If you’ve been following my reviews, it won’t surprise you that the highlights of 2025 for me were the two “journey for enlightenment” operas at the San Francisco Opera, specifically Richard Wagner’s Parsifal and Huang Ruo and David Henry Hwang’s The Monkey King. Both performances moved me profoundly and served as a form of catharsis, ending a challenging 2025 with a glimmer of hope for the future. Happy New Year 2026, Parterrians!

Michael Anthonio

Michael Anthonio's love affairs with classical music and opera started in primary school, when his parents bought him an organ and he began taking lessons. During high school and college, he gave private organ lessons to some of his parents' friends' kids (for pocket money) and he was church organist and later, choir conductor. In 1999 he moved to Singapore where he got involved with the classical music online website "flying inkpot." His interest in opera became an obsession when he was transferred for work to US in 2008. In addition to enjoying world-class opera in SF, he indulges in opera tours in Europe. His favorite opera composer is Handel; at this point, Michael seen 24 of his operas , with hopefully three more coming next year.

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