Opera Parallèle's Doubt

Rhoslyn Jones (Sister Aloysius) and Matthew Worth (Father Flynn), in Doubt at Opera Parallèle 

Photo: Stefan Cohen

 

Opera Parallèle staged Douglas J. Cuomo and John Patrick Shanley's Doubt a few weeks ago. It's based on Shanley's Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning play of the same name. You might have seen it on stage or you might have seen the film, which starred Meryl Streep as sister Aloysius and Philip Seymour Hoffman as Father Flynn, with Amy Adams as Sister James and, in a brilliant ten minutes on screen, Viola Davis as Mrs. Miller. It's Davis I remember most clear; the film, directed by Shanley, was seriously marred by the competitive altar-cloth chewing performances of Streep and Hoffman.

The play, film, and opera all leave you in, um, doubt as to what happened and what it meant. Did Father Flynn abuse young Donald Miller? Well, it is ambiguous. I think it's possible (that business where he might have given Donald wine). I also think it's possible that Father Flynn is gay and recognizes that Donald is going to grow up to be gay, which results in a mentoring relationship. Mrs. Miller certainly recognizes this in her son and is glad for the attention – and role modeling? – he gives to Donald.

I liked the opera a whole lot and said so in SFCV; Matthew Travisano, reviewing for Parterre Box, was less happy with it. I think we actually said somewhat similar things about how the opera works musically; I just liked what it did better than he did.

• Lisa Hirsch, SFCV
• Matthew Travisano, Parterre Box ("Nun the Wiser," fantastic headline)
• Charlise Tiee, Opera Tattler
• Eddie Reynolds, Theater Eddys
• Michael Milenski, Opera Today
• Kellie Hanna, Broke-Ass Stuart (Preview)
• Charles Lewis III, 48 Hills (Preview)
• Timothy Pfaff, BAR (Preview)

San Francisco Symphony 2026-27

Davies Symphony Hall

Home of the San Francisco Symphony

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

Well, okay! San Francisco Symphony announced their 2026-27 season the other month – sorry, I am definitely behind in posting about recent events – and it is a good season, a return to the kind of adventurous programming we got used to during the long tenure of Michael Tilson Thomas (okay, there was a slump at the end, I know, I know) and the too-short tenure of Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Salonen will be back for what will be a fun program – it includes a new concerto for harp and percussion, by Rene Orth, to be played by principal percussionist Jacob Nissly and principal harp Katherine Siochi – and his influence is clear in a few other places during the season. That's because there are a bunch of big new works programmed or coming in the near future, and they absolutely must have been commissioned when he was music director. These include the Orth, a new violin concerto called How to Be a Bird, by the prodigiously gifted Gabriella Smith, and a future concerto for orchestra by Reena Esmail. 

There's plenty of good stuff in the season! In addition to works named above, I'm looking forward to seeing Metropolis with live orchestra on the very big screen at Davies.

The full season brochure can be downloaded as a PDF; you can also view or download the full season calendar.

• Lisa Hirsch, San Francisco Chronicle.
• Joshua Kosman, On a Pacific Aisle
• Janos Gereben, SFCV

 

Cav 'n Pag, Opera San José

Maria Natale (Santuzza), Delaney Ewert, and Jacob Hohn as villagers

Cavalleria Rusticana, Opera San José

Photo: David Allen, courtesy of Opera San José

Three enthusiastic reviews of Opera San José's verismo double bill:

• Lisa Hirsch, SFCV
• Joshua Kosman, On a Pacific Aisle
• Eddie Reynolds, Theater Eddys

I'm the only one of the three who commented on how loud Cavalleria was, and so I am wondering whether it was an artifact of the set. There isn't a photo showing the entire stage and set, which was much more built out on the audience left stage, so it would have reflected the sound more. I was audience right, Joshua Kosman was audience left. But the orchestra – which was very loud – would not have been affected by that to the extend that the singers were.

