MUSIC: Beloved "slowcore" trio Low will be at Great American tonight in support of their latest album, C'Mon, which was "[r]ecorded in an old church in Duluth, MN and mixed in an apartment in Hollywood, CA” and is considered the band's most "accessible" album to date. (7 p.m., Great American Music Hall, 859 O'Farrell Street) more ›

Die Götterdämmerung concluded last night the SF Opera's first run though the Ring cycle (part I, part II, part III, two more cycle performances 6/21-26 and 6/28-7/3). We listened to seventeen hours of Wagner, but we have no urge to conquer Poland.We feel sad rather than bellicose: because we got slightly addicted to the music eventually, and because it ends on a desperate lament so beautifully sung by Nina Stemme (Brünnhilde) that we left all teary eyed. more ›

Three down, one to go. We caught Siegfried, the third part of Wagner's Ring tetralogy, last night at the SF Opera (part I: Rheingold; part II: Walküre). We admit we're getting to the point where we we're slightly Wagner'd out. Despite the deft conducting of Donald Runnicles, we felt a little tired of the repetition and collisions of Wagner's leitmotifs. We're hitting the marathoner's wall, and here's to hoping that we'll catch our second wind. Maybe the Stockholm Syndrome will kick in on Sunday, and after 17 hours of Ring, we'll have withdrawal symptoms and refuse to accept it's over. more ›

Act II of the Ring Cycle at SF Opera: last night, die Walküre. Das Rheingold was two and a half hours, just a teaser compared to the next three heavy weight operas, all getting bigger and none shorter than four and half hours. The sequence of starting times goes 8pm, 7pm, 6:30pm and 1pm to match. Die Walküre had an earlier run just a year ago, same Zambello/Runnicles production with some of the same lead singers, so instead of repeating ourselves a lot, let's just do a play-by-play of the evening. more ›

The Ring has arrived: Richard Wagner's four-operas-in-a-week cycle kicked off last night and you could see in the audience that this was not the regular season anymore, it's playoff time.... more ›

"To tell an Italian he cannot have opera, let alone amplified music to go with it, is like telling him he cannot eat pasta. It's a sacrilege."

Four San Francisco Opera performances, which were recorded in high definition at the War Memorial Opera House, will air on KQED tonight and every Thursday through September 23, along with additional airings each week. more ›

The Girl of the Golden West (La Fanciulla del West), Puccini's oft-forgotten opera that's being billed as "the original Spaghetti Western," has a few more performances at the War Memorial Opera House, and suffice it to say it's real swell. It's great to see diva Deborah Voigt wearing a red leather cowgirl getup, astride a real live (!) horse, and whipping a bunch of sex-starved miners into shape at a bar called the Polka. more ›

OPERA: San Francisco Opera presents Giacomo Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West (The Girl of the Golden West) in celebration of its 100th anniversary, featuring a cast of the world’s leading singers including soprano Deborah Voigt, tenor Salvatore Licitra, and baritone Roberto Frontali. The production runs through July 2. more ›

Before James Cameron there was Richard Wagner as our leading triumphalist craftsman of overwrought epic entertainments. Since the blue face paint from your seventh trip to see Costume Contest" on Sunday at 11 a.m. more ›

"Solitary Confinement" by Troy Holden. (For more information on Litz the Opera Lady, go here.) more ›

One of the most intriguing musical events of the new season is coming up this Saturday and Sunday: the American premiere of A House In Bali, a new opera by composer Evan Ziporyn at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley with Cal Performances. Ziporyn, one of the founders of the Bang on a Can ensemble (a recurring visitor to the Bay Area) has been fascinated by Balinese music for almost thirty years, and he set up a book by Colin McPhee to his mix of Western and gamelan music. The book recalls the adventures of an American composer fascinated by Balinese music, in a mise-en-abyme on par with the Quaker holding the box of cereals and the Vache-qui-rit earring. more ›

Sunday's annual Opera in the Park gathering was well attended by opera lovers both committed and occasional, despite the iffy weather. Whatever some may say about opera being a dying art form, people still enjoy hearing the greatest hits, like selections from La Boheme and Il Trovatore. Here, some pictures of the performers and the crowd spread out across Sharon Meadow and Hippie Hill. At around 4:30 p.m., the hippies moved back in and took their rightful place. more ›

Attending the SF Opera Merola concerts is like opening a box of chocolate: the artists are mostly unknown young aspiring singers, dedicating their summer to the training program, so you never know what you are going to get. Will there be another Netrebko or Hampson? Or won't we hear of them again? And to double the element of surprise, they always select some rather obscure opera for one of the two fully staged shows. Chocolate boxes within boxes, man. This year: l'amico Fritz, by Mascagni. more ›

People seem to either love opera or feel like they should love it. For the would be lovers of operas the inaccessibility of the genre (even when the lyrics are in English, deciphering them can be tough) has been lessened recently by things such as projected lyrics, and opportunities to see good productions at local movie theaters or ball parks. Perhaps the best way to become an actual opera lover is to see a world-class production of the most accessible opera for American audiences: Porgy and Bess which currently playing at the SF opera. more ›

No one can sell out the War Memorial Opera House faster than Anna Netrebko. Just try and get a ticket for Saturday night's La Traviata, if you want to see why for yourself. The Russian soprano is the biggest draw in opera nowadays: she's the rare bird with the transcendental voice, and, well, she has the physique you'd actually want to see in a satin negligee, as in this Roaring 20s Marta Domingo production of the Verdi masterpiece. Plus, she has an inspiring story, working her way up from scrubbing the floors of the Maryinksy Theater in St Peterbourg, to photo spreads in Vanity Fair, and receiving honors from Vladimir Putin. more ›

The Gershwin's Porgy and Bess opens tonight at SF Opera. It used to be dismissed, if you will, as a musical, but has now moved up to be considered one of the best American operas ever. Not that it's too crowded a category yet. In the role of Porgy, we have Eric Owens, a bass-baritone who is carving a name for himself with compelling performances in exciting productions, new and old. Also, a charmer. more ›

PERFORMANCE: The Thrillpeddlers present the revival of the legendary Cockettes' 1970s crown jewel production, Pearls Over Shanghai, a comic mock-operetta about white slavery and miscegenation set in the colorful world of 1937 Shanghai, China. The event marks the Cockette's 40th anniversary. Tonight and tomorrow night's performances are preview nights, and the show opens on June 12. more ›