Category Archives: Toronto opera news and views

M’dea Undone

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M’dea Undone; music by John Harris , libretto by Marjorie Chan, opened in the Holcim Gallery at the Evergreen Brickworks last night in a production by Tim Albery.  My review, still a WIP, will appear in Opera Canada in due course though it has triggered some more general thoughts about “new opera” that I might explore here.  It’s worth seeing just to experience the unconventional performance space.  There are three more performances tonight, tomorrow and Friday.  Here’s a photograph.

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Lauren Segal as M’dea. Photo by Dahlia Katz.

One for pedalophiles

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Following on the indie opera theme, Bicycle Opera Project have announced details of their 2015 season.  Things kick off with a preview concert at 10pm at Mazzoleni Hall on May 21st as part of the 21C festival.  It will feature works from this summer’s tour program Shadow Box and the singers will be Alexander Dobson and Graham Thomson along with regulars Stephanie Tritchiew and Larissa Koniuk.  Featured works will include The Blind Woman by James Rolfe and David Yee; The Yellow Wallpaper by Cecilia Livingston and Nicolas Billon; (What rhymes with) Azimuth? by Ivan Barbotin and Liza Balkan; “The Dreaming Duet” from The Bells of Baddeck (world premiere) by Dean Burry and Lorna MacDonald; and, what else?, Bianchi: A five-minute bicycle opera by Tobin Stokes.  They will also be premiering a new commission; Ride of the Bicycle Bells by Christopher Thornborrow.  This mashes together the operatic overture with a special bike-y twist – it’s scored for 11 bicycle bells and one bike horn!

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Building the audience for indie opera

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Building_Blog_AudienceOpera America recently awarded a series of grants to opera companies for audience development.  Most of these grants went to mainstream opera companies; usually “the big guy in town”.  $35000 though went to Toronto’s Tapestry Opera.  Yesterday I met with artistic director Michael Mori to find out what it was all about.

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Sad news

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Clarice Carson as Violetta 001 - thumbCanadian soprano Clarice Carson died on the weekend aged 85.  In her career she sang a range of roles ranging from Mozart to Wagner including Tosca on Radio-Canada televeision with Louis Quilico as Scarpia (and we’ll never see that again).  She sang in many major houses including The Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco and Venice’s La Fenice.

Ms. Carson was an active member of the Board of the International Resource Centre for Performing Artists, for which she often gave wardrobe consultations to young artists, mentored singers and acted as consultant for their careers. Clarice donated her musical scores and recordings to the IRCPA reference library planned to open in her name in the fall of 2017.  Canadian Donations for this library can be made directly to the IRCPA website at Canada Helps: www.ircpa.net.

Toronto Operetta Theatre announces 2015/16 season

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Bon-Voyage-closeupOnce again Toronto Operetta Theatre will stage three shows with a typical mix of an English language piece, a classic European work and a zarzuela.  First up is Bernstein’s Candide which will run October 23rd to 25th.  The holiday show will be Romberg’s The Student Prince with five performances from December 27th to January 3rd.  The final offering will be Jacinto Guerrero’s Los Gavilanes with four performances from April 27th to May 1st.  All shows wil be at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts.  No details on casting yet.

New developments from CASP

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The Canadian Art Song project has announced plans for the 2015/16 season.  As well as the annual “Celebration of Canadian Art Song” concert will be held on May 5, 2016 at 12 noon as part of the Free Concert Series in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre thereare  going to be two ticketed recitals; the first at the Extension Room on November 7th, 2015 and the second at the Enoch Turner Schoolhouse on February 5th, 2016.

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Saints and sinners

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There are a couple of rather unusual shows coming up on the weekend of May 22nd to 24th.

anna-gates-distilleryA new group, The Friends of Gravity, are putting on Weill’s Die Sieben Todsünde ~ The Seven Deadly Sins.  Projected photography and film stand in for the original production’s ballet. Silent film-style title cards will translate the German text and illuminate the dramatic back-story. Stephanie Conn sings the role of Anna I on stage and acts as Anna II in the pre-taped footage.  The other singers include Christopher Wattam, Charles Fowler, David Roth and James Levesque.  A seven piece band will play Scott Gabriel’s arrangement of the score.  It’s on on May 22nd and 23rd at 8pm at St. Bartholomew’s Anglican Church, 509 Dundas Street East.  Tickets are $25 ($15 for students) and are available at https://www.universe.com/7sins or http://thefriendsofgravity.org

At more or less the same time The Toronto Consort are putting on a fully staged version in English translation of the 13th century Latin work The Play of Daniel.  David Fallis directs the Consort medieval players with a cast that includes Kevin Skelton in the title role, Olivier Laquerre as King Belshazzar, Derek Kwan as King Darius, Michele DeBoer as the Queen, and John Pepper as Habakkuk.  This one runs at Trinity St. Paul’s on the 22nd and 23rd at 8pm and the 24th at 3.30pm.  Tickets and info at torontoconsort.org.

Toronto Summer Music and more

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For those of you who won’t be glued to the underwater cycling at the Pan-Am games there is actually music on in Toronto over the summer.  The tenth Toronto Summer Music Festival features a wide range of events in many genres.  The ones likely to be of most interest to AR readers follow.

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Béatrice and Bénédict

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BetBHere’s another listing I missed in the chaos of moving back into the Kitten Kondo.  Metro Youth Opera have a run of three performances of Berlioz’s Béatrice and Bénédict at the Daniels Spectrum (Aki Studio).  The shows are on April 24th and 25th at 7.30pm and the 26th at 2.30pm.  Alison Wong directs with Natasha Fransblow as Music Director.  The cast includes Simone McIntosh as Béatrice and Asitha Tennekoon (Paris in the recent GGS La belle Hélène) as Bénédict.  Full details and tickets are available here.

More contemporary music

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Andrew Ager’s Führerbunker is coming to Toronto under the auspices of the Centre for Opera Studies in Italy.  It plays at the Tranzac Club on May 1st and 2nd at 7.30pm.  It’s a one hour piece, in German, dealing with the last days of the Hitler regime.  There’s an article about it at Musical Toronto.  Tickets are available here.

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