The Opéra national de Paris 2005 production of Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito is very fine. Ironically it’s actually quite a conventional production overall though one scene, the one where Tito makes his first appearance, is so weird that it provides the generic name used in some circles I frequent for an entirely inexplicable production element (see below).
The first in a new series of the Canadian Opera Company’s The Big COC Podcast is now up on the COC website and at iTunes. (On iTunes search for “The Big COC Podcast”). It features Gianmarco Segato of the COC, Wayne Gooding of Opera Canada, Leslie Barcza of barczablog and myself. You can hear us talk about operetta in general, the COC’s upcoming Die Fledermaus, Evgeni Nikitin’s tattoos, John Teraud’s “boulder and a hard place” article and the problems of getting the word out to potential audiences in a post-newspaper world.
Among the goodies I won from Chicago Opera Theatre in a recent Twitter! contest was a 2001 recording of Robert Kurka’s 1956 opera The Good Soldier Schweik based on the novel by Jaroslav Hašek. It’s a very interesting piece. It’s on an odd sort of scale with 26 solo parts, here managed by a team of 12 singers, plus chorus. It uses a fifteen piece woodwind and brass band with no strings at all. I’m guessing it could easily be presented in quite a wide range of theatres.
The COC has announced the line up for the 2012/13 series of free concerts in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre at the Four Seasons Centre. There’s the usual mix of vocal, instrumental, jazz, world music and dance. There are plenty of opportunities to see the Ensemble Studio members as well as solo gigs by Franz-Josef Selig and Anna Christy. For fans of Indian classical music there’s also a sarangi recital by Aruna Narayan. Also of interest is a concert by Queen of Puddings Music Theatre “Inspired by Lorca”.
Theresa – Emily Atkinson
Last night we saw the preview of A Synonym for Love at the Gladstone Hotel. The Gladstone has a long and eventful history. Nowadays it’s a boutique “artist” hotel which serves as a performance space and gallery for various indie projects like the one we saw. The work itself is, I suppose, a pastiche. The music is Handel’s long lost cantata Clori, Tirsi e Fileno. It was written when Handel was 21 and isn’t maybe his greatest work but there’s a lot of really good music in it. The libretto is an English text by Deborah Pearson that takes the basic idea of a love triangle and gives it a modern twist. In Ms. Pearson’s story Clori, sung by soprano Traxy Smith Bessette, is a bisexual woman from Calgary in town for a fling with her male lover Phil (countertenor Scott Belluz) at, naturally, the Gladstone. She is followed by her jealous long term partner Theresa (soprano Emily Atkinson). Mayhem ensues. There are also three non-singing roles who act as “guides” to the audience and participate in the drama as hotel employees. Continue reading
Presto Classical has a great clearance sale of DVDs and Blu-rays on right now. I don’t know whether there’s something for everyone here but a Blu-ray of Birtwistle’s Minotaur for $11 is a hell of a deal and there are lots of other goodies similarly priced.
Much as I enjoy full scale opera productions by conventional, large opera companies like the COC, some of my best experiences in the last few years have been with smaller companies mounting unconventional productions in smaller and often unusual venues. There’s another opportunity of that type coming up over the next two weeks. Starting Sunday night Volcano Theatre are staging A Synonym for Love at the Gladstone Hotel. The music is by Handel but it’s using a new English libretto by Deborah Pearson. The action will take place in different locations in the Gladstone and the audience will follow the action around. The music director for this project is Ashiq Aziz who was responsible for an excellent Dido and Aeneas at the Winchester Dance Theatre a few years ago as well as last year’s innovative Orlando Lunaire in a warehouse in the west end.
The preview is on Sunday evening with ten more performances between then and the end of the month. Tickets run $20-$42. I’ll be at the preview.
Ken Russell’s 1985 production of Gounod’s Faust at the Wiener Staatsoper makes an uneven and somewhat unsatisfying DVD. The music making is fine, sometimes very fine, and the production has some very interesting and effective scenes but the overall concept doesn’t quite work. Add to that quirky video direction and a picture quality that’s not good even by 1985 standards and the package as a whole just doesn’t quite make it. It’s a shame as this is more interesting than most opera productions of the period. Continue reading
Heaven only knows why it has taken me so long to discover this resource. COC Radio is awesome. Besides educational materials there are streamable audio recordings of every production from the last two seasons.
The audience at this 1988 San Francisco Opera production of La Bohème clearly thought very highly of it. There is even some applause for the scenery. I’m less impressed. Seen as a star vehicle for Pavarotti and Freni it’s quite adequate, though both are decidedly on the mature side for Rodolfo or Mimi. Other than that it’s rather dull, the video direction doesn’t help it any and the technical quality is no more than adequate. Continue reading
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