Reflections on the recent COC run

Posted on February 22, 2015 by operaramblings

How many Toronto lawyers does it take to change a lightbulb?

Two; one to fly to New York and the other to stand by the fax machine waiting for the instructions.

Today the COC’s winter run of Don Giovanni and Die Walküre comes to an end. It’s worth reflecting on what we’ve seen I think. Neither production could be called “traditional” and the Don Giovanni in particular produced a broad range of reactions, some of them quite extreme. I’m not really sure why as, by international standards, it wasn’t particularly extreme. And that’s the starting point for this “thought for the day”.

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ROH cinema screenings return to Bloor Hotdocs

Posted on February 21, 2015 by operaramblings

Royal Opera House cinema screenings are back at the Bloor Cinema and it seems that the full season will be available. ENO are you watching or is your sense of Ontario gepography akin to your business acumen?

First up, tomorrow, at noon they’re screening Giordano’s Andrea Chenier directed by David McVicar with Jonas Kaufmann and Eva-Maria Westbroek.

March 22nd sees Tim Albery’s production of Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer with Adrienne Pieczonka and Bryn Terfel. Ms. Pieczonka will be on hand to introduce the piece.

On June 28th we get a new John Fulljames production of Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny with Anne Sofie von Otter.

July 26th sees John Copley’s venerable production of Puccini’s La Bohème. This production is almost as old as I am. Anna Netrebko and Joseph Calleja play Mimi and Rodolfo.

Finally, on August 30th we can see a new production of Rossini’s Guillaume Tell directed by Damiano Michieletto with Antonio Pappano conducting. The cast includes Gerry Finley and Malin Bystrom.

France Bellemare; a soprano to watch

Posted on February 19, 2015 by operaramblings

Today saw the annual lunchtime concert in the RBA in which members of the COC Ensemble Studio collaborate with visitors from the Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal. There were three singers from each program but rather unusually only one of them was female; soprano France Bellemare. Naturally I was rather focussed on the visiting singers as the three Toronto participants; Gordon Bintner, Clarence Frazer and Andrew Haji are very much known quantities. Of the visitors it was very much Ms. Bellemare who shone. She has a very accurate, lovely rich voice with perhaps still some work to do on the top of her range but very easy to listen to and she’s musically and dramatically convincing too. Her version of Micaëla’s Je dis que rien ne m’épouvante was very competent though I’m not sure it’s ideal rep for her. The Song to the Moon from Rusalka though fitted her like a glove. This was really lovely singing. She also did very well in duet with Clarence Frazer in Lippen schweigen from Die Lustige Witwe or The Merry Widow or La Veuve Joyeuse as all three languages were used! She can waltz too though perhaps not as well as Clarence. Ladies, if you need a dance partner consider Mr. Frazer. She also shone in the final number; the Libiamo from La Traviata. I confess when I saw the program and saw that she would be partnered by Andrew Haji I rather expected her to be sung off the stage. She wasn’t. She held her own with a tenor who will sing this role on the COC’s main stage next season. No mean feat. This young lady is definitely one to watch.

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Don’t cry for me Vancouver

Posted on February 19, 2015 by operaramblings

There were two big 2015/16 season announcements yesterday. On the west coast Vancouver Opera unveiled a four production season. there’s fairly conventional fare; Verdi’s Rigoletto (d) Nancy Hermiston (c) Jonathan Darling and Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (d) Michael Cavanagh. Less conventionally they are offering Nico Muhly’s Dark Sisters. It’s about conflict in a breakaway Mormon community. Anthony Tommasini gave the original production a somewhat mixed review in the NYT but it sounds like it’s not without interest. It’s presented here in a new production by Amiel Gladstone and Kinza Tyrrell will conduct. Rounding out the season is Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s Evita in a production by Kelly Robinson. Casting information is sparse but Simone Osborne will sing Gilda in the Rigoletto.

