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.
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
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.
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