Janos Gereben wrote:

>The revival of Mansouri's 1990 Canadian Opera Company/ San Francisco Opera
>co-production in the War Memorial tonight is even more important and
>memorable than it was on first viewing.  ...

I was there last night as well, and I second everything Janos said.  This
was a simply stupendous performance.  I had rather low hopes of Behrens, as
she has been having numerous vocal problems lately, but she was brilliant,
both seductive and very touching at the same time.  Alan Held is a big man,
who towered over the other characters, and this somehow added to his
shambling pathetic clumsiness; vocally he was very expressive.

Both the Doctor and the Captain struck me as rather caricatured and
overdone; but the fact that they reminded one of a George Grosz cartoon did
seem totally appropriate.

Michael Boder and the orchestra did full justice to this amazing score; the
opera was overwhelming.

However, as the lights went up, I remarked to a "regular" who sits just in
front of me: "Wasn't that wonderful?" And he replied: "Well, now I have seen
it once, and I never care to again. I hate atonal opera!"

Well, it's his loss.

Julia Werthimer <[log in to unmask]>
California, USA