UoT Opera’s annual Student Composer Collective production was presented on Sunday afternoon at CanStage Berkeley Street. This year Michael Patrick Albano’s libretto took three stories from antiquity and presented each twice; essentially in the original and then with a modern twist. The three stories were Antigone, Medea and Helen and five composers were involved in creating the music. Sandra Horst conducted with a seven piece ensemble on stage to one side.
Laughing Out Lonely is a one singer show produced by the Danish group OPE-N. It was presented by Tapestry Opera at Ada Slaight Hall this Friday and Saturday. It’s an interesting and unusual show which has toured extensively in Denmark and Iceland and will be seen this year in Sweden, Edinburgh, Quebec and, Trump cretinism permitting, the USA.
Make Banana Cry is a dance work by Andrew Tay and Stephen Thompson currently being presented by Toronto Dance Theatre at Buddies in Bad Times. It’s an exploration of Asian stereotypes seen through both Asian and non Asian lenses. Six dancers process through the audience which is arranged so that the dancers’ path is a U shape and nobody is more than two rows away from the action. At the top of the U they add or subtract clothing and pick up props so each “procession” is a bit different. The sound track is eclectic combining, inter alia, K-pop and J-pop with Western pseudo orientalism. Inevitably Un bel di and extracts from Miss Saigon make brief appearances.
So my third Holocaust Remembrance concert was Singing Through the Darkness which played at the Jane Mallett Theatre on Wednesday night. Unlike the previous two concerts which focussed largely on music in the classical tradition with a bit of folk thrown in this time it was more jazz/musical theatre.
The programme was a very varied mix of music and poetry composed in camps and ghettoes, folk songs remembered from a fractured past, partisan songs and even a bit of Kurt Weill.; The arrangements were for various combinations of Aviva Chernick, Lenka Lichtenberg, Theresa Tova and Fern Lindzon on vocals with Fern on the piano (and melodica) and, on occasion, Lenka on guitar. There was even a cameo by Judith Lander. Ori Dagan mceed. Continue reading
It’s January which means Holocaust remembrance and, lest we forget, the Likht Ensemble are touring a programme drawn from the Shoah Songbook which they gave at the Leah Posluns Theatre in North York on Saturday evening. I have written quite a lot about this ensemble and this project so it’s a challenge to find anything new to say but we can try. FWIW previous related posts include:
Toronto Operetta Theatre’s New Year’s offering is Imre Kalman’s Czardas Princess. It’s lively and tuneful and not overly serious being basically a succession of Austro-Hungarian Empire stereotypes. To whit Prince Somebody von und zu Wherever-Etcetera is in love with a Hungarian cabaret singer with an unpronounceable name from a pig rearing village with an equally dubious moniker when he’s supposed to be marrying his countess cousin. All the usual s/he loves, s/he loves me not plus parental disapproval play out until a shocking revelation. So the Prince gets his girl and his cousin gets a Hungarian count (probably a somewhat richer pig farmer) as a consolation prize. They all live happily ever after, or at least until 1914.
Last week I caught Opera Revue’s last Toronto show of the year at Granite Brewery. The usual gang; Danie Friesen, Alexander Hajek and Claire Elise-Harris, were joined by tenor Ryan Downey for, what else, a holiday themed show. There was a mix of secular and sacred Christmas music plus a few parodies. And the Grinch put in an appearance. So a pretty typical OR show and, as always, a welcome opportunity to hear some music performed well in an informal setting, beer in hand.
Wednesday evening at The great Hall witnessed a seminal event in the history of opera; Operamania. Our beloved art form; courtesy of the indefatigable Opera Revue, mashed up with pro-wrestling; in the persons of Junction City Wrestling. What could possibly gio wrong you ask? Well how about Mango Mussolini showing up during the Anthem to claim his 51st state? No worries! Danie Friesen despatched him with a whack over the head with a chair.
Soundstreams’ opening concert of the season at Trinity St. Paul’s on Saturday evening featured Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Mass for the Endangered and an intriguing selection of 20th and 21st century music on related ecological themes.
A few months ago I reviewed a recording of Morton Feldman’s Three Voices which I had never heard “live”. On Sunday evening I got the chance to hear Lindsay McIntyre perform it at Arrayspace. It’s a roughly one hour long piece in which the soprano performs with two tracks that she has recorded in advance. It was really interesting to hear the nuances of two recorded voices versus live which, of course, doesn’t really come across the same way on a recording, however good. It’s the subtlest of textural difference but it’s definitely there.
Soprano
Two pre-recorded tracks
operaramblings 