The French are indeed “frogs!” Rameau’s Platée (1745) as told by stage director Laurent Pelly is yet another proof. This production appeared first in 1999, then again in 2005, 2007…
Tag: Milenski
Oedipus Rex at the San Francisco Symphony
Plague infested Thebes, plague infested San Francisco. Esa Pekka Salonen has brought his Peter Sellars staged Oedipus Rex and concluding Stravinsky prayer, Symphony of Psalms, to Davis Hall. Salonen, now…
Don Giovanni at San Francisco Opera
The crowning jewel of Mozart’s operas has arrived at the War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco Opera now completing, finally, the Covid thwarted rollout of an integrated Mozart/DaPonte trilogy. The…
Radamisto in Palo Alto (CA)
In some ways the Philharmonia Baroque’s Radamisto did not disappoint San Francisco Bay Area’s Handel fans. Handel is no stranger at San Francisco’s esteemed Philnarmonia Baroque Orchestra, just now it…
West Side Story in San Jose (CA)
No one can deny that Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story is one of the bigger moments in twentieth century theater. Its movies may be Oscar worthy films, but finally its…
“Family Secrets” in Lyon (Trauernacht)
Some years ago British stage director Katie Mitchell, with French early music conductor Raphaël Pichon concocted a dramatic action based on fragments of cantatas by J.S. Bach for the Aix Festival. Here it was again, in Lyon’s historic, spoken word Théâtre des Célestins (above photo).
A Quiet Place at the Palais Garnier
A Quiet Place has come of age, thirty-nine years later. In 1983 much of its subject matter was sensitive, even taboo. As well it dwelt on naked emotional histories that…
“Family Secrets”* in Lyon (Irrelohe)
Irrelohe. An orchestral orgy — triple winds, quadruple brass though six horns, two harps, organ, celeste, guitar, mandolins, an eighth player percussion battery plus tympani and strings. Libretto and music…
“Family Secrets”* at the Opéra de Lyon (Rigoletto)
Rigoletto. Docudrama of a father whose wife dies in childbirth, raises daughter who falls in love with a selfish, debauched hoodlum. Show curtain is block apartment lighted windows. And they…
Werther in Marseille
The Opéra de Marseille assembled a fine cast to perform the Massenet masterpiece in a prize winning production from Nancy. Bordeaux tenor Thomas Bettinger poured his heart out as the…