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Siegmund II

Posted on February 14, 2015 by operaramblings

I was back at the Four Seasons Centre last night to have another look at the COC’s Die Walküre. The big news, which I heard pretty much as soon as I arrived, was that cover Issachah Savage would be singing Siegmund in place of an indisposed Clifton Forbis. This time, unlike last Saturday when he also sang, this was very much a last minute call. The reviews and the word on the street, and from my companion for the evening who had seen him in Seattle when he won the International Wagner Competition last year had been very positive so I was very interested to hear him. Clearly word had got out about his Saturday performance because when the announcement was made in the hall there was a curious ambiguous noise not at all like the collective sigh that usually greets such news.

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Shorter operas

Posted on February 13, 2015 by operaramblings

Yesterday’s review of the Glyndebourne Ravel double bill prompted a question from a regular reader as to why that particular combination wasn’t performed more often. That meshed with some thoughts I’ve been having about why combinations of shorter operas aren’t programmed more often in major houses. They are pretty much a staple of the indie companies in Toronto, especially where contemporary works are concerned but much less featured by the larger companies. For example, in the eight completed or planned COC seasons I have data readily to hand for, four of fifty four slots were/will be filled by such combinations. For the record, The Nightingale etc in 2009/10 (a show that sold out and had an extra performance added), Gianni Schicchi and A Florentine Tragedy in 2011/12, Duke Bluebeard’s Castle and Erwartung this season and Pyramus and Thisbe etc next season. The last time Opera Atelier did anything comparable was, I think, a pairing of Dido and Aeneas and Blow’s An Ode on the Death of Mr. Henry Purcell but that was a very long time ago.

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Ravel double bill

Posted on February 12, 2015 by operaramblings

In 2012 Glyndebourne staged an interesting and contrasting double bill of Ravel one-acters in productions by Laurent Pelly. The first was L’heure espagnole. It’s a sort of Feydeau farce set to music. The plot is classic bedroom farce with the twist that most of the doors the lovers come in or out of belong to clocks. Concepción is the bored wife of a nerdy clockmaker. She’s not overly impressed by her two lovers; a prolix poet and a smug banker, who show up while hubby is out doing the municipal clocks. She’s much more taken by the slightly simple but very muscular muleteer who spends most of his time lugging lover infested clocks up and down stairs for her. Pelly wisely takes the piece at face value and brings off a mad cap forty five minutes timed to the split second.

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So wondrous sweet and fair!

Posted on February 11, 2015 by operaramblings

On a bright, sunny winter’s day there are few more inviting places to be than the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre positively glowing in the sunlight. When one’s reason for being there is a recital by Jane Archibald with the redoubtable Liz Upchurch at the piano one feels doubly blessed. It was one of the best performances of the many I have attended in that space. Continue reading →

Quilico Awards 2015

Posted on February 10, 2015 by operaramblings

Last night in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre the singers of the COC Ensemble Studio competed for the Quilico awards for the third time in this format. Owen McAusland was off singing in Lucia di Lammermoor in Victoria and Andrew Haji was down with the flu so seven singers actually sang. As usual the standard was very high and it can’t have been easy for the judges. Jean-Philippe Fortier-Lazure and Ian MacNeil had a bit of an off night but that left five singers who I has extremely close on my notes. No permutation of three from five would have particularly surprised me.

Iain MacNeil, Aviva Fortunata, Jean-Philippe Fortier-Lazure, Karine Boucher, Clarence Frazer, Charlotte Burrage, Gordon Bintner, Jennifer Szeto and Michael Shannon

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Beating the blahs

Posted on February 4, 2015 by operaramblings

There’s 20cm of snow on the ground and more forecast. The groundhog consensus is a long winter. So, here are a few upcoming concerts and other events that may help get you through the rest of the winter.

On February 17th mezzo Janina Baechle, violist Keith Hamm and pianist Rachel Andrist are performing works by Mahler, Brahms and Leoffler in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre at noon. Also in the RBA at noon on the 19th there is the annual concert featuring artists from the Ensemble Studio and Montreal’s YAP the Atelier lyrique. And on the 24th, but at 5.30pm Barbara Hannigan and others are presenting works by Chausson and Schoenberg. All these concerts are free.

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