siofra lacks horror and doesn’t have much else to offer

Posted on June 19, 2026 by operaramblings

síofra, by Natalia Bushnik and Kathleen Welch, is Act II of the ‘Dark Mother Trilogy’, a series of three horror-theatre plays exploring fertility and motherhood through the folklore of three different countries: Romania (SAMCA), Ireland (síofra), and Germany (spilleHOLLE). It’s presented by Spindle Collective at the diminutive Red Sandcastle Theatre. I didn’t see SAMCA but it got good reviews so I was well prepared to give siofra a shot. Frankly I was quite disappointed and I shall attempt to explain why.

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10 Days in a Madhouse

Posted on June 18, 2026 by operaramblings

My review of the Canadian premier of Rene Orth and Hannah Moscovitch’s 10 Days in a Madhouse is now published at bachtrack.com.

TL:DR It’s musically and dramatically innovative and excellent with some very strong performances.

Photo credit: Eric Forget Photography. #bachtrack

Radvanovsky does Puccini Heroines

Posted on June 14, 2026 by operaramblings

My review of Sandra Radvanovsky’s recent Puccini Heroines CD is now up at La Scena Musicale. Every “heroine” from Lauretta to Turandot!

Catalogue information: Pentatone PTC5187491

Parélios is an ethereally gorgeous journey to nowhere

Posted on June 13, 2026 by operaramblings

Parélios; music by Cecilia Livingston, words by Duncan McFarlane, opened at Theatre Passe Muraille on Friday as part of Opera 5’s Toronto Opera Festival. It’s an intensely cerebral and very, very beautiful work but it’s unrelenting and quite dark. Basically a group of refugees; perhaps fleeing some environmental catastrophe, are on a journey to who knows where. They have survived the winter but the summer brings no real relief. It’s a bit like Cormac McCarthy’s The Road but vastly more intellectual and poetic.

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A very grand Beethoven’s Ninth from the TSO

Posted on June 12, 2026 by operaramblings

My review of Thursday night’s performance at Roy Thomson Hall of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony conducted by Gustavo Gimeno with soloists, the TSO and the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir is now up at Bachtrack. It’s Beethoven in the grand manner and very enjoyable. It’s playingg again Friday, Saturday, Sunday with a singalong livestream at Sankofa Square on Friday.

Photo credit: Alan Cabral… courtesy of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra

#bachtrack

Waiting for Marilyn

Posted on June 5, 2026 by operaramblings

By the Word Productions premiered Franca Miraglia’s American Devotion in the Studio at Crow’s Theatre on Thursday. The playwright imagines what might have happened if Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe had invited Norman Mailer and his wife over for dinner or drinks at their Connecticut farmhouse.

In American Devotion Mailer shows up at the Millers having engineered a drinks invitation but leaving his wife behind. He has a cunning plan to use Miller’s upcoming appearance before the House Unamerican Activities Committee to their mutual advantage; Miller will be spared jail and Mailer will get the publicity his flagging career desperately needs. If Marilyn can be persuaded to cooperate.

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Enjoyable Puccini double bill opens Opera 5’s Toronto Opera Festival

Posted on June 4, 2026 by operaramblings

Opera 5 opened the Toronto Opera festival on Wednesday at Theatre Passe Muraille with a Puccini double bill; the rarely seen Suor Angelica and perennial crowd pleaser Gianni Schicchi. Both were presented fully staged in productions by Jessica Derventzis with accompaniment by a chamber ensemble (string quartet, bass, harp, piano) conducted by Evan Mitchell.

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Energetic, fun and weird… in the best possible way

Posted on June 3, 2026 by operaramblings

Tiger Bride; which opened at Soulpepper on Tuesday is an adaptation of one of the stories in Angela Carter’s collection The Bloody Chamber. All of the stories take traditional folk tales but twist them to give the female protagonist a great deal more agency than in the original. The Tiger’s Bride, on which Tiger Bride is based, is in its turn a version of Beauty and the Beast and the adaptation, by Frank Cox-O’Connell (who also directs), Hailey Gillis and Andrew Penner has turned it into a sort of eclectic rock musical.

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Primary Trust is gentle, funny but a bit bland

Posted on May 30, 2026 by operaramblings

Primary Trust by Eboni Booth opened at Crow’s Theatre on Friday night. The protagonist is Kenneth; a thirty eight year old African-American living in a suburb of Rochester, NY. Orphaned at ten, Kenneth has worked in the same second hand bookstore since he was eighteen and spends his leisure time drinking mai tais at Wally’s; a tiki bar. He’s accompanied by his friend Bert; who no-one else can see, who was his social worker in the first days after he was discovered with his dead mother in a kitchen cabinet and then dropped out of his life.

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Fiddler in Yiddish is thought provoking and fun

Posted on May 29, 2026 by operaramblings

I’m not generally a huge fan of Broadway style musicals though when they have more than average dramatic and musical depth I can be up for it. Cabaret and Candide are favourites for example; combining fairly sophisticated music with social content. I’m also, as regular readers may have noticed, intrigued by Yiddish music and Yiddish culture generally. So, I was really quite intrigued to experience Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish which opened at the Elgin Theatre on Thursday evening.

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