Ron Bierman

What did our critic think of THE LA JOLLA MUSIC SOCIETY PRESENTS THE SPANISH HARLEM ORCHESTRA at The Conrad? The La Jolla Music Society has featured exceptional musicians in many genres over the years. Best known for staging classical concerts, since the opening of its intimate home at the Conrad the Society has also welcomed an outstanding variety of some of the best in dance, opera, jazz, and world music. The Spanish Harlem Orchestra, winner of three Grammys, is the latest example of the latter. The band is celebrating 25 years of success as an exponent of “hardcore” salsa both in its recordings and at live concerts. Pianist, leader and arranger Oscar Hernandez has a fourth Grammy for a quintet album and has worked with dozens of well-known Latin musicians over the years including Ray Barreto, Tito Puente, Rubén Blades and Celia Cruz.

This year’s final subscription concert at the new Jacobs Music Center began with Richard Strauss’s tone poem Don Juan and ended with his equally familiar Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks. In between, Inon Barnatan was featured in two 20th Century piano concertos by Dimitri Shostakovich. The usual please-silence-the-phones admonition before the concert was more emphatic than usual. The audience was informed that this last of three performances would be recorded for possible commercial release. As you’ll see, that didn’t stop one competitive phone from auditioning. The familiar Don Juan lives up to its name. It’s a tone poem for orchestra with a mix of romance, heroism and tragedy. San Diego Symphony Music Director and conductor Rafael Payare was at his enthusiastic acrobatic best. The music’s many moods were reflected in his motions and facial expressions and then realized in the orchestra for an exciting performance.

What did our critic think of SAN DIEGO OPERA PRESENTS LA BOHÈME at San Diego Civic Center? San Diego Opera celebrated the opening of its 60th season with Giacomo Puccini’s La bohème, the same opera the company staged to open its first season. Its magnificent melodies, a touchingly tragic love story, and arias that are among the most beautiful ever written have made it one of the world’s most performed operas for many years, an obvious choice for attracting audiences and donors. The story begins in a bohemian Parisian garret where Rodolfo, a young writer, rooms with a painter, a musician and a philosopher. Money is scarce, and the only source of heat is a small stove. With no wood left to burn, Rodolfo begins to use pages from the manuscript of a play he’s writing for what few moments of heat they can provide. When the flames die down a roommate comments, “It opened and closed on the same night.”

The music that people enjoy the most, whether they are fans of classical or hip hop, is music that evokes emotion. The San Diego Symphony under guest conductor Antonio Méndez took note of that with a concert of proven favorites, Mendelssohn’s Ruy Blas Overture, Bruch’s first violin concerto, and Tchaikovsky’s fifth symphony.

What did our critic think of SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY PERFORM WORKS BY MAHLER AND LARCHER at the Jacobs Music Center? There were only two pieces on the San Diego Symphony’s program for the second weekend of the new season, the first after the renovation of the Jacobs Music Center. But one of them was Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, Resurrection. At about 90 minutes, it is one of the longest ever written. In an exciting performance such as conductor Rafael Payare led, no one was nodding off, or even tempted to glance at a phone. Though a phone did elude its owner for three muffled rings before the transgressing audience member got it out where it managed one last defiantly louder, but futile ring before stifled.

What did our critic think of SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY SHINES AT NEW JACOBS MUSIC CENTER OPENING! Shortly after the waterfront’s Rady Shell opened in 2021, I was standing in a short line behind San Diego Symphony CEO Martha Gilmer and complimented her on the Rady’s awesome state-of-the-art sound system. Then, as an afterthought, I suggested the Rady’s sound was better than that of Symphony Hall. Her reply was a terse determined, “We’re fixing that.” And have they ever!

About halfway into her two-hour plus recital with tenor Joshua Guerrero, soprano Andrea Carroll gave a well-earned compliment to their accompanist Stephen Hopkins for his technique and versatility. Both were challenged during the unusually varied program the two singers had fashioned.

