Author Archives: operaramblings

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About operaramblings

Toronto based lover of opera, art song, related music and all forms of theatre.

Still waiting for Godot

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It’s been 73 years since the first performance of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Vladimir and Estragon are still waiting.  The play though has become an established  icon of experimental 20th century theatre and millions of words have been written about it.  It’s currently running at Coal Mine Theatre in a production directed by Kelli Fox.  As far as I remember (and it’s been fifty years since I read the play) this production plays it straight and pretty much entirely according to the stage directions in the script.  The set is a tree and a bunch of dirt.  Nobody sits in a dust bin.  So everything turns on subtlety and timing which is quite a challenge.

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Enormity, Girl and the Earthquake in Her Lungs

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Chelsea Woodley’s Enormity, Girl and the Earthquake in Her Lungs, in a production directed by Andrea Donaldson for Nightwood Theatre, opened at the Jackman Performance Centre on Saturday night.  It’s enormously ambitious and performed with great skill and energy but I’m not sure it entirely works.

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Ensemble Studio kick off

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The free concert series in the RBA kicked off on Wednesday with, as usual, a performance by the artists of the COC’s Ensemble Studio.  Owing to illness only five singers performed and only one of those, Emily Rocha, was a returnee.  The other four singers and both pianists were newcomers.  It was short but enjoyable.

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Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson remastered

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In 2003, in conjunction of a revival of Peter Sellars’production of Handel’s Theodora at Glyndebourne ,Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson went into the studio and recorded a Handel album with Harry Bicket and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.  That album was released to great acclaim in 2004.  It’s now been remastered and the new version will be available on October 17th.

The album contains all of Irene’s music from Theodora including superb versions of “As with rosy steps the morn” and “Lord, to Thee, each night and day”.  There’s also the cantata Lucrezia where she is accompanied by Harry Bicket on harpsichord & chamber organ, Stephen Stubbs on 10-course lute and Baroque guitar, Phoebe Carrai on cello and Margriet Tindemans on viola da gamba.  There are also two arias from Serse; “Se bramate d’amar, chi vi sdegna” and “Ombra mai fu”. Continue reading →

The internet is a monster

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Octet, by Dave Malloy, opened at Crow’s Theatre on Wednesday evening.  I guess it’s Crow’s big musical this year; a kind of follow up to Pierre, Natasha and the Great Comet, but it’s actually a very different kind of show.  One major difference is musical.  All the singing is a capella which puts extra demands on the singers (and isn’t unpleasantly loud).  The whole cast; eight of course, are really rather good singers and pull off the solo and ensemble numbers extremely well.  They can also act and they are backed up by a really effective lighting plot Imogen Wilson) and video (Nathan Bruce) that pretty much replace the set, which is pretty basic.

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A great king, a lonely king

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King Gilgamesh and the Man of the Wild opened at Soulpepper on Wednesday evening but I saw a preview on Sunday which forms the basis for this review.  It’s an unusual and compelling show with a clever story line, some terrific acting (verbal and physical) and a Sufi influenced Arabic jazz band for good measure.

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Tapestry is back with a bang

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Tapestry Opera has announced its first full season since leaving the Distillery District and it looks like “back to the future”.  Most of the usual (much missed) stuff is there.  So here’s the line up:

  • October 16th-19th – Tapestry Briefs: Under Where? – Nancy & Ed Jackman Performance Centre.  Briefs is back with a new line up of composers and librettists including, I’m delighted to say, the Gray sisters.  Basically this is the performance end of the LibLab where we get to see the best of what the workshops produced.  Always worth seeing.
  • January 16th and 17th – LOL: Laughing Out Lonely – Nancy & Ed Jackman Performance Centre.  This is a solo opera by the Danish company OPE-N.  Created by Matilde Böcher and Asger Kudahl and starring Morten Grove Frandsen inhabiting multiple on-line personas, it explores the darker side of social media.
  • March 26th – 29th – Ana Sokolović’s Love Songs – Nancy & Ed Jackman Performance Centre.  Soprano Xin Wang takes us on a muklti-lingual journey through love and loss in a version of the Sokolovic work adapted for the stage by Michael Hidetoshi Mori.
  • June 16th – 21st – Super Sekret Opera – Bluma Appel Theatre.  This yet to be announced opera will be fully staged with orchestra and chorus.  All I can tell you is that is “the creation of a Canadian playwright you already admire and a composer the New York Times has hailed as one of the most important voices of our time”.

Welcome back Tapestry!

The Welkin is compelling theatre that transcends time and place

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Lucy Kirkwood’s The Welkin is a rarity.  It’s a serious play with an overwhelmingly female ensemble cast that looks at issues of class, gender, power and authority almost entirely through a female lens.  It’s hard hitting, sometimes violent and often shocking which makes for compelling theatre.  It opened on Thursday evening in the Baillie Theatre at Soulpepper in a co-pro by Soulpepper, Crow’s and the Howland Company, directed by Weyni Mengesha.

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