Joe Goode manages in Transformation, this summer's first fully-staged production of the SF Opera Merola program, the opposite trick as in his own shows: instead of getting dancers to sing, he got singers to dance. It helps that his cast is youthful, -- Merola singers are between 20 and 34-- full of energy, and willing to take risks. But his direction enlivened an opera which, since it is a sequence of a prologue plus nine little stories without an overarching narrative line, only a common theme, could potentially feel repetitive. more ›