The Spectre’s Bride

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Dvořák’s Svatební košile (The Spectre’s Bride) is a dramatic cantata for three soloists, chorus and orchestra.  It tells the story of a pious young woman  who is surprised while praying by her thought-to-be-lost fiancé.  He takes her on a breakneck journey during which he progressively divests her of her prayer book, rosary and cross.  She’s a bit slow to catch on but when he invites her to join him in a graveyard she decides to make her escape.  Her place of refuge turns out to be a morgue with a fresh corpse in it.  The inhabitants of the graveyard call on the corpse to open the door and give the girl up but just in time she remembers to pray to the Virgin and a chorus of cocks announce the dawn driving the dead back into their graves.  It just needs Vincent Price or Christopher Lee!  Musically it’s very Dvořák; skilful high Romanticism with some folky touches, especially in the vocal writing.  It lasts about eighty minutes and it’s well worth hearing. Continue reading →

More season announcements

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Following on from yesterday’s COC announcement we now have the TSO’s 2026/27 season announcement.  It’s the usual mix of Classics, Pops, Films and Young People’s concerts.  The Classics section is heavy on standard rep with lots of Beethoven and some big name soloists.  There are, however, three concerts with significant vocal content:

  • November 12th and 14th 2026 Rachel Willis-Sørensen is performing Strauss’ Four Last Songs.  There’s also a Beethoven 4th on that programme.
  • June 17th and 19th 2027 we get Mahler’s monumental 8th Symphony.  If you were impressed by Sarah Dufresne (pictured above) in Rigoletto, she’s one of the soloists for the Mahler.
  • And, speaking of COC stars this year’s Messiah features Deepa Johnny along with Louise Alder, Paul Appleby and Joshua Hopkins (December 15th to 20th 2026).

Here’s the full season brochure.TSO 2026_27 Subscription Brochure

Also recently announced, Opera Atelier’s 2026/27 offering.  They have two shows; both at Koerner Hall.

  • October 22nd to 25th they are performing Charpentier’s The Descent of Orpheus featuring Mireilles Asselin and Lebel, among others.  Chris Bagan conducts which is welcome.
  • April 15th to 18th 2027 there’s a remount of Handel’s The Resurrection.  Carla Huhtanen and Meghan Lindsay reprise their roles but the rest of the cast is new.

Full details of casts and creative teams are here.

Fauré Requiem at Metropolitan United

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Last Thursday lunchtime’s Noon at Met concert was given by the UoT’s Schola Cantorum conducted by Daniel Taylor with Jonathan Oldengarm at Met’s very impressive organ. The music was Fauré’s rather unusual Requiem op.45.  I say unusual because it’s much more gentle and lyrical  than most, not least because there’s no Dies Irae.  That’s cut except for the Pie Jesu section.  Also it finishes with the hopeful In Paradisum from the Burial Service.  Apparently this is because Fauré was most definitely not an orthodox Catholic rather lying somewhere on a spectrum from theist to agnostic but obviously still aware that we all die and we all grieve.

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Payadora in the RBA

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Last Wednesday’s lunchtime’s concert in the RBA was given by Payadora Tango Ensemble with guest vocalist Elbio Fernandez.  I’ve been following pretty much every musical initiative from the dynamic duo of Rebekah Wolkstein and (Grammy winner) Drew Jurecka for a while now.  From the Venuti String Quartet, to Schmaltz and Pepper (of course) to Justin Gray’s Grammy winning Immersed and Wednesday’s avatar Payadora Tango Ensemble.

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Risqué at the Rivoli 2026

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The latest edition of Opera Revue’s Risqué at the Rivoli happened on Saturday night.  There was Mozart and Weill and Bizet and show tunes and lots more.  And of course there was burlesque; which was really the point.  The show featured singers Alex Hajek, Danie Friesen and Maddy Cooper (@kissthknee) with Claire Elise Harris at the keyboards. Also performing in various states of dress and undress were A’Slayna von Hunt (@aslaynavon), Jamaica (@jamaicafraser), Lacy Jane (@lacyjaneburlesque), Tuckker (@matteldracher #TUCKKER) and Magz (@magzviolet).

It is, of course, excellent fun to see Zerlina (Danie) put a collar and leash on a very willing Don G (Alex) and while it might have been amusing to see Danie tied to a bedpost and spanked, alas, she only sang about it. But really it’s a show that’s very much about the bulesque performers and that’s pretty visual.  They say that a picture is worth a thousand words so there’s thirty thousand or so’s worth below the cut. But, be aware, definitely not safe for work!

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Luca Pisaroni in the RBA

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Bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni is currently appearing as Basilio in The Barber of Seville at the COC.  On Tuesday he gave a noon hour recital in the RBA accompanied by Hyejin Kwon.  There were two halves to the programme; Schubert’s Schwanengesang D.957 and a set of six Italian songs by Francesco Paolo Tosti.

Despite having seen Pisaroni live twice before in recital I’d never heard him sing German Lieder so the Schubert was especially interesting.  It was good.  He can be as dramatic or as lyrical as he needs to be with quite a range of dynamics and colour.  “Der Atlas” was powerful and emphatic while “Das Fischermädchen” was really rather lovely.  “Der Doppelgänger” was very controlled with any temptation to over sing it resiosted.  I also noted some really interesting piano playing in “Die Stadt”. Continue reading →