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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
operaramblings 