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!

Songs of Remembrance

Posted on November 2, 2015 by operaramblings

So it’s early November and a recital titled Songs of Remembrance. One might of expected something like the program Chris Maltman presented just down Philosophers’ Walk last year but no, Monica Whicher and Rachel Andrist’s program was gentler. Dare we say “more feminine”? This concert was about remembrance of childhood and love; happy and not so happy. Framed by Roger Quilter’s settings of Blake we got two “concocted cycles” drawn from very diverse sources; English, French and German texts; art song and popular song; composers from Schubert to Richard Rogers and Hans Eisler. It was effective.

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Music at the AGO

Posted on November 1, 2015 by operaramblings

The Art Gallery of Ontario is starting a new Friday night music initiative. Each Friday night in November (6th, 13th, 20th, 27th), the inaugural month of AGO Friday Nights, will celebrate the opening of J.M.W. Turner: Painting Set Free, a major exhibition featuring the works of Joseph Mallord William Turner. The AGO is partnering with Tapestry to present Music Set Free, a special performance featuring pianist/composer Adam Sherkin and mezzo-soprano Marion Newman. Capturing a selection of music from Turner’s time in addition to pieces inspired by his influences, subjects and artistic practice, the concert will feature works ranging from Beethoven to Britten, as well as a special world premiere of an original work by Adam Sherkin, commissioned by Tapestry for the occasion. Music Set Free is curated by Michael Mori, Artistic Director of Tapestry Opera. The performances will be from 7.30pm to 8.30 pm and are included in the admission price to the exhibition. There will be a bar and food and stuff too.

First week of November

Posted on November 1, 2015 by operaramblings

A few notable events this coming fall week. Tuesday sees the COC’s annual gala competition for young singers, Centre Stage. Prizes and possible places in the Ensemble Studio for next year are up for grabs. The public part of the event starts at 5.30pm at The Four Seasons Centre with a cocktail reception followed by the final round of the competition. Unusually this competition feature the full COC orchestra, not just piano.

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Darknet

Posted on October 30, 2015 by operaramblings

Great idea. Create a sort of spooky, short opera program in a funky location and use it as a fundraiser for your next major project. That was Darknet at Mây last night. Jennifer Krabbe, singing Berlioz, rounded us up in the bar and ushered us downstairs into an installation created by Alessia Naccarato and Noah Grove. It was dark. It was eerie. We were offered masks. Cairan Ryan sang The Cold Song from Purcell’s King Arthur while writhing on the floor. Jonathan MacArthur sort of emerged from some sort of primeval goo singing Aria by John Cage and Beth Hagerman gave us one of Lulu’s arias. Then we were rounded up and ejected into the light again. Loved it.

Abraham, an oratorio

Posted on October 29, 2015 by operaramblings

I really wanted to like David Warrack’s new piece Abraham that premiered last night at the Metropolitan United Church. It’s described as an oratorio and tells the story of the patriarch Abraham and uses that as a jumping off point for arguing for the breaking down of barriers between Jews, Christians and Muslims based on their shared heritage(*). Given recent events in Canada and elsewhere that’s obviously a worthy goal and the whole thing was in aid of the Metropolitan United Church Syrian Refugee Fund; reason enough, in itself, to go.

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Quinn Kelsey singing from the heart

Posted on October 27, 2015 by operaramblings

Baritone Quinn Kelsey, currently singing Germont père in La Traviata at the COC stepped down off the big stage today to give a recital, with Rachel Andrist at the piano, in the more intimate RBA. As befits the venue, he gave us a more intimate program. Ralph Vaughan Williams Songs of Travel and the less frequently heard Gerald Finzi cycle, Let Us Garlands Bring sandwiched three songs by Brahms.

The Vaughan Williams is a pretty well known work, almost a recital warhorse. Kelsey showed considerable sensitivity in, mostly, dialling his big voice back for it. He is extremely expressive, occasionally I thought maybe just a touch too much so, and he has a surprisingly wide range of colours at his disposal. The contrast between the light, bright tone he used for The Roadside Fire and the much darker (and louder) approach to Youth and Love was quite striking. And that’s just an arbitrary comparison of two songs that follow one another. The rest of the set was equally varied. This guy is a lot more than “just” a big, Italianate Verdi baritone! And Rachel Andrist is so much more than “just” an accompanist. She brings a complimentary personality to every song with some real detail in the piano part that makes it seem quite fresh.

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A quick look at the COC’s 2014/15 financials

Posted on October 26, 2015 by operaramblings

I haven’t really done a full analysis of the COC’s recently released financials but what I have done suggests cause for cautious optimism. As anyone who reads this blog knows I have, for the last three years or so, pointed up the rather stark reality underlying the company’s relentlessly optimistic propaganda. To whit, a steady decline in seats sold, revenue and realisation (actual revenue dollars per seat sold). This year doesn’t look so bad.

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