Soundstreams have just announced their 2016/17 season. There’s quite a lot there for those with an experimental taste in vocal music as well as a bunch of instrumental stuff. Probably the biggest deal is a staging of “musical curiosities” from R. Murray Schafer’s Patria cycle. Odditorium will feature selections from The Greatest Show, Ra, and others, immersing audiences in a circus-like atmosphere, complete with host carnival barker. This one is directed by Chris Abramson and runs March 2nd to 5th, 2017 at Crow’s Theatre, a new 215 seat venue on Carlaw. Time for my annual fix of Shafer nuttiness!
Soundstreams 2016/17
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It looks like another fairly quiet week ahead. Just a couple of listings. Tomorrow at 7.30pm, at Walter Hall, Benjamin Butterfield and Steven Philcox are performing Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin. Tickets 
A packed out Koerner Hall just saw something half way between an art song recital and a revivalist meeting. To say that Mr. Hvorostovsky has a fan club would be a gross understatement. He was greeted by cheers, every song got prolonged applause (alas for those of us who prefer some continuity in a set), there were more flowers than at Princess Di’s funeral and about the only thing missing was that, mercifully, no underwear got thrown on stage. Oh, and, despite the requests to the contrary, the whole show was “artfully” lit by the constant flashes from phone cameras. He also sang some songs. In fact it was a nicely chosen mixture of Glinka, Rimsky-Korsakoff, Tchaikovsky and Strauss. Full details are 
The next couple of weeks have some items of interest. Tonight at 7pm Dmitri Hvostorovsky is singing at Koerner Hall with a program of Russian songs plus some Strauss. This recital has been getting very good reviews in the US. On Wednesday there is, after a fashion, a chance to see Jonas Kaufmann in concert. It’s a cinema broadcast of a La Scala concert from last June and it’s an all Puccini program. Curiously it’s directed by Brian Large who I had long since thought retired. It’s being distributed by Arts Alliance who are the folks who do the ROH cinema broadcasts but the Met doesn’t seem to have got heavy on this so you can see it at your local Cineplex. Full dates and listings are 
operaramblings 