Nothing at all to do with opera

Posted on November 9, 2015 by operaramblings

Sometimes I illustrate, usually snarky, posts with a picture of a little grey cat in one of her her many and expressive moods. Today I want to talk about her for, as Benjamin Britten put it in Curlew River, “Today is an important day”. Ten years ago this day the lemur and I had just dropped off a batch of foster kittens at the Humane Society. We had seen them through the first hard motherless weeks until they were big enough, independent enough and healthy enough to be adopted by “normal” people. To be honest, we were pretty much kittened out and we needed a break. We had cleaned and packed up the Kitten Kondo and resolved to take at least a few weeks break before taking on another batch of kittens who needed bottle feeding every four hours day and night. Continue reading →

The Living Spectacle

Posted on November 8, 2015 by operaramblings

The Canadian Art Song Project branched out last night with a ticketed concert at The Extension Room. The opening number was the latest CASP commission; The Living Spectacle by Erik Ross to words by Baudelaire translated by Roy Campbell. Like a lot of modern song the three movements were all quite piano forward and hard on the singer. The second text, The Evil Monk, certainly brought out the darker and more dramatic side of Ambur Braid’s voice while the third, The Death of Artists, was cruelly high even for someone with Ambur’s coloratura chops. She coped very well and Steven Philcox’ rendering of the piano part was suitably virtuosic.

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Second week of November

Posted on November 8, 2015 by operaramblings

A bit of a lull this week with the COC fall season over and Yaksmas festivities still, mercifully, some time away. Still there are a couple of events of note. Simone Osborne is singing with the TSO at Roy Thomson Hall on Thursday and Saturday in a program of Mahler, Dvoràk, Charpentier and Strauss. There’s also the fall production from the Glenn Gould School. It’s a double bill of Xavier Montsalvatge’s Puss in Boots and Luciano Berio’s Folk Songs. Friday and Saturday at 7.30pm in Mazzoleni Hall.

Traviata redux

Posted on November 7, 2015 by operaramblings

Last night we saw the last performance of the current COC run of La Traviata, this time with the alternate cast. Joyce El-Khoury, Andrew Haji and James Westman came in for Ekaterina Siurina, Charles Castronovo and Quinn Kelsey. We were also sitting in Ring 3 rather than lower down which gave a rather different perspective; perhaps not showing off the clever lighting for the intimate scenes quite as well but much more effective, by giving greater depth, for the party scenes.

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Radvanovsky at Koerner

Posted on November 6, 2015 by operaramblings

I don’t think the program for Sondra’s Koerner Hall recital program was available when I posted about it last month so here it is:

Antonio Vivaldi: Sposa son disprezzata, from Bajazet
Vincenzo Bellini: Three songs (Per pieta, bell’idol moi; La Ricordanza; Ma rendi pur contento)
Richard Strauss: Four songs (Allerseelen, Befreit, Morgen, Heimliche Aufforderung)
Antonin Dvořák: Song to the Moon, from Rusalka
Franz Liszt: Three songs (S’il est un charmant gazon; Enfant, si j’étais roi; Oh! Quand je dors)
Samuel Barber: Selections from Hermit Songs (At Saint Patrick’s Purgatory, St. Ita’s Vision, The Crucifixion, The Monk and His Cat, The Desire for Hermitage)
Umberto Giordano: La Mamma Morta, from Andrea Chénier

Quite a mix! I don’t think I’ve ever heard her sing in German and there is virtually no overlap with her Zoomerplex recital last year.