The last time I saw this double bill was before the pandemic at San Francisco Opera, and my conclusion at the time was much like Joshua Kosman's: Cav is trash, Pag is a masterpiece. Curiously, I liked Cav better this time around than the last, though Pag is a much better work.

Happy birthday to Alma Deutscher, who turned 21 yesterday and thus shares a birthday with the great Hungarian composer György Kurtág, who turned 100.

Davóne Tines and Ruckus: "What is Your Hand in This?"

Davóne Tines, Ruckus, Members of the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts Concert Choir

Photo by Michael Strickland

This recital was scheduled opposite Joyce DiDonato in Kevin Puts's new song cycle to poems of Emily Dickinson. One throws up one's hands at having had to make such a choice. I probably should have gone to JDD, whom I interviewed last fall for an article about portraying Sister Helen Prejean in Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking, but this was a wonderful concert.

• Michael Zwiebach, SFCV
• Lisa Hirsch, Parterre Box
• Michael Strickland, SF Civic Center
• Patrick Vaz, The Reverberate Hills

Bicket, Schultz, and Mozart at San Francisco Symphony

Golda Schultz and Harry Bicket

Photo by Michael Strickland

Used with permission

I'm sorry that I didn't take a curtain call photo or to at Davies last Thursday, when I saw Harry Bicket's all-Mozart program at San Francisco Symphony, featuring two symphonies, a serenade, and soprano Golda Schultz in Mozart arias. SFS evidently didn't have a photographer in house for the concert, hence, Davies rather than a concert photo. (BUT my friend Michael Strickland to the rescue! And I've added him to the round-up below. Thank you so much!)

It wouldn't have been appropriate in my Chronicle / SFCV review to say that I've now seen Bicket in concert with SFS and conducting two full Mozart operas with Santa Fe Opera, his home theater in the United States. I think that he is a good, not great, Mozart conductor; solid, with good instincts, but without bringing out that last bit of rhythmic brilliance that mades Mozart performances great. 

(The best Mozart opera conducting I've heard? Cornelius Meister in the last SFO Abduction, Donald Runnicles in the McVicar Don Giovanni, and Henrik Nanasi in the most recent Così. The worst? Nicola Luisotti in the 2013 Così, which had the additional problem of being poorly cast, with a voiceless Don Alfonso and miscast Ellie Dehn, who was excellent in other appearances.)

I've also seen Bicket lead Orfeo (outstanding), Pélleas (eh), Alcina, and Radamisto, all at Santa Fe. No strong impressions remain of his conducting in the two Handel operas.

• Lisa Hirsch, S.F. Chronicle / SFCV
• Joshua Kosman, On a Pacific Aisle (link to follow)
• Harvey Steinman, Seen and Heard International
• Matthew Travisano, Parterre Box
• Michael Strickland, SF Civic Center

 

San Francisco Opera Premieres The Monkey King

 

Kang Wang as the title role in The Monkey King

Members of the San Francisco Opera Chorus

Puppetry designed by Basil Twist

Photo: Cory Weaver, courtesy of SF Opera

The Monkey King opened last week at San Francisco Opera, and hoo boy, we have a series of well-earned raves by everybody who was there. My friend Rob remarked afterward that he wasn't sure whether it was a great opera, but it is certainly a great show. I think the music is excellent, but there is so much going on visually that the music isn't the first thing you'll remember about it.

The run of performances is completely sold out; I've been checking multiple times a day, and there are maybe five tickets total available right now. This is astounding; it's too bad that SFO has no record of adding performances, not, at least, since the first run of Dead Man Walking 25 years ago.

You can, however, catch the livestream for $25 on Tuesday, Nov. 18 or watch the stream on demand from Sunday, Nov. 23 at 10 a.m. to Tuesday, Nov. 25 at 10 a.m.

