The Gospel of Mary Magdalene, San Francisco Opera, June 25 2013

Through a series of circumstances, I managed to acquire a front-row seat to a third performance of The Gospel of Mary Magdalene. I covered the set in the report from the dress rehearsal, and the list and initial impressions of the singers at the premiere performance. My third performance was a somewhat better experience than the first two. I can credit some of that to the front-row seat, some of it to the singers having had, in effect, two additional rehearsals, and some of it to my becoming somewhat more familiar with the music. Overall impressions, however, remain the same: Sasha Cooke (Mary), William Burden (Peter), and James Creswell (Pharisee) were a delight to hear and watch; Nathan Gunn’s vibrato continued be excessive. The music remained pleasant enough but not that interesting. It seemed that all of the opportunities for dramatic musical gestures did not fulfill their potential. They say that the greatest opera composers were all “men of the theater.” The sense of “theatricality” was missing this time. A smidgen better than a gamma.