Antony & Cleopatra

“Infinite Variety”
By Georgia Rowe, September 2022

“Being patently a feminist, and being interested in centering empowered women’s stories in history, that was very much a compelling reason to take the call to participate in this project.

Pulitzer admits she’s been awestruck by the enormity of the title characters’ story. “This toggle between public and private, these sort of holographic lovers who are larger than life—they’re gods, and they’re greater than all of history. And ultimately, they bleed and die just like the rest of us. That’s really the arc.”
— Opera News, September 2022

“At S.F. Opera, Antony and Cleopatra are movie stars finding love behind the glamour”
By  Lily Janiak, August 31, 2022

“I really came to see that as this incredibly complex, very real adult relationship. It’s more than just fleeting feelings,” she said. “It’s really like how you’re deeply tethered to people as you get older and relationships get more complex.”
— San Francisco Chronicle

“Love, ancient and modern”
By Thomas May, September 2022

“I was really interested in how our own relationship to creating gods in the modern day — Hollywood on the big screen — parallels mightily the totemic iconography of Ancient Egypt and also the rise of the Roman Empire.”
— Opera Now

“San Francisco Opera world premieres John Adams' ‘Antony and Cleopatra’”
By James Ambroff-Tahan, September 6, 2022

“The play is pretty sweeping, as it covers over 40 scenes and 40 characters, and some argue many more depending on folio or version,” said director Elkhanah Pulitzer. “The biggest challenge was in trying to create an overall story arc that preserved all the wonderful and critical events of our three leads: Antony, Cleopatra and Octavian. Antony and Cleopatra’s fall as great lovers and leaders counterbalance with the extraordinary rise of Octavian, who would rebrand himself Augustus Caesar, the first Roman emperor.”
— San Francisco Examiner

Reviews

“Director Elkhanah Pulitzer’s resourceful production, which makes nimble use of sliding stage sets and film clips to set the action in 1930s Europe, never lets conceptual trappings obscure the human realities at work.”
— San Francisco Chronicle

“The production by Pulitzer is smart and focused…”
— Financial Times

“Like any successful dramatic production, Antony is a great team effort. Bringing it all together is Pulitzer’s direction of the singers, which flows through the production as naturally as the Nile. She stages each scene without affectation or eccentricity, following and supporting the flow of words and music and, of course, the relationships among the characters. Everything onstage — singers, sets, lighting — works together with an organic sense of rightness.”
— San Francisco Classical Voice

“Pulitzer’s direction is quietly effective…”
— The Telegraph

“Elkhanah Pulitzer’s visually stunning, well-paced production…married the ancient worlds of Egypt and Rome with the glamour of 1930s Hollywood.”
— Opera News

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