• Joshua Kosman, SF Chronicle
• Joshua Barone, NY Times 
• Heidi Waleson, WSJ (includes a review of Parsifal)
• Lisa Hirsch, SFCV
• Gabe Meline, KQED
• Michael Anthonio, Parterre Box
• Thomas May, Opera Now
• Caroline Crawford, Local News Matters
• Elsa Tranter, Classical Voice
• Charlise Tiee, Opera Tattler
• Patrick Vaz, The Reverberate Hills
• Michael Strickland, SF Civic Center
• Yoshi Kato, preview, SFCV and SF Chronicle
• Tony Bravo, SF Chronicle, fabulous feature on the puppets and scenery

Pure Foolishness

Parsifal, Act 2

Photo: Cory Weaver / courtesy of San Francisco Opera

I've got many thoughts that aren't in my review, but I also have a cold. Watch for updates to this post.

• Joshua Kosman, SF Chronicle
• Joshua Kosman, On a Pacific Aisle: Hard to parse 
• Lisa Hirsch, SFCV (Review updated on 10/30)
• Lisa Hirsch, SFCV: Eun Sun Kim Profile
• Thomas May, Opera Now 
• Michael Anthonio, Parterre Box 
• Charlise Tiee, Opera Tattler; Charlies Tiee 2nd Parsifal
• Michael Strickland, S.F Civic Center
• Patrick Vaz, The Reverberate Hills
• Richard Ginelle, Classical Voice North America
• Harvey Steiman, Seen & Heard International
• Caroline Crawford, Bay City News
• Gary Kamiya, Substack: "Parsifal": When Christian-pagan acid trips go wrong
• James Ambroff-Tahan, Examiner (preview) 
• Matthew Travisano, Parterre Box, interview with Matthew Ozawa
• Parterre Box, "Change My Mind About Parsifal"
• Tony Bravo, SF Chronicle, feature about Matthew Shilvock

Kavalier & Clay at the Met

 

Cover, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

I read Michael Chabon's novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay back around 2000 or 2001; my paperback copy of the book looks exactly like the graphic above, so I bought the book after it won the Pulitzer Prize for literature. I loved the book's immense sweep and its colorful characters.

I raised an eyebrow when Mason Bates and Gene Scheer's Metropolitan Opera commission was announced, because, really, it didn't seem like a great candidate for an operatic adaptation, given the scope and complexity of the novel. I was surprised that the opera wasn't listed for an HD broadcast this season, and I decided against a quick NY trip, given various writing responsibilities I have. 

Now the reviews are coming in and it seems reasonable to start a media round-up.

• Joshua Barone, NY Times
• Justin Davidson, Vulture/New York, who incorporates a critique of Peter Gelb
• Heidi Waleson, WSJ (paywall)
• Sylvia Korman, Parterre Box
• Alex Ross, The Rest is Noise (a glancing blow only)
• Alex Ross, The New Yorker (a body blow)
• George Grella, NY Classical Review
• David Gordon, TheaterMania
• Financial Times (so paywalled I have no idea who wrote it)

Runnicles at San Francisco Symphony

Donald Runnicles

Courtesy of his website

Well, I was extremely happy with this week's SFS program, which featured Donald Runnicles conducting Berg's Seven Early Songs and Mahler's First Symphony. For the Berg, he had mezzo-soprano Irene Roberts as soloist, and...her performance was a revelation.

Roberts has sung at SF Opera five times since 2013, in these roles:

• Giulietta, Tales of Hoffman
• Carmen, Carmen
• Bao Chai, Dream of the Red Chamber
• Dorabella, Così fan tutte
• Offred, The Handmaid's Tale

Seeing her in these roles would not have prepared you for the vocal splendor she brought to the Berg, which was gorgeously, immaculately sung. Over in Europe, where she was a member of the ensemble at Deutsche Oper Berlin, she's been singing roles like the above, but also the great Wagner mezzo and Zwischenfach roles. I can imagine that they are magnificent, and I can only hope that she'll be in future Wagner productions at SFO, in roles that would be ideal for her.

As it happens, Deutsche Opera Berlin is where Runnicles headed after SFO, a position he'll be leaving at the end of the 2025-26 season. He is also the chief conductor designate of the Dresden Philharmonic this season, a position he will hold for some time to come. I was wowed by his Mahler, and I've been a fan of his for years, so I consider the people of Dresden to be lucky indeed.

