Gesamtkunstwerk, synthesis of fable, sound, shape and color in art, may have been made famous by Richard Wagner, and perhaps never more perfectly realized than just now by San Francisco Opera.
Author: Michael Milenski
Show Boat in San Francisco
To be uncomplimentary about the current production of Show Boat at San Francisco Opera will surely provoke a summons to appear before the House Un-American Activities Commission.
La Traviata in San Francisco
La Traviata has hit the stage at San Francisco Opera every three to five years (even annually in some periods) since 1924. Surprises have been rare.
Les Mamelles de TirÈsias in San Francisco
Poulenc’s racy little 1947 confection took stage within Kurt Weill’s peculiar little 1927 singspiel Mahagonny all framed within the current California drought and doomsday predictions of impending global aridity.
Elisir d’amore in Monte-Carlo
Will wonders never cease? Wheat stalks 6 meters high? Rats 2 meters tall. Setting Donizetti’s little comedy amidst biological mutations engendered by Chernobyl does seem a bit farfetched.
Carmen in Bilbao
Bilbao is always news, Calixto Bieito is always news, Carmen with a good cast is always news. So here is the news.
La Favorite in Toulouse
French mistresses are much in the news these days, and now the ThÈ‚tre du Capitole’s new production of Donizetti’s La Favorite has added considerable fuel to the fire.
Lucia di Lammermoor in Marseille
A handsome new production, beautifully staged in Marseille’s fine old opera house cried out for a cast to make the opera bel canto.
The Tender Land in Lyon
It is not often that a Aaron Copland’s The Tender Land comes along with resources like those of the OpÈra de Lyon, one of Europe’s finest. So carpe diem!
Jean-Paul Scarpitta in Montpellier
I met with the embattled artistic director of the OpÈra et Orchestre National de Montepellier not to talk about his battles. I simply wanted to know the man who had cast and staged a truly extraordinary Mozart/DaPonte trilogy.