August 2016 – Repeat Performances

August 20, 2016

Music in the Vineyards: Ariel Quartet at Jamieson Ranch Vineyards

The end of a Napa summer, and of a cycle Music in the Vineyards, Napa Valley’s long running chamber music festival, closed last weekend with the complete Beethoven cycle. The Ariel quartet performed all 16 of these masterly quartets over five days, held at five different vineyards around the Valley. Each concert combined early, middle and late quartets for a deeper view into a mind that reinvented Western music. On Saturday, Aug. 20, I got to visit the Jamieson...

Categories: music

August 19, 2016

The Lamplighters’ revision of “The Mikado”

“If you want to know who we are …” When he is introduced into the plot of The Mikado, Ko-Ko, the tailor turned Lord High Executioner through an odd bit of topsy-turvy logic, reassures those surrounding him that he is not lacking for people he could execute. He elaborates his “little list / Of society offenders who might well be underground,/ And who never would be missed.” This is an opportunity that the Lamplighters seldom fail to take advantage of: to...

Categories: opera

August 13, 2016

West Edge Opera presents a daring “Powder Her Face”

“She is a highly sexed woman ...” West Edge Opera is getting a reputation. Last year it was Lulu, this year it’s...

Categories: opera

August 12, 2016

Goat Hall Productions’ “Fresh Voices XVI”

In the Bay Area, opera comes in all sizes and shapes. It is rich and various and always entertaining, making use of the many talented instrumentalists and singers attracted to the area. One of the most provocative producers is Goat...

Categories: opera

August 10, 2016

A sparkling tribute to Carole King

Beautiful: The Carole King Musical opened last week at the Orpheum Theater in San Francisco. This was, in a way, a return home: the musical premiered in San Francisco in 2013 and went on to become a hit on Broadway, where it won two Tony Awards for Best...

Categories: theater

August 6, 2016

Handel’s comedy of power, Agrippina

The dark mysteries of connivance These days it seems our most insightful investigative reporters and political analysts are comedians, from John Oliver to Trevor Noah. Could it be that the political posturings in...

Categories: opera