Ratings Legend:
5* - Loved It
4* - Really Liked It
3* - Liked It
2* - Just OK
1* - Did Not Like It
Rating*, Show Title - Author, Presenting Theatre (comments) MM/YY
[Synopsis or review]
5*, A Flowering Tree - John Adams, San Francisco Symphony (Peter Sellers director) 3/07
[A beautiful maiden has the mystical ability to transform herself into a blossoming tree. Love, complications and redemption follows.]
3*, A Masked Ball - Giuseppe Verdi, San Francisco Opera 9/06
[The Swedish king, Gustav III, loves his trusted friend's wife. The friend, Anckarström, becomes the King’s bitter enemy and the ringleader of the conspiracy. Consumed by jealousy, Anckarström stalks his prey during the opera’s climactic scene at the King's masked ball.]
5*, Appomattox - Philip Glass, Christopher Hampton, San Francisco Opera 10/07
[World premiere. Haunting and socially precient of the Civil War and its aftermath. Lee surrenders to Grant.]
4*, Ariodante - George Frideric Handel, San Francisco Opera 6/08
[Two women playing castratos in this baroque opera. A Scottish prince is betrayed by a deceitful duke in this tale of passion, envy, greed, despair and ultimate triumph.]
5*, Barber of Seville, The - Gicachino Rossini, Pierre Beaumorchais, San Francisco Opera (Nathan Gunn) 11/06
[Count Almaviva loves the beautiful Rosina, who is kept a virtual prisoner in the house of her lecherous guardian Dr. Bartolo. Almaviva hires jack-of-all-trades Figaro to liberate her. Modern rotating set and Vespa riding.]
5*, Billy Budd - Benjamin Britten, Herman Melville, San Francisco Opera 10/04
[A tale pitting the goodness of a young seaman against evil, represented by the master-at-arms on a British war ship in 1797.]
5*, Bonesetter's Daughter, The - Amy Tan, Stewart Wallace, San Francisco Opera 9/08
[Based on Tan's 2001 novel. Adult daughter and mother reconcile past hurts with a visit by grandmother's ghost. Production mixes traditional Chinese soloists, instruments and acrobatics with Western opera styles.]
2*, Boris Godunov - Modest Mussorgsky, San Francisco Opera 11/08
[Russian history told in operatic terms spanning the years between Ivan the Terrible and the Romanovs.]
5*, Carmen - Georges Bizet, San Francisco Opera 11/06
[Corporal Don José deserts his fiancée and his regiment to run off with the bewitching Gypsy, Carmen. But when she shifts her affections to the dashing toreador Escamillo, Carmen meets her fate in the form of Don José’s knife blade.]
5*, Così fan tutte - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Lorenzo Da Ponte , San Francisco Opera 6/05
[A tale of fianceé swapping and gambling with love, jealousy, human weakness and forgiveness.]
4*, Dalibor - Friedrich Smetana, Theater an der Wien (Opera, Vienna) 8/04
[Czech political opera in German]
5*, Damnation of Faust, The - Hector Berlioz, San Francisco Symphony 4/07
[Concert opera. A spectacular tale of Faust's damnation and the redemption of the woman he betrayed told in a lush score of cinematic Romanticism.]
5*, Das Rheingold - Richard Wagner, San Francisco Opera 6/08
[The lust for power, the lure of gold, the sacred beauty of nature, the destructive impulses of man: These timeless themes dominate both American history and Wagner's Ring.]
5*, Der Rosenkavalier - Richard Strauss, San Francisco Opera 6/07
[Main character is a young man played by a women that makes opera love with two other women and then disguises as a young woman and then has to fend off unwanted advances from a male suitor.]
5*, Die Fledermaus - Johann Strauss, Jr., San Francisco Opera 9/06
[An operetta about the mildly salacious infidelities of the Viennese upper crust.]
