Category Archives: Performance review – miscellaneous

Daniel Cabena and Stephen Runge at Hart House

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cabenarungeI was at a bit of a loose end yesterday so I made a very last minute decision to catch countertenor Daniel Cabena and pianist Stephen Runge in recital in the Great Hall at Hart House.  It was a free concert and I hadn’t seen a program listing so I was pleasantly surprised to find a rather varied mix of early 20th century Canadian and English art song as well as piano pieces by York Bowen.  I guess I was expecting baroque and earlier material since that’s what countertenors do!

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Guglielmo Tell in concert

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1. Luca Salsi HD-1

Luca Salsi

The operatic forces of Teatro Reggio di Torino are on a four city tour of North America.  Last night, at Roy Thomson Hall, they performed a concert version of Rossini’s Guglielmo Tell.  It was strictly concert style without any of the “semi staging” touches that are normal here so just music stands at the front of the stage and concert dress.  It’s in some ways a very odd way to experience a piece like this because some of the most dramatic scenes aren’t sung but are accompanied by the orchestra.  Take the canonical scene where Tell shoots the arrow off his son’s head.  We get the build up and it’s fairly obvious what the hushed orchestra is all about and then we get the chorus announcing basically “Gee by golly, he did it”.  Maybe the supertitles could be used as a commentary track at such points? Continue reading →

Our saucy ship’s a beauty

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hms_pinaforeAnd so is Michael Albano’s new production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore which opened last night at the MacMillan Theatre.  It’s been a long time since the UoT Opera Division did G&S but it was worth the wait.  Fred Perruzza’s straight forward unit set was really brought to life by a fast paced and lively production.  From the very beginning of the overture we had members of the crew cavorting and dancing (Choreographer Anna Theodosakis) in a  manner perhaps owing more to Broadway than D’Oyly Carte and the better for it!  The set, a quarter deck with a gallery, provided cabin doors and traps in the deck for characters to come and go (including conductor Sandra Horst appearing from “below” to take her bow).  And of coming and going and dancing there was plenty.  There were some more than decent dancers in the chorus too.

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Elizabeth Krehm Memorial

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Last night was the second annual fundraiser for St. Michael’s ICU in memory of Elizabeth Krehm.  The work for the evening was Beethoven’s 9th symphony; an ambitious project for what amounts to a pick up orchestra and chorus with minimal rehearsal time.  The orchestra, most competently conducted by Evan Mitchell did not disappoint.  Ensemble was excellent and the sound at times thrilling.  The choir sang with great enthusiasm and obvious enjoyment but the sound was a little “churchy” where something richer might have been preferred, though maybe in not in the resonant church acoustic.  In any event that’s a nit in the overall scheme of things.  The quartet of soloists was very good indeed.  The guys get the exposed bits and both bass Jeremy Bowes and tenor Adrian Kramer sang out clearly and powerfully with excellent diction.  The ladies too; soprano Rachel Krehm and alto Erin Lawson, clearly projected their lines over and through the orchestra and chorus.  All in all it was most impressive and enjoyable.  It was also well attended so hopefully the goal of raising lots of money for St. Mike’s was achieved.

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Tapestry Briefs: Booster Shots

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briefs-web-bannerLast night I saw the second performance of Tapestry’s latest compilation of short works.  As before it was a mix of excerpts from works in progress and potential projects plus stand alone short scenes developed during the LibLab.  This year there was an additional refinement.  The works were staged in different parts of the building (part of the Distillery complex) and samples of the local goodies were provided at strategic points along the way.

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Extensions of Us

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There were crazy choices available to concert goers in Toronto last nigt but enough chose Extensions of Us at the Extension Room (where else) to fill the joint.  We were there to see a performance of piano, song and dance provided by the team of baritone turned tenor Adrian Kramer, soprano Lucia Cesaroni, dancers Jennifer Nichols (who also choreographed) and Justin De Bernardi with pianist and music director Maika’i Nash.  The complex motivations for the show and the full line up of music is contained in my interview with Adrian and Lucia here.

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A Walk on the Dark Side

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Recitals at Rosedale opened the season yesterday afternoon with a program entitled A Walk on the Dark Side featuring Leslie Ann Bradley, Alysson McHardy and Geoff Sirett with Rachel Andrist and Robert Kortgaard at the piano.  It was an extremely well put together program with a range of pieces on the themes of myths, legends and fairy tales.

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Galicians I

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stephania

Stefania Turkewich

Yesterday, for the second time inside a week, I found myself at a musical event celebrating a nation and a nationalism not my own.  It’s a rather weird experience (1).  The first had been a performance of Dvoràk’s Jakobin, not reviewed here as I was reviewing for Opera Canada, and yesterday was the launch of the CD set Galicians 1; the fourth instalment of the Ukrainian Art Song Project.  This latter is the lovechild of British Ukrainian bass-baritone Pavlo Hunka.  Indeed it’s almost an obsession.  He has tracked down scores for 1000 largely unknown art songs by Ukrainian composers and has plans for them all to be recorded by 2020.  The latest bunch are by Galician composers Denys Sichynsky, Stanyslav Liudkevych, Vasyl Barvinsky and Stefania Turkewich.  The party line reason for the neglect of this music is, unsurprisingly, persecution under both Tsarist and Soviet regimes.  This was mentioned in at least one of the many introductions and speeches of thanks yesterday and provoked a loud “Absolute rubbish!” from the rather scholarly looking gentleman two seats to my right.  It does rather look a bit more complicated with composers holding prestigious conservatory posts but eventually falling foul of someone in the apparatus and getting sent to a labour camp for obscure reasons.  I don’t think that was unique to Ukrainians.

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