Xerxes at San Francisco Opera

Jason Victor Serinus on October 28, 2011
Xerxes at the S.F. Opera
Xerxes at the S.F. Opera

Only six performances for this Handel masterpiece, which has never before graced San Francisco Opera’s stage? Every seat should be taken for a production that delivers the unbeatable combination of Susan Graham and David Daniels. Potentially as rewarding are the San Francisco debut of soprano Lisette Oropesa and the return of early-music specialist and contralto Sonia Prina. True, we won’t hear the Baroque instrumental sonorities that Handel expected, but conductor Patrick Summers and the San Francisco Opera Orchestra have worked many times with these leads, and should provide us with several hours of sublime musicianship. Nicholas Hytner’s Olivier Award–winning production, here directed by Michael Walling, is further enticement.