We had an interview lined up, and were instructed to call his hotel at the agreed time, and ask to be transferred to Christopher Hampton. What? The guy won an Academy Award for writing the screenplay for Dangerous Liaisons, won a Tony award for the libretto of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical adaptation of Sunset Boulevard, wrote the script for, and directed tons of movies involving Leonardo di Caprio, Richard Gere or Gérard Depardieu, and he......

We went to the opera yesterday for the introduction of new SF Opera general director David Gockley, who officially succeeded Pamela Rosenberg on January 1st. Pamela Rosenberg was the director for the last five years, commissioned Dr Atomic and generally tried to shake things up a bit, so we were curious to see were Gockley stands. Gone is the modern -- tacky, screamed the purists -- feel from the brochures and the web site:......