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Janos Gereben

Janos Gereben appreciates news tips, corrections, and words of encouragement at [email protected].

Articles by this Author

Chamber Orchestra/Orchestra Review
October 21, 2010
Conlon, Bell, Rarities Rule
BY Janos Gereben

James Conlon is one of the finest conductors around, and he is also a maverick presenter of unusual programs. And so it was expected that he would bring something different to his current appearances with the San Francisco Symphony (which he first led 32 years ago), and he did not disappoint.

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Music News
Music News: October 19, 2010
October 19, 2010
Music News: October 19, 2010
BY Janos Gereben

Young Musical Philanthropists at Work

Major supporters of the arts get some — not enough — publicity, and ceaseless, ever-present benefit angels such as Frederica von Stade model are also known — also not enough — though publicity is not why they do what they do.

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Opera Review
October 17, 2010
La Forza del West Bay
BY Janos Gereben

If no weapons are involved, next time I am facing a gang in a dark alley, I want Gabriel Manro on my side. Making his debut here, in the West Bay Opera’s sensational production of Verdi’s La Forza del Destino, Manro is a new kind of baritone: not lyric, not helden, not Kavalier, not Bariton-Martin — none of those. Rather, he’s a knock-down baritone.

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Music News
Music News: October 12, 2010
October 12, 2010
Music News: October 12, 2010
BY Janos Gereben

Cleo, a Diva for the Duration

At 83, Dame Cleo Laine's fabulous voice is in "good shape," she says, adding: "But I don't sing [Schoenberg's] Pierrot Lunaire anymore." She has also pulled back on her legendary three-octave range, with that hair-raising high G on top that fans had thrilled to for the past 60 years.

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Music News
Music News: October 5, 2010
October 5, 2010
Music News: October 5, 2010
BY Janos Gereben

 

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Music News
Music News: September 28, 2010
September 28, 2010
Music News: September 28, 2010
BY Janos Gereben

 

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Feature Article
Jekowsky, Cal Symphony in a Stormy Separation
September 24, 2010
Jekowsky, Cal Symphony in a Stormy Separation
BY Janos Gereben

A formerly internal rift between several California Symphony board members and Music Director Barry Jekowsky opened wide enough this week to swallow up the 24-year-long relationship between the orchestra and its founding maestro, the man who put the organization on the country's musical map.

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Music News
Music News: September 21, 2010
September 21, 2010
Music News: September 21, 2010
BY Janos Gereben

S.F. Opera Medal to Copley

Tonight, at the opening of the Marriage of Figaro run in the War Memorial, stage director John Copley will receive the company's highest honor, the San Francisco Opera Medal. This is his 30th production here — 18 new ones and 12 revivals.

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Music News
Music News: September 14, 2010
September 14, 2010
Music News: September 14, 2010
BY Janos Gereben

New S.F. Opera Adler Fellows Named

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Opera Review
September 11, 2010
Jerry Springer the Opera
Jerry! Jerry! By the Bay
BY Janos Gereben

Richard Thomas' Jerry Springer the Opera is a multiple award-winning, much-praised work, developed with the support and participation of Cameron Mackintosh, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Nick Hytner, and other notables. It finally made its profane, foul-mouthed, offensive and hilarious entry last weekend in a big, spectacular Ray of Light Theater production at the Mission's Victoria Theater, the beginning of a five-week run.

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Music News
Music News: September 7, 2010
September 7, 2010
Music News: September 7, 2010
BY Janos Gereben

S.F. Aida: Turquoise and Gold

San Francisco Opera's upcoming Aida will be lucky to match the great duet that a full house of Academy of
Art University students enjoyed on Friday afternoon in Morgan Auditorium.

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Chamber Orchestra/Orchestra Review
September 3, 2010
Bon Voyage: A Promise, Not Just a Wish
BY Janos Gereben

The Lucerne Music Festival, where Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony are heading, is an orchestral showcase, in addition to its many spectacular chamber-music events. The month-long festival opened with Claudio Abbado and his Festival Orchestra and will close on Sept. 18 with Gustavo Dudamel conducting the Vienna Philharmonic.

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Feature Article
A Few of My Favorite Things
August 31, 2010
A Few of My Favorite Things
BY Janos Gereben

My criteria for selecting these events for recommendation are that they fall, more or less, in the narrow band between mainstream and the self-consciously “out there,” they are at the low end of the price spectrum, and they have some kind of personal connection or appeal to me.

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Music News
Music News: August 31, 2010
August 31, 2010
Music News: August 31, 2010
BY Janos Gereben

Mill Valley Philharmonic Does It Again

Another season, another series of free concerts. Under the direction of Laurie Cohen, the Mill Valley Philharmonic is getting ready for its 11th season of concerts in various Marin locations, open to one and all.
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Music News
Music News: August 24, 2010
August 24, 2010
Music News: August 24, 2010
BY Janos Gereben

S.F. Symphony Season — in Their Words

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Opera Review
August 21, 2010
Merola Finale: ‘Tonight We Sing’
BY Janos Gereben

Among my umpteen Merola Program closing concerts — all memorable in various ways — Saturday’s was one of the most enjoyable. Programmed, directed, and performed with care and effectiveness, this was what opera doesn’t always manage to be: delightful entertainment.

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Music News
Music News: Aug. 17, 2010
August 17, 2010
Music News: Aug. 17, 2010
BY Janos Gereben

Leading-Edge Opera in a Bleeding-Purse World?

While the San Francisco Opera is struggling, along with all U.S. companies, things go swimmingly in some European opera houses, recession or not.

Surely, both the city and the state here have too many fiscal woes to bother with opera, except for the fact that both governments are freeloading on opera tourism.

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Music News
Music News: Aug. 10, 2010
August 10, 2010
Music News: Aug. 10, 2010
BY Janos Gereben

Sampling Mahler Sung

San Francisco Symphony has a generous marketing/sales bit for its upcoming Songs With Orchestra CD, to be released on iTunes at the end of August, and later on CD, Sept. 14.

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Music News
Music News: Aug. 3, 2010
August 3, 2010
Music News: Aug. 3, 2010
BY Janos Gereben

Avast Ye, Intelligible Pirates!

Lamplighters Music Theatre is a splendid, smart, and kind organization.

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Opera Review
July 31, 2010
Berkeley (Now West Edge) Opera Conquers Big, Miniature Ring
BY Janos Gereben

Once upon a time, six long years ago, there was a little opera company in Berkeley tackling a huge project, called the Legend of the Ring, making waves far and wide. And now, on Saturday, here was a little company again, taking up the same challenge: David Seaman’s condensation of Richard Wagner’s four-opera, 15-hour Der Ring des Nibelungen cycle into a four-hour evening.

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