Regular readers will know that I’ve seen my fair share of shows by Opera Revue but pretty much always in a bar or pub and as the band always says “The more you drink, the better we sound”.  Thus it was with some trepidation that I went to see them in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre on Wednesday.  It was the core gang; Danie Friesen, Alex Hajek, Claire Harris.  No ringers (except for the person who forgot to turn off their phone).

It was good.  The printed programme looked like just a bunch of opera arias (plus the odd art song) but most of them were the Opera Revue parodies and so on that you might have seen on YouTube like the TTC one based on “cinque… dieci” and “Fu… fu… fu..” based on that other Mozart opera.

Then there were haikus
Five of them by Mark Kohn
Sung by Danie F

There were some numbers done more or less straight including Alex with “Pari siamo” from Rigoletto and “Largo al factotum” and Danie with Weill’s Wie lange noch? sounding a less frivolous note.  The pizza commercial got a look in as did Danie’s country star act and the “What the Fach?” version of the “Flower Duet” from Lakmé.

Claire Harris had a proper piano to play and the acoustics in the RBA are better than most bars so all in all I didn’t miss having a beer all that much.

There are various OR shows around town over the next while but the big one is on November 26th at The Great Hall and involves pro wrestling.

Photo credits: Chris Hutcheson