Antony and Cleopatra: Adams offers a Shakespeare speed-read

Amina Edris (Cleopatra) and Gerald Finley (Antony)

Taylor Raven (Charmian), Gabrielle Beteag (Iras) and Amina Edris (Cleopatra)

Amina Edris (Cleopatra)

Paul Appleby (Caesar)

Paul Appleby (Caesar), Elizabeth DeShong (Octavia) and Gerald Finley (Antony)

By Mark Pullinger, 19 September 2022

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“you’re glad you read the synopsis beforehand, so thick and fast comes the dialogue”

Reviewed at War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco on 18 September 2022

Adams, Antony and Cleopatra

San Francisco Opera

Eun Sun Kim, Conductor

Elkhanah Pulitzer, Director

Mimi Lien, Set Designer

Constance Hoffman, Costume Designer

David Finn, Lighting Designer

San Francisco Opera Orchestra

San Francisco Opera Chorus

Amina Edris, Cleopatra

Gerald Finley, Antony

Paul Appleby, Caesar

Elizabeth DeShong, Octavia

Alfred Walker, Enobarbus

Hadleigh Adams, Agrippa

Taylor Raven, Charmian

Gabrielle Beteag, Iras

Brenton Ryan, Eros

Philip Skinner, Lepidus

Timothy Murray, Scarus

Patrick Blackwell, Maecenas

Bill Morrison, Projection Designer

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Mark Pullinger

Mark has been a Bachtrack editor since 2014. He is also an experienced critic, writing hundreds of reviews for the site, as well as a freelancer writing for other magazines and newspapers. He also writes programme notes and blogs on Substack. Mark has a particular passion for the operas of Verdi as well as Russian and French repertoire. Outside the concert hall and opera house, Mark enjoys cooking and travel and is probably at his happiest let loose in a French patisserie or a Viennese coffee house.

Antony and Cleopatra: John Adams goes conventional in Shakespeare speed-read