Category Archives: Performance review – miscellaneous

Song for Athene

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johntavenerLast night’s Soundstreams concert at Trinity St. Paul’s was devoted to works by John Tavener and people who were close to him.  The principal performers were soprano Patricia Rozario, Choir 21 and the Toronto Children’s Chorus joined, as needed by Christopher Dawes on piano and organ and Erica Goodman on harp.  Conducting duties were split between Elise Bradley and David Fallis.  There was plenty of explanatory material from artistic director Lawrence Cherney plus some from Ms. Rozario as well as taped comments from Tavener to set up the pieces.

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Opera Atelier reverts to style

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Opera Atelier’s spring production; Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydyce, opened last night under most unspringlike conditions.  Much had been made in the run up to the opening of the use of Berlioz’ 1859 performing edition, representing Tafelmusik’s deepest push into the 19th century and I think many of us were wondering how far this somewhat different sensibility would be reflected in the staging.  In the event it was a non event.  Connoisseurs of 19th century brass instruments might just have been able to hear a difference between the cornets à piston used in place of the natural instruments but nobody I talked to could.  The staging too was a remount of a previous production in classic Opera Atelier style though some of the dance numbers did feature point shoes and a more athletic style; notably the pas de deux in the closing ballet which was surely the terpsichorial highlight of the evening.

Mireille Lebel (Orpheus), Peggy Kriha Dye (Eurydice) and Meghan Lindsay (Amour). Photo by Bruce Zinger.

Mireille Lebel (Orpheus), Peggy Kriha Dye (Eurydice) and Meghan Lindsay (Amour). Photo by Bruce Zinger.

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More Shakespeare brushing

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Karine White

Karine White

Yesterday afternoon I went to see the UoT Opera program’s show Brush Up Your Shakespeare.  It was substantially the same as the program they gave six months ago in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre so I ‘m just going to comment on changes of one kind or another.

There were a few extra numbers.  Danika Lorèn sang the Poison Aria from Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette.  It’s an interesting voice.  There’s lots of power but maybe isn’t quite fully under control yet.  Still, easier to refine a powerful basic instrument than get anywhere with a small one.  One to watch.  William Ford sang Macduff’s O figli mie! from Verdi’s Macbeth.  That’s a pretty bold call for a student and he wasn’t bad at all.  This time we also got a sort of catalogue raisonnée of the program from director Michael Patrick Albano with contextual information on each number.

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Adieu to Charlotte and Clarence

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Each year, round about now, the COC stages a lunchtime concert or two featuring departing members of the Ensemble Studio singing music that has special meaning for them.  Yesterday we heard Clarence Frazer and Charlotte Burrage with Jennifer Szeto at the piano.

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Dido and Aeneas in Trinity College Chapel

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Last night the UoT’s early Music program presented Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas in the chapel at Trinity College.  It was a bit of a strange experience.  The work was semi-staged with dancers doubling Dido and Aeneas and a few extra as “chorus dancers”.  With a twelve person chorus and all the soloists plus the small band this made for a lot of people in the space.  Trinity College Chapel is long, narrow and high with traditional pew seating and a minimally raised platform for the altar.  All of which meant that only the first few rows and , maybe, people on the aisle had much of a view of anything.

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The Flying Welshman

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BrynAdrianneThe Royal Opera House production of Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer finally made it to Toronto yesterday with a showing of the film at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema.  There areva couple of Toronto connections.  The production was created by Tim Albery, although Daniel Dooner directs this revival, and the Senta is sung by Adrianne Pieczonka who was present with her family and introduced the film.  The Dutchman, of course, is played by hulking Welshman Bryn Terfel who wasn’t there.  He was probably crying into his beer somewhere at Wales coming up short in the Six Nations. Continue reading →

Turning the Tables

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Not Alfred Hitchcock

Not Alfred Hitchcock

Last night’s Tap:Ex Tables Turned lived up to the hype.  It was a pretty incredible experience but extremely difficult to describe.  The first half consisted of Nicole Lizée’s reprocessed clips from classic films (The Shining, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Birds, The Graduate and, of course, The Sound of Music but there were others).  It was mostly short loop stuff; for example, the ball bouncing scene from TSoM over and over again.  Beside the sound from the film there was live accompaniment from Ben Reimer on a variety of tuned percussion instruments and Carla Huhtanen with a variety of vocal effects and weirdly disturbing acting, helped along by the fact that she does look a bit like Julie Andrews, especially exploding Julie Andrews.  I think there may have been more electronics from Nicole in the mix too.  It was weird and fascinating and very enjoyable.

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La belle Hélène from the GGS

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Christina Campsall

Christina Campsall

The Glenn Gould School’s production of Offenbach’s 1864 operetta La belle Hélène opened at Koerner Hall last night.  Overall, it’s an enjoyable show with some strong performances though there are aspects of it that, in my view, rather missed the mark.  Certainly it made me realise just what a difficult piece to really bring off really well La belle Hélène is.  There are some very difficult singing roles and yet they need to sound effortless.  It needs the exquisite comic timing of a bedroom farce.  There’s also a difficult to define quality; very French and with a sexiness of the “I know it when I see it” variety.  I think it was a shortage of this last that was largely the problem last night.

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Postcard from Morocco

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Dominick Argento’s 1971 work Postcard from Morocco is unusual.  It’s opera meets Ionesco meets acid rock.  It’s a weird and wonderful kaleidoscope of scenes and music “about” a group of characters who seem to have nothing in common except that they have showed up at a railway station in Morocco c. 1914.  Michael Cavanagh’s production for UoT Opera plays it straight veering to OTT which seems about right.  This piece doesn’t need directorial “interpretation” but it does need careful organisation and lots of energy.  Cavanagh’s approach provided plenty of both.

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On a Darkling Plain

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Joel-Allison

Joel Allison

The Talisker Players latest offering is a concert titled On a Darkling Plain.  It’s an ambitious program of 20th and 21st century music interspersed, in the Talisker manner, with selected texts read (very expressively) by Stewart Arnott.

It kicks off with Samuel Barber’s 1931 setting of Matthew Arnold’s Dover Beach.  It’s a dark and evocative piece for a 21 year old and was sensitively performed by baritone Joel Allison supported by violinists Michelle Ordorico and Andrew Chung, Talisker music director Mary McGeer on viola and Laura Jones on cello.  Allison is very young and hasn’t been seen much in Toronto but he seems to have the hallmarks of a lieder singer.  He’s expressive and attentive to the text, has an attractive voice but can summon up a surprising amount of volume when he needs it.  I was impressed.

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