Bay Area music critics may have been unduly harsh in their judgement of the three productions featured in this summer's San Francisco Opera season. Showboat - the boldest and most popular of the lot - came closest to winning   kudos from local writers, and Madame Butterfly was generally greeted with soft applause for the featured stars.

The angriest words were reserved for "Team One" of La Traviata, which was staged using two different pairs of singers in the principal roles. 

Ailyn Periz and Stephen Costello (married in real life) were favored over Nicole Cabell and Saimir Pirgu as Violleta and Alfredo. 

Quinn Kelsey, as Germont, was also the critical winner in SFO's second team effort. Giuseppe Finzi was preferred conductor (for reasons not particularly well articulated) over Music Director, Nicola Luisotti. 

Go figure.