4*, Die Tote Stadt - Erich Wolfgang Korngold, San Francisco Opera 10/08
[A drean within a dream, psycho-sexual drama. A mix of hallucinatory fantasy and painful reality as Paul mourns the death of his young wife Marie.]
2*, Doctor Atomic - John Adams, Peter Sellars, San Francisco Opera 10/05
[Three hours of no action or melody. The scientists and generals sing about how bad the weather is. ]
4*, Don Giovanni - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, The Estates Theatre Prague (Opera, Prague) 8/04
[A Don Juan story. Giovanni attempts to seduce peasant girls and noblewomen alike. But his conquests come to a fiery finale when he blasphemously invites death itself to join him for a gourmet’s feast.]
5*, Don Giovanni - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, San Francisco Opera, 6/07
5*, Elixir of Love, The- Gaetano Donizetti, Felice Romani, San Francisco Opera 11/08
[Set in Napa Valley 1915. The naïve Nemorino believes that a love potion will win him Adina's heart. Blossoming from a shy Italian immigrant to a plucky entrepreneur, he captures both his sweetheart and the American dream over the course of this delightful opera buffa.] 4*, Eugene Onegin - Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky, Alexander Pushkin, San Francisco Opera 12/04
[She loves; he rebuffs. Years later he yearns; she is married. Who's crying now?]
5*, Fidelio, Ludwig van Beethoven, San Francisco Opera 11/05
[The wife of a falsely accused political prisoner adopts the disguise of a young man, Fidelio, and infiltrates the prison. She risks all for love and liberty.]
4*, Force of Destiny, The - Giuseppe Verdi, San Francisco Opera 11/05
[Boyfriend accidentally kills his girlfriend’s father when gun drops on the floor. Fate requires one to sit there for almost 4 hours for the tragic story to conclude.]
4*, Idomeneo - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Giambattista Varesco, San Francisco Opera 10/08
[A powerful king who, in the aftermath of the Trojan War, makes a pact that he comes to regret: he must sacrifice to the god the first person he encounters on land...his son.]
4*, Iphigénie en Tauride - Christopher Willibald Gluck, San Francisco Opera 6/07
[Iphigénie, the daughter of Agamemnon, must sacrifice the survivors of the latest shipwreck which include her brother Orestes and his friend Pylades. Will she recognize them in time?]
5*, Italian Girl in Algiers, The - Gioachino Rossini, San Francisco Opera 10/05
[Slapstick and farcical opera reset in 1930's. Set is a giant book that opens and closes.]
5*, La Bohème - Giacomo Puccini, Luigi Illica, Giuseppe Giacosa, San Francisco Opera 12/08
[A series of character sketches of Parisian Bohemian life wrapped around the love story between Rodolfo and Mimì, ending with her death.]
5*, La Rondine (The Swallow) - Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Adami, Alfred Maria Willner, Heinz Reichert, San Francisco Opera (soprano Angela Gheorghiu) 11/07
[An operetta that tells the story of a worldly woman who falls in love with a naïve younger man.Beautiful Art Nouveau set.]
5*, La Traviata - Giuseppe Verdi, Prague State Opera (Opera, Prague) 8/04
[Alfredo falls in love with the beautiful courtesan, Violetta. She is dying from consumption. Damn.]
5*, La Traviata - Giuseppe Verdi, San Francisco Opera 9/04
3*, Le Grand Macabre - Gyorgy Ligeti, San Francisco Opera 11/04
[A operatic apocalypse in a comic-book Armageddon.]
5*, Lucia di Lammermoor - Gaetano Donizetti, San Francisco Opera 6/08
[A young woman who is driven to madness when forced to marry a man she does not love.]
2*, Macbeth - Giuseppe Verdi, Carlo Rusconi, San Francisco Opera 11/07
[Based on Shakespeare's play. Production marred by bad direction and a lame pop-art, post-apocalyptic set.]
