As it is clear from this thoughtful article, Kosman and just about every local reviewer still hope for the best, instead of sharpening knives as a bunker mentality develops in the War Memorial. We are all rooting for Rosenberg's success achieving musical-theatrical excellence, rather than hope for her failure through excesses in staging. After all, what we'll get is what we'll have to live with. Opener dims hopes for Rosenberg Heavy-handedness of 'Giardiniera' portends ill judgment by general director Joshua Kosman, Chronicle Music Critic [5/5/02] When Pamela Rosenberg was first named as the San Francisco Opera's new general director, she promised, among other things, to foster a newly thoughtful and sophisticated brand of musical theater. That sounded good, even if local observers couldn't be certain precisely what it would entail. We still don't know for sure -- Rosenberg's first full main-stage season won't be unveiled until the fall -- but it's possible that we caught a disheartening early glimpse of the company's new approach last month. That was when the San Francisco Opera Center presented its annual Showcase Presentation, a colossally puerile and inane staging of Mozart's "La Finta Giardiniera" staged by director Roy Rallo. Uh-oh. ... http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/05/05/PK26155.DTL Janos Gereben/SF [log in to unmask]