How it Storms

Posted on June 18, 2015 by operaramblings

How it Storms; music by Allen Cole, libretto by Maristella Roca, is a chamber opera for four soloists and gamelan ensemble. It was premiered last night at the Array Space and is co-production of Array Music and the Evergreen Club Contemporary Gamelan. It’s a really interesting piece. The libretto is allusive (at times even elusive) rather than being a straight forward linear narrative. There’s a soon to be wedded couple, her sister and a very strange beggar. There’s a hunting scene and a curse but what’s really going on is never entirely clear. The libretto is beautiful to listen to with repetitive elements and non-English elements. It’s clearly as much the work of a poet as a playwright(1). Using gamelan to accompany this makes so much sense. The instruments mirror, amplify and transcend the rhythmical, shimmering nature of the words. The solo vocal parts too give the singers an opportunity to sing beautifully as well as tell the story.

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Is Vancouver Opera cutting its own throat?

Posted on June 17, 2015 by operaramblings

2015/16 will be the last conventional four production September to May season for Vancouver Opera. April 2017 will see a new look “opera festival” with three productions running in a three week window. There’s the bright and cheerful official spin here. But, seriously, this is a major cut by any other name. For eleven months of the year Canada’s third largest metropolis will see no fully staged opera. So even fewer opera jobs for singers, other musicians and everyone else who makes opera happen. Sad.

Vancouver Opera’s 2015 production of Sweeney Todd

Late listing

Posted on June 15, 2015 by operaramblings

Teiya Kasahara and Stephanie Yelovich have a couple of recitals this week. The show is billed as Majesty, Madness and Murder and will feature Italian opera and art song. Mark-Anthony Del Brocco will accompany. It’s a fund raiser for the girls to study in Italy this summer and it’s pay-by-donation.

You can catch them tomorrow night at St. John the Evangelist Anglican Church, 320 Charlton Ave W, Hamilton or on Friday at First Unitarian Congregation of Toronto, 175 St. Clair Ave W, Toronto. Both shows start at 7.30pm.

Eine Frau von Heute

Posted on June 15, 2015 by operaramblings

I don’t usually associate Arnold Schoenberg with comedy but he did write a one act comic opera Von Heute auf Morgen which premiered in 1929. It was an attempt to cash in on the vogue for satirical operas on modern themes characterised by Brecht and Weill and , if a bit slight and lacking Brechtian punch, it works well enough. A bourgeios husband and wife have returned from an evening out where they have met an iold friend of the wife who has become something of a femme fatale. There’s also a singer, inevitably a tenor, involved. The husband is rabbiting on rather gormlessly about the charms of the “other woman” so his wife decides to teach him a lesson. She apes the manners of a “modern woman”, neglects their child, plans assignations etc. There’s a long phone conversation inwhich the “friend” and the singer invite them back to the bar. By now the husband is beginning to realise what he stands to lose. The wife realises she has won. The other couple show up and there’s a “modern” vs. “traditional” quartet after which the “moderns” leave in disgust and the husband and wife revort to bourgeois domesticity.

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Rehearsing the Apocalypse

Posted on June 14, 2015 by operaramblings

R. Murray Shafer’s 1980 “musical pageant”, Apocalypsis, is being restaged this year by Luminato. It’s currently in rehearsal and yestrday I got to see part of a staging rehearsal. It’s an unusual work requiring massive forces (500-1000 performers depending who you read) and combines spoken word, dance, singing and other things I’m not sure I have the vocabulary for. Oh, and yes, it depicts the end of the world! It’s big, loud, exciting and a bit mad. Part ego trip, part acid trip perhaps?

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Mahler Resurrection

Posted on June 13, 2015 by operaramblings

Mahler’s Symphony No.2 in C Minor “Resurrection” is a massive beast using multiple percussionists, a very large brass section (who rather disconcertingly troop on and off stage multiple times), choir and two vocal soloists and it lasts an hour and a half. It’s also a very peculiar animal emotionally; combining almost naive folk dance tunes with passages of haunting beauty and extreme bombast. Last night, in the second of two performances at Roy Thomson Hall, Peter Oundjian and the TSO give it a spectacularly unrestrained performance.

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Casting for Julie announced

Posted on June 11, 2015 by operaramblings

Lucia Cervoni as Carmen in Magdeburg

The casting for Philip Boesmans’ chamber opera Julie, to be staged by Soundstrams and Canadian Stage in November has been announced. The title role will be sung by London, Ontario mezzo Lucia Cervoni. I’ve not seen her but judging by reviews she seems to be very much in the same space; physically and vocally, as Malena Ernman who premiered the role. Jean, her feckless lover, well be sung by Clarence Frazer. He’s been on terrific form lately and seems a good pick, though it’s a rather thankless role. The toughest sing in the piece is probably Christine, Jean’s fiancée and a servant in the household. This goes to Ottawa’s Sharleen Joynt. She really impressed me as Zerlina in Against the Grain’s #UncleJohn and I’m really intrigued to see what she does with a high coloratura role which is, I believe, her normal turf. Continue reading →

Jeunesses Musicales

Posted on June 11, 2015 by operaramblings

Last night I was fortunate enough to be at a musical evening organised by Jeunesses Musicales Ontario. The umbrella organisation has come a long way since being founded during WW2 as an anti-Nazi youth movement (*). In Ontario it’s main activity is promoting musical events for young people and providing performance opportunities for young artists; notably an annual song recital tour. You may recall that I wrote about the kick off of the latest one in which Simone Osborne and Anne Larlee are performing across Canada with a show that includes a specially commissioned piece by Brian Current. Continue reading →

Some thoughts on contemporary opera

Posted on June 8, 2015 by operaramblings

One way and another I see quite a lot of contemporary opera. I like a lot of what I see though there are some works where one gets the “I’ll never get that evening back” feeling. But something has been bugging me. Quite a few times I’ve had the feeling that I’ve seen something skilfully put together and admirably performed but it’s left me a bit cold, or maybe a bit empty, where other pieces I’ve felt really enthused by and wanted to go back and hear and see again.

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The Royal Conservatory 2015/16 season

Posted on June 4, 2015 by operaramblings

The Royal Conservatory has now announced the 2015/16 season. The full details plus how to subscribe, buy tickets etc is here. It’s the usual rich mix of music in a wide range of genres. Here are the things I will be looking out for:

April 24th 2016 in Koerner Hall at 3pm there’s a recital by Bryn Terfel with Natalia Katyukova. This is definitely the big name vocal gig of the season.

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