Since moving to the Bay Area, I’ve been reviewing for San Francisco Classical Voice. Most recently was a fun trip to Alameda, a part of the Bay Area that feels very different from Berkeley or San Francisco — a kind of time warp old California town. The opera was presented in the ballroom of the grand Elks’ Lodge — another amazing vestige of the 20’s.
Here’s the ballroom, with a gorgeous Tiffany-style skylight containing, of course, an elk, which you can’t see in this picture.
And here’s my review of the operas:
Sounds like a lot of fun, Nick! The Elk’s Lodge looks very stately. Looks ranch styled. I would expect the two operas by Rimsky-Korsakov to contrast because it would be boring to do the same thing twice in a row. I personally do not like repetition because it find it tedious. The negative narrative of Salieri has cast a shadow on his own compositions. He did write some decent music. Along the same line, the movie “Hilary and Jackie” portrayed Jacqueline du Pre as an airhead party girl. Airhead party girls don’t play the cello like that! Do we separate the artist from the person? Do we judge the artist by the person he (most likely he) is? “Scheherazade” is full of contrasts, dynamically and thematically. “Kashchey, the Immortal” sounds fascinating! You are so lucky to attend so many wonderful musical productions! Music and English is a wonderful combination!