ArtsSF

SANTA FE, NM—-The last of the great romantic-era operas, in all its opulence, is arguably Richard Strauss’ “Der Rosenkavalier,” launched just before that epic, revolutionary “Rite of Spring”—yet with a libertine plot people found offensive, right from the first scene showing a married woman lolling in bed with her lover. A palatial opera so costly that most US troupes can never afford to mount it, it is riding high at the Santa Fe Opera Festival. It is produced to the…

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SANTA FE, NM—-The summer-season opera festival came up with a wealth of talent that could sing and act on an international level—-no mean feat, given the eight principals in Mozart’s “Don Giovanni.” Hearing and seeing this drama about the fascinating, rapacious daredevil brightens the week spent in this breath-taking site 7,000 Feet up in the sky. At least until Don Giovanni, who is somewhere between Zorro, Casanova and the Lone Ranger, is ultimately dragged off to judgment and perdition in…

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SANTA FE, NM—-One of the finest new operas of our era provides an inspiring human drama about our own urban lives, which are flawed (except for yours, of course). This is the world-premiere opus “The Righteous,” which through the genius of librettist Tracy K. Smith airs a catalogue of 15 or so social issues through the lives of nine characters. And what could be more timely than the emergence of women’s roles along with critiquing politicians’ shallow behavior? Somehow, the…

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Kaija Saariaho, one of the most poetic of composers in recent decades, created the operatic tragedy “Innocence” dwelling on one of the most painful episodes of recent years: in-school shootings, with a libretto initially by Sofi Oksanen, then reworked and adapted by Saariaho’s gifted son, Aleksi Barrière. Saariaho is best known for her earlier and widely played opera “L’amour de loin” (The Distant Beloved). The current one, in its U.S. premiere June 1, could not be timelier; our stages have…

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This operatic double-bill ended in rousing fashion, with the closing “Balls” improbably linkinga historic tennis match with singing in technological wizardry beyond anything we’ve encountered before, even on major stages. In “Balls,” imagine reenacting the historic 1973 women’s lib tennis victory of Billie Jean King (without tennis balls) over the outspoken sexist Bobby Riggs, the single most publicized event of women’s sports coming of age, with 90 million viewing it worldwide. This required vintage televideo images, a videographer along the…

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SAN FRANCISCO—The imposing early English opera “Dido and Aneas” by Purcell came to us with an incomplete score for string orchestra. In an important U.S. premiere, the latest completion comes to us via Errollyn Wallen’s “Dido’s Ghost,” unveiled by Philharmonia Baroque at the Herbst Theatre in a semi-staged version. It turns a torso into an engrossing masque-opera of great vitality running nearly two hours in length, assuming you can follow the complex interweave of characters. Purcell’s 17th-century drama, based on…

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The latest sensation in opera is the unorthodox “Omar,” written by the polymath folksinger Rhiannon Giddens, winner of a Pulitzer, MacArthur “genius” award and Grammy. With co-composer Michael Abels, she turned out the multicultural drama now staged at the San Francisco Opera. It is based on the true story of Omar ibn Sayyid, a 19th-century African-Arab Islamic savant and author who had been forced into slavery and shipped off to the cotton fields. The work is unique in opera annals,…

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For our computer era we get the ultimate lightning opera, ideal for commuting city toilers in a perennial rush. All 20 scenes are pressed into 80 minutes of fast-flashing scenes, or four minutes an average segment. You’re carried along as if riding the crest of a wave. Packed in are gigabytes of drama about the flawed genius of the handheld, a brainy superman with super weaknesses. If only he’d have taken time to hold hands more often in his abbreviated…

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The current drama of long-simmering vengeance “Il Trovatore” being a riveting experience is merely part of the story. The SF Opera managed to tighten the action greatly by eliminating two of the three intermissions, playing it in just 2.5 hours—a midweek blessing, especially for those heading to their offices in the morn. One of the heroes was the revolving stage—-yes, stage, take a bow—-enabling lightning-fast scene changes merely by a huge wall rotating from side to side, thereby bridging the…

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SANTA FE, NM—-Dvorak’s “Rusalka,” all about opera’s most famous water nymph, is too striking a fairy-tale drama to dissolve into a meandering finale. The composer with the rich romantic patina clearly had a far finer musical instinct than a theatrical one. At the risk of heresy, I’d propose engaging some current rewriter master (like formerly Rimsky-Korsakov, Ravel or Alfano) to revise and tighten up the dawdling ending of an otherwise sterling opera-tragedy. In other regards, a reprise of this 1901…

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