Author Archives: operaramblings

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About operaramblings

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

Klezmerized!

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Tuesday’s concert in the RBA was at the unusual time of 5.30pm and it was rammed.  Whether that was a function of the time slot or the following that Schmaltz and Pepper have built up in the short time they have been around I don’t know but it was impressive.  And so was the concert.  Schmaltz and Pepper consists of some amazingly versatile and virtuosic musicians; Rebekah Wolkstein on violin and vocals, Eric Abramovitz on clarinet, Drew Jurecka on lots of stuff,  Jeremy Ledbetter onb piano and Michael Herring on bass.

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Greyscale Macbeth

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Christof Loy’s production of Verdi’s Macbeth filmed at the Liceu in Barcelona in 2016 is grey, very grey.  Costumes and lighting are such that one might think one is watching a black and white film.  The first, brief, touch of colour; some lights and bunches of flowers appears at the beginning of Act 4.  Beyond the greyness the vibe is essentially late 19th century and it’s pretty sparse.  It’s also very dark; at times almost unwatchably so on video (even Blu-ray).

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Back to Castro’s… again

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It’s been a while since I’ve been to a regular Opera Revue show and they were playing my favourite of their regular venues; Castro’s yesterday.  Also, besides the usual gang of Alex Hajek, Dani Friesen and Claire Harris there was Alex Hetherington, so I went.  I had a great time.  It was classic Operas Revue; some arias, some music theatre, Kurt Weill and a couple of parodies.  And Alex H.  Boy does she sound loud in a small space like Castro’s!  Plus this was a once in a lifetime opportunity to hear her sing the Countess from Marriage of Figaro (which will surely lead to expulsion from the Mezzos Guild).

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Quest

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Saturday night at the new performance space at 877 Yonge Street saw a concert inaugurating Cultureland’s residency at Tapestry Opera.  The performance consisted mainly of excerpts from Cultureland’s recent and “in progress” operas accompanied on piano by Carolyn Maule and directed by Renée Salewski.

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Mahabharata – part 2

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There’s a change in both style and pace for part 2 of Why Not Theatre’s Mahabharata.  (See review of part 1).  The stage band is gone and the whole back wall is given over to video screens.  Sometimes the whole is used and sometimes just the top half; often using split screen effects.  Hana Kim’s projections are front and centre in this instalment.

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Mahabharata – part 1

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Mahabharata is one of the great epics.  It’s long (my somewhat abridged translation runs 1400 pages) and it’s complex.  To condense it into five hours or so of theatre and still have it retain its essential qualities is astonishing but, based on the first part which I saw at the Bluma Appel Theatre last night, Why Not Theatre’s production does just that.

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Duo Oriana

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Duo Oriana consists of soprano Sinéad White and lutenist Jonathan Stuchbery.  They gave a lunchtime concert in the RBA on Tuesday.  Unsurprisingly most of their repertoire consists of lute songs from the 16th and 17th (and even 18th) century but they have recently branched out with the Toronto Book of Ayres which sets verse by contemporary Toronto poets.  We got to hear that for the first time on Tuesday.

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The Masque of the Red Death

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The Masque of the Red Death is a an interdisciplinary theatre piece created and directed by Stella Kulagowski currently playing at The Assembly Theatre.  At its heart is a cabaret show where each performer represents a Virtue “complementary” to the canonical Seven Deadly Sins that Poe riffed off in his original short story.  Each Virtue is also associated with a colour in the rainbow Pride flag.

L to R back row: Rosalind Saunders, Parham Rownaghi, Rachel Manson, Joy Thompson, Rennaldo Quinicot
Middle: Bryna Bella, Eli Holliday
Front: Nailah Renuka, Stella Kulagowski

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Fauré music for the stage (mostly)

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This recording from the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and their conductor Jean-Luc Tingaud contains 65 minutes of music; mostly written for the stage, though there are some songs for voice and orchestra.

The first set is based on the incidental music that Fauré wrote for an English language production of Maeterlinck’s Pelléas et Mélisande given in London in 1898.  There’s a four movement suite and a bonus in “Mélisande’s song” from Act III Scene 1 sung here by Tara Erraught.  It’s really tuneful, pleasant music that evokes the piece well.  I particularly liked the third movement  “Sicilienne” which features a wistful harp melody and the song which is sung with beauty and clarity. Continue reading →