San Diego Story – Page 773 – Reviews and Views of theater, music, dance and art in San Diego

Tenor Stephen Costello Returns to San Diego Opera

By Ken Herman | January 15, 2013 |

The image of the barrel-chested, horn-helmeted, sword-swinging opera singer dies slowly. Making opera less exotic and more believable is a preoccupation of opera companies and singers around the globe. San Diego Opera will open its 2013 season with a smartly updated production of Gaetano Donizetti’s comic opera The Daughter of the Regiment, transforming its garrison of French soldiers stationed in a quaint Swiss mountain village at the turn of the 19th century to a platoon of American GI’s in France during World War II. “When I was given my costume,” said tenor Stephen Costello, “I thought, ‘I haven’t dressed like this…

A Rewarding Nielsen Fifth, but a Pallid Mendelssohn Concerto

By Ken Herman | January 12, 2013 |

Wars hot and cold dominated the 20th century, stirring composers’ imaginations in myriad ways. Stravinsky’s 1918 “The Soldier’s Tale” portrayed war as class conflict cynically abetted by religion, while Benjamin Britten’s 1962 “War Requiem” lamented the utter futility of armed conflict. On the other hand, Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man” and Samuel Barber’s “Symphony Dedicated to the Air Forces” were written as unabashed musical propoganda during the Second World War. San Diego Symphony Music Director Jahja Ling and the orchestra gave a rich, probing account of Carl Nielsen’s Fifth Symphony at Copley Hall Friday (Jan. 11), a lesser…

Few can dance in his shoes

By Kris Eitland | January 11, 2013 |

The versatile dancer Trystan Loucado has made waves in performances with San Diego’s top contemporary and ballet companies. Known for his long limbs and skilled partnering, the term multi-talented is an understatement. He’s also become a formidable dancer en pointe. You read that right. Trystan Loucado flexes his feet. Fold all of the toes back the other way and imagine he is wearing pointe shoes. Photo courtesy of San Diego Dance Theater. Since last summer, he’s been touring internationally with Les Ballet Trockadero de Monte Carlo, the all-male troupe that parodies ballet classics en travesti, ballet in drag. Not bad for a…