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Theatre Eddys

Theatre Eddys

San Francisco Bay Area Theater Reviews

opera

Zorro

April 20, 2025 by Eddie Reynolds 1 Comment

Zorro Héctor Armienta (Music & Libretto) Opera San José A pulp fiction novel written in 1919 by John McCulley was so popular that he wrote dozens more short stories for decades about its hero.  Within a year of McCulley's publication, Douglas Fairbanks starred in a swashbuckling silent film whose popularity helped spawn to-date more than 40 more films, ten TV … [Read more...] about Zorro

The Marriage of Figaro

February 22, 2025 by Eddie Reynolds Leave a Comment

The Marriage of Figaro Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Composer; Lorenzo do Ponte, Original Italian Libretto Donald Pippin, English Version Pocket Opera Since its Vienna premiere in 1786, perhaps there is no better-loved, globally popular opera than Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, an operatic comedy with laugh-out-loud mix-ups and shenanigans; … [Read more...] about The Marriage of Figaro

Bluebeard’s Castle

February 16, 2025 by Eddie Reynolds

Bluebeard's Castle Béla Bartók, Composer; Béla Balás, Original Hungarian Libretto English Translation by Steven White and Joseph Marcheso Opera San Jose An immense, dark, dungeon-like castle with its interior dimly lit by magnificent hanging chandeliers and wall scones of flickering candles is the setting for Opera San Jose's intriguing, beguiling, and … [Read more...] about Bluebeard’s Castle

La sonnambula

February 15, 2025 by Eddie Reynolds Leave a Comment

La sonnambula Vincenzo Bellini, Composer; Felice Romani, Libretto West Bay Opera In the early nineteenth century for some strange reason, the height of fashion in European stage works was to include somnambulism, or sleepwalking.  With Felice Romani contributing the libretto, Vincenzo Bellini followed the popular trend by premiering in 1831 a two-act opera in the … [Read more...] about La sonnambula

La Cenerentola

February 26, 2024 by Eddie Reynolds

La Cenerentola Gioachino Rossini (Composer): Jacopi Ferretti (Original Italian Libretto); Donald Pippin (English Libretto) Pocket Opera Music that excites the imagination and pleases the senses; voices that soar with their clarity and amaze with their electricity; an adapted, English libretto that teases and titillates with its rhymes and rhythms; acting that elicits … [Read more...] about La Cenerentola

Rigoletto

February 18, 2024 by Eddie Reynolds

Rigoletto Giuseppe Verdi Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave Opera San José Little wonder it is that from its Vienna premiere in 1851 until the twenty-first century, Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto is one of the world’s most-beloved, most-performed operas.  Soaring in music that includes famous, widely recognized arias that are difficult for an audience member not to … [Read more...] about Rigoletto

Corpus Evita

February 17, 2024 by Eddie Reynolds

Corpus Evita Carlos Franzetti Libretto by José Luis Moscovich; Concept by Lorenz Russo How much responsibility must a person in power assume for acts against humanity that occur because the untested, unprepared leader is either unaware, naïve, or completely incompetent?  Is it possible for such a leader ever to seek and receive atonement – especially if the crimes … [Read more...] about Corpus Evita

Tosca

July 17, 2023 by Eddie Reynolds

Tosca Giacomo Puccini Original Italian Libretto by Luigi Illica & Giuseppe Giacosa English Version by Donald Pippin Pocket Opera, in a Co-Production with Cinnabar Theatre When Giacomo Puccini’s universally popular, 1900-premiering Tosca is transformed from its usual position on grand opera stages with scores of cast members to an intimate setting where a few … [Read more...] about Tosca

Tosca

April 22, 2023 by Eddie Reynolds

Tosca Giacomo Puccini Libretto by Luigi Illica & Giuseppe Giacosa Opera San José Immensely impressive, profoundly passionate, and musically masterful from first notes to closing plunge off the parapet describe Opera San José’s triumphant production of Giacomo Puccini’s timelessly popular Tosca.  Within the setting of San José’s beautifully majestic California … [Read more...] about Tosca

Don Giovanni

February 18, 2023 by Eddie Reynolds

Don Giovanni Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Music); Lorenzo Da Ponte (Libretto) West Bay Opera How can an opera about an arrogant, despicable rake who travels throughout Europe seducing women for pure sport and then leaving them often after having promised marriage continue to be one of the most popular, most produced operas of all times?  Why in this particular era of “Me … [Read more...] about Don Giovanni

La Traviata

July 11, 2022 by Eddie Reynolds Leave a Comment

La Traviata Giuseppe Verdi, Composer; Original Libretto by Francisco Maria Piave English Version by Donald Pippin Pocket Opera, in Co-Production with Cinnabar Theatre With cheeks flushed against a snow-white, pale face, Violetta Valéry slowly enters pressed against the strong arm of her devoted servant, Annina, who serves as a needed crutch.  Gingerly, painfully, … [Read more...] about La Traviata

Pique Dame

May 21, 2022 by Eddie Reynolds

Pique Dame (The Queen of Spades) Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky West Bay Opera Woodwinds and strings sing in gentle, back-and-forth conversation before other instruments begin to join, building into rolling climaxes of commanding brass and timpani and all leading to a sense of foreboding as projected on the walls before us are splashed, red blotches mingled in a flurried mix … [Read more...] about Pique Dame

Macbeth

February 15, 2020 by Eddie Reynolds

Woodwinds creep together in soft, low measures before intertwining in higher registers and giving way to announcing brass that awaken spirits from the underworld.  Those dark figures manipulate wood puppets to tell the agonized history of a royal, childless marriage.  From foggy mists, faceless sisters of the night emerge in every sort of torn and draped rag, roving about while … [Read more...] about Macbeth

“Falstaff”

May 25, 2019 by Eddie Reynolds Leave a Comment

FalstaffGiuseppe Verdi, with Libretto by Arigo BoitoWest Bay OperaMichael Orlinsky, Kiril Havezov & Richard Zeller“In this great abdomen are a thousand tongues that proclaim my name ... This is my kingdom.”  With a measure of self-worth and a confidence in his own attraction to the fairer sex that are almost as mammoth as his rotund belly, Falstaff sings with from his … [Read more...] about “Falstaff”

Announcing the 2014 Theatre Eddys

December 30, 2014 by Eddie Reynolds Leave a Comment

Eddie on stage.ED’S & EDDIE’S 2014 TOP-RATEDPLAYS, MUSICALS, & OPERASIn 2014 and in spite of Ed's six months of intense chemotherapy,  we saw 112 plays, musicals, and operas (not to mention a full season of ballet and several nights at the symphony).  Once again, this was an outstanding year for plays in the Bay Area..  Narrowing our top-rated plays to … [Read more...] about Announcing the 2014 Theatre Eddys

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Eddie is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.

Theatre Eddys Ratings Legend

5 E's - Loved It
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Good production but something is lacking or not clicking.
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Below average but had at least one interesting component.
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Waste of time.

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Theatre Eddys reviews performances throughout the greater San Francisco Bay Area.

About Eddie

Theatre Critic for the Greater San Francisco Bay Area, writing 150+ reviews annually for Theatre Eddys and Talkin' Broadway (San Jose/Silicon Valley). Read More

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