[Update, 9/30: I have now had three people whom I'd consider to be very knowledgeable ask me why Runnicles isn't the music director of S.F. Symphony, and another speculating that maybe he could be principal guest conductor. Well, see the above; he seems to be very happy working in Germany, and also, he doesn't really have an ongoing relationship with the orchestra.]

My review ran very long and I could not compliment every solo player, much as I wanted to. Yubeen Kim and the whole flute section were marvelous; Eugene Izotov was spectacular at many crucial moments and the double reeds were amazing in the Klezmer interjection in the third movement; Carey Bell, as ever, was wonderful and so was Matthew Griffith on E-flat clarinet. Joshua Elmore was right there in a number of critical moments. I loved the timpani / double bass duet at the beginning of the third movement, so kudos to Ed Stephan and Scott Pingel. Then there were the brass, with principal trumpet Mark Inouye fabulous throughout, and all of the horns and trombones, plus Jeff Anderson on tuba:

Horns – Michael Stevens (Principal), Jonathan Ring, Jack Bryant, Jessica Valeri, Roy Femenella, Amy Sanchez, Meredith Brown and Alicia Mastromanco

Trombones – Ben Smelser (Principal), Paul Welcomer, Chase Waterbury and Kyle Mendiguchia

Reviews:

• Lisa Hirsch, S.F. Chronicle / SFCV
• Joshua Kosman, On a Pacific Aisle
• Harvey Steiman, Seen and Heard International 
• Michael Strickland, S.F. Civic Center
• Stephen Smoliar, The Rehearsal Studio
• Patrick Vaz, The Reverberate Hills

Joshua Kosman and I aren't usually this far apart. I didn't hear the clumsiness he does in the Mahler, which maybe I'd describe as extroverted and exuberant. (I even asked my SFCV editors, in email, why I hadn't gotten the word "exhilarating" into my review.) But back in the SFS centennial season, I liked the BSO's visit more than he did. I heard grandeur, he heard lack of discipline. I'd love to revisit those programs, lead by Ludovic Morlot, to see how I'd react to them today. JK could well have been entirely correct, given Seiji Ozawa's overlong tenure and James Levine's health problems and divided attention. Or maybe I like a particular style of big-boned conducting that he doesn't.

So Do They All

Nicole Koh (Despina, as the Doctor), Ricardo José Rivera (Guglielmo), Jonghyun Park (Ferrando)

Opera San José Cosi fan tutte

Photo: David Allen

I had a fun time covering Opera San José's hilarious production of Così fan tutte, directed by Alek Shrader and conducted by Joseph Marcheso. The twist of this production is that the audience gets to vote on how the opera ends. It's a gimmick, but a fun one; I kept my eyes open during Act 1 for the setups for the various endings. I can report that the opening-performance audience went for the straight ending, where everyone winds up with their original lover. Personally, I'd favor everybody heading off on their own, preferably after heaping abuse on Don Alfonso, sadder but wiser.

• Lisa Hirsch, S.F. Chronicle (feature)
• Lisa Hirsch, SFCV (review)
• Related: Harvey Steiman, Seen & Heard, reviews Renée Fleming's production of Così, in which the soprano finds her own entertaining resolution for the plot.

I'm hoping to have further reviews to post later this week, but we'll see.

Rigoletto, Santa Fe Opera

 

Duke Kim (Duke of Mantua) and Kayla Nanto (Countess Ceprano)

Rigoletto, Santa Fe Opera

Curtis Brown for Santa Fe Opera

In my review, I said that Duke Kim was made up such that he looked like a cross between Prince and Raul Julia as Gomez Addams. If you don't believe me, web search is your friend. Last year, Greer Grimsley, in The Righteous, looked like a cross between Barry Sonnenfeld, director of The Addams Family and Addams Family Values, and Michael Tilson Thomas. Maybe these pop culture references are a thing at Santa Fe.

