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)
OIC’s La Somnabula featured top notch singing
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Category Archives: Performance review – miscellaneous
Risqué at the Rivoli 2026
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!
Confluence’s Centuries of Souls II
On Friday evening at Heliconian Hall Confluence Concerts presented a concert entitled Centuries of Souls II. It was built around two longish works; Tomás Luis de Victoria’s Missa Gaudeamus and Eugène Ysaÿe’s Sonata for solo violin op.27 no.2. The individual movements/sections of these two pieces were interleaved along with a couple of Indian mantras, some plainchant, some lute pieces and the Stravinsky Pater noster to make a pretty coherent programme with its roots in various traditions of chant. Continue reading
Another Side of Arvo Pärt
The final concert in this years Soundstreams TD Encounters series took place at Hugh’s Room on Monday evening. It was themed around the work of Arvo Pärt with two of his works and two connected pieces featured. It begun wit his Es sang vor langen Jahren; a setting of Clemens Brentano’s poem “Der Spinnerin Nachtlied”. It was sung by soprano Xin Wang accompanied by Erika Raum on violin and Sheila Jaffe on viola. It’s quite a lyrical piece with an almost Schubertian vocal line and characteristically minimalist instrumentals. Nicely done. Continue reading
GentleFreak’s Slaying My Demon Lover
I’ve been complaining fior ages that the sort of curated artsong concert by young singers disappeared with COVID. Monday night gave me cause for hope. The first concert in Tapestry Opera’s Free Underground Concert series was given on Monday evening by a new initiative called GentleFreak. It’s led by Danika Lorèn who has form in this area.
Slaying My Demon Lover is a concept by Daevyd Pepper and consists of readings and music around the idea of loss or break up (romantic or otherwise). Monday’s show was a cut down version of the whole thing which can be seen on the evening of the 15th at Arrayspace (tickets here). It’s very varied with some very lyrical pieces like Hahn’s L’heure exquise (sung beautifully by Queen Hezumuryango) and much mor abrasive material like Weill’s Je ne t’aime pas (sung forcefully by Reilly Nelson). There was musical theatre material on the same theme; for example Sondheim’s Losing My Mind (Danika) and some weirder or more playful numbers like George Aperghis Récitation 14 (Danika) and Vernon/Ivor’s 715 CRΣΣKS sung into the piano by Daevyd. Accompaniment throughout was by Claire Harris on piano. Bottom line it all worked and came together to make a most satisfying and very welcome show.
Tapestry’s Free Underground Concerts programme runs on selected Monday evenings from 6pm to 7pm at the Nancy and Ed Jackman Performance Centre. Next up on the 23rd is a preview concert of Kevin Wong’s new musical In Real Life.
Silver Thread at Met
Silver Thread are an a cappella vocal groiup (Rayna Crandlemire, Emily Parker,Ineza Mugisha, Sarah Mole,Anika Venkatesh, Nathan Gritter,JJoshua Sutherland, Kai Leungg and Martin Gomes) founded last year by young professional singers in Toronto. This Thursday they opened a new year of the Noon at Met series of Thursday lunchtime concerts at Metropolitan United.
Songs of Glass and Iron
On Thursday evening soprano Reilly Nelson and composer/keyboardist Friedrich Kern presented an intriguing programme based around songs by Kurt Weill. Songs were interleaved with composed passages for electronics based on glass harmonica and texts in English and German. It was a “celebration” of impermanence and of the never quite dying hope that there is something more substantial out there somewhere.
The songs were a mix of the familiar; Youkali, Surabaya Johnny, and the less familiar; Und was bekam des Soldaten Weib? and Ballade vom ertrunkenen Mädchen, for example. All of it was sung in the original language (French or German) with keyboard accompaniment and Reilly made no attempt to make it lovely. This was Weill at his cabaret rawest which is just the way I like it; gritty not pretty Crooned, bowdlerized English translations be damned! Continue reading
With the Telling Comes the Magic
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
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
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.
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