Mariane Clément’s production of Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann recorded at the 2024 Salzburg Festival is not the sort of production that one dismisses as pointless and/or ill conceived but it is complex and difficult to read; at least on first viewing. That said, being on video rather than live probably doesn’t help.
There’s a lot to like in the COC’s revival of Robert Carsen’s production of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice that opened at the Four Seasons Centre on Thursday evening. I don’t think Gluck gets much better. Full review at bachtrack.com.
Photo: Michael Cooper
Duo Concertante play Alice Ho’s Dark Tales; pieces for violin and piano inspired by Newfoundland ghost stories. Full review at La Scena Musicale.
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.
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.
Frank Horvat’s Banff Suite is a series of piano pieces inspired by hiking the trails around Banff. Full review at La Scena Musicale.
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
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.
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.
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.
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