The Opera Nut finds he has a very mixed reaction to seeing his first opera of the Met HD 2010 Summer Encore Series. Continue reading
Dear Fellow Opera Lovers:
Before you do anything else – before you even finish reading this review – go to the website of your nearest theatre which shows European HD operas Continue reading
Our San Francisco Splash Opera Nut is presenting readers with two very different operatic interpretations of the same classic legend. Continue reading
Old to the world, new to me — the following operas, that is. Stanislaw Moniuszko’s Halka had its first performance in 1848; Ambrose Thomas’ Hamlet had its first performance in 1868; I first knew of the existence of either opera in 2009; I first attended both operas last weekend, March 27-28, 2010. I thoroughly enjoyed both performances and will share my thoughts on them with San Francisco Splash readers. Continue reading
TALES OF HOFFMANN
Offenbach
December 19, 2009
Met HD
Cinemark, Palo Alto, CA
TURANDOT
Puccini
November 7, 2009
Met HD
Cinemark, Palo Alto, CA
TOSCA
Puccini
October 10, 2009
Met HD
Cinemark, Palo Alto, CA
No question about it. Tosca is my favorite opera (at least until the next time I see Rigoletto or Carmen or La Boheme or Tales of Hoffman or Barber of Seville or Figaro or Mephistopheles or . . . ). It has everything. Continue reading
 AIDA
Verdi
October 24, 2009
Met HD
Cinemark, Palo Alto, CA
Trivia Question: The earliest performance of The Magic Flute listed in the Met’s Archives section was in 1900. What language was it sung in? Continue reading
One of the many great things about the Met HD performances is that of the 10 operas that I have seen or will see this season, 6 of them I have seen for the first time. For the first five, I knew or read something about them ahead of time, but I purposely did not do this for La Sonnambula. When the curtain went up for Act I yesterday, all I knew was from the trailer shown at previous Met HDs: it was by Bellini, it starred Natalie Dessay, and she walked in her sleep. I didn’t even know if the ending would be tragic or happy. Continue reading
