Here are a few shows that didn’t make it into earlier listing posts:
- Opera 101 at the Redwood Theatre at 4pm on September 23rd and October 7th is a free recital programme organised by Alexander Hajek.
- There are a couple of highly experimental audience participation shows at the Theatre Centre. In asses.masses the audience creates a video game based on the story of a herd of unemployed asses. In work.txt which runs September 27th to 29th the audience “designs a welcoming space for collectively processing “working” in capitalist metropolitan cities”. I’m going to the latter. I don’t think I’ve been in/at a show of this kind since I was an undergrad.
On Saturday evening the COC presented a teaser concert for their 2023/24 season on the outdoor stage at Harbourfront. The weather stayed fair and there was no more than the usual aural background to distract a little from the music. The full orchestra under Johannes Debus was on display along with half a dozen members of the Ensemble Studio.
So, you may ask, what is Opera Ramblings doing reviewing a recording of Rodgers & Hammerstain’s Oklahoma!? Well, it’s a project in the same vein as my reviewing the Bru-Zane recordings of more or less forgotten late 18th and 19th century French operas. It’s an attempt to put the piece in the context of its early performances and also to look at how it was originally performed for, like many early 19th century French operas, if and when Oklahoma! does get performed it’s usually in a style very different from the original The occasion for doing so is a new Chandos recording that attempts to reconstruct the sound of the original 1943 Broadway run. That the recording is very high definition and released in SACD format only increased my interest.
Saturday afternoon at 27 North Sherbourne Rachel Krehm and Janelle Fung presented an art song recital entitled The Enticing Sky. The material chosen was interesting with a heavy bias to women composers, living composers and Canadian composers; sometimes all three at once.
There are a few adds for September. This Saturday (16th) you can catch Rachel Krehm in recital with Janelle Fung. That’s at 3pm. Details 
