Laurent Pelly’s production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin was recorded for video at La Monnaie – De Munt in 2023. It’s a severely minimalist production set somewhere, around 1900 or so. I say somewhere because there’s nothing very Russian about it. It could be any country gentry and peasants scenario followed by a society ball. There are no uniforms in sight. Even Gremin wears ordinary evening clothes, albeit with orders and medals.
So on Saturday night at St.Olave’s CE I finally managed to catch a concert in the Apocryphonia series. It was titled Brews, Beauties and Brawlers and was billed as “classical” meets “punk”. It was a collection of pieces for piano, solo voice and/or choir and organiser Alexander Capellazzo had recruited four voices of each type with soloists coming from the group. Narmina Afaniyeva was at the piano. Everybody (and some of the audience) had dressed for the occasion!
Atom Egoyan’s 2023 film Seven Veils filmed at the Canadian Opera Company and featuring members of the cast of that season’s run of Strauss’ Salome is getting a theatrical release on March 7th. I can’t find exact details on whe and where it’s showing but at least some Cineplex and Landmark cinemas will have it. I saw it pre-pre-release at the Four Seasons Centre in September 2023. My thoughts are here.
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Toronto Summer Music has announced the line up for 2025; the last festival with Jonathan Crow in the driving seat. As ever there’s lots to like. There are two operas in concert. The big opening night gig is a concert performance in Koerner Hall of one of the very best early operas which, inexplicably, is not performed as often as the boring repertory staples. It’s Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea in a touring production conducted by Leonardo García-Alarcón at the helm of Cappella Mediterranea. Poppea will be sung by Sophie Junker and Nerone by Nicolò Balducci. That’s at Koerner Hall on July 10th. Continue reading
Toronto Operetta Theatre opened the concluding show of their 2024/25 season at the Jane Mallett Theatre on Friday evening. It’s Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Gondoliers directed and choreographed by Guillermo Silva-Marin. It’s pretty decent and, besides, TOT is about the only chance to see G&S in Toronto; whatever one thinks of their approach. For those who have seen TOT’s G&S before it’s fair to say this is a very typical TOT G&S production.
Thursday evening’s concert by the Vancouver Chamber Choir at Christ Church Deer Park was the culmination of Soundstreams’ RBC Bridges Emerging Composers program. It’s an annual week long workshop that brings six young composers together with an experienced mentor and a professional resident ensemble with the resulting works being performed at the end of the week. So the core of Thursday’s programme was the six works so created bookended by three works by the mentor; British composer Tarik O’Regan and three works chosen to give the concert a balanced opening.
Back in July I saw a crazy clown show called Monks at the Fringe. It’s back playing at the Theatre Centre. It’s basically the same show with Veronica Hortigüela and Annie Luján playing a pair of delinquent Benedictines on their one day off every five years. TL:DR it’s hilariously mad.
So what looks fun in March?
Blind Dates is an hour long one woman show written and performed by Vivian Chong and directed by Marjorie Chan. It’s a kind of odyssey in which Chong explores aspects of living with blindness via her experiences with dating and dating apps.
Tuesday evening in the RBA members of the COC Ensemble Studio competed for the biannual Christina and Louis Quilico Awards. These days every time I attend a singing competition, which I have been doing much less of, I ask myself why. There are really three reasons:
