Author Archives: operaramblings

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About operaramblings

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

Tapestry Briefs: Winter Shorts

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The current Tapestry Briefs show presents work from the 2016 LibLab.  It’s all new and, inevitably, very mixed.  It started very strongly with a scene, The Call of the Light (Imam Habibi/Bobby Theodore) based on the 1984 attack on the Quebec National Assembly.  The combination of an assault rifle carrying camo clad Alex Dobson , the rest of the cast (Jacquie Woodley, Keith Klassen, Erica Iris) writhing on the floor and dissonant extended piano from Michael Shannon was genuinely disturbing.  Having a gun pointed straight at you from a few feet away doesn’t happen often at the opera.

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Keith Klassen and Jacqueline Woodley

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Massenet’s Werther

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Thackeray thought Goethe’s Sorrows of Young Werther was so boring and idiotic that he wrote a satirical poem about it (you can find it at the bottom of the page).  Massenet’s reaction, alas, was to write a three hour opera based on it.  Add to the implausible and dull plot (altered but slightly from Goethe’s original) Massenet’s overblown romantic music and penchant for any sentimentality he can find (at the end, a children’s chorus sings a Christmas song while Werther is bleeding to death in Charlotte’s arms) and it’s well nigh unbearable.

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Rodelinda in concert

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Yesterday’s VOICEBOX presentation was Handel’s Rodelinda.  It was given in their usual style.  No sets (bar the odd projection), minimal props, concert wear and the singers mostly in front of an onstage orchestra.  The main attraction was the “all star” cast.  To have Christina Haldane, David Trudgen, Charles Sy and Alex Dobson in the principal roles is something of a luxury.  The two young mezzos rounding out the cast; Gena van Oosten and Meagan Larios weren’t half bad either.

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Don Giovanni at UoT Opera

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The Opera Division’s fall production this year is Mozart’s Don Giovanni in a production by Marilyn Gronsdal.  Let’s start with the production.  The sets are all paper and boxes with a few props and the costuming is 1940s.  The aesthetic is film noir.  There are trilbies and Don Ottavio is packing a piece in a shoulder holster.  It set, for me and my companion at least, an expectation that this would be a “film noir production” but although there were nods in that direction; Leporello as the comic sidekick, statuette of the Commendatore as the murder weapon for example, the idea wasn’t really developed at all.  Instead we got a very straightforward narrative with the a few twists.  Gronsdal included a chorus of silent women who comment on the action (didn’t she do this in Saskatoon as well?) and Don Giovanni isn’t dragged down to Hell.

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Whose Opera is it Anyway? November edition

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Last night’s Whose Opera is it Anyway? from LooseTEA Theatre featured Alana Viau MCing, Natasha Fransblow on keyboards, Rachel Krehm, Michael York, Gillian Grossman and Amanda Kogan improvving and a thirteen year old kid called Alex (or possibly Alice) stealing the show.  The format was the usual.  Games where the audience supplies some key element e.g. a place – a launderette and designated cast members turn it into a sketch.  Best of the night I think was the “breakfast food” sketch with Michael and Amanda which went from a surprisingly filthy “left over pizza” to “left over pizza backwards” to “left over pizza in the Dark Ages”, mostly in Pig Latin.  There was also a very creepy “execution” sketch where Rachel gleefully cut body parts off a recumbent Michael.  Do not upset this chick!

There was lots more and of course it’s very silly.  That’s the point!  But it’s good fun and worth a look.  The next edition is at Bad Dog Theatre at 8pm on December 20th.

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Closing out November

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shortsThis week we have VOICEBOX’s presentation of Handel’s Rodelinda.  It’s a great cast with Christina Haldane, Charles Sy and Alex Dobson among others.  Also it’s chamber orchestra not piano.  That’s on Sunday at 2.30pm at the Jane Mallett Theatre.  On Thursday the noon concert in the RBA is McGill’s Schulich Singers.  They will present works by Henk Badings, Eric Whitacre, John Corigliano, Dan Forrest, and others.  Not sure that’s my thing but each to his/her own.  That evening at 8pm in the Dancemakers’ Studio at the Distillery it’s Tapestry Briefs: Winter Shorts. This is a show of excerpts from concepts and works in progress.  It’s always interesting and often very funny.  I think the opening show is probably sold out but there are further performances on Friday and Saturday at 8pm and Saturday and Sunday at 4pm (for those brave enough to face the Christmas Market hordes).

 

Voice of a Nation

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VOANVoice of a Nation is a Métis inspired collection of works that has been touring Ontario as part of the Canada 150 thing.  Last night the Toronto leg of the tour happened  at Grace Toronto Church.  There are three pieces in the program.  Different Perspectives is a setting by Ian Cusson of a text synthesized from the sometimes surprising reactions of a group of young people asked “what Canada meant to them”.  It was designed to be sung by community choirs on the tour and last night was given by three (uncredited) female singers accompanied by the thirteen player Toronto Concert Orchestra under Kerry Stratton.

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A different take on Tosca

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For quite some time I have wondered whether it’s possible to reinterpret Puccini’s Tosca or whether the specificity as to time and place in the libretto makes it effectively impossible?  Indeed I had never even seen it tried.  All this despite the many and obvious anachronisms in the libretto.  All the Toscas I had seen were clearly set in Rome in that one week in 1800 (or at least the implausible version of it that’s contained in the libretto)!  Phillip Himmelmann’s production for the 2017 Baden-Baden Easter Festival breaks the mould in giving it a contemporary, or perhaps near future, setting.

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Your chance to be an opera star

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Signal boosting for the good folks at Against the Grain…

Against the Grain Theatre, Opera Columbus and Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity seeking members for virtual chorus extravaganza

Singers across the globe encouraged to submit videos to be considered for groundbreaking musical experiment

TORONTO — Against the Grain Theatre, along with co-producers Opera Columbus in Columbus, Ohio, and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Banff, Alberta, are developing Christoph Willibald Gluck’s most famous work, Orphée et Eurydice (Berlioz version). Premiering in 1762, the opera was in the vanguard, changing the way that the musical form was experienced. This interpretation of the opera—while staying true to the music and feel of the Baroque original—will place the work firmly in the 21st century with new electronic orchestration, baroque burlesque dancers, sopranos singing from silks, and aerial dancers. Most importantly, the co-producers are seeking singers of all types who are interested in becoming part of the production’s virtual chorus.

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Hvorostovsky dead at 55

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2422-hvorostovsky_1The death of Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky was announced a couple of hours ago.  It’s no secret that he had been suffering from brain cancer for some time but, still, 55 is far too young.  I’ll remember him for one of the oddest recitals I’ve ever been to.  Not that his performance was odd, rather it was excellent, but because his “fan club”, which appeared to be made up of Russian women of a certain age, were the noisiest people I have ever seen in Koerner Hall, on or off stage.

I’ll also remember him for the recording of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin which may well be the very best to come out of the Met HD series.  He had an interesting and not unproblematic life.  You can read all about it in Anthony Tommasini’s thoughtful obituary in the New York Times.