So this week is the big Messiah week. I’ll be seeing two; the TSO’s “big, fat” Messiah on Tuesday and Against the Grain’s choreographed version the following night. The TSO version uses Andrew Davis’ “large scale” orchestration and has a great quartet of soloists. It’s playing at Roy Thomson Hall Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday through Sunday. The AtG version also has great soloists, it’s on a smaller scale and features Jenn Nicholls’ choreography. It plays at Harbourfront Wednesday through Saturday. There’s also Tafelmusik’s baroque take at Trinity St. Paul’s, also Wednesday through Saturday.
Getting Messianic
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There are, I think, some really interesting trends emerging in the classical vocal scene in Toronto. On the one hand there’s the consolidation of the Neef/Debus era at the COC that has taken the company from decidedly provincial to being a first rate international opera capable of offering us, its audience, the best singers, directors and conductors in the world. I know that not everyone welcomes that change but it seems to me infinitely preferable to death by musical and dramatic sclerosis. But that’s not what this piece is about. What I wanted to explore was what’s happening at a more grass roots level. This probably need to be taken in two parts; opera and art song, though curiously the cast of characters overlaps in some interesting ways. This piece looks at opera.
Soundstreams’ high concept show Electric Messiah opened at the Drake Underground last night. So what is Electric Messiah? It’s a potent mix of Handel/Jennens, four exceptional singers from varied backgrounds, electronics, turntable artists and electric guitars. It’s “staged” in the round in a dive bar with the audience and artists mixed up all over the place. Curator Kyle Brenders, dramaturg Ashlie Corcoran and lighting designer Patrick Lavender have created something that’s weird and dynamic and exciting and, just occasionally, a bit self indulgent and I really enjoyed it. Probably my biggest complaint would be that it’s too short at around an hour.
This week sees holiday season events beginning. The main one on my calendar is 
Despite living locally Sondra Radvanovsky is not a frequent recitalist in Toronto so it’s perhaps not surprising that Koerner Hall was packed last night for her show presented by Show One Productions. I had been intrigued in advance by the promised program which looked extremely varied; baroque, bel canto, Strauss, Barber, verismo and more. We were, in fact, being used as most willing guinea pigs for some new departures, especially the Strauss.
Adam Scime’s L’Homme et le Ciel opened last night at The Music Gallery in a production created by FAWN Chamber Creative. The story of a 2nd century BCE slave’s struggle between his spiritual aspirations and his less spiritual attraction to his beautiful owner might seem a bit obscure for a modern audience but it does provide a framework for exploring human emotions free of the need to rush on with a linear narrative. So, perhaps rather like Pyramus and Thisbe at the COC this is a piece that explores and questions human motivations and emotions rather than focussing on telling a story.
So there’s another new approach to art song in Toronto. 
The Fall 2015 
Yesterday’s Riki Turofsky master class at the UoT Music faculty was given by Sondra Radvanovsky which probably accounted for the almost full Walter Hall. It was interesting. I’ve only ever seen Sondra glammed up and seeming very much the diva and so I was a bit surprised that she proved rather down to earth and very technique focussed. Four students sang but I’m going to focus on two. Partly to avoid being repetitive and partly because they happen to be singers I’ve heard quite a bit and so was more able to see what Sondra was doing with/to them.
operaramblings 