Melody Moore has been growing as a singer under our eyes, here in the Bay Area, we can claim her as ours. She came here from Cincinnati to attend the SF Opera Merola program, a summer camp for future opera stars. She stuck around as an Adler Fellow, another learning program of the opera where the young singers get to act as understudy for the big name singers and play supporting roles in the main stage productions. She got rewarded with several roles there that she totally nailed: the countess in The Marriage of Figaro or Mrs Pinkerton in Butterfly. And the biggest role to come this fall, married on stage to Thomas Hampson in the world premiere of The Heart of a Soldier. Now she alternates gigs all over the country with more local events like an homage to Pauline Viardot with Lotfi Mansouri, cabaret with the SF Ballet, or concerts with the New Century Chamber Orchestra. more ›

All serious writers who review Die Fledermaus make bad puns and comparisons: Johan Strauss ' operetta, which contains a few songs to "King Champagne," is like champagne, it is fizzy and bubbly and sparkly and easy to ingest and you come out inebriated. It also contains an aria called "Chacun à son gout," French for to each his own taste. Gosh, what a hook for a reviewer to hang his coat. Some will like it, some might not, chacun à son gout! more ›