San Francisco Opera hosts an exuberant tribute to queerness past and present.
Maria Kataeva makes a promising US debut in an otherwise uneven revival of Il Barbiere di Siviglia in San Francisco.
Music Director Eun Sun Kim is at the center of the repertory, and a long Wagner arc is now officially underway
Pride weekend events at San Francisco Opera and Festival Opera are fabulous starts to the Bay Area summer
The plight of two women, each from different backgrounds, was on full display in San Francisco opera houses last week.
Sparks flew when the San Francisco Opera opened their new production of Richard Wagner’s monumental Tristan und Isolde on Saturday, October 19th, at the War Memorial Opera House.
To get right to the point, the performance did not come together despite some good elements and was a major missed opportunity.
While it must be admitted that Elza van den Heever doesn’t have an ideally warm and agile Handel voice, she evidenced fierce control over her instrument and skillfully built a powerful portrait of the courageous Rodelida fighting for her survival.
“The music’s fun, but doesn’t Rossini repeat himself?”
There is a mighty appetite among both old Wagnerians and new ones to see a Ring that follows—if not too slavishly—the scenic requests of the libretto.
Is Der Ring des Nibelungen responsible for the transformation of Seattle from a gray, damp, low-rise Boeing company town where half the jokes had punchlines in Norwegian (and were about lutefisk in any case) into today's booming cultural metropolis? I like to think so.
Tell us: Filth or dementia?
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
Hasten thee to feed another quarter of conversation for The Talk of the Town!
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