The Telephone and The Medium

Posted on November 6, 2015 by operaramblings

UoT Opera’s fall production opened last night at the MacMillan theatre. It’s a double bill of Menotti works; The Telephone and The Medium. The former was cleverly updated by Michael Patrick Albano to reflect the age of the smartphone. It actually seems more relevant than ever and, slight as it is – an extended joke about a girl who won’t get off the phone long enough for her fiancé to propose – it was wryly amusing. The Medium I’m not so sure about. It’s a contrived piece written in the 1940’s but set a few years earlier about a fake medium and her deluded clients. It seems dated, not so much in the sense that seance attendance is pretty unusual today, but in the extent to which the characters are clichéd, cardboard cut outs even. The medium herself is bad enough but her sidekicks are her rather dippy, if kind, daughter and a boy who is mute (k’ching), Gypsy (k’ching) and “found wandering the streets” (k’ching, k’ching) “of Budapest” (k’ching, k’ching, k’ching). The first act in which the fake seancery goes on isn’t bad but then the medium gets a shock; a real or imagined cold hand on her throat (probably imagined as she is a raging alcoholic) and decides to go straight. The second act is pure bathos. I can see why it was a Broadway hit in the 1940s but I think tastes have moved on. And who the heck calls their daughter “Doodly”?

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Night of the living mezzos

Posted on November 4, 2015 by operaramblings

As previously revealed the line up for last night’s Centre Stage; the COC’s gala competition cum Ensemble Studio final audition featured four mezzos, two sopranos and two baritones. Not a tenor to be had. As was the case two years ago the competition was split into two parts; a late afternoon session for an invited audience and an early evening public session separated by a cocktail reception. Each singer presented one aria in each session. Accompaniment was provided by the COC Orchestra with music director Johannes Debus.

The Lieutenant Governor with the contestants

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Get your Messiah here

Posted on November 3, 2015 by operaramblings

As Brian Cohen discovered picking a Messiah is a tricky business. So is picking a Messiah. As usual the winter solstice season in Toronto offers multiple options. The nearest thing to the John Barbirolli approach is the TSO at Roy Thomson Hall. This is your big, grand Messiah with famous soloists, modern instruments and a big chorus. This year, besides the perennial Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, there are soloists Erin Wall, Liz DeShong, Andrew Staples and John Relyea and, best of all, Andrew Davis conducts. This one is on December 15th, 16th, 18th and 19th at 8pm with a 3pm matinee on the 20th.

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Upcoming shows

Posted on November 3, 2015 by operaramblings

There are a few new interesting shows coming up. Fawn Chamber Creative have announced a fully staged production of Adam Scime’s L’homme et le ciel. This has been in the works for a while. I missed last year’s workshop performance but caught an excerpt from Bicycle Opera Project. It made me want to see the whole thing. The piece takes its story from the 2nd century Christian literary text The Shepherd of Hermas, and depicts the journey of a male slave named Hermas as he struggles to accept his humanity within the parameters of his faith. Hermas, a pious man, has spent his life striving to live a righteous life, only to discover that there are elements of human instinct that cannot be denied. Hermas’ break in self-concept leads him down a path of discovery through a series of out of body interactions and revelations, which slowly bring him closer to understanding. Music by Adam Scime, libretto by Ian Koiter. Amanda Smith directs and the singers are Alexander Dobson, Larissa Koniuk and Adanya Dunn. It’s playing at The Music Gallery on December 3rd and 4th at 8pm. Tickets here.

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The Vagabond

Posted on November 2, 2015 by operaramblings

I usually only review CDs on first release but I came across one on the weekend that I need to rave about. I guess it’s not exactly a secret that I’m a huge fan of early 20th English art song. So, when I found a CD with most of favourites sung by one of my all time favourites it was pretty much bound to be a hit. It’s a 20 year old recording by Bryn Terfel and Martin Martineau and it’s called The Vagabond and other songs. The disc includes Vaughan Williams Songs of Travel, Finzi’s Let Us Garlands Bring, both of Butterworth’s Housman cycles and three settings of John Masefield texts by John Ireland. The young Bryn’s voice is a touch lighter than today but it’s still a brooding dark thing though with delicacy enough for, say, Is my team ploughing? Martineau is a most skilled accompanist and the recording, made in Henry Wood Hall, is very good indeed. I can see this getting played a lot!