The RBC Bridges Showcase is the product of Soundstreams’ program for emerging composers who are mentored by a more experienced composer in the creation of a new choral work. This year there are six composers and the mentor, by an odd coincidence, is Sarah Kirkland Snider. The works are all for an eight voice ensemble and, in some cases, electronics directed by Gregory Oh. The concert is available until October 21st on Soundstreams’ Youtube channel.
Here are a few things I’ve noticed on the web recently:
There’s a workshop from the Isabel Bader Centre at Queens called Echo:Memories of the World which looks at cultural memory and cultural transmission from both a Western and an Indigenous perspective. It features Marion Newman and the Gryphon Trio among others. It’s fascinating but I found parts of it quite triggering. I don’t know how ong this is going to be available. For now it’s free. Note that while the Vimeo version of the performance works the Youtube doesn’t.
The Domoney Artists Youtube channel has new Opera Breaks from Natalya Gennadi and Asitha Tennekoon.
Also on Youtube there’s a new piece from Opera Revue which may be even dafter than their previous efforts, which set a pretty high bar for daftness.
The first concert of the Confluence season is now available (free) on the Confluence Youtube channel. It’s the first of three concerts featuring the Bach Suites for Cello, presented in partnership with the Toronto Bach Festival. This first concert features the well known Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major BWV 1007, played rather beautifully by Winona Zelenka and an equally satisfying version of Cello Suite No. 3 in C Major BWV 1009 played by Michelle Tang. Both these pieces are played on modern cell but it looks like the second and third concerts will feature less conventional forces. The concert was recorded at Heliconian Hall with a small live audience and looks and sounds excellent.
The first virtual offering if the COC’s season is now available at coc.ca. It’s a ninety minute concert featuring Tamara Wilson, Russell Braun and the COC orchestra with Johannes Debus conducting. The choice of rep is fairly “safe” with plenty of Verdi and Puccini though there’s quite a lot of Wagner too. Both singes are in good voice; Tammy Wilson very much so. Her “Ben io t’invenni… Anch’io dischiuso” from Verdi’s Nabucco is dramatic and there’s a moving “Vissi d’arte”, “Tacea la notte placida… Di tale amor” from Il Trovatore gives evidence of flexibility and precision as well as power in and she gives an excellent Liebestod to finish. Russell sounds really lyrical especially in that concert favourite “Mein Sehnen, mein Wähnen” and in Wolfram’s “O du, mein holder Abendstern”.
My review of the Soundstreams presentation of Tim Albery’s Garden of Vanished Pleasures is now up on the Opera Canada website.
I’ve been following the Yiddish Glory project for a while now and this year there’s something special for Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur without Fascists surfaced in Almaty, Kazakhstan where it was written in 1945. It fantasizes Adolf Hitler as the kapporot; a sacrificial chicken. It has the same dark humour as most of these Yiddish songs of resistance. There’s a great performance of it on Youtube or you can follow this link to Six Degrees Records where you can buy an audio recording or read the full lyrics.
Date with the Divas volume 2 is the latest Youtube offering from Opera Sustenida (Stephanie DeCiantis – soprano and film diva, Nicole Whitney Dubinsky -soprano, Daniella Theresia – mezzo and tech diva and Suzanne Yeo – piano). It’s the first of their shows that I’ve seen. It’s one of those films where everything is recorded in people’s homes and then patched together into a film and it’s as well done as anything in the genre that I’ve seen. The video editing is really good though some sections that were broadcast “live” during the initial streaming were a bit weird sonically. Fortunately that didn’t affect the music.
It’s been a bit quiet lately but there a couple of live shows and a video that you might want to check out. None of them are opera really but whatever. Shakespeare in the Ruff are doing something different this year. They have a one hour show called Towards Rebirth which explores the themes of Rupture, Resilience, and Rebirth. It was created in workshop by the actors and so it’s maybe not the most polished theatre you will ever see but it’s quite moving and sometimes very funny. There are six more shows in Withrow Park at 3pm and 6.30pm Friday through Sunday. It’s ticketed and PWYC. Details here.
The most substantial offering I’ve seen this week is a concert from Toronto Summer Music that aired last night. It was a song recital by four of the Toronto’s better known young singers with Steven Philcox on piano. Simona Genga sang some Mahler and some interesting songs by the Basque composer Jésus Gurudi (new to me!). Clarence Frazer gave us excerpts from Die Schöne Müllerin plus three songs by Butterworth. No prizes for guessing which three but they were well done. Jamie Groote sang a set of Jake Heggie songs plus Strauss’ Beim Schlafengehen. Always excellent to hear Strauss sung well. Asitha Tennekoon rounded things off with a set from Wolff’s Mörike Lieder and songs by Holman (Fair Daffodils; obligatory CanCon), Gurney and Finzi. It’s all high class stuff and there’s about 90 minutes of singing. The platform is Vimeo and it looks and sounds good. It’s free and available here.
In streaming news Soundstreams has added a lovely concert of Ian Cusson’s Five Songs on Poems of Marilyn Dumont and Raven Chacon’s Ella Llora. The performers are mezzo Rebecca Cuddy and pianist Gregory Oh. I really urge people, Canadian or otherwise, to take a look at this. The news, as it pertains to Indigenous people in Canada, has been really grim in recent weeks and I don’t know anything quite like Dumont’s verse for conveying certain aspects of the Indigenous experience. She combines, sadness, anger and disarming humour in a way that touches me deeply and Ian’s settings intensify that. I’ve written about these songs before but never at such a moment.
operaramblings 