Arts & Events

OPERA REVIEW: Quinn Kelsey Sings the Title-Role in RIGOLETTO

Reviewed by James Roy MacBean
Friday June 09, 2017 - 12:13:00 PM

Though he has sung here before in various roles, Quinn Kelsey returned to San Francisco Opera this season as Rigoletto, in what has become a signature role for this Hawaiian-born baritone. Verdi’s Rigoletto, his “revolutionary” opera as the composer himself called it, opened on May 31 and runs through July 1. I attended the second performance on Tuesday, June 6. Adapted from Victor Hugo’s play, Le Roi s’amuse, Verdi’s Rigoletto focuses on the jester, Rigoletto, who wields his caustic tongue at the expense of the courtiers surrounding the Duke of Mantua. But beneath the hard-boiled exterior and the barbed wit, Rigoletto has a soft heart for his beloved daughter, Gilda, whom he keeps under lock and key in a vain attempt to protect her from the depravities of life at court. There is indeed an almost Shakespearian complexity to Rigoletto’s character; and Quinn Kelsey succeeded in bringing out all the nuances – the humiliation, the self-pity, the anger, the desire for vengeance, and also the deep abiding love for his daughter – that make Rigoletto such an interesting character. -more-


OPERA REVIEW: An Uninspiring DON GIOVANNI at San Francisco Opera

Reviewed by James Roy MacBean
Friday June 09, 2017 - 12:15:00 PM

In a revised version of the 2011 production, Mozart’s Don Giovanni opened on Sunday, June 4, 2017, at War Memorial Opera House. Making his company debut was Italian director Jacopo Spirei, who combined forces with German visual artist Tommi Brem to create a totally atemporal and unlocalized staging of Don Giovanni. Jacopo Spirei has remarked that, “Don Giovanni is an opera from the past that challenges our modern times with questions and provocations. We are creating a show that establishes a direct dialogue between the past and the present, the 18th with the 21st centuries. We explore the world and themes of the opera with contemporary eyes, in search of Don Giovanni, a man always on the run and who can never be pinned down.” -more-