Reviews

Concerts around the Bay Area often achieve an incredibly high quality. We should go to more of them, to experience things outside our comfort zone.

Opera San José’s sumptuous new production of Idomeneo marks a step forward for the South Bay company.

Like a well-trained infantryperson, Heart of a Soldier
triumphed in its first battle with opera’s ultimate enemy, public
indifference: Patrons greeted the premiere in the War Memorial Opera
House with a sustained standing ovation.

In a striking production of Turandot the S.F. Opera and cast more than fulfill the promise of greatness.

A superb conductor leads a knockout cast in Rossini’s final opera, replete with his typical vocal fireworks.

At the Days and Nights Festival, Philip Glass conjures distinct sound colors as his musical fingerprint in music heavy on the synthesized organs.

Trinity College Choir’s pure, warm vocalism distinguishes its disc of a cappella works, most of them explicitly Christian, by eight North American composers.

Steve Reich’s tribute to those who died at Ground Zero involves prerecorded speech and evokes emotions of sadness and transcendence.

It was well worth the wait, to hear the Pražák Quartet’s fleet take on the Borodin Second Quartet.

A true-to-the-original production of Gershwin’s masterwork is blessed by four outstanding women singer/actors, but marred by lax baton work.