Appomattox Closes at SF Opera
October 25, 2007
* Notes *
Appomattox ended its 7 performance run yesterday. Sara Jobin conducted well, and the only weak points I noticed were when the orchestra overwhelmed Brian Leerhuber (Robert E. Lee) at the end of Act I Scene 2 and during the choral "Clap your hands all you people" in Act I Scene 4. Brian Leerhuber sang beautifully, his diction was good and his Southern drawl was convincing. Rhoslyn Jones (Julia Dent Grant) sang the finale particularly well this time, with good volume but also delicacy.
* Tattling *
The house was fairly full for this final performance, but not entirely, despite the special 50% offer on the tickets. The audience was quiet, except for some person in the orchestra with a plastic bag who made quite a lot of noise for most of Act I Scene 3. The only applause during the performance for the scene change between Act I Scene 2 and Scene 3, I believe this was because a metallic wall comes down to hide the upstage.
It only took three viewings, but this time I noticed that baritone Michael Mohammed, who works with Oakland Opera Theater, was part of the chorus. Looking more carefully at the program, I see that bass Anthony Russell (A freed slave) also sang at OOT.