A few thoughts on Opera Pacific’s production of Elixir of Love, which we’ve set in the 1950’s in a west Texas diner. Read more →
Category: Stage
Irvine World News
Ah, the poor old Irvine World News. This is the Rodney Dangerfield of newsprint, a hometown paper which is printed once a week. It gets little respect, probably because they give it away for free.  “You get what you pay for” and all that. Plus, it really does confine itself to the world of Irvine. That fact alone makes the paper worthless to most of Orange… Read more →
Samson, Delilah, and Student Pilots
Oh yeah, I have a web site. Sort of forgot about that for the past few weeks. It’s understandable. I’ve either been out at the airport trying to keep my students from wreaking havoc on the runway, or in rehearsals for Samson et Delilah at Opera Pacific. Typically I’m flying from 9 am to 5 pm and then in rehearsal… Read more →
The Virtual Orchestra
I received an email from a fellow musician that bodes ill for the future of the performing arts. It’s bad enough that the arts have essentially been eliminated in our schools. Must professional theatres go the same way? If major arts facilities don’t understand this issue…. well, I just wonder who’s going to pay $100 (or more) for a ticket… Read more →
Updated Colophon
I updated the colophon page to read a little more like a personal narrative and a bit less like a legal brief. The only things it was missing were the double spacing and line numbers. Hopefully it’s now more entertaining, easier to read, lower in calories, and will cause the reader to buy the world a Coke and teach them… Read more →
Turandot
Turandot has finally opened. My thirty third opera. Damn that’s a lot of singing. In keeping with the theatrical tradition of ‘bad dress / good opening’, our preview performance started off so dismally that we re-ran half of the first act after the show was over. Apparently we’re supposed to be singing behind the conductor, not with him. First time… Read more →
Sex, Drugs, and…. Mozart?
I’ve never been a big fan of Mozart operas. Now before you recoil in horror, I’ll freely admit that people far more erudite than I find his work to be the most well-crafted in the entire operatic repertoire. But to me, the stories and music of that period just don’t measure up to the more fully developed (though less structured)… Read more →
La commedia e finita!
My ninth opera season is officially over. I’m sitting here doing a mental comparison between the 1999 production of Pagliacci & Carmina Burana and the one we just finished. This one certainly seemed like a lot more work, which is odd because I already knew the music. I think part of it was the running around. Pushing that truck around,… Read more →
A ventitre ore!
I have four free tickets available for a performance of “Pagliacci” and “Carmina Burana” at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. Anyone interested in these? We did this production five or six years ago and it was so well received that Opera Pacific decided to bring it back. Pagliacci is a one-act opera, and Carmina Burana is a dance piece… Read more →
Getting Cosi With Opera
Could it be that nothing has been added to the House of Rapp for eighteen days? Yeah. By way of explanation, I can only proclaim “Life is short. Opera is long.” Especially when it’s a Mozart opera. Nothing personal, Wolfgang… Speaking of which, it’s a pleasure to report that Opera Pacific’s production of Cosi fan Tutte is finally over and… Read more →