Opera Warhorses

Although I recently posted a review of San Francisco Opera’s June 14th performance of Wagner’s “Das Rheingold”, circumstances caused me to attend a second performance of this first opera in Francesca Zambello’s production of “Der Ring des Nibelungen”.
My first review outlined my views on what I regarded as an extraordinarily high standard of singing. In the latter part of the [...]

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San Francisco Opera’s mounting of the first opera in Francesca Zambello’s “American Ring” proved to be an extraordinary experience for admirers of the Wagnerian tetralogy.  It brought together all of the essential elements to meet the requirements of a world class Wagnerian performance.  The first element, and S. F. Opera’s most striking achievement, is an almost uniformly [...]

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This is the 30th anniversary of San Francisco Opera’s first foray into the operas of George Frideric Handel. The San Francisco Handel productions, particularly those associated with British stage director John Copley, have often defined elegance in the performance of baroque opera, with lavish costumes and singing of the highest quality.
[Below left: Ariodante (Susan Graham) kneels [...]

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