• Lisa Hirsch, Parterre Box
• Thomas May, Opera Now
• Heidi Waleson, Wall Street Journal
• William Burnett, Opera Warhorses
• Scott Cantrell, Dallas Morning News
• Harlow Robinson, SFCV

House Debut

La Bohème, Act 1

Santa Fe Opera, July, 2025

 Soloman Howard (Colline), Long Long (Rodolfo), Efraín Solís (Schaunard), Szymon Mechliński (Marcello), photo by Curtis Brown for the Santa Fe Opera

Not at the Santa Fe Opera, which I've been attending since 2008, when I saw Adriana Mater, Billy Budd, and Radamisto, but at Parterre Box, which published my review of Santa Fe's La Bohème today. Grateful thanks to Harry Rose for the opportunity to write for Parterre Box, although it's bittersweet: Parterre Box's intended reviewer, Patrick Mack, died unexpectedly earlier this year.

I'm expecting more reviews. John Allison, editor of Opera Magazine, saw a different performance from the one I saw. Note that registration is required for Opera Now and a subscription is required to read Opera Magazine.

• Lisa Hirsch, Parterre Box. Did the well-nigh perfect La Bohème at San Francisco Opera make me crankier than I otherwise would have been about this production? You bet. (NB: will get embarrassing errors, both mine, fixed post-haste.)
• Thomas May, Memeteria; continues at Opera Now; he is much more positive about this production than I was.
• John Allison, Opera Magazine (link to follow; his Santa Fe reviews will not be published for a while)
• Heidi Waleson, Wall Street Journal (paywall)
• William Burnett, Opera Warhorses
• Harlow Robinson, SFCV

Merola Grand Finale

 

Chea Kang as the Sandman

Hansel und Gretel

Photo: Kristen Loken, courtesy of Merola Opera

The Merola Grand Finale took place this past Saturday, August 16, at the War Memorial Opera House. As always, there was a ton of great singing. Chea Kang, above, was particularly wonderful as Humperdinck's Sandman, from Hansel and Gretel. Between her singing and Elio Bucky's canny direction, I couldn't take my eyes off her.

Media roundup, links to follow for the other writers:

• Lisa Hirsch, S.F. Chronicle and SFCV
• Joshua Kosman, On a Pacific Aisle 
• Opera Tattler. I should also have mentioned the wholly unnecessary amplification of Charlotte Siegel and Justice Yates in their number.
• Michael Anthonio, Parterre Box
• Michael Strickland, S.F. Civic Center

San Francisco Opera Pride Concert

San Francisco Opera's Pride Concert with projections by Tal Rosner, June 27, 2025.

Photo: Matthew Washburn/San Francisco Opera

Click to enlarge, which you should do because that little white rectangle is the pad on which I was scribbling.

SF Opera's Pride Concert - the first, but not the last - was a ton of fun.

• Tony Bravo, S.F. Chronicle
• Lisa Hirsch, SFCV
• Joshua Kosman, On a Pacific Aisle
• Michael Anthonio, Parterre Box

San Francisco Opera's Pride Concert with projections by Tal Rosner, June 27, 2025.

Photo: Matthew Washburn/San Francisco Opera

Nikola Printz with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, conducted by Robert Mollicone, and Caroline Corrales, Thomas Kinch, Georgiana Adams at the Pride Concert, June 27, 2025.

Photo: Kristen Loken/San Francisco Opera

Updated

I've updated my June 5 post about the SFO La Bohème, with links to Thomas May's review and Joshua Kosman's comments on the alternate cast, as well as my own remarks on that cast. 

Tartuffe at Pocket Opera

 

Baritone Eugene Brancoveanu, standing, as Tartuffe and mezzo-soprano Courtney Miller as Elmire in Pocket Opera’s production of Kirke Mechem’s Tartuffe | Courtesy of Pocket Opera

I reviewed Pocket Opera's production of Kirke Mechem's Tartuffe the other day. The review is a rave, because the performers and direction are terrific, and it is quite simply one of the funniest and best-constructed recent operas that I've ever seen. 

