Orphée as love triangle

Posted on by
Reply

Gluck’s Orpheus opera; in either Italian or French guise, is usually presented as a short and cheery “love conquers all” with an uncomplicated happy ending.  Pierre Audi in his production of the 1774 Paris version of Orphée et Euridice, recorded at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in 2022 takes a different tack.  Here Amour, who is on stage 100% of the time, forms a love triangle with Orphée and Euridice and while she’s happy to work to reunite the lovers Orphée gets in a snit in the last act when he realises that her interest isn’t entirely altruistic and comes close to violence when the two girls show more interest in each other than in him!

Continue reading →

Jurowski and Tcherniakov do War and Peace

Posted on by
Reply

How does one do (if one does at all) a propagandistic Russian opera in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine.  Dmitri Tcherniakov and Vladimir Jurowski’s approach to Prokofiev’s War and Peace, filmed at Bayerische Staatsoper, is radical, complex and controversial.  See my full (and ridiculously long) review at La Scena Musicale.

An Oak Tree

Posted on by
Reply

Tim Crouch’s An Oak Tree has been around for 20 years and has been performed about 400 times and it still feels very experimental and rather weird in a good way.  It mucks about with time and space and identity while layering on multiple meta-theatrical elements that create an experience that is simultaneously engrossing and somewhat disorienting.

Continue reading →

Celebrating Kurt Weill

Posted on by
Reply

Saturday night Confluence presented a concert curated by Patricia O’Callaghan of a selection of works by Kurt Weill.  Now I have.a bit of a love/hate relationship with Weill which will likely colour this review.  Broadly speaking I love his earlier work, especially the collaborations with Brecht, but I’m just not into the Broadway stuff at all with a few exceptions such as Street Scene which has at least a bit of an edge.  I also thoroughly dislike some of the American translations of the Brecht pieces that do all they can to take the edge off. Continue reading →

Come Closer

Posted on by
1

Come Closer; libretto by Rachel Krehm, music by Ryan Trew, is a two act chamber opera about Rachel’s relationship with her younger sister Elizabeth who died as a consequence of heroin addiction.  Some of it is based on Rachel’s memories and much on the writing and drawings that Elizabeth left.  It premiered on Friday night and is currently playing in an Opera 5 production at Factory Theatre.

Continue reading →

Opera 5 gala

Posted on by
Reply

Opera 5 opened the first Toronto Opera Festival last night at Factory Theatre with a gala featuring Greg Dahl and the singers from their intern programme; most of whom have McGill connections..  It was basically a concert of opera arias and scenes and musical theatre numbers in about equal shares.  It was quite varied ad theire was some excellent singing supported with versatility and flair by Nate Ben-Horin on a slightly battered looking piano (it sounded fine though!).

Nate Ben-Horin, piano; Gregory Dahl, baritone

Continue reading →

Leaving Home

Posted on by
Reply

Leaving Home is a 1972 play by David French set in Toronto in the 1950s and centring on a Newfoundland family that migrated to Toronto at the end of the war.  It originally played at Tarragon Theatre and it’s now playing at Coal Mine Theatre in a production by Halifax’ Matchstick Theatre.

Continue reading →