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Month: July 2021

Operatic Lives and Loves, despite Family

Operatic Lives and Loves, despite Family

Orinda, CA—Give an E for Effort to the feisty West Edge Opera resuming live outdoor opera despite all adversity and fielding a strong central cast to try to make you forget all its shortcomings. After 16 months with our center stages hogged by virus and little else, WEO celebrated the improving health dip by producing the wrenching drama of love lost, “Katya Kabanova” by the Czech composer Leos Janacek, one of the great late bloomers in operatic history—live, on stage,…

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Firsts: Overlooked composer, a bridge-crossing conductor

Firsts: Overlooked composer, a bridge-crossing conductor

It was a grand night to remember. An unprecedented new breeze blew into Davies Hall and inspired an audience moved to its feet, clapping with vigor. The salient firsts for the S.F. Symphony were the jovial conductor Michael Morgan on the podium and music by the greatly underrated composer Louise Dumont Farrenc. By the time it was over, folks virtually forgot just which brilliant Rossini overture had opened the program. The debut of Morgan resulted in far greater audience representation…

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BRRR’S AND BRAVOS IN OPERA, SOCIALLY DISTANCED

BRRR’S AND BRAVOS IN OPERA, SOCIALLY DISTANCED

Necessity is anew the mother of invention. Even in opera premieres, a tradition dating back four centuries. When singers and orchestras couldn’t congregate during the pandemic, Opera Parallèle brought to bear imagination with a capital I. They went at their challenge piecemeal with an arresting experiment in animation. Using adaptation techniques from robotics, they brought on well-drawn faces, closeups and graphic-novel formats for Joby Talbot’s one-act mountain-climbing saga reworked for streaming, “Everest,” based on the Dallas Opera world premiere production…

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New Horizons, and a Tribute

New Horizons, and a Tribute

In keeping with a Black Lives Matter theme, a new SFCMP chamber-concert stream features leading black composers in lucid quality performances capped by a tribute to the late Olly Wilson. Wilson achieved a goal that music professors strive to emulate: as habile a teacher as a composer. Wilson is well remembered for his 22 years as composer on the UC Berkeley music faculty and his later strong support for the Young Musicians Program training underserved students in the S.F. Bay…

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Today’s Sounds Streaming Today

Today’s Sounds Streaming Today

When most every one else has been forced to silence, count on the S.F. Contemporary Music Players to sound out, ranging from the listenable to the contemporary/experimental. Even VERY contemporary. The grand-daddy of our professional new music ensembles here just winding down its 50th season, it has jumped from the post-pandemic starting blocks with the streaming of “Voices in Reverberation” with a wide stylistic array of composers. Yea, living composers at that! The most recent piece is the SFCMP-commissioned world…

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