Voicebox:Opera in Concert announces 2015/16 season

Posted on March 30, 2015 by operaramblings

Voicebox:Opera in Concert closed out their 2014/15 season yesterday afternoon with Charpentier’s Louise (review to come in Opera Canada). Thay also announced their plans for next season. There will be, again, three productions. The first two will be single performances, on November 22nd 2015 and February 7th 2016 of Borodin’s Prince Igor (presumably heavily cut) and Salieri’s Falstaff. The third will be the premiere of Peter Anthony Togni’s and Sharon Singer’s Isis and Osiris which will run from March 29th to April 3rd 2016. All performances are at the Jane Mallett Theatre. The first two works will presumably be performed in Voicebox’s “minimally staged” style. No word yet on staging or musical accompaniment for Isis and Osiris.

Watching singers aspire

Posted on March 29, 2015 by operaramblings

Yesterday morning I got to sit in on one session of a two day workshop for young singers organised by the International Resource Centre for Performing Artists. The workshop featured Metropolitan Opera assistant conductor Joan Dornemann. The singers were all unknown to me but seemed, for the most part, to be recent graduates in their early to mid 20s and from what I could gather a fairly wide range of backgrounds in terms of origin and musical education.

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Adieu to Charlotte and Clarence

Posted on March 27, 2015 by operaramblings

Each year, round about now, the COC stages a lunchtime concert or two featuring departing members of the Ensemble Studio singing music that has special meaning for them. Yesterday we heard Clarence Frazer and Charlotte Burrage with Jennifer Szeto at the piano.

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Dido and Aeneas in Trinity College Chapel

Posted on March 25, 2015 by operaramblings

Last night the UoT’s early Music program presented Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas in the chapel at Trinity College. It was a bit of a strange experience. The work was semi-staged with dancers doubling Dido and Aeneas and a few extra as “chorus dancers”. With a twelve person chorus and all the soloists plus the small band this made for a lot of people in the space. Trinity College Chapel is long, narrow and high with traditional pew seating and a minimally raised platform for the altar. All of which meant that only the first few rows and , maybe, people on the aisle had much of a view of anything.

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21C announced

Posted on March 25, 2015 by operaramblings

Last night the line up for this year’s 21C Music festival was announced. The featured composer is Kaija Saariaho and there are plenty of new works on show. I’m just going to run through some of the highlights.

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The Harnoncourt show

Posted on March 24, 2015 by operaramblings

Unusually, the Theater and der Wien’s 2011 production of Handel’s Rodelinda features a father and son team. Philippe Harnoncourt directs and Nikolaus conducts. It’s an interesting production with great acting, very decent singing and the always excellent Concentus Musicus Wien in the pit. Continue reading →

Future ROH broadcasts at the Bloor

Posted on March 23, 2015 by operaramblings

Following on from yesterday’s Der fliegende Holländer showing at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema I followed up with them about future plans for the ROH opera broadcasts. Here’s the scoop though dates may change.

June 28th. Brecht/Weill The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. This is a new production by John Fulljames with Mark Wrigglesworth conducting. The cast includes Anne-Sofie von Otter, Willard White and Christine Rice. It’s going to be sung in English.

July 26th. Puccini La Bohème. It’s the old John Copley production dating from 1975 (which in turn replaced an 1896 production) and it was intended to be “traditional” and it is! Joseph Calleja and Anna Netrebko headline with Dan Ettinger conducting.

August 30th. Rossini Guillaume Tell. This is another new production , this time by Damiano Michieletto. Gerry Finley sings the title role with Malin Byström as Mathilde. Antonio Pappano conducts.

So, some decent fillers for the traditionally quiet summer season.

The Flying Welshman

Posted on March 23, 2015 by operaramblings

The Royal Opera House production of Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer finally made it to Toronto yesterday with a showing of the film at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema. There areva couple of Toronto connections. The production was created by Tim Albery, although Daniel Dooner directs this revival, and the Senta is sung by Adrianne Pieczonka who was present with her family and introduced the film. The Dutchman, of course, is played by hulking Welshman Bryn Terfel who wasn’t there. He was probably crying into his beer somewhere at Wales coming up short in the Six Nations. Continue reading →

Turning the Tables

Posted on March 21, 2015 by operaramblings

Not Alfred Hitchcock

Last night’s Tap:Ex Tables Turned lived up to the hype. It was a pretty incredible experience but extremely difficult to describe. The first half consisted of Nicole Lizée’s reprocessed clips from classic films (The Shining, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Birds, The Graduate and, of course, The Sound of Music but there were others). It was mostly short loop stuff; for example, the ball bouncing scene from TSoM over and over again. Beside the sound from the film there was live accompaniment from Ben Reimer on a variety of tuned percussion instruments and Carla Huhtanen with a variety of vocal effects and weirdly disturbing acting, helped along by the fact that she does look a bit like Julie Andrews, especially exploding Julie Andrews. I think there may have been more electronics from Nicole in the mix too. It was weird and fascinating and very enjoyable.

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The Met’s HD season for 2015/16

Posted on March 19, 2015 by operaramblings

I took a quick look at the overall Met season here. What follows is a more detailed description of what’s coming to cinemas and why one might, or might not, want to see the offerings.

October 3rd, 2015. Verdi’s Il Trovatore. This is the McVicar production that was broadcast a few seasons back with Sondra Radvanovsky as Leonora. This time it’s Anna Netrebko. Yonghoon Lee is Manrico rather than Marcello Álvarez. The other key players are the same. The Radvan version is available quite cheaply on DVD and Blu-ray. One for die hard Netrebko fans I think. Continue reading →