Eros and Thanatos

Posted on June 3, 2015 by operaramblings

Against the Grain’s Death/Desire opened last night at the Neubacher Shor Contemporary Gallery. It’s structured around Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin cycle with the songs of Messiaen’s Harawi: Chants d’amour et de mort interpolated, though not in the usual order. Thus there are two characters; The Man, singing the Schubert; who is very much the conventional questing lover of 19th century poetry, and The Woman, singing the Messiaen (mostly) who is something very different from the young girl of Wilhelm Müller’s texts. The piece is staged with both characters on stage most of the time and interacting in ways that reflect the music and don’t.

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Mezzo forte

Posted on June 2, 2015 by operaramblings

How scary is this?

And if you haven’t figured it out go look here. There are a few, a very few, tickets left.

Photo: Darryl Block

A few more happenings in June

Posted on June 2, 2015 by operaramblings

June is still a bit quiet but I have had word of a few more performances around the city. On the 13th Lindsay Promane, Daevyd Pepper and pianist Natasha Fransblow; all seen recently at either Metro Youth Opera or various UoT events, have a recital at Islington United Church. Featured composers include Ravel, Tosti and Saint-Saens. It’s at 7.30pm and it’s Pay What You Can.

On the 17th and 18th at 8pm Array Music are presenting How it Storms. It’s an opera for gamelan ensemble by Allen Cole. The singers will be Salzburg and Zürich bound Claire de Sévigné, Danielle MacMillan (where’s she been this year?), Chris Mayell and Keith O’Brien. This one is at The Array Space, 155 Walnut Ave and admission is $15.00.

Then on the 21st there’s a concert performance of Le Nozze di Figaro at St Simon-The-Apostle Anglican Church. It’s at 7pm and it’s Pay What You Can.

Finally, you can catch the broadcast of the Royal Opera’s recent production of Weill’s Mahagonny at the Bloor Hot Docs on the 28th at noon.

It’s that time of year

Posted on May 28, 2015 by operaramblings

It’s that time of year when the musical calendar kind of grinds almost to a halt in Toronto. Looking ahead to June there’s not a whole lot on offer, at least in the opera/choral/artsong departments. The big event is Against the Grain’s Death and Desire show, of which I saw the first half previewed in the RBA. It’s on at the Neubacher Shor Gallery (Queen and Dufferin) on June 2nd to 5th at 8pm. Tickets are going fast so if you plan to go, head here soon. There’s a Mahler 2nd (Resurrection) Symphony at the TSO on June 10th (8pm) and 12th(7.30pm). Erin Wall, Susan Platts and the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir will join the orchestra with Peter Oudjian conducting. Then it’s Luminato. The big deal for opera fans here is R. Murray Schafer’s Apocalypsis. David Fallis will direct what sounds like a Cecil B. DeMille scale extravaganza. It’s at the Sony Centre on June 26th and 27th (8pm) and the 28th (2pm). At your own risk…

M’dea Undone

Posted on May 27, 2015 by operaramblings

M’dea Undone; music by John Harris , libretto by Marjorie Chan, opened in the Holcim Gallery at the Evergreen Brickworks last night in a production by Tim Albery. My review, still a WIP, will appear in Opera Canada in due course though it has triggered some more general thoughts about “new opera” that I might explore here. It’s worth seeing just to experience the unconventional performance space. There are three more performances tonight, tomorrow and Friday. Here’s a photograph.

Lauren Segal as M’dea. Photo by Dahlia Katz.

The Play of Daniel

Posted on May 25, 2015 by operaramblings

The Play of Daniel (Danielis ludus) is a 12th or 13th century Latin liturgical play from Beauvais in nothern France. It appears in the liturgy for January 1st, The Feast of the Circumcision, and appears to have been an attempt to channel the traditional post Christmas disorder into more acceptable channels. It was probably performed by the sub deacons of the Cathedral; young men in minor orders. Alex and David Fallis have run with this setting and tried to create a piece that would evoke the same sort of reactions from a 21st century audience as the original did for those who saw it in Beauvais. That’s a huge ask but, to my mind, they succeeded admirably.

Belshazzar – Olivier Laquerre (l) Noble – Bud Roach (r)

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Andrew Davis and the Verdi Requiem

Posted on May 24, 2015 by operaramblings

It’s forty years since Sir Andrew Davis first conducted the TSO and to celebrate the fact the TSO programmed a run of Verdi Requiems with Sir Andrew conducting. I caught the last performance last night. It’s in some ways a curious piece; very operatic and not especially liturgical but it does have its subtleties; the very quiet opening and the tenor solo Ingemisco for example but there’s also some moments of drama that are far from subtle. The Dies irae is appropriately loud, even terrifying and it’s used as an accent before the Lacrymosa and during the Libera me. It’s quite a compelling 90 minutes or so.

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After Hours

Posted on May 22, 2015 by operaramblings

Last night’s late, late concert at the Conservatory was basically a preview of Bicycle Opera Project’s 2015 season. It’s a bit hard to say what the final show will be like as we got mainly excerpts last night and it just feels really different to be in a formal concert hall compared with the usual venues for BOP. bop

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Doundou tchil

Posted on May 21, 2015 by operaramblings

Today’s lunchtime concert in the RBA was a preview of Against the Grain’s upcoming show Death and Desire. It’s a staged mash up of Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin and Messiaen’s Harawi: Chant d’amour et de mort; a settong of texts, rather weird ones at that, by the composer. As director Joel Ivany said, mixing Messiaen and Schubert might seem “a bit bizarre” but these two texts seem to work together remarkably well and the juxtaposition seems almost inspired. I’m glad too that the original intention of performing the two pieces back-to-back has been replaced by a mash up. Today we got to see and hear the first half of the show.

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The Diary of The One Who Didn’t Disappear

Posted on May 21, 2015 by operaramblings

The on/off saga of the Ensemble Studio’s promised Janáček’s The Diary of One Who Disappeared came to an apparent conclusion yesterday. It had been postponed at least once and even this morning the COC website is advertising a complete performance with two soloists and a small chorus.

It didn’t happen. What we got was a recital by Owen McAusland singing some excerpts from the Janáček plus Vaughan William’s The House of Life and Britten’s Les Illuminations. It was his last performance as a member of the Ensemble Studio during which time, among many other things, he sang several main stage performances as Tito covering for a sick Michael Schade.

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