Category Archives: Toronto opera news and views

Changes afoot

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There are some interesting tidbits scattered through the latest edition of the COC’s house magazine Prelude.  They include a return to a six production season from 2014/15 (the last few years there have been seven).  This is intended to free up cash to make the remaining productions more ambitious (as well as stem what was shaping up as an increasingly dodgy financial position).  There is talk of “more grand opera” and “a great amount of Wagner on the COC’s horizon”.  It’s also very clear that the current model of “challenging” productions (including Tcherniakov’s Don Giovanni) and encouraging established stars to make role debuts in Toronto will continue.

All of this makes sense to me from a business and an artistic viewpoint.  Going more populist in search of a probably non-existent fringe audience seems to me wishful thinking at best.  Giving the core audience a high quality product, aimed at those with real interest in the form, mixed with fiscal prudence just feels like the right way to go.

Heppner out of COC Grimes?

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griffeyAnthony Dean Griffey was flown into Toronto yesterday to replace Ben Heppner in the final dress rehearsal of the COC’s Peter Grimes which opens on Saturday.  There has been no official announcement of a cast change but I’m making enquiries.  Reports from the dress say that the einspringer was splendid.

This in from the COC… “Yes, it’s true that Anthony Dean-Griffey sang the dress rehearsal. Ben wasn’t feeling well and since he knows the role so well, he was resting up for opening night.”

It’s the day for announcements apparently

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Also in today’s mailbox, the season announcement from the Talisker Players; a group who specialize in mixing music and the spoken word.

citiesThe 2013/14 season kicks off with City of the Mind, a concert about cities, ancient and modern featuring soprano Erin Bardua, mezzo soprano Vicki St. Pierre and baritone Joel Allison.  The show begins in the 15th century, with Les Cris de Paris, a consort piece based on the cries of street vendors in the French capital. Moving ahead a couple of centuries, Tommasso Giordani’s Addio di Londra, for soprano with violin, viola and continuo, is an ode to a famous but unnamed personage upon his departure from London, entreating him to remember the sights of the city in his travels abroad.  The programme also features a rare North American performance of a selection of Wiener lieder and the Venetian Boat Song,  a 19th century salon piece by Jacques Blumenthal, for mezzo soprano, violin and piano. Very popular in its day, it is a reminder of the era of the “grand tour” of Europe.  Moving into the 20thcentury we start in New York City with excerpts from Leonard Bernstein’s iconic On the Town, arranged by Laura Jones for baritone, soprano and string quartet, and finishing in Toronto with two pieces; Andrew Ager’s Ellis Portal, for baritone, mezzo soprano, clarinet and string quartet, about the city at night; and Erik Ross’s Concrete Toronto for soprano and saxophone.

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The discounting has started

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boheme upsellWith two nights to go to the start of the COC’s season the discounting has started already.  The deal is buy tickets for any two other operas and get free tickets for La Bohème.  The deal is good for performances on October 16, 25, 27, 29 and 30 and appears to apply for all but the cheapest and most expensive seats.  The website isn’t exactly splashing the news around.  You will only see the offer if you try to buy tickets for La Bohème or if you just happen to be poking around to see how well things are selling.

Ben Heppner at Toronto Reference Library

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heppnerLast night’s event in the Star Talks series at the Toronto Reference Library involved Richard Ouzounian interviewing Ben Heppner who is in town to sing the title role in Peter Grimes.  It was a very genial interview; no tough questions about elitism or whether opera was dying.  Rather it was very much the tale of the kid from Dawson Creek who beats Renee Fleming and Susan Graham in the Met auditions and becomes a superstar.  It was curiously like Desert Island Discs without the music.

There were a couple of interesting stories.  The best concerned Heppner and Richard Jones’ production of Lohengrin (available on DVD/Blu-ray with Jonas Kaufmann in the title role).  It’s the one where Lohengrin and Elsa build a house then Lohengrin burns it down.  Well it turns out the the three year old Ben Heppner managed to burn the family home down and during the dress of Lohengrin had a pretty strong repressed memory reaction at the point where he had to set the cradle alight.  It says a lot for his professionalism that the first night went off without incident.

I did get to ask him for his views on different kinds of tenor singing the role of Grimes.  After all it was created for one of the most ethereal operatic tenors ever but ids frequently sung today by full on heldentors.  He said he didn’t think the voice was as important as how fully the singer inhabited the character and singled out Philip Langridge in that regard.  I have to agree with him.  I love Langridge’s Grimes.  It’s a real pity the video recording of it is so awful.

Peter Grimes runs for seven performances at the COC starting October 5th.

Songs of Life and Love

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simone_osborneLast night saw the launch of the first triennial Maureen Forrester Memorial Prize tour.  Sponsored by Jeunesses Musicales Canada, soprano Simone Osborne and pianist Anne Larlee will tour some forty cities across Canada over the next two years performing material on the theme “Songs of Life and Love”.  Each recital will include a new work; Birefringence, by Brian Current, commissioned by the Canadian Art Song Project.   Continue reading →

Opera Five gala

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opera5So Toronto’s weather took a weird twist pushing the Humidex into the 40s just in time for the Opera Five movie themed fundraiser at Atelier Rosemarie Umetsu last night.  And some people still managed to wear suits and ties and stuff.  Made of sterner stuff than me I tell you.  And even more props to the ladies who were sporting Rosemarie’s creations.  They looked great but some of them must have been hell in the heat.

It was an interesting format with seven singers and two pianists appearing in various combinations and guests having an opportunity to sponsor a singer to sing their “feature” aria.  It was fun and there were some fine singers on display.  Two I’ve seen and enjoyed in the past were baritone Geoffrey Sirett and coloratura soprano Teiya Kasahara.  Both were on good form with some fine Escamillo from Geoffrey and the mad scene from Lucia from Teiya in a rather good arrangement for voice, flute and piano.  The other five were new to me but I’d happily go see any of them.  Favourite moments for me would be some fine Carmen from the unpronounceable Olenka Harasymowycz (who looks disturbingly like Maria Ewing), a very cute “Poor Wandering One” from Caitlin Wood and a very fine “Ebben…” (from Catalani’s La Wally) from Calgary’s Krista de Silva.  Accompaniment was from music director Mai Nash and Jo Greenaway on piano with flautist Amelia Lyon.

So, a fun event which seemed to be raising quite a bit of much needed cash.  The first show it will be helping fund is In Pace Requiescat; a trio of one act operas based on Edgar Allen Poe stories.  There will be The Cask of Amontillado by Daniel Pinkham, La Chute de la Maison d’Usher by Claude Debussy and the world première of The Masque of the Red Death by Cecilia Livingston.  Performances will be at the Arts and letters Club on Elm Street on the 27th, 30th and 31st of October.  Tickets are available from 05inpace.eventbrite.ca and are $30 ($25 concessions).

More season announcements

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suzieleblancToronto Masque Theatre has announced the line up for the 2013/14 season.  There are three main stage productions.  First up is Patrick Garland’s now classic play Brief Lives, based on John Aubrey with song and music from 17th century London. Second is a revival of Tears of a Clown, under a new title, Arlecchino Allegro. Finally, there is a reinterpreted classic from the world canon teamed up with a contemporary interpretation in the Myth of Europa.  Details for the shows are as follows:

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