Britten from Monaco

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The Orchestre Philharmonique de Monaco and their conductor Lawrence Foster recently recorded a collection of Britten works to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the composer’s death.  It’s a bit of an odd mix but it’s nicely done.  The first piece is The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.  This was composed for a commission by the British Ministry of Education to accompany an educational film for schools showcasing the various instruments of the orchestra.  I find it hard to imagine that happening now.  Anyway, it’s performed here, as it often is, without narration.  It’s quite a sprightly and satisfying performance. Continue reading →

Music and Theatre in March

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Here is what’s on the radar so far.:

Music

  • March 3rd at noon in the RBA the UofT Faculty of Music: France-Canada Academy of Vocal Arts have their annual collaborative recital.
  • On the 18th there are two opportunities to see opera.  At noon in the RBA there’s the 25th anniversary performance of Dean Burry’s The Brothers Grimm which is almost certainly the most performed Canadian opera of all time.  It hit 500 performances in December 2012 so who knows what the count is now?  In the evening GGS Opera present a double bill of Rossini’s La cambiale di matrimonio and Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi in Koerner Hall.  There’s a second performance on the 20th.
  • On the 20th at Trinity St.Paul’s members of Schola Cantorum, the Theatre of Early Music and Tafelmusik are performing Handel’s Theodora; arguably his greatest oratorio.  Soloists include Owen McCausland and Alexander Dobson.
  • I don’t usually mention the MetHD cinema broadcasts but there’s a rather special one on the 21st.  Lise Davidsen is singing in a Tristan und Isolde directed by Yuval Sharon.
  • Also on the afternoon of the 21st at Trinity Saint Paul’s Opera in Concert are presenting Weill’s Lost in the Stars in a semi-staged version with chamber ensemble rather than piano.
  • On the evening of the 21st Soundstreams have a concert at the Jane Mallett Theatre featuring Quatuor Bozzini.
  • On March 26th the Ensemble Studio have a Lieder recital at noon in the RBA.
  • March 26th to 29th Tapestry Opera are offering a staged version of Anna Sokolović’s Love Songs.

Theatre

  • Mohsin Zaidi’s The Surrogate opens at Crow’s on March 4th.  Previews are February 24th to March 3rd and the run continues to March 22nd.
  • Jill Connell’s The Herald promises us that by the end we will know “how to be in Shoppers Drug Mart, wondering how to handle time”.  It runs at Buddies in Bad Times with a preview on March 4th and the run from the 5th to the 14th.
  • March 6th and 7th Sex T-Rex are presenting their cinema inspired comedy show Crime After Crime (After Crime) at the Theatre Centre.
  • ARC are presenting Sam Holcroft’s A Mirror at 918 Bathurst.  Previews are March 19th and 11th, opening is on the 12th and it runs to March 28th.

Daughters of Donbas – CD Launch and film screening

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On Friday evening I attended the CD launch for Daughters of Donbas’ new album Songs of Stolen Children at the Tranzac.  Let me try and provide some context.  The Russian invasion of Ukraine has now been going on for four years and, of course, before that, in 2014, Russia seized the Crimea and territories in the Donbas.  The Russians are determined, as they have been since the 18th century, to erase Ukraine as a separate polity and write Ukrainian culture out of the historical record (as they have done with others such as the Crimean Tartars).  A relatively recent step in this campaign is the kidnapping of over 20,000 Ukrainian children who have been deported to “re-education” camps in Russia where, cut off from their families, they are trained to be good little Russians.  Parallels with events closer to home are a bit obvious.  Daughters of the Donbas is a band and a project dedicated to keeping this issue alive. Continue reading →

Intriguing recital album from Laura Choi Stuart

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Rituals combines songs by Charles Ives, Reynaldo Hahn and William Bolcom around a theme of “living the good life”.  The eight Ives songs set texts either by himself or by 19th century English poets in a characteristically Ivesian way.  There are folksy bits and hymn tunes (a setting of Arnold’s “West London”) plus some crazy loud piano (“Paracelsus”).  Laura Choi Stuart sings them idiomatically and clearly with excellent accompaniment by Tanya Blaich.  It’s a vision of the good life rooted in community and collective memory. Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →