So here we go with a round up of the best things I saw and listened to in 2024.

Opera

The Toronto opera scene is still a bit flat and lacking the vibrancy of pre-pandemic with Against the Grain pretty much invisible and Tapestry wrapped up in building out their new digs.  Still, there were some good shows.  The best of the CCC’s offerings, IMO, were Cherubini’s Medea in the spring and Gounod’s Faust in the fall.  Beyond the COC, William Christie and co’s presentation of Purcell’s The Fairy Queen at TSM was refreshingly different, Opera 5 bounced back with a rather good production of Britten’s The Turn of the Screw and let’s throw Art of Time Ensemble’s reimagining of Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale into this category too.  There were a couple of excellent student shows.  The GGS produced a very good Dialogues of the Carmelites early in the year and UoT Opera chipped in with their Three Islands show featuring three one act operas directed by Tim Albery.

Concerts

My picks in this category are seriously eclectic.  Two shows at Koerner Hall early in the year stood out; Peter Sellars’ staging of Schütz’ Musikalische Exequien with the LA Master Chorale and Emma Nikolovska’s emotional and engaging “Return to Toronto”.  TSM featured two outstanding but very different concerts with an excellent recital by Dame Sarah Connolly and the debut of the ebullient Schmaltz and Pepper.  Later in the year was the CD launch of Ajdad-Ancestors by the Amir Amiri Ensemble.  Finally, Barbara Hannigan did it again at a packed Koerner Hall with a recital with Bernard Chamayou which included an absolutely remarkable performance of music by John Zorn.

Theatre

The Toronto theatre scene is really busy.  I don’t usually see the most commercial end of it (i.e. Mirvish) but it still keeps me super busy with seasons from high quality outfits like Coal Mine, Crow’s Theatre and Canadian Stage and a bunch of much more experimental stuff from smaller theatre companies and festivals.

The very best came quite late in the year with the stunning one man show featuring Saul Rubinek;  Playing Shylock at Canadian Stage.  There were also some strong productions of repertory classics including Hedda Gabler at Coal Mine and Rosmersholm at Crow’s.  Two plays about residential schools also impressed me; Jani Lauzon’s 1939 at Canadian Stage managed to be deeply thought provoking and very funny and Civilized at Buddies in Bad Times was a stunning one man show.

On a lighter note, I actually enjoyed a musical: the very clever and inventive DION at Coal Mine and I was equally taken by the rather mad Mad Madge from Nightwood.  The Inheritance at Canadian Stage deserves a mention.  In this age of sub 90 minute plays a tightly written and consistently compelling six hour epic is something to behold!  Finally, a couple of Fringe shows gave me a good laugh.  There was the crazy farce/clown show Monks and the wonderful black comedy Stiff and Sons.  They made up for the less successful fare and all the hanging around in line ups in the blazing sun!

Video recordings

It wasn’t a particularly great year in terms of DVD/Blu-ray releases but four did stand out.  There was a recording Rameau’s Platée that showcased just how well Opéra de Paris incorporates dance, a very focussed Robert Carsen production of Aida from Covent Garden, a charming L’elisir d’amore, also from Covent Garden and a rather radical Der Freischütz from, of all places, Bregenz.

Also on video we got to see the Digital Excellence Award winning film Sweat by Jennifer Nicholls and Larissa Koniuk.  And, a deeply personal one for me; was the very weird discovery of a recording of the 1977 TV broadcast of Viktor Uhlmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis.

Audio recordings

So many audio recordings come my way that it’s impossible to keep up.  Some notable ones early in the year included a recording of Michael Hersch’s opera Poppea and a beautiful recital by Hera Hyesang Park (with some help from Emily D’Angelo).  I don’t often listen to opera on CD when I can watch it but I thought the recording of Handel’s Theodora on the Alpha label was outstanding.  Barbara Hannigan and Bertrand Chamayou chipped in with some outstanding Messiaen.  There was also George Benjamin’s excellent new opera Picture a Day Like This (we need a video of this one) and Benjamin Appl’s fascinating collaboration with György Kurtág; Lines of Life.

Statistics

It was a busy year.  I reviewed 149 live shows (71 concerts, 29 opera performances and 49 plays).  I also published reviews of 34 opera videos and 46 CDs with a few more of each in the pipeline at various publications.