Joshua Kosman, music critic of the San Francisco Chronicle, calls the San Francisco Opera's production of Handel's Rodelinda Film Noir. I suppose there is some validity in that with regard to the mood but I totally disagree with his comment about tempos dragging or being sluggish. In fact, they were so brisk that soprano Catherine Naglestad had trouble keeping up with the orchestra in Act One. I do agree with Mr. Kosman about counter-tenor Gerald Thompson. David Daniels may be the big name in the world of counter-tenors these days, but I have heard others that I prefer over him and now I can add Gerald Thompson to that list. I am now waiting to see what Robert Commanday or one of his staff at SF Classical Voice have to say about the production. I woke up so early this morning that I am running two hours ahead of schedule and these various websites have yet to be updated. As a result I will return to this posting later today.
Later this morning...
The review of Rodelinda from the San Francisco Classical Voice Newsletter has been posted and I find I am more in agreement with this one. I tell you, I just don't understand where Mr. Kosman's head is sometimes so it good that we have the San Francisco Classical Voice Newsletter to keep us informed about Bay Area events and publish reviews of same.
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