CONCERT REVIEW: Operatic adventures in the chamber Opera Santa Barbara's double-header of Pergolesi's 'La serva padrona' and Leonard Bernstein's 'Trouble in Tahiti' brought grand designs into a chamber setting JOSEF WOODARD, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT April 12, 2011 7:22 AM Taken on its own considerable merits, last weekend' double-header chamber opera event at the Lobero Theatre, gamely mixing the 18th-century wiles of Pergolesi with the 20th-century fare of Leonard Bernstein, was a wowing triumph on an innately modest scale. On this occasion, Pergolesi's musically lustrous, satirical farce about romantic power playing, "La serva padrona," made for a surprisingly apt playmate for Bernstein's 1952 parody-gone-dark "Trouble in Tahiti."
15 April, 2011

Santa Barbara Independent Review of Trouble in Tahiti and La serva padrona

One-act Operas Explore Promise, Pitfalls of Matrimony on Friday, April 8

Monday, April 11, 2011

By Tom Jacobs

Love and marriage, as one musical-theater composer noted, go together like a horse and carriage. While the idea of getting hitched can be exhilarating, the actual journey is often bumpy. Opera Santa Barbara presented both sides of this coin last weekend in the Lobero Theatre in a satisfying evening of one-acts. Giovanni Pergolesi’s La serva padrona, which dates from 1733, is a bubbly comedy about a maid who schemes to get her bachelor employer to propose to her. Leonard Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti, which premiered in 1952, shows us a day in the life of an unhappy marriage.
14 April, 2011

Have you ever wondered what it takes to become an opera singer? Opera Santa Barbara’s popular Opera on the Go! series will present Sheri Greenawald, Director of the San Francisco Opera Center on Wednesday, April 6 at 5:30 pm, in the McCune Founder’s Room at...

02 April, 2011

Bernstein's "Trouble in Tahiti" with "La serva padrona": Guest directed by Artistic Director of American Lyric Theatre Santa Barbara, CA, March 23, 2011 – Opera Santa Barbara welcomes six emerging artists from the San Francisco Opera Center Adler Fellowship Program, along with New York-based Director/Choreographer Lawrence Edelson...

30 March, 2011

From the Lobero Theatre Magazine/ February 2011: With a broad smile, Artistic Director Jose Maria Condemi immediately radiates the confidence of a seasoned professional; illustrating the very characteristic that makes him such a wonderful new addition to Opera Santa Barbara. His resume of creative achievements and...

01 March, 2011
Opera SB 2011 Studio Artist PrograM Santa Barbara, CA, FEB. 2, 2010 – This week, seven emerging professional opera singers arrive in Santa Barbara to begin their six-week residency as Opera Santa Barbara’s 2011 Studio Artists.  They will be singing featured roles in a new production of La Traviata on March 4 and 6, but will also represent the opera company in many outreach activities leading up to the opera, including OSB’s Lunchtime Concert Series.
04 February, 2011
Santa Barbara, CA, January 18,2011 – Opera Santa Barbara will soon be a beehive of activity as principal artists join the OSB Studio Artists and chorus for staging rehearsals for the upcoming production of Verdi’s La Traviata on March 4 and 6, at The Granada Theatre.
04 February, 2011
Artistic Director José Maria Condemi to present never-before seen productions appealing to both traditional and contemporary tastes.
01 October, 2010
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L'Elisir d'Amore, March 2016, Photo by David Bazemore