MUSIC REVIEWS

San Diego Opera’s lavish production of Camille Saint-Saens’ Samson and Delilah captures the spectacle and excitement of French grand opera at its best. At Saturday’s (Feb. 16) opening performance the audience relished the rousing choruses, vivid orchestral playing, opulent sets, and voluptuous dancing in the celebrated bacchanal. We were moved by Bulgarian mezzo-soprano Nadia Krasteva…

If you pose the question about the place of Edward Elgar in the musical pantheon, you are likely get a conflicting barrage of answers. To some he is that great late Romantic voice who restored “English” as a credible adjective to the noun “composer.” To others he is only a second tier craftsman, and to…

Is there a living violinist other than Gil Shaham I would rather hear perform a solo recital? The unhesitating answer is no, even considering the bevy of stellar contemporary violinists that quickly come to mind. Shaham and his superb Japanese accompanist Akira Eguchi gave a brilliant—make that transcendent—program at Copley Symphony Hall Thursday (Feb. 7),…

Chamber music thrives in San Diego County largely because the La Jolla Music Society, Mainly Mozart and the universities import it in large quantities. But chamber music regularly performed by local musicians remains the exception. Maybe with string quartets such as Emerson, Calder, and Pacifica making such regular visits, local string players figure, “Why bother?”…

If the scores of certain recent musical theater works express operatic pretensions—think of Evita or Phantom of the Opera—is it at all surprising that operatic productions are beginning to take on the show biz glitz of musical theater? San Diego Opera opened its new season with a rollicking production of Gaetano Donizetti’s Daughter of the…