So Arts Anyway brought us dinosaurs (and where are you guys… we worry you know…). Now it’s back to the stone age with Tapestry Opera’s take on rock opera. Keith Klassen I can hear you!
Back to the stone age with Tapestry
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Category Archives: Not entirely serious
A couple more on-line events.
Tomorrow at 3pm EST Jo So is interviewing Alexander Neef on a Zoom channel under the auspices of the IRCPA. You need to register as space is limited. The topics, how to register etc can be found at https://ircpa.net
On Friday May 29th at 8pm EST there’s another virtual event. The vocal/piano du Chordless (Allegra Chapman and Sarah LeMesh) will be premiering a music video of George Crumb’s The Night in Silence Under Many a Star. I’ve seen a short preview and I’m intrigued. It will be followed by a Q&A on the theme of “How will digital media shape artists’ and audience’s performance experience, even beyond the pandemic era?” Registration information is here
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…on social distancing
Claire Harris and Danie Friesen’s take on social distancing.
plus me and my plague rat…
Do what now?
I swear this image is the most random opera related thing that has dropped into my lap in an age.
Cherry Blossom time
Saw Opera Revue.
Castro’s Lounge. The beer was good.
They sang some haikus.
Mozart. Chaps (assless).
Too much Donizetti… Meh!
Dani Friesen… Yea!
…also Colin Frotten and Annie Ramos…
Seriously; interesting mix of music, humour, beer. Not a bad way to spend a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon.
COC to relocate to Frankfurt
Following a decade of declining ticket sales and revenue the Canadian Opera Company has decided that the logical step is to go in search of a new audience. As General Director Alexander Neef puts it “We’ve tried everything in the playbook to build a new audience in Toronto; discounts for seniors, discounts for under 30s, community outreach, the lot and nothing has really worked so the board decided that if the audience won’t come to us, we must go to the audience. So we are moving lock, stock and barrel to Frankfurt. There’s a great audience there, as well as most of our singers. Besides it’s not like we will no longer be accessible to our existing audience. Air Canada has three direct flights per day from Pearson to our new home.”
Predictions for COC 2019/20
It’s that time when I go through the ultimately pointless exercise of trying to predict what the COC season for 2019/20 will be. In some ways it’s an interesting intellectual enterprise not unlike what an Intelligence Officer would do. What do past patterns reveal? What can we glean from published sources? What have prisoners told us? (No I don’t really interrogate captured opera singers tempting as it might be).
Singing along with Tafelmusik
Yesterday the lemur and I ventured out to Roy Thomson Hall for Tafelmusik’s Singalong Messiah. I did this with some trepidation. There were reasons for this. First, I’m not a great sight reader; I sorta, kinda get by but I’m much more comfortable in the middle of a group of better singers that I can key off. But there’s the rub, I’m a tenor. I did this gig before in 2003 and there were like a million sopranos and seven tenors. See first point. It ain’t happening.(*). Finally, I had been fighting a cold/cough all week and feared that my voice would be better suited to Aristophanes than Handel. Fools tread boldly etc.
Trivia trivia
Certain people will probably be amused that our team for Opera Trivia last night christened itself “Berenice’s Potato”. We won too… just!
In search of transladaptation™
Now that Against the Grain are in the process of completing their da Ponte trio with A Little Too Cozy enquiring minds want to know where the genre of site specific updating goes next. And who better to do this than the formidable combined artistic brain power of my loyal readers (even the Bolshie ones). Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to outline (in the Comments) a possible scenario for a site specific updating of a canonical opera. Here’s mine: Continue reading
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