The amazing Barbara Hannigan is in town next week teaching at the UoT. There are a number of events open to the public and free. Here’s a list:
Tues, Jan 19, 10:30 am, Walter Hall
Lecture – Show and Share: Living and Surviving as a Singing Artist
Tues, Jan 19, 12:10 pm, Walter Hall
Master Class with U of T Opera students – featuring excerpts from the contemporary operatic repertoire centering on The Machine Stops, a new opera by the Faculty’s student composer collective.
Wed, Jan 20, 3:10 pm, Room 330 @ 80 Queen’s Park
Interactive session – Dare to Compare: session with composers, pianists and instrumentalists from U of T’s contemporary music ensemble.
Thu, Jan 21, 12:10 pm, Walter Hall
Master Class with U of T Voice students – featuring songs and chamber music of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Fri, Jan 22, 5 pm, Walter Hall
Concert – Performances by Faculty of Music singers and pianists after their training with Barbara, as well as from Barbara herself with pianist Professor Steven Philcox.
ETA: She’s also appearing with the TSO on Jan 27 and 28 singing Correspondances by Henri Dutilleux. There’s no stopping her!
So today’s New York Times has an article apparently confirming the 
Talisker Players latest show, High Standards, was a bit different from previous efforts of theirs that I have attended. This was all about the music. There were no prose or poetry readings. The music was a selection from what might be considered the “golden age” of the Broadway musical. The time period covered being the four decades from 1933 to 1973 or, roughly, Showboat to A Little Night Music. I’m not an expert in Broadway theatre but I was struck by how the music remained remarkably similar over that period while the lyrics got, generally, more sardonic. That’s pretty curious when one reflects on the changed in classical music, and even popular music over that time period. Where the music did seem to be rather different was when there was an “intervention” from someone with a foot in another camp. There were selections here from Gershwin and Bernstein that did sound different. The latter in particular playing with tonality in a way that seemed very daring by comparison, though tame of course by classical music standards. I’m sure proper musicologists would have much more to say about this. 
Things are starting to pick up after the Christmas lull. Here’s my pick of the week in Toronto for w/c 10th January.
This review first appeared in the print edition of 
The total number of hits on Operaramblings in 2015 was down slightly from 2014 at 89,091 versus 93,208 but if one excludes the piece I wrote on the labour problems at the Met in July 2014, which garnered over 9,000 hits in 48 hours, the 2014 total comes out at 83,665 so I think maybe a 7-8% underlying growth rate is to be seen.
Oddly enough, what Toronto Operetta Theatre does best is operetta and the production of Romberg’s The Student Prince that opened yesterday afternoon is a pretty good example of why. I suppose, technically, that it’s a Broadway musical but everything about it, down to the humour and sentimentality seems Teutonic enough. Anyway, there’s a solid trio in the lead roles, the key back ups are thoroughly professional and the minor roles and chorus are filled out by talented and enthusiastic young singers. The band is big enough to cover all the colours of the score and the staging is appropriate and not overly ambitious. The piece gets to do its tuneful, rather bittersweet thing.
In reviewing Against the Grain’s 
