Have a Fluttering Holiday Weekend with Die Fledermaus at Opera San José

By Emma Krasov A dazzling new show at Opera San José is as fitting for the holiday season as a glass of tiny bubbles. The classic Johann S...

Pearls of ‘The Pearl Fishers’ at Opera San José

By Emma Krasov Bizet’s first three-act opera, The Pearl Fishers , was created in time of Western idealization of the far away exotic land...

Last Chance for La Traviata at Opera San José

By Emma Krasov To be clear, the last chance is not for the immortal Giuseppe Verdi’s opera, but for the viewers who might still see it tomor...

Dramatic Idomeneo Opens 28th Season at Opera San Jose

By Emma Krasov Mozart’s Idomeneo: re di Creta (libretto by Giambattista Varesco) is not only a musical genius’s masterpiece, but also a dram...

Four Saints by Stein and Thomson Descend on YBCA

By Emma Krasov “Saint Therese something like that. Saint Therese would and would and would.” Gertrude Stein, “Four Saints in Three Acts” Ins...

Jasmina Halimic’s Anna Karenina Perfectly Alive in Opera San Jose

By Emma Krasov In its West Coast Premiere of a modern opera based on Leo Tolstoy’s most famous novel, Opera San Jose follows its stellar rec...

Puccini’s La Rondine, or the Swallow Flies into Opera San Jose

By Emma Krasov She is a courtesan, he is a hopeless romantic. She is Parisian to the core (of course, in a 1917 Italian, based on earlier G...

That was the Story of Manon Lescaut

For the beginning of a promising 2009-2010 season, Massenet’s “Manon” premiered at Opera San Jose yesterday. Joseph Marcheso made a remarka...

Opera San Jose Closes Season with Carmen

Opera San José concludes its 25th Anniversary Season with the most popular opera in the United States, Georges Bizet’s Carmen. Conductor Dav...

Valentine’s Day Comic Treat Closes Sunday at Opera San José

Così fan tutte, or The School for Lovers, a life-affirming comic opera by Mozart and librettist Lorenzo da Ponte, is now playing to full ho...

Boris Godunov at SF Opera Revives Original Version

Never mind those historical inaccuracies in the Russian genius’s play. Alexander Pushkin was not a historian after all, and poets possess a...

Russian Baritone Graces SF Opera in Challenging Yet Rewarding Role

Giuseppe Verdi’s “Simon Boccanegra” would not make the top ten in popularity polls, or pick a viewer’s curiosity with its convoluted and rat...

Eugene Onegin Delights Audiences at Opera San Jose

Opera Eugene Onegin—a genius combination of Tchaikovsky ’s music and Pushkin ’s poetry (libretto by K. Shilovsky)—presented by Opera San Jos...

Stern Grove Season’s Sweet Finale—SF Opera

The best part of San Francisco summer—free concerts at Stern Grove—closed this Sunday with “Leonard Bernstein: The Master and His Muses,” pe...

Not a Dry Eye in the House at Pocket Opera's La Boheme

Loved by so many for its intimate format and financial accessibility, Pocket Opera ends its 2008 season on a high and crystal-clear note wit...

Figaro Wraps Up Berkeley Rep’s 40th Season With Fireworks

Classic stays current in ever-changing times, but its effect can be ambivalent. Spectators either flood theatre floor craving the familiar, ...

‘Farewell my Concubine’ U.S. Tour Kicks Off at SF Opera

Every great epic in world culture has a simple love story at its core. “ Farewell my Concubine ”—a 22 hundred-year-old Chinese classic based...