Consequently, I found myself wondering why on earth it's not a repertory staple at U.S. opera companies large and small.  I mean, it has gotten some 400 performances or so worldwide, nothing to sneeze at, but still!

All I can come up with is that you need eight strong soloists who can also act, putting it on the expensive side. On the other hand, it can be performed with a big orchestra or a small orchestra; none of the roles are extreme for their voice type, and it seems perfect for a conservatory or program like Merola Opera, where you want opportunities for as many singers as possible.

I've seen two other recent operas that were this funny; they are also not exactly staples and they also should be. They are Kevin Puts and Mark Campbell's Elizabeth Cree and Mark Adamo's Lysistrata. 

Bring on the comedies! We all need a good laugh.

Elsewhere:

• Joshua Kosman, On a Pacific Aisle
• Cordell Reports
• DB at Kalimac's Corner

Esa-Pekka Salonen at SFS

Esa-Pekka Salonen and members of the San Francisco Symphony

June 12, 2025

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

The last few weeks have felt like all Salonen, all the time, because they have been. I attended his last four concerts as music director of SFS, reviewed two of them, and wrote a scene piece about the last. He conducted splendidly across a wide range of music, introduced a new work by Gabriella Smith, and closed with three transcendent performances of Mahler's Symphony No. 2, "Resurrection."

You don't have to be a Christian to be deeply moved by Mahler's vision of renewal, and I regret that I missed the chance to sneak a riff on "You don't have to be Jewish to love Levy's [rye bread]" into my review. On the other hand, I'm not sure how many current readers are familiar with that classic advertising campaign from the 1960s and 70s.

I will note that I cried at different points in the different Mahler performances - I attended all of them and the open rehearsal, so, yes, four Mahler 2 performances in three days. At the rehearsal, the tears came in Sasha Cooke's first lines in the "Urlicht" movement; in the first performance, somewhere in the staggering last movement. I have never heard Cooke sing with greater beauty or feeling and I think I've heard most of her Bay Area performances.

Fun trivia about the performances: I wrote down the start and end times of the four movements, and over the three performances, the movement timings.....did not vary from each other by as much as a minute. 

This round-up will cover all of Salonen's last four programs as music director, in reverse chronological order, but not all at once. 

June 12-14: Mahler, Symphony No. 2 in C Minor, "Resurrection"

Gift links for the Chronicle and WSJ.

• Joshua Kosman, Chronicle
• Joshua Kosman, On a Pacific Aisle (remarks, okay, righteous fulminations on Salonen's departure)
• Lisa Hirsch, SFCV (review)
• Lisa Hirsch, Chronicle (reporting on the last concert)
• David Mermelstein, Wall Street Journal
• Mark Swed, L.A. Times 
• Richard Ginell, Classical Voice North America
• Thomas May, Memeteria (post contains a link to Musical America review)
• Harvey Steiman, Seen & Heard International
• Patrick Vaz, The Reverberate Hills
• Michael Strickland, SF Civic Center
• Stephen Smoliar, The Rehearsal Studio
• DB, Kalimac's Corner

June 6-8: Strauss, Smith, Sibelius

• Joshua Kosman, On a Pacific Aisle
• Lisa Hirsch, Chronicle & SFCV
• Patrick Vaz, The Reverberate Hills
• Stephen Smoliar, The Rehearsal Studio
• DB, Kalimac's Corner

La Bohème, San Francisco Opera

Samuel Kidd as Schaunard, Bogdan Talos as Colline, Pene Pati as Rodolfo, Karen Chia-ling Ho as Mimì, and Lucas Meachem as Marcello in Puccini’s "La Bohème."

Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

A winning cast and sharp work by the revival director make this one a hit.

