Tucked away somewhere in the San Francisco Opera warehouse was an old John Cox production of CosÏ fan tutte from Monte Carlo. Well, not that old by current standards at San Francisco Opera.
Author: Michael Milenski
Les Contes d’Hoffmann in San Francisco
Just when you thought the protagonist was Hoffmann! Who, rather what stole the show?
Brahms Third in San Francisco
Nicola Luisotti and the San Francisco Opera Orchestra climbed out of the War Memorial pit, braved the wind whipped bay and held spellbound an audience at Cal Performances’ Zellerbach Auditorium at UC Berkeley.
Bonjour M. Gauguin in Berkeley
Once Berkeley Opera, renamed West Edge Opera, this enterprising company offers the Bay Area’s only serious alternative to corporate opera, to wit Bonjour M. Gauguin.
The Verdi Requiem in Naples
San Francisco and Naples have much in common these days — streets with potholes, ever more gourmet pizzerias, homeless, etc., and, yes, Nicola Luisotti.
Elektra in Marseille
Sadistic revenge and sadistic challenge in equal parts. You know the story — if Oreste had not slaughtered his mother Elektra would have. And did over and over in nearly two hours of raving about killing her mother. Elektra is one of the repertory’s more beloved operas.
Die Entf˚hrung aus dem Serail in Montpellier
The fearsome Ottoman Turks had threatened the Austrian borders for centuries. But Mozart’s little singspiel makes light of this truly serious situation, and offers a quite enlightened resolution for the conflict as well.
Dialogues of the Carmelites in Toulon
Boasting one of France’s grandest opera houses (said to be the model for Paris’ OpÈra Garnier) Toulon hosts a season of five operas — Aida, Butterfly and Flute are hand in hand with Carmen and, yes, Dialogues des carmÈlites.
PellÈas et MÈlisande in Nice
PellÈas et MÈlisande, in t-shirts and jeans, were out riding bicycles. They came upon a fountain. You know what happened.
Marseille, Capital of European Culture
Marseille woke up this past January 11 stunned to find itself number two on the New York Times list of 46 places you should visit in 2013 (Rio was number one, Paris just made the list at number 46).