Reviews

James Keolker - June 3, 2009
Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca has a fabled past at San Francisco Opera, with some 34 highly successful productions in the company’s 86-year history, and starring such imperious Toscas as Renata Tebaldi, Dorothy Kirsten, Leontyne Price, and Montserrat Caballé.
Robert P. Commanday - June 2, 2009
The musically merry month of May came to a close on Sunday, traditionally as ever, with concerts conjoined to graduations, two that could not have been more different.
Anna Carol Dudley - June 2, 2009

The Sanford Dole Ensemble performed a program called "Heaven and Earth" Saturday night at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. They were a month late for the celebration of Earth Day, but exactly on time for the anniversary of the premiere (on May 30, 1992) of Libby Larsen's Missa Gaia: Mass for the Earth. An additional touch of serendipity for me was that I attended that debut. It was good to hear the work again.

Jerry Kuderna - June 1, 2009

It has become a cliche to refer to classical musicians as being “phenomenal” or even geniuses at their instruments. If a performer can get to the heart of the music, that’s enough for me. Still, in a profession in which it’s expected that as a teenager you have already learned and performed the summits of the keyboard, it has become increasingly difficult to grab the attention of the public as, say, Vladimir Horowitz did when he raced Sir Thomas to the finish line of the Tchaikovsky First.

Benjamin Frandzel - June 1, 2009
The San Francisco Symphony's "Dawn to Twilight" festival got off to a more than solid start with its opening run of concerts at Davies Symphony Hall beginning last Wednesday.
Jaime Robles - June 1, 2009
When L’Allegro, il penseroso, ed il moderato premiered in Brussels in 1988, it was the Mark Morris Dance Group’s first work as the resident company of the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, a post previously held by Maurice Béjart’s Ballet of the XXth Century.
Heuwell Tircuit - June 1, 2009

After 17 years as music director of the San Francisco Opera, Conductor Donald Runnicles was given a rousing farewell tribute Friday evening in the Opera House.

Be'eri Moalem - June 1, 2009
Mercury Soul’s Thursday program at downtown San Francisco’s Mezzanine club was yet another attempt to fuse classical music with what’s happening in the “real world.” Members of the San Francisco Symphony and other local freelancers attached electric pickups to their instruments and climbed onto raised platforms to accompany a hip-hop/techno/whatever-you-wanna-call-it beat.

The “California Fusion” program performed by the Artists’ Vocal Ensemble on Friday night brought music spanning several decades and continents to the audience at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Berkeley.

Jason Victor Serinus - May 26, 2009
La Sonnambula (The Sleepwalker) endures as one of the greatest operas of the bel canto era.