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What the Press is SayingAriadne auf Naxos
> "Superb production by West Edge Opera ... Funny and touching, and graced with a combination of musical elegance and theatrical inventiveness, this production marked the latest successful step in the exciting transformation of what was once the Berkeley Opera. Under artistic director Mark Streshinsky, who also directed this production, the company has undertaken a fresh and provocative approach to the operatic repertoire, without sacrificing anything in the way of musical values or seriousness of purpose." — Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle > "West Edge Opera has boldness in its name, a boldness it has earned with productions that rethink operas, from the score to the stage. Now, Artistic Director Mark Streshinsky has upped the casting level, as well, making it a comparable strength and the company’s most notable aspect. ... The company came up with trumps, offering a strong, well-rehearsed cast that confidently dispatched Strauss’ demanding score." — Michael Zweibach, San Francisco Classical Voice > "Mark Streshinsky and his production cohorts succeeded brilliantly in transforming the contorted plot into a thoroughly satisfying, entertaining show." — Cheryl North, Contra Costa Times > "Rather than a sea of grey, as one might see in more staid venues, the El Cerrito theater's younger crowd was by turns confused and delighted by the production. ... Written for an opera pit orchestra of 37, West Edge used a reduction by Christopher Fecteau for 18 instruments, with a single keyboard player hastening to combine the parts of piano, celesta, and harp. But under Conductor Jonathan Khuner’s baton, the sound was full and dramatic." — Adam Broner, repeatperformances.org Caliban Dreams
> "With a versatile and infectiously tuneful score
by composer Clark Suprynowicz and a brisk, virtuosic libretto by poet Amanda Moody, "Caliban Dreams" picks up the forgotten pieces of Shakespeare's final masterpiece and turns them into a beguiling, feverish fantasy of rage and reconciliation."
— Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle> "Caliban Dreams, and We Smile ... Caliban Dreams deserves more than a chance to be seen and heard. It's entertaining to the core, directed with a fine sense of forward momentum, and a feather in the cap of Khuner, Morrow, Artistic Director Mark Streshinsky, and its three cocreators. Even as the company straddles the line between West Edge Opera and Berkeley West Edge Opera, switching back and forth between both titles, it continues to move forward with strength." — Jason Victor Serinus, San Francisco Classical Voice Xerxes
> "[San Francisco Opera's Xerxes] was never as coherent or clever as last year's modern-dress production by the low-budget Berkeley West Edge Opera, with baroque-opera expert Alan Curtis conducting and Mark Streshinsky directing a young cast that rivaled San Francisco's." — David Littlejohn, The Wall Steet Journal > S.F. Classical Voice rates Xerxes one of the top 10 concerts of 2010: "With its new name and excellent new venue, Berkeley West Edge Opera (formerly Berkeley Opera) made the transition to a new era with considerable allure. The season reached its zenith late in the fall with a witty, charming, and beautifully sung production of Handel’s Xerxes, directed by artistic director Mark Streshinsky and conducted by Alan Curtis." > "Saturday's opening of Georg Frideric Handel's 1738 opera, Xerxes, was a triumph. Had I sat through it with eyes closed, I would have felt I had just heard a concert of the world's most sublime Baroque music, artfully performed. On the other hand, had I witnessed it with the sound blotted out, I would have felt that I had been enormously entertained by a show falling somewhere between a Feydeau farce and a Charlie Chaplin silent film. ... In short, Berkeley West Edge's Xerxes has it all: gorgeous music, terrific singers, simple but effective sets, vivid but tasteful lighting, and quite unexpectedly -- comedy." — Cheryl North, Contra Costa Times > "(Formerly) Berkeley's First-Rate Xerxes ... With a first-rate cast, world class conductor, and superb period instrument orchestra, the El Cerrito–based company reinvented as Berkeley West Edge Opera has taken another major step forward into the future. Curiously, the vehicle for forging ahead is a modern adaptation of George Friedrich Handel’s comedy Xerxes, which premiered in London over 272 years ago. All’s the better, given the uniform excellence of the production."— Jason Victor Serinus, San Francisco Classical Voice > "Handel's comic 'Xerxes' with skill... Handel's operas don't venture into the world of comedy very often. But when they do—and when they're presented with the degree of theatrical verve and musical allure that the Berkeley West Edge Opera brings to its season-opening production of 'Xerxes'—the results are utterly delightful." — Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle |
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