The first act of Opera À La Carte’s production of La bohème featured costuming and well-used furniture that made Rodolfo’s bohemian Parisian garret seem more real than the elaborate expensive sets and costumes of many other productions. After all, Rodolfo (tenor Adam Caughey) and his three friends are starving artists, and bohème is a notable example of opera verismo. Who knew? Turns out you can stage a memorable version of La bohème with underappreciated local singers and a modest budget.

Puccini’s Madama Butterfly is one of the most popular operas ever written. It has a wonderfully lyrical score, familiar arias and a story that remains compelling even after often heard. San Diego Opera’s most recent production played to a full house on opening night, and under the direction of Jose Maria Condemi the well-chosen cast delivered a performance with impressive emotional depth. Corinne Winters’s convincing portrayal of the naïve 15-year-old Cio-Cio-San brought bravas and enthusiastic applause at curtain call. But her portrayal of innocence exploited meant both bravos and boos over extended applause for tenor Adam Smith’s convincing version of her heartless seducer, Lieutenant Pinkerton.

Read BroadwayWorld's review of Stephen Hough with the San Diego Symphony at San Diego Civic Center Theater.

If this concert didn’t convince newcomers to classical music that they’d been missing out, nothing will. Conductor Rafael Payare went all out for excitement and got it with a program that displayed the orchestra's virtuosity. The result was an exceptionally enjoyable concert.

Edo de Waart opened a conservative program of J. S. Bach, Samuel Barber and Josef Haydn with Bach’s B-minor Orchestral Suite. The suite is often performed with a full-sized modern string section of 40 or more. De Waart chose a size much closer to one listeners would have been likely to hear in the 18th  century, 14 strings, the flute of the original score and a harpsichord continuo. The San Diego Symphony’s Principal Flute Rose Lombardo was at the front of the stage. The flute is prominent in every movement, though often playing as part of the orchestra rather than offering a second melodic line as in a true concerto.

San Diego Opera’s most recent production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni is an example of how opera companies hope to attract younger audiences while coping with rising costs and smaller budgets. The pandemic hasn’t been kind to the arts. The National Endowment for the Arts has reported that stage performances joined oil drilling/exploration and air transportation “as the steepest-declining areas of the U.S. economy in 2020.” And opera, which had already been experiencing shrinking audiences, was the hardest hit of all the arts. Smaller companies are struggling to stay in business. Even New York’s Metropolitan Opera had to dip into its reserves this season for $40 Million.

The San Diego Symphony was at a little more than half its usual size, but with a near full complement of strings, and Raphael Payare conducted with great feeling and passion. (A friend commented at intermission, “I thought he was on a trampoline.”) The result was unusually satisfying versions of three Mozart symphonies. The orchestra responded to Payare with as near perfect execution as you are likely to hear in a live performance, and the Conrad has spectacularly good acoustics for the near chamber-orchestra size group Payare led.

Kyle Lang is directing the company’s upcoming performances of Mozart’s DON GIOVANNI. In a recent conversation via Zoom we spoke about how he came to be a director, his approach to directing and specific thoughts about one of Mozart’s finest achievements.

What did our critic think of San Diego Opera Performs THE MIRACLE OF REMEMBERING at San Diego Civic Center?

What did our critic think of THE SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PERFORMS IN THE CALIFORNIA FESTIVAL at The Rady Shell?

What did our critic think of GRAMMY® GREATS UNITE – LATONIA MOORE AND J’NAI BRIDGES IN CONCERT at Balboa Theatre?

What did our critic think of THE LA JOLLA MUSIC SOCIETY PRESENTS AN ALL-STAR TRIO at The Conrad?

What did our critic think of THE GIPSY KINGS at The San Diego Syphony's Rady Shell? The only empty seats at the Rady Shell's high-energy Gipsy Kings concert were the hundreds unoccupied while their associated booties were swaying in the aisles below waving arms. Nicolas Reyes sang 'Quiero Saber' to begin the bass-heavy, multi-guitar rhythmic onslaught. His hoarse and passionate voice has made him one of the world’s most popular flamenco singers.