There’s a performance of Dean Burry’s children’s opera The Scorpion’s Sting on Saturday 29th November at 11am at the ROM. It’s free with museum entrance and forms part of an Ancient Egypt themed day of special presentations. It’s being performed by the COC Ensemble Studio and is suitable for kids aged 8-14 or thereabouts. More details here.
Next week the University of Toronto Opera Division will be staging HMS Pinafore; the first Gilbert and Sullivan at the MacMillan for 25 years. There are four performances; at 7.30pm on the 27th, 28th and 29th and a 2.30pm matinée on the 30th. Following UoT practice it is double cast. The cast for the 27th and 29th includes Charles Sy, a finalist in the COC’s Centre Stage next week as well, and Karine White. They are probably the two singers from UoT who have most impressed me this year and are definitely worth hearing. Michael Albano directs and Sandra Horst conducts. Tickets are $40 adult, $25 senior, $10 student.
It’s nearly five years since I saw the MetHD broadcast of Carmen with Alagna and Garanča. I remember being quite impressed at the time. Watching it again on Blu-ray I came away with a less favourable impression. It’s not that it’s bad. It’s not. It just feels a bit lacklustre in a very crowded field. Let’s start with the positives. Elina Garanča is a very good Carmen. She sings superbly and grows into the role dramatically as the work progresses. She’s also a very good dancer and the production exploits that. In fact dance is used very well throughout with specialist dancers used to stage a sort of prologue to each act as well as the obvious places being reinforced with “real” dancers. As always, the Met doesn’t stint on this element and the dancers used are first rate.
Last night was the second annual fundraiser for St. Michael’s ICU in memory of Elizabeth Krehm. The work for the evening was Beethoven’s 9th symphony; an ambitious project for what amounts to a pick up orchestra and chorus with minimal rehearsal time. The orchestra, most competently conducted by Evan Mitchell did not disappoint. Ensemble was excellent and the sound at times thrilling. The choir sang with great enthusiasm and obvious enjoyment but the sound was a little “churchy” where something richer might have been preferred, though maybe in not in the resonant church acoustic. In any event that’s a nit in the overall scheme of things. The quartet of soloists was very good indeed. The guys get the exposed bits and both bass Jeremy Bowes and tenor Adrian Kramer sang out clearly and powerfully with excellent diction. The ladies too; soprano Rachel Krehm and alto Erin Lawson, clearly projected their lines over and through the orchestra and chorus. All in all it was most impressive and enjoyable. It was also well attended so hopefully the goal of raising lots of money for St. Mike’s was achieved.
Phyllida Lloyd’s 2000 BBC film of Britten’s Gloriana, based on her production for Opera North, is quite fascinating. The bonus interviews reveal the utter disdain for films/videos of stage opera productions held by pretty much everyone involved in the project. It’s an interesting perspective to hear in a world where Cinema and streaming HD broadcasts are increasingly common and where Blu-ray/DVD has clearly overtaken CD as the preferred medium for opera recordings. In some ways, of course, it’s because the technology has improved enormously. DVD was still relatively new in 2000 and widescreen, flat screen TVs were yet to come. In any event, this attitude led to the creation of a rather interesting film.
Matthias Hartmann’s staging of Carmen for the Opernhaus Zürich recorded in 2008 is starkly simple but very beautiful and provides a perfect vehicle for the considerable talents of Vesselina Kasarova and Jonas Kaufmann. The set consists of a plain backdrop and a raised elliptical disk, reminiscent of a bull ring. A few, very few, props are added as needed. A dog lies asleep at the front of the set (replaced by a cattle skull in the final act).
Keith Klassen and Carla Huhtanen in The Whisky Opera by Hannah Moscovitch and Benton Roark
Keith Klassen, Krisztina Szabó and Alexander Dobson in The Overcoat by Morris Panych and James Rolfe
Photos by Dahlia Katz
Last night I saw the second performance of Tapestry’s latest compilation of short works. As before it was a mix of excerpts from works in progress and potential projects plus stand alone short scenes developed during the LibLab. This year there was an additional refinement. The works were staged in different parts of the building (part of the Distillery complex) and samples of the local goodies were provided at strategic points along the way.
There were crazy choices available to concert goers in Toronto last nigt but enough chose Extensions of Us at the Extension Room (where else) to fill the joint. We were there to see a performance of piano, song and dance provided by the team of baritone turned tenor Adrian Kramer, soprano Lucia Cesaroni, dancers Jennifer Nichols (who also choreographed) and Justin De Bernardi with pianist and music director Maika’i Nash. The complex motivations for the show and the full line up of music is contained in my interview with Adrian and Lucia here.
The Canadian Stage season brochure for 2015/16 landed in my mailbox yesterday. I was intrigued to see that, among the ten productions on offer, there was an opera and a contemporary one at that. Julie is a 2005 adaptation of Strindberg’s 1888 play Miss Julie with a libretto by Luc Bondy and music by Belgian Philippe Boesmans. Matthew Jocelyn directs. There will be eight performances at the 867 seat Bluma Appel Theatre from November 17th to November 29th 2015. More details here.
It seems like the Toronto contemporary opera scene is coming to life. As well as Tapestry’s ongoing efforts we had Airline Icarus, Shelter and When the Sun Comes Out this summer and who knows what’s to come. It almost makes up for the COC commemorating the 100th anniversary of the start of WW1 by programming nothing written since then.
operaramblings 