Two hours of soprano Dory Hayley multi tracking with live and recorded electronics in a tribute to Morton Feldman’s Three Voices. Fascinating if not everyone’s cup of tea. Full review at La Scena Musicale.
i love evil
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A very polished recital
Soprano Karoline Podolak and pianist Rachael Kerr’s recital at the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto on Thursday afternoon featured seven languages and lots of coloratura. Full review at La Scena Musicale.
Banff Suite
Frank Horvat’s Banff Suite is a series of piano pieces inspired by hiking the trails around Banff. Full review at La Scena Musicale.
Schrödinger’s passengers
Realscape Productions have brought the DARKFIELD audiosensory experiences to Toronto. Last night I took in both shows; FLIGHT and SÉANCE. What they have in common is that they take place in the dark, in a specially equipped shipping container using binaural headsets for the audio and some sort of trickery for the other sensory effects.
Credit: Alex Purcell
Thomas’ Psyché
Ambroise Thomas’ Psyché is yet another more or less forgotten French opera rescued from obscurity by the Bru Zane label. Canadian Hélène Guilmette sings the title role. Full review at Opera Canada.
Magic Flute preview
Opera Atelier’s fall offering this year is a remount of the Magic Flute in essentially the version that first appeared in 1991. It’s sung in English and we got a preview in the RBA on Thursday. It was basically a working rehearsal of the opera’s opening plus a few other scenes with Chris Bagan at the piano.
Bach’s Goldberg Variations on two guitars
One tree, two guitars, one sound. This was the creative mission for Hugo Cuvilliez, guitar-maker and wood-whisperer from the Drôme region of south-eastern France: to honour the essence of a partnership with the sonic unity of one and the same instrument.
This was the vision of Thibault Garcia and Antoine Morinière; guitarists at the Paris Conservatory. The goal, to create a version of Bach’s Goldberg Variations in which each guitarist becomes one hand of the keyboard. Each on a sonically identical instrument. It’s fascinating because it’s close to, but not exactly like, the piece played on a harpsichord. And it is beautifully played.
The First Viennese School
Wednesday’s recital in the RBA was given by UoT Opera. It consisted of a series of arias/scenes drawn from the operas of Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven creatively staged by Mabel Wonnacott. It was lively and a lot of fun and the vocal standard was very high, especially for so early in the academic year.
Music for Reconciliation
Tuesday was the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and the COC programmed Innu soprano Elisabeth St-Gelais, with pianist Louise Pelletier, for the lunchtime concert series. They began very appropriately with Ian Cusson’s Le Récital des Anges; settings of two elegiac poems by Émile Nelligan about death and childhood. They are very beautiful and deeply sad songs that seemed just right for the occasion.
A whip and a big black dildo
Jeremy O. Harris’ Slave Play opened at Canadian Stage’s Berkeley Street Theatre on Wednesday night. The TL:DR version of this review is that it’s raunchy, extremely funny and rather disturbing. The more considered version contains spoilers so you might want to stop here if you are planning to see it soon.
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