Reviews

Welcome to the Angela Gheorghiu Show! I make three costume changes, one of which leaves precious little to the imagination. To complete the spectacle, I present two radically different hairdos designed to set off my runway model figure and beautiful countenance. And for this special occasion, the entire San Francisco Opera Orchestra accompanies me, conducted by Marco Armiliato.

It was a hot and sticky night, and the gut strings weren't staying where they were supposed to.

San Francisco Opera launched its 2008-2009 season on Friday with a comparative rarity, Verdi's great opera of reunion and reconciliation, Simon Boccanegra, using the revised version of 1881. This revival, led by outgoing Music Director Donald Runnicles, is blessed with a much better cast than that of the 2001 production.

A large, enthusiastic crowd greeted the season opener of the Conservatory Orchestra in the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Saturday evening in the school's concert hall. Conductor Andrew Mogrelia built his program around new or relatively new music by two of the Conservatory's resident composer-teachers, Elinor Armer and Conrad Susa.

Composer Elinor Armer brims with excitement about creating music. "There's a kind of energy that I feel when I'm playing music or writing it. I feel exhilarated and happy and 'God, is this fun.'" Armer, who retired from teaching at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music a few years ago, is co-honoree in a special concert by the Conservatory Orchestra this week.

Bless San Francisco Lyric Chorus' collective heart for programming heavenly music during the worst of summer's classical concert lull. While Lord knows how many singers and musicians were hiking Yosemite, SFLC's music director, Robert Gurney, took his musicians on a trek to the firmament.

David Sloss and the Fremont Symphony proved last weekend that the rave review for the Fremont Opera's inaugural production of La Bohème last year was not the result of a fluke.

Musiciens Sans Frontières have arrived, musicians without regard to genre frontiers, courtesy of the Wordless Music Series, which premiered at Herbst Theatre on Thursday. On the one hand, regional pride is raising its ugly head: We don't need no stinkin' "New York new music" to enliven our concert life.

Joel Fan is a young pianist who has been quickly making a name for himself in the past few years, most visibly as a member of Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble. His work as a solo performer has much of that group's spirit of exploration and its canny sense of connection between the standard repertory and more far-flung musical adventures.