I have a very ambiguous relationship with Benjamin Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia. Britten’s music I love and there’s a pretty dramatic story (albeit nonsense historically) trying to escape from Ronald Duncan’s weird Christo-prophetic and somewhat overripe libretto. Centaurs casting their seed among the stars? Anyone? So I was most interested to see what Anna Theodosakis would do with it in her production for UoT Opera currently playing at Harbourfront Centre.
My second Walter Hall DMA recital on Tuesday featured one of Toronto’s most interesting, and least predictable, musical talents; countertenor Ryan McDonald. Having seen Ryan perform as Dido and as a rather menacing nightmare figure in Rebecca Grey’s Bus Opera (as well as in several more conventional capacities!) I was expecting the unexpected. The presence on stage of a drum kit rather reinforced that.
So, no big surprise that the opening number was “Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix” from Saint Saêns’ Samson et Delila (with Ivan Estey Jovanovic at the piano). It was some gorgeous singing as long as one wasn’t distracted by the shiny back outfit topped by a transparent rain cape (really sorry there are not more photos!). Then after a quick change to something that looked a like a very shiny vampire impersonating a boy in the lower school at Eton, we got a lovely account of John Dowland’s If my complaints could passions move which was bookended by electronics and some vocalising into the piano. This was followed by a straightforwardly lovely version of Schumann’s “Der Nussbaum”. And so to “Dido’s lament”. I did mention that I’d seen Ryan sing the role some years ago in Opera Q’s gender bending Dido and Belinda. Continue reading
The first of two DMA recitals I attended on Tuesday in Walter Hall was given by contralto Nicole Percifield. It’s always interesting to hear this comparatively rare voice type; especially in an interesting and well thought out programme.
The first half of the programme was songs scored for contralto, piano and viola. It’s intriguing because the range of the viola is very similar to that of a contralto. In this case Grace Kyungrok Moon played viola with Joel Goodfellow at the piano for Brahms’ “Gestillte Sehnsucht” (from Zwei Gesänge, Op. 91). The text is by Rückert and it’s definitely at the romantic/sentimental end of the spectrum. It was pleasant to listen to with Nicole’s rich lower register brought out nicely. Continue reading
To Walter Hall on Saturday evening to hear a recital by tenor Marcel d’Entremont. I was intrigued by the programme; English song; art and otherwise, with the resources of a piano quintet for accompaniment. It’s quite rare for an art song recital to have more than just piano accompaniment so this looked promising. I wasn’t disappointed.
Proceedings began with three of Beethoven’s Irish Songs scored for voice and string trio (Here Aaron Schwebel – violin, Rory McLeod – viola and Guillaume Artus – cello). I wasn’t familiar with these songs and they are really rather jolly and were nicely done. Two Irish ballads of the sort that people mistake (sometimes) for “traditional” (but no Tom Lehrer) followed. Marcel has the style down pat (or Pat) for these. Think all those best selling recordings of Irish tenors from the 78 era. Continue reading
I was brought up on the British TV sketch comedy of the 1970s; above all Monty Python, so I ought to love sketch comedy, right? I’ve actually been trying to rekindle some enthusiasm for it. I went to Spotlight at Srcond City and last night I went to Sex T-Rex; the featured act of Sketchfest at the Theatre Centre. It’s not working for me. Sketch comedy has changed or I have changed and likely, honestly, both. Bottom line it really doesn’t do it for me.
It’s not that the current show Crime After Crime (after crime) doesn’t have any merit. It does. It’s cleverly set up as the multi-generational saga of the Stone family; colourblind crime bosses of Crime City. It’s inventive. There’s a recurrent joke about defusing the bomb that’s about to go off but nobody can tell which wire is the red one. It manages the mood change from 1940s noir to 1980s James Bond to more contemporary super-hero genre movies with a clever nod to Star Wars Along the way; to whit a starfighter pursuit crafted out of coat hangers. The movement; goofy simulated car and boat chases is funny but in the end it couldn’t hold my attention for 90 minutes. YMMV. Continue reading
Aotearoa based ensemble UPU Collective are currently touring a show called UPU (“upu” means words in many Polynesian languages) co-created by Grace Iwashita-Taylor and Fasitua Amosa. It’s an hour long sequence of vignettes dealing with the historical experiences of the people of the islands; their journeys of exploration and settlement, their encounters with Europeans and, ultimately, their experience with capitalism and colonialism. It’s playing a short run at Aki Studio before moving on to Brantford, Fredericton, St. John, Prince Albert and Camrose.
The Happenstancers; this time consisting of Brad Cherwin – clarinets, Peter Eom – cello, and Joonghun Cho – piano, performed at Arrayspace on Saturday night. The programme, entitled Die Nacht/Der Mond, was built around two of that relatively rare species; the clarinet trio, with various pieces by contemporary composers rounding out the line up.
On Friday evening I attended the CD launch for Daughters of Donbas’ new album Songs of Stolen Children at the Tranzac. Let me try and provide some context. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has now been going on for four years and, of course, before that, in 2014, Russia seized the Crimea and territories in the Donbas. The Russians are determined, as they have been since the 18th century, to erase Ukraine as a separate polity and write Ukrainian culture out of the historical record (as they have done with others such as the Crimean Tartars). A relatively recent step in this campaign is the kidnapping of over 20,000 Ukrainian children who have been deported to “re-education” camps in Russia where, cut off from their families, they are trained to be good little Russians. Parallels with events closer to home are a bit obvious. Daughters of the Donbas is a band and a project dedicated to keeping this issue alive. Continue reading
My review of Opera in Concert’s performance of Bellini’s La Somnabula last Saturday is now published at Opera Canada.
Diana Rockwell and Jeremy Scinocca (Photo courtesy of Opera in Concert)
The latest edition of Opera Revue’s Risqué at the Rivoli happened on Saturday night. There was Mozart and Weill and Bizet and show tunes and lots more. And of course there was burlesque; which was really the point. The show featured singers Alex Hajek, Danie Friesen and Maddy Cooper (@kissthknee) with Claire Elise Harris at the keyboards. Also performing in various states of dress and undress were A’Slayna von Hunt (@aslaynavon), Jamaica (@jamaicafraser), Lacy Jane (@lacyjaneburlesque), Tuckker (@matteldracher #TUCKKER) and Magz (@magzviolet).
It is, of course, excellent fun to see Zerlina (Danie) put a collar and leash on a very willing Don G (Alex) and while it might have been amusing to see Danie tied to a bedpost and spanked, alas, she only sang about it. But really it’s a show that’s very much about the bulesque performers and that’s pretty visual. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words so there’s thirty thousand or so’s worth below the cut. But, be aware, definitely not safe for work!
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