Robert Carsen’s production of Verdi’s Aida seen at Covent Garden in 2022 is a very good example of what Carsen can do. In this case it’s to strip out elements he considers non-essential and focus on the essentials of the drama. In the rather good “extra” feature on the video recording Carsen summarises it as focussing “on the story not the place”.
I understand that the mission of outfits like the Teatro Donizetti is to “rescue” forgotten operas but, frankly, some of them ought to remain forgotten. I would put Donizetti’s Alfredo il Grande in that category. It premiered in Naples on 2nd July 1823 and closed after one disastrous performance not to be seen again until a run in Bergamo in November 2023 which was recorded for video.
When I look at my calendar for July it’s all about two festivals, both of which include far more events than I could possibly cope with.
The first is the Toronto Fringe which runs July 2nd to 14th and features 77 shows in 16 venues. There really is something for everyone from clowns and comics to mass murderers and funeral directors. There’s even a musical. Most shows are $18 but that drops to $14 if one buys a ten ticket pass. I think I’ll be able to get to maybe half a dozen shows given an overlap with… Continue reading
Soulpepper opened a run of a revival of their 2019 production of Tennessee William’s A Street Car Named Desire at the Young Centre on Tuesday evening. It’s a terrific production and performance but, as usually happens to me with Mr. Williams’ plays, I found myself admiring it more than enjoying it. Showcasing dishonest, violent people living lives of noisy despair without any form of redemption, however brilliantly portrayed, leaves me wondering what the point of it all is.
I attended the third and final performance of Aportia Chryptych: A Black Opera for Portia White by HAUI x Sean Hayes at the Canadian Opera Company Theatre on Sunday afternoon. It’s a very ambitious piece which has some really excellent ideas and scenes but perhaps bites off a bit more than it can chew.
Back in 2017 Bicycle Opera Project toured the a cappella opera Sweat by Anna Chatterton and Juliet Palmer. I caught it in Hamilton and Toronto. In the intervening years it’s been turned into a film that premiered at the Revue Cinema on Roncesvalles on Saturday night.
The second performance of Opera 5’s production of Britten’s The Turn of the Screw on Thursday night was sung by the “apprentice” cast drawn from Opera McGill. Curiously, it was an all female cast with women singing both Miles and Peter Quint.
It’s always been a bit of a mystery to me why Britten’s chamber operas are not done more often by smaller opera companies. They use a modest orchestra (13 players for The Turn of the Screw), have equally modest sized casts, no chorus and they are in English. They offer the chance to perform a work as written at much lower cost than grand opera and without the compromises inherent in downscaling works written on a larger scale.
The Caged Bird Sings opened last night at the Aga Khan Museum. It’s a co-pro between the museum and Modern Times Stage Company (Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo) with Theatre ARTaud. The play is written by Rouvan Silogix, Rafeh Mahmud and Ahad Lakhani. It’s based on the poetry of Rumi and deals with Sufi ideas of freedom, love and self-abnegation. It’s sophisticated, often very funny and thought provoking.
Echoes of Bi-Sotoon is a new opera by Cultureland Opera Collective. It’s in nine scenes based on the legends and the iconography of the Bi-Sotoon mountain; an important cultural site and transportation route in Khermanshah province in present day Iran. It includes music by seven BIPOC composers[1] co-ordinated by artistic director Afarin Mansouri. It premiered at Arrayspace on Thursday evening.
