San Francisco Stories

The adventures and musings of a techie (by day) and opera critic (by night)

[ilanawb-blog]

A play, for a change

I’m glad I tore myself away from opera for a night to go see a devastating play in Berkley. I still haven’t quite recovered. Review for Stark Insider here.

[ilanawb-blog]

SF Opera, my second home

This week:

Saturday: final dress rehearsal of Jenufa

Sunday: reviewing the opening of Don Carlo

Monday: not at the opera (fencing!)

Tuesday: reviewing the opening of Jenufa

Wednesday: Don Carlo, again

Thursday: reviewing the Celebrating David! gala concert

Four more Don Carlos and one more Carmen to go--it has been a fantastic (and very busy) summer season!

[ilanawb-blog]

Swinging in 1944

This month’s PEERS ball involved lots of Lindy Hop and swing, plus one fabulous quickstep and the usual smattering of waltzes. The theme was Captain America in 1944, and I had the perfect dress (a thrift shop find from either Bratislava or Budapest--I can’t remember which). It got many compliments. I struggled a lot with my hair, but ended up with some excellent curls (unfortunately not easy to see in the photo). They didn’t quite survive enthusiastic spins and dips, but that’s the peril of not using hairspray.

[ilanawb-blog]

Three shows in three days

Last week was a busy week for me, with performances to review on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday! Wednesday was a fabulous, very much staged concert of On the Town at the Symphony (review for Backtrack here); Thursday was a new-ish opera by Jake Heggie at the Conservatory (review for SFCV here); and Friday was the long-awaited Bieito Carmen at the Opera (review for Stark Insider here).

[ilanawb-blog]

Young Victoria and the Hopeless Romantics

The most recent PEERS ball celebrated the wedding of Queen Victoria in 1840. The dress code was 1830s-1850s, but I was a bit tired of wearing my 1850s dress to every vaguely Victorian event, so I decided to mix things up. I visited the American Conservatory Theater’s costume shop (which is a glorious wonderland filled with beautiful things) and rented an 1830s red gown (complete with petticoats, gloves, necklace, hairpiece, and cloak). Though it was expensive, I loved the result and will certainly be back for difficult-to-find costumes in the future!

There’s a crowd of costumers who all made gorgeous 1830s dresses. The call themselves the Hopeless Romantics, and they kindly allowed me to take a picture with them. Clearly, I need to step up my hair and headpiece game.

[ilanawb-blog]

Daring opera, coming to SF!

I wrote an Op-Ed that was published in the San Francisco Chronicle yesterday about how excellent it is that San Francisco Opera is making Bieito's U.S. premiere happen, and how I want to see more Regietheater here. One commenter has already decided that I am destroying civilization and bringing about the apocalypse. Read here and decide for yourself!

[ilanawb-blog]

A lovely night...

The R&H Cinderella got a major rewrite for its Broadway debut and national tour. I’m not a fan, but this show is impossible to ruin entirely. Read my review here.

[ilanawb-blog]

The mostly happy reviewer

I reviewed The Most Happy Fella, a fabulous Loesser musical I’ve only had the pleasure of seeing live once before, at 42nd Street Moon this past weekend. Read my review here.

[ilanawb-blog]

So much good theater

I feel like I am giving too many glowing reviews these past few days, but The Lion, a one-man musical touring to the ACT totally deserved this one. Definitely go see it if it shows up near you!

[yahooapm]

Leading the team to battle

One of the less thought-provoking but more fun parts of product managing is planning launch celebrations. After our most recent set of launches, we headed to a Sunnyvale park for a picnic and Nerf war. Much fun was had, and despite a couple painful shots to the head and neck, no serious injuries were sustained.

Photo credit: Joshua Jacobson (my manager).

Above, I concentrate while launching an attack on the opposing team’s base.

Above, the mobile mail engineering and product teams (some fighters, some spectators) pose with our arsenal.

[ilanawb-blog]

Opera and jazz

This past weekend, I attended a marvelous jazz cine-concert of The Triplets of Belleville (review here) and an uneven English-language production of Verdi’s obscure comedic opera, King for a Day (review here).

[ilanawb-blog]

Farewell to Downton Abbey

Downton Abbey is gone for good, and what better way to bid it farewell than with a tea party? I joined the Bay Area Costumers’ Guild on Saturday for a 1910s-1920s celebration with tea, sandwiches, scones, piano, and dancing. I threw together my Edwardian daytime outfit from items in my closet--a costume hat, a 1970s blazer, a 1910s evening dress, and modern leather gloves--but I think it turned out rather well.

[ilanawb-blog]

Theatrical riches

I saw two excellent shows this past weekend: the one-woman play Colette, Uncensored (review here) and a black box performance of Handel’s opera Alcina (review here).

[ilanawb-blog]

Dancing on the Titanic

I received a few of the photos from last weekend’s 1912-themed dance! Here they are. Photo credit goes to Philip Pavliger. Dress credit goes to my parents (excellent choice of birthday gift!).

[ilanawb-blog]

SF Opera Lab, off to a good start

You can imagine that an all-female a cappella opera without much of a plot could go either way. At SF Opera Lab, Svadba-Wedding was pretty darn good. My review for Bachtrack is here.

[ilanawb-blog]

Another photo from the 1895 ball arrived! I think this one shows off the dress much better.

[ilanawb-blog]

The other Boheme

Did you know there’s more than one opera of La bohème? It turns out Leoncavallo wrote one right around the same time as Puccini. In my opinion, it’s even better than its more famous counterpart. My review for Bachtrack is here.