Category Archives: Performance review – miscellaneous

Marcel d’Entremont in recital

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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 →

Sex T-Rex and falling out of love with sketch comedy

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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 →

Paradise Lost?

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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.

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The Happenstancers – Die Nacht/Der Mond

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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.

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Daughters of Donbas – CD Launch and film screening

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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 →

Risqué at the Rivoli 2026

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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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Confluence’s Centuries of Souls II

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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

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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

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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.