• Joshua Kosman, On a Pacific Aisle. Loves the direction and singers, but not the conducting.
• Lisa Hirsch, SFCV & S.F. Chronicle. At the primo, I really liked the conducting, which seemed expansive. Watching the third performance on the livestream, I found the conducting more sluggish than expansive. I'm also seeing the alternate cast, so, I'll see what I think then.
• Lisa Hirsch, right here. I saw the alternate cast, still thought Ramon Tebar's conducting was fine. Nicole Car was very different from Karen Chia-Ling Ho, who was a shy and very sweet Mimi. Car was more extroverted and has a more pointed voice with a rapid vibrato. I liked them both - there are lots of ways to play Mimi! - but something about the sound of Car's voice had me sobbing almost as soon as she opened her mouth in Act III.
• Joshua Kosman, On a Pacific Aisle, likes the alternate cast, still dislikes Tebar, notes that Evan LeRoy Johnson is costumed exactly like Lucas Meachem, whech is, indeed, a bad move. This wasn't the case with the opening night cast.
• Gabe Meline, KQED
• Michael Strickland, SF Civic Center, liked the conducting.
• Charlies Tiee, The Opera Tattler
• Stephen Smoliar, The Rehearsal Studio
• Thomas May, Memeteria. "Puccini’s savvy recapitulation of musical material – most movingly in the final act’s return to the music of Mimì and Rodolfo’s first meeting – carried incalculable expressive weight in Ramón Tebar’s sensitively detailed conducting, a highlight of the production."

Harvey Milk Reimagined

 

Harvey Milk Reimagined

Photo by Cory Weaver, courtesy of Opera Parallèle

The original Harvey Milk, by composer Stewart Wallace and librettist Michael Korie, was a co-commission of San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and New York City Opera. It made its way around the country, opening in Houston (Edward Rothstein, NY Times), then playing in NY (Bernard Holland, NY Times, then finally coming to San Francisco (Joshua Kosman, S.F. Chronicle). Between New York and San Francisco, some revisions were made by the composer with input from conductor Donald Runnicles, who led the S.F. performances and was then music director of SFO (that's from Joshua Kosman's review, a detail that stuck in my mind, though not the source, from 1996 until a couple of weeks ago, when I re-read that review).

Now it's been further revised, on commission from Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and Opera Parallèle, and it's playing in San Francisco again.

• Joshua Kosman, On a Pacific Aisle (link to his 1996 review is above)
• Lisa Hirsch, SFCV and S.F. Chronicle
• Charlise Tiee, The Opera Tattler
• Harvey Steiman, Seen & Heard International
• Caroline Crawford, Bay City News
• James Ambroff-Tahan, SF Examiner
• Christian Ocier, Parterre Box

It's interesting that Joshua, Harvey, and myself all think that the revised version is overloaded. 

Related:

• Georgia Rowe, preview
• Emily Wilson, preview
• Philip Campbell, preview
• Michael Milenski, preview

Dalia Stasevska at SFS

Dalia Stasevska conducts; Johannes Moser plays cello.

Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Before we fall

San Francisco Symphony, May15, 2025

Photo: Kristen Loken, courtesy of San Francisco Symphony

There wasn't room in my review for a number of things I would have liked to mention about Anna Thorvaldsdottir's new cello concerto, Before we fall, which Johannes Moser and Dalia Stasevska brought to life last week at San Francisco Symphony, mostly to do with the orchestration. The percussion included two thunder sheets, two bass drums (played by mallets including superball mallets), and bundles of dried eucalyptus leaves, but did not include timpani. The double reeds included an English horn and bassoons, but not oboes. There were a pair of flutes and alto flute.

The scores takes several pages to explain different playing techniques, including tongue ram (flutes) and tongue slap (clarinets). Lastly, if you read my review in the S.F. Chronicle, you'll see the work styled as "Before We Fall," where SFCV has Before we fall. Style guides differ! The score has:

Before we fall

Neither Stasevska nor Thorvaldsdottir is on next year's SFS schedule, which I'm sorry about.

• Lisa Hirsch, SFCV
• Joshua Kosman also heard a relationship between RVW's Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis and Before we fall and is enthusiastic about the concerto.
• DB at Kalimac's Corner.
• Stephen Smoliar, The Rehearsal Studio