Author Archives: operaramblings

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About operaramblings

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

Slapstick stick slapping

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If you have ever wondered why a slapstick comedy is so called then look no further than Gilbert Deflo’s production of Prokofiev’s L’Amour des trois oranges recorded by L’Opéra de Paris in 2005.  There’s a great deal of smacking with sticks; most of it by Barry Banks who gleefully whacks just about any bottom, male or female, that comes within range.  The production is also slapstick in the generally understood sense of broad physical comedy.  There are elements of commedia del arte and lots of circus; jugglers, clowns, fire swallowers, all wrapped up in a sort of 20s vamp aesthetic.  It’s wildly chaotic in a rather fun way though it’s all a bit overwhelming and probably worked better in the theatre than on DVD.

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The raptur’d soul

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Christof Loy’s production of Handel’s late oratorio Theodora was a critical and popular success at the 2009 Salzburg Festival and deservedly so.  That said, certain decisions seem a bit perverse.  The G minor organ concerto HWV 310 is interpolated in Part 3, which is fine, but why cut a fine number like “Bane of virtue” in Part 1 or “Whither, Princess,do you Fly?” in Part 3?  There are a bunch of other, rather odd, cuts in Part 3.  Still it doesn’t do serious damage to a fine performance of an interesting production.

1.Grope

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Vive l’amour

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Every year the COC Ensemble Studio engages in an exchange programme with the Atelier Lyrique of L’Opéra de Montréal.  Each year that results in a joint lunchtime recital in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre.  It seems to be a popular gig.  The doors were closed today at 11.40 for the noon performance (it’s first come, first served).  Thankfully, writing this stuff gets me a reserved seat or I would have missed out.  The show is always worth seeing because it’s not at all unusual for the best singers from the Montreal programme to move onto the Ensemble Studio.

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Look! No hippogriff

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Vivaldi’s Orlando Furioso is based, like so many operas, on an episode in Ariosto’s work of the same name.  In this case it relates the events that take place during Orlandos stay on the enchanted island of the sorceress Alcina.  There are two love triangles, enchantments and Orlando goes mad before order is restored, the island is disenchanted and Alcina, as befits a woman who gets uppity in an eighteenth century opera, is restored to her rightful place in the Outer Darkness.  Structurally it’s pretty typical of the period with a lot of showy arias in a variety of forms plus a couple of decent choruses.

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An anti-Valentine

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selig_franz_josefToday’s lunchtime recital in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre was a recital of Schubert and Strauss songs on the theme “Love’s Dark Shore”.  The performers were German bass Franz-Josef Selig, in town singing King Marke in Tristan und Isolde, and the COC’s own Rachel Andrist at the piano.  There wasn’t much about “Love” in the pieces chosen but there was plenty of death, depression and despair.  One might think it would be a complete downer but nobody could possibly be depressed witnessing the artistry of Selig.

Those who have heard Selig in Tristan know that he has a massive voice.  It was fascinating to hear him turn it to lieder.  He is a very German lieder singer in the best possible way.  He enunciates with great clarity and gets full value out of the meaning of every phrase.  He clearly loves the texts.  He also manages his huge voice wonderfully.  Mostly he sang quite quietly with beautiful legato and perfect control but when he wanted volume it was there in abundance and without strain.  He also has a real range of tone colour and sheer beauty of tone.  Often he sounded more like a baritone than a bass but he could get almost tectonically low when he needed to.  It was very impressive.  Rachel’s accompaniment was perfectly fine too though I think most of the audience was focussed on the voice.

I did hear a few grumbles about the unrelieved darkness of the material but I felt the works suited the singer and it was, as these things are, a fairly short programme so the lack of variety didn’t really bother me.  All in all, a very worthwhile way to spend one’s lunch break.

Stop Press

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Jusimone_sst in!  Soprano Simone Osborne replaces Layla Claire in the Coast Salish themed Magic Flute at Vancouver Opera opening March 9th.  Simone will sing five of the six performances with Rachel Fenlon singing the final show.  Simone’s recent stay in Scotland should have got her suitably acclimatized to lots of grey, rainy days.  It’s apparently sung in English and hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ so I hope her hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ is in good shape.

She’ll join, among others, recent Met debutante Joshua Hopkins as Papageno, Teiya Kasahara as the Queen of the Night and the guaranteed to be hilarious Michael Barrett as Monostatos.

Back to Tristan

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Last night the lemur and I braved the biggest snow storm in several years to catch Tristan und Isolde at the Four Seasons Centre.  It was the same production I saw last Tuesday but with Michael Baba and Margaret Jane Wray replacing Ben Heppner and Melanie Diener in the title roles.  I was also sitting at the front of the Orchestra Ring which is a very different sight line than the back of Ring 3.  There’s no way to avoid saying this, it was hugely disappointing and especially so as it was the first time the lemur had seen the show and I had been talking it up excitedly since Tuesday.  Baba and Wray sounded underpowered and under-rehearsed.  The big Act 2 duet, O sink’ hernieder, Nacht der Liebe, that had left me literally shaking on Tuesday merely left me shaking my head.  What had been a glorious, transcendent, hypnotic wave of sound had turned to mush.  It was a relief when Franz-Josef Selig, King Marke, took over.  At last we got some Wagnerian singing of style and class.  Act 3 wasn’t much better.  To be fair, the rest of the cast was just as good as on opening night and the orchestra deservedly got the loudest and longest applause of the night.  But Tristan und Isolde needs, as Isolde points out, Tristan and Isolde.

Tristan und Isolde - 0013 - Credit Chris Hutcheson

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Opera Atelier announces 2013/14 season

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abductionToronto based Opera Atelier have announced their 2013/14 season.  The Fall production is a revival of the company’s 2008 Abduction from the Seraglio sung in German with English dialogue (groan).  Casting is Lawrence Wiliford as Belmonte, Ambur Braid as Konstanze, Carla Huhtanen as Blondie, and Adam Fischer as Pedrillo and Gustav Andreassen as Osmin.  A no doubt bare chested Curtis Sullivan will play the non-singing role of Pasha Selim.  It’s an interesting cast especially considering the impact Ambur has been making recently and I’ll more than likely take a look.  Continue reading →

Sic Semper Tyrannis

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12-13-E-04-MC-D-0071 Last night saw the COC Ensemble Studio’s annual main stage performance.  This year it was Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito in a Christopher Alden production.  It’s a somewhat quirky production that I haven’t fully digested yet and may need to wait until after seeing the main cast on the 22nd to come to a more considered view.  My initial reaction is that it has a lot of interesting ideas, maybe one or two misguided ones and that the whole thing, while interesting, isn’t completely coherent.  That said, Alden productions often seem more coherent second time around.  And whatever I might think of the production, it didn’t distract from some very fine performances.

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