* Notes *  William Kentridge's SIBYL (scene from Part 2 pictured, photograph by Stella Olivier) had a US premiere at Cal Performances this weekend. The music composed by performer Nhlanhla Mahlangu and pianist Kyle Shephard was nothing short of mesmerizing. The presentation started with a short 22-minute film by Kentridge entitled The Moment Has Gone with a male chorus (four singers) lead by Mahlangu and Shephard playing the piano. The work showcases charcoal drawings of Kentridge's alter ego Soho Eckstein and has many images of an art museum and of a mining area. A meditation on time, ev ..read more

* Notes * Kitka Women's Vocal Ensemble gave the world premiere of Karmina Šilec's opera BABA: The Life and Death of Stana (Act I pictured, photograph by Peter Ruocco) last weekend at Z Space in San Francisco. The opera is based on the lives of women who live as men after taking vows of chastity and celibacy in the Balkans, known as "sworn virgins" or virdžina in Serbo-Croatian and burrnesha in Albanian. This tech-heavy production involved many projections and recorded sounds, but also live accordion and the human voices of the ensemble. There was much speaking and dancing as well, and it was ..read more

* Notes *  Los Angeles Opera is nearly done with a run of a new Le nozze di Figaro, with a final performance this Sunday. The charming co-production with Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Opéra national de Lorraine, Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, and Opéra de Lausanne features a ladder into the orchestra pit and ramps on either side of the stage so that many entrances and exits happen right next to the audience. The staging, directed by James Gray, has a great immediacy to it, the physicality of all the singers is impressive, everyone was very believable in their roles. The singing was ..read more

September 26- October 21 2023: Dead Man Walking September 28 2023- January 26 2024: Nabucco October 10 2023- January 13 2024: La Bohème October 20- November 18 2023: Un Ballo in Maschera November 3- December 2 2023: X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X November 16- December 14 2023: Florencia en el Amazonas November 30-December 23 2023: Tannhäuser December 8-30 2023: The Magic Flute December 31 2023- May 25 2024: Carmen January 11- May 11 2024: Madama Butterfly February 26- March 29 2024: La Forza del Destino February 28- June 7 2024: Turandot March 7-30 2024: Roméo et Juliette March 26- April 2 ..read more

* Notes * A 2013 production of Falstaff (Act II pictured, photograph by David Allen) set in a wine cask returned to Opera San José last weekend. There was much lovely singing and comedic physicality. Based on Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor and scenes that Falstaff appears in from Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2, this work has a lot of fat jokes, which I found alienating. Obviously this is because of the source material and what Arrigo Boito chose for the libretto, but the director, José Maria Condemi, seems to simply go with this without question. Falstaff is vain, gluttonous, and lustful ..read more

* Notes * Back in 2021, still deep in the pandemic, Opera Parallèle created an animated film version of Joby Talbot's 2015 one-act opera Everest, which was released online by Dallas Opera. The work is based on the 1996 Mount Everest disaster. Last night an installation of this film (rendering by Mark Simmons pictured) opened at Z Space in San Francisco. Billed as "an immersive experience," it certainly was a full and arresting piece of theater. Conductor Nicole Paiement usually is the star of an Opera Parallèle production, but here the music was recorded. Director Brian Staufenbiel was at the ..read more

* Notes * Violinist Midori (pictured, photograph by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders) played a solo performance of Bach, Thierry Escaich, and Annie Gosfield at Herbst Theatre Friday night at SF Performances. She plays another program of Bach, Jessie Montgomery, and John Zorn on Sunday, and I'm horribly tempted to attend, as Midori is such a singular talent. The evening began with Bach's Sonata No. 2 in A Minor for Unaccompanied Violin, BMV 1003, Midori seemed so vulnerable as she started with the Grave. Her playing is not flashy, very precise but still nuanced and expressive. The quiet passages of ..read more

September 8 2023: Opera Ball: Concert with Aleksandra Kurzak, Roberto Alagna, and Eun Sun Kim September 12–October 1 2023: Il Trovatore September 22–October 7 2023: Mason Bates' The Revolution of Steve Jobs October 15– November 1 2023: Lohengrin November 5–21 2023: Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels' Omar November 19–December 9 2023: L'elisir d'amore May 30–June 30 2024: Die Zauberflöte June 1–21 2024: Kaija Saariaho's Innocence June 15–28 2024: Partenope Today General Director Matthew Shilvock announced San Francisco Opera's 101st season, which includes three contemporary operas. Press Releas ..read more

* Notes *  The last performance of Orfeo ed Euridice (Act III pictured, photograph by Matthew Washburn) this season at San Francisco Opera had soprano Anne-Marie MacIntosh filling in as Euridice, as Meigui Zhang was indisposed. The December 1st performance was full and standing room in the balcony was rife with latecomers who were unable to be seated for this opera held without an intermission. I was only able to watch Ms. MacIntosh's aria, "Che fiero momento," as I could tell I would be very much annoyed by the unwitting standees and chose instead to read the score in the back for the re ..read more

* Notes *  Matthew Ozawa's beautiful new production of Orfeo ed Euridice (Act III pictured, photograph by Cory Weaver) opened at San Francisco Opera last week. I attended the second performance last night, and the debuts of Maestro Peter Whelan and countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński as Orfeo were both impressive. The musicians were laid out in quite an interesting way, with the horns next to the bassoons in the last row close to the prompter's box. The flutes and oboes were just ahead of them, and the clarinet was off to the side, where the basses usually are. Whelan's conducting was crisp ..read more