San Francisco Opera: Omar

 

Jamez McCorckle and members of the San Francisco Opera Chorus

Omar, Act 2

Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

I filed my Omar review early this morning, after wrestling with it quite a bit: I have two different saved version of it, and when I filed, I was somewhat unhappy with it. My editors tightened it up, but I realized I was more equivocal about it than my review conveyed. So I added a bit to make that clearer. Still, the length of my review kept it less focussed than it could have been.

• Joshua Kosman, S.F. Chronicle. I can't argue with any of the points he makes about the opera's weaknesses or strengths.
• Lisa Hirsch, SFCV. The headline was up before my addition and isn't what I would have chosen. The second act really has problems. I do think Omar will be a hit, though, for its beauty and the excellence of the performers.
• Opera Tattler
• Michael Anthonio, Parterre Box
• Patrick Vaz, The Reverberate Hills
• Michael Strickland, SF Civic Center
• Caroline Crawford, Bay City News at SF Gate

Previously:

• Maura Hogan, The Post and Courier
• Alex Ross, The New Yorker. "...the strength of the conception lies less in its narrative energy than in its ritual atmosphere."
• Charles McNulty, LA Times theater critic. He notes right off the bat that Omar is "too fluid to be classified in discrete musical or dramatic genres."
• Edward Ball, NY Review of Books