Who’d have thought that snow falls

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A few months ago I reviewed a recording of Morton Feldman’s Three Voices which I had never heard “live”.  On Sunday evening I got the chance to hear Lindsay McIntyre perform it at Arrayspace.  It’s a roughly one hour long piece in which the soprano performs with two tracks that she has recorded in advance.  It was really interesting to hear the nuances of two recorded voices versus live which, of course, doesn’t really come across the same way on a recording, however good.  It’s the subtlest of textural difference but it’s definitely there.

Soprano

Two pre-recorded tracks

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Blondel steals the show

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Opera in Concert opened their season at Trinity St. Paul’s on Saturday with the Canadian premiere of André Grétry’s 1784 opéra comique Richard Coeur-de-Lion.  This is very loosely based on the story of Richard’s imprisonment by Leopold of Austria while returning from the Third Crusade.  Richard’s man Blondel; disguised as a blind minstrel, discovers Richard’s place of imprisonment by playing a tune that Richard wrote.  He then enlists the help of the Countess of Flanders, in love with Richard, (which would have come as a surprise to Berengaria of Navarre) and a Welsh knight; improbably styled Sir Williams, who his now (also improbably) running an inn in Austria and his daughter, Laurette.  The governor of the castle where Richard is imprisoned, Florestan, in turn in love with Laurette, is tricked and Richard is freed to great rejoicing. (As opposed to a whopping ransom being paid!)

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CanCon at the Grammys

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I don’t usually take much notice of awards like the Grammys but this year there is an odd coincidence.  As usual, CanCon is in very short supply across the 95 categories of awards but the three that I could find were all familiar to me.

In Category 89 “Best Opera Recording” there are two nominees with Canadians in the leading role.  Mary Kouyoumdjian’s Adoration has Mirian Khalil as its leading lady and Royce Vavrek as librettist and it’s based on an Atom Egoyan film.  It’s pretty good. Continue reading →

The silliest Donizetti?

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Viva la Mamma (also known as Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali) may be Donizetti’s most intentionally silly opera (though some of the “serious” operas rival it for silliness).  It’s a farce and should be treated as such which is exactly what Maria Lamont’s production for UoT Opera, currently playing at the Elgin Theatre, does.

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The Christmas Market works on several levels

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Kanika Ambrose’s The Christmas Market opened on Wednesday in the Studio at Crow’s Theatre in a production directed by Philip Akin.  At one level it’s a much needed critique/exposé of Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program and at another it’s basically a very funny comedy of manners.  The two are extremely well integrated so that the horror of the TFWP is a bit of a slow reveal.

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A couple more interesting things this week

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I’ve only just found out about a couple of events this week that may be of interest.

Soulpepper has a free showing of Ingmar Bergman’s 1957 masterpiece The Seventh Seal.  It’s on Wednesday, November 12th at 7pm and it’s free.  If you have seen The Comeuppance and the movie you’ll get the connection!  If you haven’t seen the movie I would say it’s one of the most important post war films.  It has a fantastic performance by Max von Sydow as a world weary crusader and an equally fine one by Bengt Kerot as Death.  The cinematography, by Gunnar Fischer is exceptional.  No gimmicks.  No special effects.  Just a very beautiful and moving film.

Then on Sunday November 16th at 7.30pm at Arrayspace Lindsay McIntyre is performing and producing Morton Feldman’s Three Voices in which the live singer works with two pre-recorded vocal tracks.  It’s a most interesting hour long piece.  I recently reviewed a recording of it by Dory Hayley for La Scena Musicale.  Tickets for that are “at the door” or here.

The Comeuppance comes up a bit short

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Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ The Comeuppance is playing at Soulpepper in a production directed by Frank Cox-O’Connell.  It’s an enormously ambitious play.  It takes the relatively banal setting of a pre-party for a high school 20th reunion and uses it to explore a wide range of issues concerning memory, personal growth (or not), what we keep and what we leave behind and, ultimately, our relationship with Death.

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GGS double bill

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This year’s fall opera offering from the Glenn Gould School was a double bill of short chamber operas.  It played at Mazzoleni Hall on Friday and Saturday evenings with Liza Balkan directing and Jennifer Tung conducting.

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Dissonant Species isn’t on my wavelength

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Theatre Gargantua’s Dissonant Species opened at Factory Theatre on Friday night.  It’s written by Heather Marie Annis and Michael Gordon Spence and directed by Jacquie P.A Thomas.  It’s a multi-disciplinary exploration of the idea that “everything is sound” and it also explores other ideas about waves; vibration, the notion that two people can be (metaphorically) on different wavelengths and it flirts with the idea that everything is “vibration” which is sort of true in a QFT way.

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