5*, Madama Butterfly - Giacomo Puccini, San Francisco Opera 6/06
[American naval officer acquires a bride known as Butterfly. She rejects her religion, family and culture for her new husband. He soon abandons her and leaves the country. She waits faithfully for 3 years. He returns only to claim the son she bore him, setting Butterfly on a tragic course.]
5*, Magic Flute, The - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Emanuel Schikaneder, San Franciso Opera 10/07
[The bird catcher, Papageno, searches for love and struggles to attain wisdom and virtue.Features Gerald Scarfe's eye-catching sets and costumes.]
4*, Maid of Orleans,The (Joan of Arc) - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, San Francisco Opera 6/06
[The matronly mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick performs the part of the 17 year old Joan]
4*, Manon Lescaut - Giacomo Puccini, San Francisco Opera 12/06
[Girl can't decide to marry for love or money. Tries both but ends up dying in the deserts of Louisiana.]
5*, Marriage of Figaro, The - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, San Francisco Opera 6/06
[Servants are preparing to wed, but the Count wants the woman for himself. Meanwhile, the pageboy Cherubino is panting after the Count’s wife while the governess is chasing Figaro. In the end, Figaro gets his bride, and the estranged Count and Countess reunite.]
4*, Norma - Vincenzo Bellini, San Francisco Opera 11/05
[Druid priestess shacks up with enemy general. Has two kids by him. But now the general is shagging her assistant and Norma is pissed. Great singing by Norma.]
4*, Oedipus Rex and The Nightingale - Igor Stravinsky, San Francisco Symphony 12/05
[Beautiful semi staged contrasting oratorios; "Oedipus" neoclassical, "Nightingale" lush and lyrical]
5*, Porgy and Bess - George Gershwin, DuBose and Dorothy Heyward and Ira Gershwin, Los Angeles Opera 5/07
[American folk opera. Interesting updates: set in inside a “Brechtian” cannery warehouse; Porgy doesn’t have a goat cart; instead he hobbles around with a twisted leg and crutch. “Summertime”, “A Woman Is A Sometime Thing”, “I Got Plenty O' Nuttin'”, “Bess, You Is My Woman”, “It Ain't Necessarily So”, “I Loves You, Porgy”, and “There's A Boat Dat's Leavin' Soon For New York.”]
5*, Rake's Progress, The - Igor Stravinsky, W.H. Auden, Chester Kallman, San Francisco Opera 12/07
[Faustian bargain reimagined as Texas and Hollywood in the 1950's.]
4*, Rigoletto - Giuseppe Verdi, San Francisco Opera 10/06
[ The hunch-backed court jester Rigoletto finally goes too far, he provokes a curse and loses the only source of joy in his life, his daughter.]
5*, Rise and Fall of The City of Mahagonny - Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht, Los Angeles Opera (Audra McDonald, Patti LuPone, director John Doyle) 1/07
[Old West boomtown rises from the desert to become a razzle-dazzle mecca for lust, liberty, and the pursuit of pleasure. Cash is king, sin is "in", love is always on sale, poverty is punishable by death, and anything worth doing is worth overdoing.]
5*, Samson and Delilah - Camille Saint-Saens, Ferdinand Lemaire, San Francisco Opera 9/07
[Sex and sandals, kitschy Cecil B. DeMille type sets, orgy ballet, billowy, luxuriant music and passable singing]
4*, Simon Boccanegra - Giuseppe Verdi, San Francisco Opera 9/08
[Convoluted story of a daughter finding her father and grandfather and healing the political hatred between them.]
5*, Tannhäuser - Richard Wagner, San Francisco Opera 09/07
[Two irresistible impulses—the lure of carnal pleasure and the yearning for spiritual redemption—battle for one man’s soul.]
4*, Tristan and Isolde - Richard Wagner, San Francisco Opera 10/06
["Act One is two women walking around the stage. Act Two, two people seated on a bench. The Third Act, a man who keeps getting up and lying down again." 4 hours, 45 minutes]
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