Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda featured in the MetHD series in January 2013 and has now been released on DVD. My review of the cinema broadcast is here. It’s always a bit different watching the DVD rather than the cinema version but in this case I think my somewhat different reaction has a lot to do with having recently seen various versions of the other Schiller/Donizetti Tudor queen operas, especially Stephen Lawless’ Roberto Devereux at the COC.
Opera Atelier’s spring production; Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydyce, opened last night under most unspringlike conditions. Much had been made in the run up to the opening of the use of Berlioz’ 1859 performing edition, representing Tafelmusik’s deepest push into the 19th century and I think many of us were wondering how far this somewhat different sensibility would be reflected in the staging. In the event it was a non event. Connoisseurs of 19th century brass instruments might just have been able to hear a difference between the cornets à piston used in place of the natural instruments but nobody I talked to could. The staging too was a remount of a previous production in classic Opera Atelier style though some of the dance numbers did feature point shoes and a more athletic style; notably the pas de deux in the closing ballet which was surely the terpsichorial highlight of the evening.
Mireille Lebel (Orpheus), Peggy Kriha Dye (Eurydice) and Meghan Lindsay (Amour). Photo by Bruce Zinger.
Calgary once again offers three main stage performances. The season opens with Delibes’ Lakmé. It’s a Tom Diamond production so probably not very Regie. Aline Kutan, seen as Queen of the Night in Toronto not so long ago, sings the title role with Andrea Hill as her sidekick Mallika. Lakmé’s paramour, the handsome British officer Frederic, is sung by Canadian opera’s current answer to Rudolph Valentino, Cam McPhail. Gordon Gerrard conducts. There are three performances on November 21st, 25th and 27th.
Today’s lunch time concert in the RBA was a lieder recital by two Ensemble Studio members; bass-baritone Gordon Bintner and tenor Andrew Haji. Both singers sang settings of texts by Heinrich Heine. Bintner, accompanied by Jennifer Szeto kicked off with selections from Schubert’s Schwanengesang to be followed by Haji and Liz Upchurch with Schumann’s Dichterliebe.
Here’s another listing I missed in the chaos of moving back into the Kitten Kondo. Metro Youth Opera have a run of three performances of Berlioz’s Béatrice and Bénédict at the Daniels Spectrum (Aki Studio). The shows are on April 24th and 25th at 7.30pm and the 26th at 2.30pm. Alison Wong directs with Natasha Fransblow as Music Director. The cast includes Simone McIntosh as Béatrice and Asitha Tennekoon (Paris in the recent GGS La belle Hélène) as Bénédict. Full details and tickets are available here.
Shostakovich’s The Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District has become a modern classic but only after it was the cause, or at least purported cause, of his disgrace under Stalin in which the work was criticised both for the subject matter and the “bourgeios formalism” of the music. A revised version of the work was made into a film under the title Katerina Izmailova in 1966 as part of Shostakovich’s formal rehabilitation in the Soviet Union.
Andrew Ager’s Führerbunker is coming to Toronto under the auspices of the Centre for Opera Studies in Italy. It plays at the Tranzac Club on May 1st and 2nd at 7.30pm. It’s a one hour piece, in German, dealing with the last days of the Hitler regime. There’s an article about it at Musical Toronto. Tickets are available here.
Karine White
Yesterday afternoon I went to see the UoT Opera program’s show Brush Up Your Shakespeare. It was substantially the same as the program they gave six months ago in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre so I ‘m just going to comment on changes of one kind or another.
There were a few extra numbers. Danika Lorèn sang the Poison Aria from Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette. It’s an interesting voice. There’s lots of power but maybe isn’t quite fully under control yet. Still, easier to refine a powerful basic instrument than get anywhere with a small one. One to watch. William Ford sang Macduff’s O figli mie! from Verdi’s Macbeth. That’s a pretty bold call for a student and he wasn’t bad at all. This time we also got a sort of catalogue raisonnée of the program from director Michael Patrick Albano with contextual information on each number.
Sometimes I forget the obvious… Here’s what the big kids are doing in April/May.
Opera Atelier are staging Berlioz’s 1859 version of Gluck’s Orphée. There are six performances from April 9th to April 18th. Mireille Lebel sings Orpheus, Peggy Kriha Dye sings Eurydice and Meghan Lindsay is Amour. This will be Tafelmusik’s furthest foray yet into 19th century repertoire. It’s at the Elgin and Marshall Pynkoski directs. Not sure who is conducting, presumably David Fallis.
Perhaps the most exciting prospect is that from May 26th to 29th you can catch the world premiere of M’dea Undone, a collaboration between Tapestry and Scottish Opera, at the Evergreen Brickworks. The libretto is by Marjorie Chan with music by John Harris in this retelling of the classic story of love and betrayal in the context of today’s perpetual war against whatever. Tim Albery directs with Jordan De Souza conducting. The cast includes Lauren Segal, Peter Barrett, Jacquie Woodley and James McLean.
operaramblings 