Next week things get rather busy. There’s all the Hannigan shenanigans at UoT ; lecturing, masterclassing, concerting, walking on water, details here. There are a couple of lunchtime concerts in the RBA. Tuesday sees Gordon Bintner and Charles Sy perform Schumann’s Liederkreis and Britten’s Les Illuminations while on Thursday Jean-Philippe Fortier-Lazure appears with the members of the COC Orchestra Academy and their mentors.
The COC will add six singers and a pianist to the Ensemble Studio for the 16/17 season. Unsurprisingly the three prize winners from Centre Stage; mezzo-sopranos Emily D’Angelo and Lauren Eberwein and baritone Bruno Roy, are among the six. They are joined by soprano Samantha Pickett (continuing a tradition of promoting young dramatic sopranos) and mezzo Megan Quick and, best news of all to my mind, soprano Danika Lorèn. Regular readers will know that I have been increasingly impressed by this young lady over the last twelve months or so and am looking forward to seeing even more of her. The new pianist is Stéphane Mayer.
No big surprises at the Four Seasons Centre last night. In my prediction post I called five out of six and I knew the sixth last night before I even got my first glass of red! So what are we getting? Continue reading
The amazing Barbara Hannigan is in town next week teaching at the UoT. There are a number of events open to the public and free. Here’s a list:
Tues, Jan 19, 10:30 am, Walter Hall
Lecture – Show and Share: Living and Surviving as a Singing Artist
Tues, Jan 19, 12:10 pm, Walter Hall
Master Class with U of T Opera students – featuring excerpts from the contemporary operatic repertoire centering on The Machine Stops, a new opera by the Faculty’s student composer collective.
Wed, Jan 20, 3:10 pm, Room 330 @ 80 Queen’s Park
Interactive session – Dare to Compare: session with composers, pianists and instrumentalists from U of T’s contemporary music ensemble.
Thu, Jan 21, 12:10 pm, Walter Hall
Master Class with U of T Voice students – featuring songs and chamber music of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Fri, Jan 22, 5 pm, Walter Hall
Concert – Performances by Faculty of Music singers and pianists after their training with Barbara, as well as from Barbara herself with pianist Professor Steven Philcox.
ETA: She’s also appearing with the TSO on Jan 27 and 28 singing Correspondances by Henri Dutilleux. There’s no stopping her!
Things are starting to pick up after the Christmas lull. Here’s my pick of the week in Toronto for w/c 10th January.
Today at 3.30pm The Talisker Players have a concert at Trinity St. Paul’s called High Standards. It’s classic Broadway (Sondheim, Gershwin, Kern etc) and features soloists Virginia Hatfield and James Levesque. (Also Tuesday at 8pm).
Wednesday is the COC Season Launch at the Four Season’s Centre at 6.30pm. I think it’s subscribers and invitees only. Speculation on what we might hear is here (me) and here (Dylan Hayden).
Then on Saturday from 1pm to 6pm Tafelmusik have a singing competition to select soloists for a future performance of Zelenka’s Missa omnium sanctorum. Two gals and seven guys compete. It’s free and , of course, it’s at Trinity St. Paul’s.
Unsurprisingly there’s not a lot going on operatically in Toronto over the next couple of weeks. This is not Berlin where you have a choice of operas to attend, even on Christmas Day! About the only thing coming up over the next couple of weeks is Toronto Operetta Theatre’s production of Romberg’s The Student Prince. Ernesto Ramirez and Jennifer Taverner head up the cast. There are five performances; matinees on December 27th plus January 2nd and 3rd, an evening show on the 28th and a gala performance on New Year’s Eve. It plays at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts and tickets can be bought here.
So this week is the big Messiah week. I’ll be seeing two; the TSO’s “big, fat” Messiah on Tuesday and Against the Grain’s choreographed version the following night. The TSO version uses Andrew Davis’ “large scale” orchestration and has a great quartet of soloists. It’s playing at Roy Thomson Hall Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday through Sunday. The AtG version also has great soloists, it’s on a smaller scale and features Jenn Nicholls’ choreography. It plays at Harbourfront Wednesday through Saturday. There’s also Tafelmusik’s baroque take at Trinity St. Paul’s, also Wednesday through Saturday.
This week sees holiday season events beginning. The main one on my calendar is Electric Messiah; tonight and tomorrow night at the Drake. It’s a Soundstreams presentation described as “a stripped down, surround sound electro-improv Messiah for today’s Toronto”. Other than that the Calmus Ensemble have a Christmas concert at Walter Hall on Sunday afternoon.
So there’s another new approach to art song in Toronto. Collectìf is a new group “dedicated to exploring and expanding the world of art song performance and presenting innovative, song-based theatre”. The people behind this one, Danikà Loren, Whitney O’Hearne and Jennifer Krabbe, are young and very talented. They have a show on December 14th and 15th at Loft404’s B-Lounge. It’s called Le Rossignol et la Rose. We are promised Oscar Wilde and the underground nightlife of 1930s Paris. I shall go with a seriously depressed student and try not to pin my hand to a table with a knife.
There’s not a lot in the calendar this week but what there is is high quality. Adam Scime’s L’Homme et le Ciel premiers at The Music Gallery on Thursday with a second performance on Friday. It’s a FAWN Chamber Creative production with Amanda Smith directing. It has already been extensively written about with contributions from Lydia Perovic, Jenna Douglas and myself so there shouldn’t be too many surprises, though with a new work there are bound to be some!
Then on Friday there’s a rare chance to see Sondra Radvanovsky in recital at Koerner Hall. The program is here. She has an unusual voice with a timbre unlike any other soprano I know and, of course, incredible technique rooted in the demands of the bel canto repertoire. Definitely worth checking out.
ETA: This just in. Pax Christi Chorale are doing Berlioz’ L’Enfance du Christ at Grace Church on the Hill on Saturday at 7.30pm and Sunday at 3pm. It’s an impressive line up of soloists; Olivier Laquerre, Nathalie Paulin, Alain Coulombe, Sean Clark and Matthew Zadow. It also appears to be choreographed. Curious about that. Anyway full details, ticket info and so on is here.
operaramblings 