to stream by saying that it is probably among the most varied from a repertory standpoint. You have your Verdi, Mozart, Strauss, and Wagner, of course. But then you also have music by African American composers, a baroque opera, a modern operatic classic, and even a recital {…}
Pocket Opera has announced the transmission of Pocket Watch, a three-song concert miniseries, as well as its Virtual Gala 2021, “Offenbachanalia,” commemorating the 44th year of its founding by its Artistic Director Emeritus, Donald Pippin. All performances will be streamed on the company’s official YouTube Channel and Facebook. The first concert, entitled “Songs of Concealment,” will be opened by baritone {…}
Pocket Opera has released several mini-concerts online. Since the pandemic shut down opera companies across the globe, the company has endeavored to continue bringing opera via digital means. The company, which continued to pay partial fees to every singer, director, costumer, and prop artist involved in the 2019-20 season, launched a 3-song Mini Concert Series, culminating in the concert by {…}
(Photo Provided by Pocket Opera) Pocket Opera, the San Francisco Bay Area’s flagship chamber opera company, opened its 2020 season on March 1, 2020 with the Mozart/Da Ponte masterpiece, “Don Giovanni.” The production was the first under the leadership of the company’s recently installed artistic director, Nicolas A. Garcia. Garcia previously served as the assistant artistic director under Pocket Opera’s {…}