To paraphrase an infamous quote of one of our late presidents, “You seen one Das Rheingold, you seen ‘em all.” Right? Wrong! Continue reading
Thirty years ago I saw Donizetti’s Don Pasquale for the first time. I remember only one thing about that performance: I disliked it. I use the word intentionally. I didn’t just fail to enjoy it, I actively disliked it. I’ve done a little sleuthing in my own records and on the Met Archives web page and deduced that the performance I saw was a PBS rebroadcast of a Met Live TV broadcast. In the early 1980’s I sat in front of my small-screen TV set and watched many operas. I enjoyed almost all of them, despite the fact that they were technically far inferior to today’s HD theater performances. This was the only one I disliked. Why? Continue reading
The story of Elina Makropulos is a strange one. She was born in 1537 in Greece. When she was a teenager her father gave her a potion he had invented which would enable her to grow normally to the peak of her maturity, and then to live for three hundred years without aging. Continue reading
No question about it. As of this moment, Puccini’s Tosca is my favorite opera. At its best it has everything you could ask for in an opera. It has Floria Tosca, a beautiful devout heroine who commits murder. It has Baron Scarpia, the very personification of evil. It has Mario Cavaradossi who submits to torture rather than betray his friend. It has spine-chilling climaxes to each of its three acts. And it has Puccini’s music which is not only wonderful in its own right, but which perfectly fits the plot and the action. Not a note is misplaced, not a note is extraneous, not a note is missing. Tosca at its best is THE essential tragic opera. Continue reading
Last month I had the privilege of attending a Grand Opera performance of Mozart’s “perfect” opera, The Marriage of Figaro, performed by the San Francisco Opera at War Memorial Opera House. I was one 3,000 or so present, and I enjoyed it tremendously. If you’d like to read my review, click here. Continue reading
Several years ago I took a guided tour of the harbor in Antwerp, Belgium. As we passed each place of interest, the guide would give a short spiel in English and would repeat it three or four times in French, Italian, German, and maybe Flemish. Speaking in English, he pointed out a statue with a large nose and compared it to Jimmy Durante.  Then when he gave his spiel in Italian the comparison was to “Pinocchio,”  and in German to “Till Eugenspiel;” in French he made a comparison to (you guessed it) Cyrano de Bergerac. Continue reading
When I go to a performance of Verdi’s La Traviata or Puccini’s La Boheme a small child-like part of me hopes, “Maybe this time will be different.” Right up until she takes her final breath I wish for Violetta or Mimi to recover. It wouldn’t take much, you know. A newly-discovered drug – a doctor’s admission of a faulty diagnosis. Continue reading
The plot of La Forza del Destino is really very simple. Leonara and Don Alvaro are in love. Alvaro kills Leonora’s father and brother. He sends Leonora to her dying brother who kills her. Of course, there are some extenuating circumstances … Continue reading
The count-down begins: 5 minutes . . . 4 . . . 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . . The theater lights dim, the audience becomes quiet. There is an air of expectancy in the CinÉArts @ Palo Alto Square Theatre where it is 10 AM Saturday morning, as there is on the giant screen in front of us where it is 1 pm in the Metropolitan Opera House in Lincoln Center New York City. Continue reading
I have only one complaint about this opera. It’s not with story which is delightful. It’s not with the music which is perfection. It’s not with the title which is descriptive. It’s not with the San Francisco Opera Production I attended last Saturday which was super-excellent. No, my complaint is with Pierre Beaumarchais for using the same characters in his two plays that were the bases for Rossini’s The Barber of Seville and Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. Continue reading
