Luxury!  Two operatic concerts on consecutive lunchtimes in the RBA.  On Thursday it was the turn of the Glenn Gould School’s Rebanks fellows with mentor Paul Groves to present a series of staged opera excerpts directed by Anna Theodosakis.  Stéphane Mayer provided the excellent piano accompaniment throughout.

First up was “Bella figlia dell’amore” from Rigoletto with Elias Theocharidis as the dodgy duke, Ellita Gagner as a very sexy Maddalena with McKenzie Warriner as Gilda and Matthew Li as the jester grumbling in the background.  Very nicely done with some lively acting by Theocharidis and Gagner.

Next up was Matthew Li with Philip’s aria from Act 4 of Don Carlo (I think).  It was really good and the only bass aria he sang.  Curiously he did sing a number of bass-baritone and baritone roles during the concert. (The cool kids call this “Faching up”).

And to prove the point we got Matthew back as the count in the duet “Crudel! percha finora” with McKenzie Warriner as a very flirty Susanna.  After which she changed gears to belt out an extremely forceful and accurate “Der Hölle Rache”.  And then more baritone Li with the two ladies in a rather lovely version of “Soave sia il vento”.

Next up was Ellita with “L’amour est un oiseau rebelle” curiously staged almost exactly as Clémentine Margaine’s version some eight years ago in the same space (but minus the terrifying stilettos).  I do like Ellita’s voice.  It’s got a dark sexy quality that really suits Carmen.

Paul Groves was joined by Matthew for “Au fond du temple saint”.  This was glorious and it really is a fantastic. aria.  (not a bad opera really either).  The voices were well matched.  My only complaint would be that this was starting to hit the volume level at which the RBA gets “buzzy” (or my ears do… honestly I’m not sure which).

Two numbers from L’elisir d’amore followed.  Elias made a suitably dorky Nemorino paired with a very smooth Matthew in “Voglio dire… Obbligato, obbligato” which was well sung and very funny and led nicely into Elias and McKenzie’s quite touching version of “Caro elisir, sei mio… Esulti par la Barbara”.

And to wind up, all five singers sang us out with “Make Our Garden Grow” from Candide.  So two days running we got to hear what fine young singers Toronto currently has.

Photo credits: Stelth Ng