September 2009 – Repeat Performances

September 29, 2009

San Francisco Opera presents ‘The Abduction from the Seraglio’

The enduring charm of singing Mozart To an ear accustomed to contemporary World Music with its wide-ranging discography from recordings of villagers in Balkans to slickly produced fusions of Ry Cooder and Ali Farka Touré, Mozart’s Abduction from the...

Categories: opera

September 26, 2009

Free Chamber Music Day in San Francisco

Fifteen local chamber ensembles served up half-hour samples on Saturday, Sept 26 at SF’s Old First Church. In back-to-back performances from 12:30 to 8:30 p.m. we were treated to a variety of works, from Mozart to jazz. Sponsoring presenters introduced each group, exposing Bay Area venues along with the crème of local ensembles. I heard nine of the fifteen groups and those five hours fairly flew by, perhaps due to the magic of eclecticism and bite-sized programs. Distilling each...

Categories: music

September 24, 2009

‘Il Trittico’ at San Francisco Opera

A triptych of unusual dimensions Having announced a season that looks predictable with safe and secure fare, San Francisco Opera is proving that it’s possible to breathe freshness into the tried and true by just tweaking things a bit. And by providing luscious singers who seem to have a bubbling-to-explosive chemistry between them. For its second opera of the season the company presents Il Trittico, and, sure, it’s Puccini, he who hath composed three of...

Categories: opera

September 20, 2009

Susan Graham in Mahler Festival with SF Symphony

Michael Tilson Thomas has been described as a true Mahlerian. Over the course of his long Gustave Mahler recording project, which began in 2001 and garnered four Grammy awards, he led the SF Symphony through comprehensive and definitive performances. The fruits of those years were evident Sunday afternoon in the first of three programs of their current Mahler festival. Conducting without score, MTT was incisive and inflected and his orchestra was tight on his every gesture. Mahler is...

Categories: music

September 19, 2009

‘Il Trovatore’ at San Francisco Opera

It's all about the voice ... There’s nothing quite like hearing seriously talented singers take on Verdi’s Il Trovatore. With each stunning recitative, cavatina, or aria, the ante is raised, and the next singer must match...

Categories: opera

September 7, 2009

HD Opera at Lincoln Center Plaza

Staving off summer’s end Late August in New York City was not as muggy or unrelenting as most, but the streets still bustled at night with those seeking relief. At 11 p.m. the playgrounds of the Chelsea Housing Project were filled not with furtive transactions and hoodied scouts, but with the soft creak of swings and the higher pitches of children, murmuring in deference to the night. In a social experiment fitting the season and demographics, the Metropolitan Opera...

Categories: opera