It has been twenty-five years since San Francisco Opera has staged a Werther. so it was high time that Massenet’s whiney, weepy masterpiece be given another chance.
Author: Michael Milenski
Aida in San Francisco
Opera as circus. The current San Francisco Aida comes from the English National Opera where an inspired and probably very excited administrator proposed a production by aging London fashionista Zandra Rhodes.
Sigismondo, La Cenerentola, Demetrio e Polibio at Pesaro
The fourteen year old Rossini composed his first opera Demetrio e Polibio in 1806 though it was not performed for another six years.
Tosca at Orange
There was a time when the likes of Luc Bondy and Francesca Zambello staged operas for the ChorÈgies d’Orange in its famed ThÈ‚tre Antique.
Don Giovanni, Alceste, Le Rossignol at the Aix Festival
The Aix Festival was known not so very long ago for pretentious productions. Perhaps now it will become known for good productions.
Die Walk¸re in San Francisco
Ring fever rages on. San Francisco has just unveiled its Walk¸re the completed cycle to take place next June. Gratefully the price of the SFO effort has not become a topic of conversation, as has the cost of the just completed L.A. Ring
La fanciulla del West in San Francisco
A bizarre rock cliff attributed in the program booklet to one Antonio Nigro was the sole background for San Francisco Opera’s production of Puccini’s version of a play named The Girl of the Golden West by San Francisco born David Belasco (1853-1931).
Der Ring des Nibelungen in Los Angeles
$32,000,000, and it would have been a bargain at $50,000,000. Los Angeles Opera went for broke, and it paid off with a Ring that has raised the worldwide Ring bar to a dizzying height.
Faust in San Francisco
Faust has long since left the French repertory to enter the international repertory, meaning that, like Disneyland, it has been absorbed into diverse cultures where it discovers new resonances.
Baritone Austin Kness on his way
Baritone Austin Kness, an Adler Fellow at San Francisco Opera recently spoke with Opera Today critic Michael Milenski.