(Photo by Terrence McCarthy)
By Allan Ulrich [Financial Times, 11 September 2006]

Regime change in operatic duchies is never smooth, but need it always look and sound so wrenching? The first full season of David Gockley’s tenure as the San Francisco Opera’s general director has begun with the kind of bluntly voiced, minimally produced (marketing types call it “traditional”) fare promised by the new boss in the media since he arrived from the Houston Grand Opera in January.