It’s March break in Toronto which means lots of children friendly activities. Yesterday’s lunchtime concert at the Four Seasons Centre was one of them. It was a session/performance by soprano/educator Kyra Millan together with sidekicks baritone Jesse Clark and pianist Christina Faye. There were lots of kids, mostly quite young, there. Some had even brought their parents.
Every year the COC Ensemble Studio engages in an exchange programme with the Atelier Lyrique of L’Opéra de Montréal. Each year that results in a joint lunchtime recital in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre. It seems to be a popular gig. The doors were closed today at 11.40 for the noon performance (it’s first come, first served). Thankfully, writing this stuff gets me a reserved seat or I would have missed out. The show is always worth seeing because it’s not at all unusual for the best singers from the Montreal programme to move onto the Ensemble Studio.
Today’s lunchtime recital in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre was a recital of Schubert and Strauss songs on the theme “Love’s Dark Shore”. The performers were German bass Franz-Josef Selig, in town singing King Marke in Tristan und Isolde, and the COC’s own Rachel Andrist at the piano. There wasn’t much about “Love” in the pieces chosen but there was plenty of death, depression and despair. One might think it would be a complete downer but nobody could possibly be depressed witnessing the artistry of Selig.
Those who have heard Selig in Tristan know that he has a massive voice. It was fascinating to hear him turn it to lieder. He is a very German lieder singer in the best possible way. He enunciates with great clarity and gets full value out of the meaning of every phrase. He clearly loves the texts. He also manages his huge voice wonderfully. Mostly he sang quite quietly with beautiful legato and perfect control but when he wanted volume it was there in abundance and without strain. He also has a real range of tone colour and sheer beauty of tone. Often he sounded more like a baritone than a bass but he could get almost tectonically low when he needed to. It was very impressive. Rachel’s accompaniment was perfectly fine too though I think most of the audience was focussed on the voice.
I did hear a few grumbles about the unrelieved darkness of the material but I felt the works suited the singer and it was, as these things are, a fairly short programme so the lack of variety didn’t really bother me. All in all, a very worthwhile way to spend one’s lunch break.
Yesterday saw the first free lunchtime concert of 2013 at the Four Seasons Centre. Five singers from the COC’s Ensemble Studio gave us a programme of works by Mozart and Salieri, mostly comparative rarities. I enjoy hearing the singers of the Ensemble Studio because it’s not just a chance to hear some good singing but also to see how voices are developing and make some guesses about whether one is seeing a future star.
It’s pretty Grimm in Toronto these days. Friday will see the 500th performance of Dean Burry’s 1999 opera for children The Brothers Grimm. Now, 500 performances for any recent opera is pretty remarkable. 500 performances for a Canadian work is extraordinary. Anyway, in the lead up to Friday there are a number of events scheduled including a concert yesterday lunchtime in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre with a Grimm theme.
Eric Domville introduced the music. He gave us a disquisition on the Grimm brothers, philology, the Great German Dictionary, folk tales and the oral tradition, his childhood, Romanticism as a reaction to Enlightenment, the plot of several folk tales in their English, French and German incarnations and a potted summary of the cultural, political and religious state of Germany in the mid 19th century. It was perhaps just a teeny bit more than one resally needed to explain three arias from Hansel and Gretel and one from Königskinder. Continue reading
Last night I was in a very full Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre for the second annual COC Studio Ensemble competition. Ten singers, selected down from 146 in auditions across Canada and in New York were competing for cash prizes and an opportunity to join the COC Ensemble Studio. COC General Director Alexander Neef chaired the panel of judges which included soprano and teacher Wendy Nielsen as well as assorted COC brass. Chorus Master Sandra Horst MC’d in her own inimitable fashion. The format was typical of such events. Each singer offered five arias. They got to sing one of their choice and then the judges requested a second from the remaining four. Piano accompaniment alternated between the equally excellent Rachel Andrist and Steven Philcox.
(front row, l-r): Ambur Braid and Cameron McPhail; (second row, l-r): Jenna Douglas, Claire de Sévigné and Mireille Asselin; (third row, l-r): Neil Craighead, Owen McCausland and Sasha Djihanian; (fourth row, l-r): Rihab Chaieb and Timothy Cheung. Photo: Chris Hutcheson
So, as promised here are my thoughts on yesterday’s Ensemble Studio recital at the Four Seasons Centre. It’s always interesting to see the Ensemble Studio together; to see how returning members have developed since last heard and to hear the newcomers. This is what we got.
Soprano Claire de Sévigné gave us “Chacun le sait” from La fille du régiment. It’s a good piece for a young singer and shee sang it with spirit and enthusiasm and acted with gusto. Perfectly idiomatic French too of course. She has a lovely voice and is clearly one to watch.
Photo credit: Chris Hutcheson.
Today was the first concert of the season in the free concert series at the Four Seasons Centre featuring the very talented artists of the COC’s Ensemble Studio. I promise that there will be a proper review very soon but right now all I can offer is a treat for that section of my readership who have a thing for cross dressing mezzos. You know who you are!
The final “Les Adieux” recital, by departing members of the COC’s Ensemble Studio, of the season was a performance by baritone Adrian Kramer of Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin, in its entirety, with Topher Mokrzewski at the piano. It was an ambitious choice and made for a somewhat longer performance than usual.
I’ve heard Die Schöne Müllerin often enough on record but this was the first time I had heard it live, in full. It really makes one realise that not only is it a very fine piece it’s also a far from easy sing encompassing a wide range of moods. Adrian is a fine singing actor and brought out the various moods with good German diction, careful attention to the text and good range of tone colour. He sounded best in the more lyrical numbers with some very sweet singing but was maybe having to push a little in the more dramatic sections. Continue reading
At lunchtime today, in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre, Jacqueline Woodley gave her final recital as a member of the COC Studio Ensemble. In the two years she has been in the programme Jacqueline has given me maybe more pleasure than any other Ensemble Studio singer (stop sniggering at the back). What’s become clear in that time is that she’s an exceptional talent when it comes to interpreting difficult modern and contemporary music. Realistically I doubt we’ll see her sing Verdi at La Scala but few people who do that could do what Jacquie does with works by composers like Golijov, Saariaho and Sokolovic. Perhaps no surprise then that she chose a recital programme that was 100% art song. Continue reading
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