Category Archives: Performance review – miscellaneous

Opera revue again

Posted on by
Reply

Back to the Emmet Ray yesterday for another show by Opera Revue.  This time Dani Friesen and Claire Harris were joined by baritone Alexander Hajek which allowed for a three set show and quite a few duets.  I was really struck by how much throwing in some duets makes the whole show seem more operatic.  So what did we get?  There was a lot of Mozart, notably duets from Don Giovanni and The Marriage of Figaro, plus solo arias from both operas.  And, of course, there was Kurt Weill from Dani.  There was at least one Neapolitan songs and several musical theatre numbers (Alex looks very fetching in cat ears) and a guest singing Schumann and probably other stuff I’ve forgotten.  All in all, a suitably varied and satisfying selection.

or2 Continue reading →

La bulle

Posted on by
Reply

It’s not opera yet but I’ll take any live theatre I can get right now.  Last night’s show was a joint presentation by Jamii Esplanade and Théâtre Français de Toronto of David Danzon and
Carolin Lindner’s La bulle.  It’s not an easy show to describe.  There is one character; Pierrot, dressed in the traditional manner and played brilliantly by Danzon.  He inhabits a transparent dome.  Pierrot dreams his dreams wordlessly through mime, drawing, dance and even text.  He finds ways to communicate with the outside world; us, sitting in a 360 degree arrangement around the dome.  There’s music and complex lighting effects.  The show has real emotional depth and is strangely moving.  At times it’s very funny and Danzon’s agility and ability to go through what seem like complete personality changes is rather remarkable.   It’s playing at 8pm every night until September 5th in the courtyard at Berkeley Castle but I’m afraid all performances are sold out.

la-bulle4_-muriel-cavanhac

Photo credit: Muriel Cavanhac

In which I review a live concert

Posted on by
Reply

Little did I suspect on March 12th 2020, as I attended UoT Opera’s Mansfield Park, that I would not review another live concert until July 14th 2021 but that’s how the COVID crumbled.  Today I made it to one of Tapestry’s Box Concerts at CAMH on Queen Street.  It was much more fun than my last visit which was for a meeting on infection control in the basement of the dreary old building, now demolished.

Continue reading →

Mansfield Park

Posted on by
1

Jonathan Dove’s Mansfield Park opened last night at UoT Opera in a production by Tim Albery.  It’s a really interesting show that builds up in “layers” to a very satisfying whole.  The Austen  novel, of course, is very self consciously a novel.  There’s no pretence at “immersion”.  The author is both telling the story and commenting on it for the benefit of you, the reader.  Librettist Alasdair Middleton both builds on this and does a quite brilliant job of compression to bring in a condensed, and only slightly simplified, version of the story in under two hours.

IMG_1679 Continue reading →

Pinafore at TOT

Posted on by
Reply

Toronto Operetta Theatre’s production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore opened last night.  Director Guillermo Silva-Marin has chosen to translate the piece to a cruise ship in the 1920s which has its incongruities but they aren’t particularly disturbing (except perhaps for Sir Joseph Porter’s shoes!).  In fact what we get is basically a crisp, well paced and idiomatic Pinafore which is what I want in G&S.  It’s also genuinely funny, though some jokes age better than others, and occasionally even quite moving.

91

Continue reading →

Bullet Train/Witch on Thin Ice

Posted on by
Reply

Another unusual and interesting show from Larry Beckwith’s Confluence Concerts last night at the Aki Studio.  The first half of the programme was a reading of Madeleine Thien’s short story Bullet Train.  It’s sort of a double coming of age story that also looks at what we hang onto and what we don’t as we move through life.  It was beautifully read by Courtney Ch’ng Lancaster with cunningly chosen piano interludes played by Gregory Oh.

imagine

After the interval it was Alice Ping Yee Ho’s Yoko Ono inspired piece; Witch on Thin Ice.  At it’s centre was virtuoso percussionist  Beverly Johnstone who displayed great skill on a range of untuned and tuned percussion while executing parts of Melissa Bettio’s choreography and producing all but indescribable vocals!  She was supported by soprano Vania Chan and dancer Jessica Mak with a rap number by Gregory Oh.  Playing over all of this were really rather striking videos and electronics designed by Alice.  It was a bit overwhelming really.  Maybe like being in the middle of an immersive video game and a very complex percussion piece at the same time.  Anyway, great fun and totally unexpected!

There’s another chance to catch this programme tonight at 8pm at the Aki Studio.