Comic relief
Pacific Opera Project’s high-spirited revival of Fra Diavolo is both therapy and an escape.
West Coast
Tag team
The women were the highlights of Washington National Opera’s militaristic Aïda
Bring on the lovers, liars and clowns
San Diego Opera’s Pagliacci puts a play within a play within a play.
Grail against the machine
A new production of Parsifal at San Francisco Opera stirred something deep inside Michael Anthonio about how music soothes the soul
“By boycotting us, you are killing art”
Brendan Latimer sits down with Francesca Zambello and members of the cast of Washington National Opera’s production of Aïda to discuss the complicated legacy of one of Verdi’s most beloved works and the tricky business of “inventing the truth.”
The open wound that will never heal
In his new production that opens at San Francisco Opera this weekend, Matthew Ozawa is creating a Parsifal for the cancel culture age.
It all began tonight
West Side Story opened LA Opera’s 40th anniversary season with fury and flair
Act of contrition
The 25th anniversary revival of Dead Man Walking at San Francisco Opera is most moving in its quietest moments
All about her father
Adela Zaharia and Amartuvshin Enkhbat shine brightly in San Francisco Opera’s opening night Rigoletto.
Operation desert storm
The Santa Fe Opera’s fine first Die Walküre finds Wagner in America at a crossroads.
Rigoletto
Quinn Kelsey, René Barbera, and Lisette Oropesa star in a performance recorded in Los Angeles this spring.
¡Sí, se puede!
The world premiere of Dolores and Charpentier‘s David and Jonathan bring the heat to West Edge Opera’s 2025 Festival.
Cask in the glory
A North American debut of a respectable French Baroque ensemble, an ebullient presentation of La fille du régiment, and an afternoon soiree in Wine Country proved to be the hottest (yet affordable!) tickets around here this Summer.
Change my mind about The Last Savage
Despite having endured premiers at the Santa Fe Opera, including Cold Mountain, Oscar, and The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, all of which were disappointing on every level, Santa Fe Opera’s 2011 production of Menotti‘s The Last Savage is an opera I never care to see or listen to again.
By Darby Fegan
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Sing out strong
Pride weekend events at San Francisco Opera and Festival Opera are fabulous starts to the Bay Area summer
Pride before the fall
Opera Parallèle’s Harvey Milk Reimagined offers a fragmented portrait lacking the depth or coherence needed to honor Milk’s legacy
Sea no evil
A muted production challenges a talented cast in San Francisco Opera’s Idomeneo
Faust or famine
In a satanic panic, this week Chris’s Cache presents trio of performances of Mefistofele
The sweet escape?
A plodding La bohème in San Francisco never quite takes off
San Francisco Opera’s Pride Concert promises a dose of cultural X Change
If you thought that opera was the final bastion against technicolor illumination and drag, first of all Why? Second of all San Francisco Opera begs to differ, and they’re sending in the heavy artillery for Pride Weekend on June 27th. Yes, the War Memorial Opera House will be aglow. Tal Rosner’s projections and Justin A. […]
Venetian blinding
West Bay Opera’s Otello punches well above its weight
Bye bye baby
Following last week’s performances in Cleveland, Ronnie Banerjee compares six different versions of the Kostelnicka’s monologue from Leos Janácek’s Jenufa for “Perspectives on an Aria”
Milk of human kindness
Opera Parallèle is revisiting Stewart Wallace and Michael Korie’s Harvey Milk during Pride Month. It’s “not a reaction,” but it couldn’t be more timely.
Now you Caesar, now you don’t
Before stopping at Carnegie Hall this weekend, The English Concert returned to the Bay Area last week with a fiery performance of Giulio Cesare
I’ll take the fall
The days are getting shorter, but you can keep the prattle going this fall’s Talk of the Town! You will, you can, you must join in the discussion about: Great mezzo soprano performances (October),
Gained in translation (November), Teleport me back to… (December).