Category Archives: Toronto opera news and views

Not the Met Live in HD

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Don GiovanniFinally a cinema in Toronto is screening opera in cinema broadcasts that are not from the Met.  Bloor Hot Docs (Bloor and Bathurst) is showing a number of Royal Opera House offerings.  They aren’t live and the line up makes even the Met seem adventurous but the theatre is said to have good sound, comfy seats and encourages food and drink.  Here’s the screening schedule so far:

SAT Feb 15, 2014 1:30 PM ROYAL OPERA HOUSE – DON GIOVANNI
SAT March 15, 2014 1:30 PM ROYAL OPERA HOUSE – TURANDOT
SAT April 19, 2014 12:30 PM ROYAL OPERA HOUSE – PARSIFAL
SAT May 17, 2014 1:00 PM ROYAL OPERA HOUSE – LES VEPRES SICILIENNES
SAT June 14, 2014 1:00 PM ROYAL OPERA HOUSE – LA BOHEME
SAT July 12, 2014 1:00 PM ROYAL OPERA HOUSE – MANON LESCAUT

Hat tip to Lydia at Definitely the Opera for the spot.

Hippolyte et Aricie

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While the rest of Toronto was preparing for that odd ornithological event the Superb Owl, or possibly attending the opening of the COC’s Un ballo in maschera, I went to see a semi-staged version of Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie at Voicebox: Opera in Concert.  Perhaps surprisingly it was very well attended with a particularly strong showing from the bloggerati.  You will have to wait for the next Opera Canada to read my review but Leslie Barcza’s may be found here.

COC Orchestra Academy

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1011debus1I recently posted about additions to the COC’s Ensemble Studio and briefly alluded to the company’s new programme for young orchestral musicians.  Three student musicians will be mentored by members of the orchestra and will attend orchestra rehearsals of the company’s spring season productions.  The new Orchestra Academy project will be led by Music Director Johannes Debus.

Two of the students are currently studying at the Glenn Gould School.  Cellist Ashton Lim will be mentored by COC assistant principal cellist Paul Widnerand oboist Alessandro Rauli will be mentored by COC principal oboist Mark Rogers and COC oboist Lesley Young. The third student is from the UofT’s Faculty of Music; violinist Rebecca MacLeod will be mentored by COC violinist Dominique Laplante.

It sounds like a great opportunity to introduce young orchestral musicians to the world of opera and one hopes it will be repeated for future rehearsal cycles.

New operas at UoT

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The University of Toronto Student Composers Collective presents a free programme of short comic works at the Macmillan Theatre at 5pm on January 30th.

Encounters is an hour long operatic entertainment comprising five operatic samplings. Grief Encounter, composed by Robert Drisdelle, is a cheeky nod to the operatic convention of surtitles while The Proposal chides us not to take situations at face value. In the Shadow of Rob Ford is a romantic scenario composed by Keyan Emami. Two lonely, young people meet during a protest in Nathan Philips Square while Rob Ford, reduced metaphorically to an off-stage voice, provides editorial comment as he packs up his City Hall office. The Box Office, composed by Bekah Simms, pits an aggravating customer against a heroic box office attendant and the program concludes with Shelley Marwood’s setting of Say No to the Dress, a parody of the rabid obsession with finding just the right bridal gown.

I hope someone goes and reviews this because I have work commitments that make it impossible for me to attend.

Opera Atelier announces 14/15 season

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alcina.jpgOpera Atelier announces its usual two production season.  The fall 2014 production will be Handel’s Alcina with Meghan Lindsay in the title role.  She will be joined by Allyson McHardy as Ruggiero, Marie Lenormand as Bradamante, Mireille Asselin as Morgana, Krešimir Špicer as Oronte and Olivier Laquerre as Melisso.  Despite the absence of Curtis Sullivan, the advance publicity suggests that the trend to ever increasing amounts of bare flesh will continue.

The spring 2015 production will be Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice in the Berlioz orchestration.  This will push Tafelmusik even further into 19th century romantic rep.  Is Tannhäuser on the cards?  Mireille Lebel will sing Orpheus, Peggy Kriha Dye appears as Eurydice with Meghan Lindsay as Amour.

In many ways this is the most interesting season OA have offered for some time and the venture into Handel is very welcome.  More details and tickets can be found here.

New song commission from CASP

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News just in that the Canadian Art Song Project (CASP) has commissioned Montreal-based composer Ana Sokolović to write a new song cycle. The new work is being composed for piano and a quartet of singers from the Canadian Opera Company’s Ensemble Studio. The world premiere will form part of the COC’s Free Concert Series in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre and will form part of the company’s celebration of Canada’s sesquicentennial anniversary in 2017 (along, it is said, with a revival of Harry Somer’s Louis Riel).

The new song cycle from Sokolović adds to previous works commissioned by CASP include Sewing the Earthworm (2011) by Brian Harman (review), Cloud Light (2012) by Norbert Palej, Extreme Positions and Birefingence (2013) by Brian Current (review), and Moths (2013) by James Rolfe. Other commissions that have been announced and are currently in development include new works by Peter Tiefenbach (2014) and Marjan Mozetich (2014).

Photo credit Alain Lefort

Pricing strategies

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Pretty much unremarked in the general houha of the COC’s season announcement is a rather interesting change in pricing strategy.  Clearly something had to be done as the switch to a six performance season has consequences.  The COC appears to have something over 7000 season subscribers and a further, say, 3500 select subscribers who buy tickets for five performances.  The five performance package isn’t offered for 2014/15 so let’s assume that group split 50/50 into six and four package buyers for no net effect on ticket sales.  The switch then means a loss of 7000+ ticket sales.  The number of performances has only been reduced by 1 so that means the company has 5000 or so more tickets to sell to single ticket buyers or net new subscribers than last year.  That is, of course, on top of last year’s unsold capacity of around 12,000 seats.  For reference last year’s single seat sales were just shy of 40,000.  So, unless subscription sales rise, single ticket sales per show have to rise from 6,500 to 7,500 (more or less) just to stand still.  That’s actually a pretty tough ask.

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Young artists

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The prizewinnersThe Canadian Opera Company has announced the addition of three singers and a pianist to the Ensemble Studio for next season.  The singers, unsurprisingly, are the three prize winners from November’s Centre Stage; Soprano Karine Boucher, tenor Jean-Philippe Fortier-Lazure and bass-baritone Iain MacNeil,  The pianist is Jennifer Szeto.  The COC also announced the setting up of an orchestral equivalent of the Ensemble Studio in which a number of young musicians will work with Johannes Debus and the COC Orchestra.  Names were announced on Wedneday night but I can’t find them in any of the press releases. Continue reading →

The COC’s 2014/15 season announced

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Russell Braun as Don Giovanni - Photo Credit Javier del Real

Russell Braun as Don Giovanni – Photo Credit Javier del Real

Yesterday evening saw the announcement of the line up for the COC’s 2014/15 season.  The usual rather prosaic press conference was replaced with a glitzy reception and main stage show featuring Brent Bambury of the COC interviewing Alexander Neef, Johannes Debus and others plus piano accompanied performances by Simone Osborne, Russel Braun, Robert Gleadow, Charlotte Burrage and Aviva Fortunata.

There were few surprises, in itself no surprise given the number of official and unofficial “leaks” this time around.  There are three productions new to Toronto, all COC copros, and three revivals so it’s an “all COC” season with no rentals or other imports.  Here’s what’s coming up:

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