Opera Warhorses

Hi Bill
I apologize for not sending my impressions of the operas seen at the MET in NYC, but I must confess, what more can be said after seeing the best there is in the USA? That observation should not be in controversy, especially with the two Parsifal performances seen in May with the now-customary, sensational [...]

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The history of San Francisco Opera has been to reserve performances of Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro” for established international stars in mid-career.  Thus, persons I have seen have included the likes of Sir Geraint Evans, Hermann Prey and Samuel Ramey as Figaro, Lucia Popp as Susanna, Eberhard Waechter, Wolfgang Brendel and Tom Krause as [...]

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The decision to mount Johann Strauss’ “Die Fledermaus”, that zany parody of late nineteenth century Viennese high life, was made after David Gockley was appointed the new General Director of the San Francisco Opera in 2005. The 1990 production, from the era of former General Director Lofti Mansouri, was sung in usually intelligible English (all [...]

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