Category Archives: Uncategorized

All the Grimes that’s fit to print

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opusarteoabd7119dIt will come as no secret to regular readers that I am something of a Peter Grimes completist.  Until recently this blog was probably the only place one could find detailed reviews of all the available video recordings of that great work.  Now the recent La Scala production has been released on Blu-ray and I am no longer complete.  Fear not though, the disk is in the mail as they say and the divine order will shortly be restored.

In other Grimes news, the Aldeburgh Festival is staging the work on the beach.  The estimable Chris Gillett, Horace Adams both there and at La Scala, is blogging about it in his usual inimitable style.  In some ways I really wish I could go but I know that coast.  Even on a good day the wind will freeze one’s soft bits off. Definitely a challenging place to perform or even watch opera.  It’s also just off the A12 and I still have the after effects of 24 stitches on my face from a rather unfortunate encounter on that highway in my youth.  I shall patiently await Ben Heppner, Alan Held, Ileana Montalbetti et al at the Four Seasons Centre in the fall.

An unusual idea

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blue1121_9My attention has been drawn to a most unusual project.  A group of people are trying to write a bel canto opera based on a Sherlock Holmes fanfic.  I’m not really sure what I think of the idea of fanfic, which I have avoided to date, though I must note that persons I consider almost entirely sane are quite committed to the genre.

For the curious, the details are here.

Live from Oslo

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I’m just back from being in the audience for a live event that featured Stefan Herheim, in Oslo, and Atom Egoyan, in Toronto, discussing and answering questions about their respective productions of Strauss’ Salome.  It was set up with a live satellite link between the two cities which worked rather well.  The event also featured two rather dry academic presentations about the productions and productions of Salome in general.  This bit went on for nearly an hour and a half and reminded me of why one takes notes at university.  It’s because if you don’t this stuff goes in one ear and out the other.

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Herheim and Egoyan

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This Sunday afternoon (in Toronto) and evening (in Oslo) Brent Bambury of the CBC will interview Atom Egoyan (in Toronto) and Stefan Herheim (in Oslo) about their respective approaches to Richard Strauss’ Salome.  The Egoyan version is just finishing up a run at COC (my impressions here) while Herheim’s version, previously seen in Salzburg, opens at Den Norske Opera & Ballett on Saturday.  There will be live audiences in both cities connected by videolink.  Details for Toronto are under the cut.

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Shiny!

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OCCoverSpring2013The latest edition of Opera Canada is out and I have an article in it.  This is not exactly my first foray into print but it is the first time I’ve published anything about opera.  (Previous articles have appeared in various political and business journals and the current WIP is aimed at the Journal of Oncology Practice).  Anyway, my piece is a review of a semi-staged performance of Handel’s Orlando.  The real reason to buy the thing though is Lydia Perović’s (She of Definitely the Opera) article on the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra.

orlandoClick on the thumbnail for my article.

Words and music and pictures?

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Richard Strauss’ Salome opens April 21st at Canadian Opera Company in a production by Atom Egoyan.  Curiously, this is a piece I know well in three languages as besides the Hedwig Lachmann German translation I own a bilingual edition containing both the original French text and Wilde’s own English translation.  My copy is one of a limited edition published by the Limited Edition Club in 1938.  It contains the English text with reproductions of the original Beardsley illustrations as well as a separate volume of the French text illustrated with pochoirs by Fauvist André Derain.  Here’s an example.

salome_6

There are a dozen photos of text and illustrations from the French volume here for people who like that sort of thing.

Cannibals!

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Apparently Peter Gelb made a statement yesterday that the “Live in HD” broadcasts were “cannibalising” the in-house audience at the Met.  I’d love to see the data on which that statement was based.  I’d also love to see what data the Met has on how other companies are being impacted.  My guess is that, if the statement about the Met audience is true, it will show other companies suffering too.  So much for attracting a new audience for live opera.

I’m not sure I’d want to go down in opera history as the guy who killed the live audience with a second rate ersatz product…

ETA: Do not Google “cannibal cartoons”.  It’s a bit like watching Puccini.