Arts & Events

In Don Pasquale, one of Gaetano Donizetti’s last operas, the title character is a man in his 70s who foolishly decides it’s time to get married. In Merola Opera’s production of Don Pasquale, which I saw Saturday, August 8 in Cowell Theatre at Fort Mason, the title character is portrayed as a wealthy, sickly nutcase who is paranoid about the possibility of germs infecting him. Don Pasquale’s home looks for all the world like an infirmary. His lounge chair looks like a chair one might find in a hospital examination room, and his servants are all dressed in hospital white and, like the don himself, wear white face-masks to keep away germs. As a staging concept, so far so good; but under Nic Muni’s direction this production of Don Pasquale veers off in several misguided directions which lead nowhere. -more-

On Friday evening, August 7, American Bach Soloists kicked off at San Francisco Conservatory of Music a festival dedicated to the music of the court at Versailles. This music, which ABS designates as The Parisian Baroque, was composed and performed at the court of French kings Louis XIII, Louis XIV, and Louis XV. In 1626 Louis XIII officially established an ensemble of the finest string players in the land called Les Vingt-quatre Violons du Roi. These violinists, violists, and cellists would on occasion be joined by the king’s wind and brass ensemble, La Grande Écurie, and together these ensembles would join the orchestra of the opera. A bit later, under the direction of the Italian-born composer Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687), French musicians at Versailles created a unique sound combining detailed ensemble control, a lightness of sonority, and a graceful reliance on dance structures. Louis XIV, one might recall, was enormously fond of ballet, and he went on stage as a ballet dancer at age 13, subsequently favoring dance music throughout his long reign as king. -more-