SF News What Happens When Gavin Stops Being Polite -- And Starts Getting Real Oh, Gavin. Is it that hard to find love while running a major American city? Here's our mayor at the SF Opera opening with reality TV star Erin Brodie. (Brodie apparently created a
misc The Philistine's Fall Music Preview. You want to go below to see movie clips of Deborah Voigt and our running commentary on the SF Symphony's and SF Opera's season. Picture of MTT -Hi, Mike, good to see you
Arts & Entertainment Philistine: the Merola Grand Finale One would expect that the format, a sequence of arias not unlike that of Opera in the Park (Sept 10th, it's coming up), would become a bit predictable after a while. One would
Arts & Entertainment Philistine: Il Matriomonio Segreto We saw James Schwabacher once, at his debut recital series, which he endowed in perpetuity, and where he introduced the singers. He was 86 yo, but still had the quick wit of a
Arts & Entertainment The Philistine: Transformations Conrad Susa, who was in attendance and seemed quite pleased afterwards, wrote Transformations in 1975, on a commission of the Minnesota Opera, based on a libretto of Anne Sexton, itself based on her
Arts & Entertainment Philistine: Verdi's Requiem A shiny light was squarely placed on Verdi's score: all the details came out brightly, all the nuances were expertly underlined. That delicate, masterfully controlled introduction only lead to more of the same
Arts & Entertainment Philistine: the Marriage of Figaro Now, we all know where we are going with this: the last Figaro on the SF Opera stage was Nathan Gunn, in the Barber, a role he'll take again this Fall. Nathan is
Arts & Entertainment Philistine: Joan of Arc The ghost of former general director Pamela Rosenberg was hovering above when a man dressed in a gray business suit was the first to come on the stage. We feared for a second
misc Philistine: To Catch a Free Butterfly Tomorrow, for the first opera of new director David Gockley's era, the SF Opera will experiment with a live broadcast of the performance playing inside the War Memorial Opera House, outside on the
Arts & Entertainment SFist Goes to a Recital: Stern Grove The occasion was the Schwabacher recital series, which continues on Sunday, January, 29th, with a recital by Ailyn Pérez. If the smaller setting is not intimate enough you, you can even have dinner
Arts & Entertainment SFist Goes to the Opera: the 2006-07 Season Gone is the modern -- tacky, screamed the purists -- feel from the brochures and the web site: Glamour is back, with the "emphasis placed on the singers," said Gockley. The Opera unveiled
Arts & Entertainment SFist Goes to the Opera: an American Tragedy We saw the Met's new production on Monday, and one thought sprung to our mind: there is an East Coast-West Coast divide that would make the gangsta rappers proud. Oh, we are not
Arts & Entertainment SFist Goes to the Opera: Fidelio Photos by Terrence McCarthy/SF Opera. Above, from left to right, Christine Brewer, Greta Feeney and Arthur Woodley
Arts & Entertainment SFist Goes to the Opera: Forza La Forza del Destino, the latest production of the SF Opera, opened yesterday in a wonderful new production. The Opera completely reinvented this classic, and came up with a fresh and polemic take
Arts & Entertainment SFist Goes to the Opera: Norma Norma is the ultimate bel canto opera, this beautiful singing style which places the emphasis on the lyricism and vocal agility of the singer. It is also an extremely powerful story, and yesterday's
Arts & Entertainment SFist Goes to the Opera: Dr. Atomic The opera focuses on the last days leading to the explosion of the first atomic test bomb, in June and July 1945. It is centered about J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967), the scientific director
Arts & Entertainment SFist Goes To The Opera: Rodelinda The few times we've gone to the opera previously, we've only been able to afford the seats that are so high up in the building that Jon Krakauer is writing a book about
Arts & Entertainment SFist Goes to the Opera: Cosi Fan Tutte It only turned out that this production of Cosi had been set into a hotel on the Riviera at the onset of WWI, instead of the traditional foothills of the Vesuvio. The change
