Category Archives: Performance review – COC

Jonelle Sills debuts in La Bohème at the COC

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It wasn’t supposed to happen for another couple of weeks but Jonelle Sills jumped into the COC’s production of Puccini’s La Bohème as Mimi on Sunday afternoon, replacing an indisposed Amina Edris.  It added some spice to a production I’ve seen rather a lot of times before.  I don’t have a lot to say about the production that I haven’t said before.  It’s still efficient and serviceable and it’s always looked a bit (not inappropriately) down at heel.  If it’s now a bit more worn and faded t doesn’t detract from that.  If you want more detail here’s a link to my May 2019 review.

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High musical values in the COC’s Fidelio

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The COC opened its 2023/24 season on Friday night with Matthew Ozawa’s production of Beethoven’s 1805 attack on corruption and tyranny; Fidelio.  Ozawa gives it a contemporary American setting with all the action playing out on a sort of multi-level rotating cage.  It’s pretty effective and efficient in allowing scenes to succeed each other quite seamlessly.

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The COC at Harbourfront

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harbourfrontOn 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.

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Seven Veils

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The story of Salome and John the Baptist may be the most twisted tale in the Western canon.  Oscar Wilde’s take on the story, with music by Richard Strauss added, didn’t make it any less twisted.  Nor did Atom Egoyan’s production of the opera for the COC and its several remounts.  How, one might ask, could one ramp the twistedness up a notch?  The answer, and a very successful one, is to have Egoyan make a film based around his production.  And so, Seven Veils, which had its avant-premier, ahead of TIFF, at the Four Seasons Centre last night.

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Ambur Braid as Salome (top left), Michael Kupfer-Radecky as Jochanaan (below), and Frédéric Antoun as Narraboth (top right) in the Canadian Opera Company’s production of Salome, 2023. Photo: Michael Cooper

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Pomegranate at the COC

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Almost exactly four years after Kye Marshall and Amanda Hale’s Pomegranate played at Buddies in Bad Times in a production by Michael Mori it reappeared at the COC in expanded form in a production by Jennifer Tarver.  The basic plot hasn’t changed much so I’m not going to repeat what I wrote about that in 2019.  The other changes are, though, quite extensive and I’m not convinced they are improvements.

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The Dutchman returns

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The COC’s 2022/23 season opened last night with a revival of David Alden’s production of Wagner’s Der fliegender Holländer with Marilyn Gronsdal directing.  It’s been eleven years since this production was last seen and, if memory serves, it created some controversy back then, chiefly on account of the Dutchman’s “zombie” crew.  Seeing it again it’s hard to see what the fuss was about.  It’s actually a very straightforward production where sailing ships are sailing ships and spinning sheds feature textile workers.  The only deviation from the libretto that I noticed was Senta’s death.  Here she’s shot by Erik while holding up a picture of the Dutchman.

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