November 2024

Posted on October 26, 2024 by operaramblings

november24 November is looking busy and interesting in both the theatre and the concert hall. Here are some shows you might be interested in…

The Glenn Gould School’s fall chamber opera is Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilêges coupled with Debussy’s Prodigal Son. That’s in Mazzoleni Hall on the 1st and 2nd.
Toronto Operetta Theatre is presenting Romberg’s The Student Prince at the Jane mallett Theatre on the 1sr, 2nd and 3rd.
John Adams is conducting the TSO in a programme mostly of his own works on the 6th and 9th at Roy Thomson Hall. It’s also a chance to see Anna Prohaska sing.

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The Soldier’s Tale reimagined

Posted on October 25, 2024 by operaramblings

Sankofa: The Soldier’s Tale Retold is the latest and, probably, the last show from Art of Time Ensemble. It’s a bold and successful attempt at updating Stravinsky’s iconic work. The music is all Stravinsky but Titilope Sonuga’s libretto is new. It preserves the basic triad of Narrator, Soldier and the Devil but moves them to WW1 Canada. Our soldier is a Black Canadian of West African extraction who is trying to join the Canadian army, which rejects him because of his skin colour. His faith in his heritage, symbolised by the spirit bird Sankofa, with a little help from the Devil leads to the formation of the 2nd Construction Battalion, a non-combat unit, which was the only way Black Canadians could serve. He survives the war and returns from France to find that the same battles must be fought over (and over, and over) again.

Ordena Stephens-Thompson & Olaoluwa Fayokun_Sankofa_ The Soldier_s Tale Retold_Art of Time Ensemble_photo by John Lauener

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Lucy Barton

Posted on October 24, 2024 by operaramblings

I saw My Name is Lucy Barton; adapted for the stage by Rona Munro from Elizabeth Strout’s novel and directed by Jackie Maxwell on Wednesday evening. It’s a one woman show featuring an astonishing performance by Maev Beaty who is on stage for the entire play, which is little short of two hours long. She plays Lucy Barton and her mother and all the other characters are described not shown. In some ways it feels more like a book reading than a stage play.

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Butterfly Lightning Shakes the Earth

Posted on October 23, 2024 by operaramblings

Butterfly Lightning Shakes the Earth is a new miniature album of her own compositions by cellist India Gailey. Back in the day we would probably have called this an EP as there is about 20 minutes of music in all.

The first piece; Mountainweeps, consists of three sixty second pieces for solo cello. This was written for Arlen Hlusko for Instagram performance when that platform limited videos to sixty seconds! It’s a sort of meditation on the impact of climate change on alpine environments. It’s quite complex for such a short piece and quite beguiling. Continue reading →

This Feels Like the End

Posted on October 20, 2024 by operaramblings

Bonnie Duff’s This Feels Like the End premiered at Buddies in Bad Times on Thursday evening, directed by Michelle Blight, as part of Next Stage. I caught the second performance on Saturday afternoon. The premise is that the sun has failed to rise so the entire world is deprived of natural light and nobody can explain it. It’s even more inexplicable in that there isn’t a drastic drop in temperature, plants still grow and the moon is visible but let’s not get hung up on the physics. The play is about the different ways humans react to such a phenomenon.

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Voix jetées

Posted on October 18, 2024 by operaramblings

Paramirabo - voix jetees My review of Montreal based Paramirabo’s CD of contemporary chamber music; Voix jetées, is now on-line at La Scena Musicale.

Catalogue information: ATMA Classiques 2887

Civilized

Posted on October 17, 2024 by operaramblings

The Toronto Fringe Next Stage festival opened on Wednesday evening at Buddies in Bad Times with Keir Cutler’s Civilized. It’s a one man tour de force in which John Huston plays a senior bureaucrat from Indian Affairs during the Laurier government who has returned from the dead to explain to contemporary Canadians why the Residential School System was entirely necessary and a Very Good Thing.

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Amor con Fortuna

Posted on October 16, 2024 by operaramblings

Tuesday evening the Diapente Renaissance Vocal Quintet gave a concert at Heliconian Hall of 16th century music from Spain (so music in the reign of Philip II for any Braudel fans out there). It was surprisingly varied. This was the age of the Italian madrigal so tha’s a big influence but with a definite Spanish twist. Quite a few different composers and two principal genre; the villancico (which lives on in modern Christmas carols) and the ensalada; which is generally about catastrophe (brought about by sin of course) where everything turns out OK because the Virgin Mary shows up. A lot of the music was unaccompanied but some pieces were accompanied by either guitar or vihuela (a kind of lute). It was pretty varied with some pieces having significant solos for one or more singers, some having quite complex polyphony and others more strophic, almost folk song like, structures. Plenty enough variety to sustain about 80 minutes of music.

diapente

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News and stuff

Posted on October 15, 2024 by operaramblings

Royce_Vavrek_at_the_Kennedy_Center,_2018

Roiyce Vavrek. Photo by Ser Amantio di Nicolao

Today’s big news is that Against the Grain Theatre have announced the appointment of a new Artistic Director and it’s Royce Vavrek. He’s probably best known to opera audiences as a librettist. He has written the libretti for 23 operas including a bunch with Missy Mazzoli of which perhaps my favourite is Proving Up, done in Calgary recently by Ammolite Opera. He’s also the writer for Ian Cusson’s Indians on Vacation and Luna Pearl Woolf’s Jacqueline which features in Tapestry’s recently announced season and is just out on CD. So not dead yet then!

And talking of Tapestry, they announced their season today. With the new space at 877 Yonge almost ready they have emerged from semi-hibernation. As implied above the first show is Luna pearl Woolf’s Jacqueline in The Betty Oliphant Theatre in February . I’m assuming it’s essentially the same show as five years ago (see Opera Canada Summer 2020). There’s also a venue launch concert for the new home on March 22nd. The first Tapestry show at the new venue will be Sanctuary Song; music by Abigail Richardson, libretto by Marjorie Chan, which, apparently, is about an elephant. Which may be an operatic first. Continue reading →

A rather different Opera Revue show

Posted on October 14, 2024 by operaramblings

82448A99-7CBC-4566-B525-35743D468953-1 Opera Revue teamed up with Opera Atelier for a show called Trills, Chills and Thrills at the Redwood Theatre on Sunday evening. The usual gang of Danie Friesen, Alex Hajek and Claire Harris were joined by tenor Ben Done and mezzo Kathryn Rose Johnston for a programme of opera arias and musical theatre numbers that (sort of) turned the plot of Handel’s Acis and Galatea (OA’s upcoming show) into a murder mystery.

There was music on spooky themes by Britten (Turn of the Screw), Schubert, Handel (of course), Corigliano (Ghosts of Versailles), Lloyd Webber (Phantom, natch), Verdi and more. It was glued together by a narrative in which the mermaid/nymph Galatea is murdered and despite being turned into sushi her ghost returns to wreak its revenge. And there was one of the dances from Acis and Galatea (Julia Sedwick and Eric da Silva). Continue reading →