Exciting 2015/16 season from Tapestry Opera

Posted on September 3, 2015 by operaramblings

The competition to be the most interesting and innovative indie opera company in Toronto is fierce and Tapestry Opera’s season announcement definitely places them as one of the leading contenders. As well as the usual interesting line up of workshops etc there are two brand new fully staged works and a collaboration with a punk band. Details under the cut.

This year’s Tap:Ex is titled Metallurgy and features experimental punk band Fucked Up together with COC regulars Krisztina Szabó and David Pomeroy. This one runs November 19th to 21st at the Ernest Balmer Studio. Details here.

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A lunchtime of Mozart, Strauss and Dvořák

Posted on September 1, 2015 by operaramblings

So there’s another free (well almost, $5 suggested donation) lunchtime concert series. It’s Music Mondays at The Church of the Holy Trinity in Trinity Square (A most worthwhile institution which has long taken a leading role in the fight for social justice in Toronto and, on top of that, I used to play rugby with a former incumbent). As it happens yesterday saw the last concert of the 2015 season featuring the Canzona Chamber Players, conductor Evan Mitchell, and soprano Rachel Krehm. The Canzonas are a pretty big band, 53 players yesterday, for a chamber group (I guess they have big chambers in Canzona) and could be very loud in the rather resonant church acoustic.

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More details from Toronto Operetta Theatre

Posted on August 30, 2015 by operaramblings

Subscriptions are now on sale for Toronto Operetta Theatre. The line up has changed from the original spring announcement. There are still three shows but the run of Candide previously announced has been replaced with a single concert performance, with piano accompaniment of Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore. It’s at 3pm on November 1st. The main attraction (pun absolutely intended) is probably Greg Finney as Sir Joseph Porter KCB. There’s also Charlotte Knight as Josephine.

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September approaches

Posted on August 29, 2015 by operaramblings

It’s almost September which means there may even be stuff to write about soon. Here’s what’s in my calendar so far.

August 31st at 12.15 pm there’s a concert in the Music on Mondays series featuring soprano Rachel Krehm and an orchestra conducted by Evan Mitchell performing Dove sono by Mozart, selections from Strauss Op 27 and Dvorak’s 8th Symphony. It’s at Holy Trinity Church near the Eaton Centre. PWYC suggested $5.

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Bicycle Opera Project heading to Toronto

Posted on August 27, 2015 by operaramblings

The Bicycle Opera Project’s summer tour is winding down which means they will soon be pedalling into Toronto. There are four shows. Details under the cut.

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Running a little late here

Posted on August 24, 2015 by operaramblings

Back in January I saw Opera 5’s show Modern (Family) Opera at the Arts and Letters Club. I didn’t review it here because I was covering it for Opera Canada. It seems that there was some breakdown in communication, probably the dodgy email connection at our temporary digs last winter, and it never made it to the mag and so wasn’t printed. It’s a pity as it was a good show and so, belatedly, I’m sticking the review here, for the record, instead.

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Dissociative Me

Posted on August 19, 2015 by operaramblings

Gounod’s Faust is very French, stuffed with a specifically Catholic religiosity and has all the elements, welcome or not, of 19th century French opera; it’s long, it has ballet, there are interpolated drinking songs etc. Alaina Viau and Markus Kopp’s adaptation Dissociative Me, presented by LooseTEA Music Theatre, is none of these things (OK there’s an interpolated drinking song, Stan Rogers even, but at least it happens in a bar) and it’s all the better for that.

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Hunchback Hoffmann

Posted on August 18, 2015 by operaramblings

Giancarlo del Monaco’s production of Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann recorded in Bilbao in 2006 isn’t nearly as weird as the interviews on the first disk might lead one to expect. It has its moments but in many ways is more “by the book” than the Laurent Pelly production I looked at last week. The interviews talk of a “Sartrian” Hoffmann and a Freudian approach to Antonia. Ok so Hoffmann is portrayed as a hunchback and he’s fairly damaged but he’s basically your standard drunk poet fixated on a woman or women he can’t have. I can’t actually see this dude nailing his hand to a nightclub table with a knife or drowning his cat to prove a point.

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More line up news

Posted on August 14, 2015 by operaramblings

UoT Opera has announced a five show line up for 2015/16. Casting, ticket information etc to follow as and when available.

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Opera for the young and young at heart

Posted on August 13, 2015 by operaramblings

Two listings in in the last 24 hours. COC is staging a couple of “family friendly” events. On Saturday, November 14th, they are presenting Dean Burry’s The Bremen Town Musicians (11am) and interactive opera Operation Superpower (1.30pm). Starring the young artists of the COC Ensemble Studio, both operas are written specifically for young people aged 3 to 12. Each opera is 45 minutes in length, followed by a 15-minute Q&A with the cast and crew. Both performances take place at the Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Opera Centre at 227 Front St. E., Toronto, Ontario. There’s the opportunity to take part in “hands-on activities” related to the operas an hour before each show. Tickets to each opera are $15 for adults, and $10 for children. More info at coc.ca. Continue reading →