opera
‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ popular Christmas movie, great new American opera
November 20, 2018It’s a critical hit, written in a popular late Romantic and thoroughly American idiom, studded with little musical quotes from familiar holiday noels, high school graduation anthems, and the wild Mekee-Mekee that recalls the dance crazes...
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“Girls of the Golden West”: The passion of California according to Dame Shirley
November 27, 2017The New York Times singled out this San Francisco Opera (SFO) premiere as “the most eagerly anticipated new opera of the season.”
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Operatic soprano Brenda Lewis remembered by a friend
September 28, 2017I had the singular privilege of knowing the American soprano Brenda Lewis for almost forty years. She died at her Westport, Conn., home on September 16, at the age of 96. When I last spoke with...
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Transgender opera “As One” gets transcendent Southern California premiere
May 26, 2017“We live on two poles of gender,” said one librettist. “Hopefully we can mess up those lines between them."
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Courageous multimedia opera “Soldier Songs” impresses in San Diego
November 17, 2016At the rate the world is going, I doubt these powerful Soldier Songs will feel dated anytime soon.
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