The Redwood Theatre was packed on a wet Sunday evening for the latest gala from Opera Revue. This time the theme was circus with guests Kalen Davidson juggling and setting things on fire, Haley Shannon on aerial silks, Ambur Braid doing Ambur things and Walter Bowen Braid jumping through hoops. The usual gang; Danie Friesen, Alex Hajek and Claire Elise-Harris were of course also clowning it.
Horizon is a choral work in seven movements by Croatian composer Dalibor Bukvić. Scored for (mostly) unaccompanied female voices, it’s meant to evoke the ambiance of the prehistoric Vučedol culture, which flourished between 3000 and 2200 B.C. in what is now (mostly) Croatia which could stand in this context for the ritual side of any pre-literate culture.
There is text; Croatian (I think) and Latin, whispered, declaimed and sung but there’s more vocalise and some recorded bird song plus, on a couple of tracks quite sparse and sometimes atonal piano accompaniment. It does evoke a sense of ritual, mystery and connection to Nature and it’s enjoyable to listen to.
My review of The Mata Hari Songbook by John Burge and Craig Walker, performed by the composer and Patricia O’Callaghan, is now available at La Scena Musicale.
Catalogue information: Centrediscs CMCCD 34424
My review of Palazetto Bru-Zane’s new video recording of Bizet’s Carmen aimed at recreating the original staging of 1875 is now available at La Scena Musicale.
Catalogue information: Bru-Zane BZ3001
Samuel D. Hunter’s play The Case for the Existence of God, in a production directed by Ted Dykstra, opened at Coal Mine Theatre on Thursday night. It’s a story about the somewhat unlikely friendship between two would be single fathers in a small town in Idaho. It’s mostly pretty sad but with some really funny moments. We can come back to the God thing.
My review of John Adams conducting the TSO on Wednesday evening is now up at Bachtrack.
Photo: Alan Cabral
Walter Sutcliffe’s staging of Handel’s Brockes Passion, recorded at the Halle Festival in 2023, would be disturbing under any circumstances. Watching it during and just after the US elections borders on the unbearable.
A New Philosophy of Opera is a recent book by opera and theatre director Yuval Sharon. It deals with that thorny question “How do we revitalise opera?”. It contains a lengthy critique of the current opera world; repertory, performance practice, business model, and some pretty radical suggestions for ways forward. It’s focussed on the US but I think it’s pretty relevant to Canada too. It’s also worth pointing out upfront that Sharon’s way forward is not at all based on the German model. He’s actually quite critical of it as being almost as ritualistic, lifeless and elitist as the US model.
So let’s look at his critique of current practice. It can be summed up by the three adjectives in the previous sentence. So, inter alia: Continue reading
Friday night the Glenn Gould School presented a pair of French chamber operas in Mazzoleni Hall. The pieces were Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges and Debussy’s Prodigal Son with a new English language libretto by Ashley Pearson. Pearson’s libretto concerns a gay man estranged from his family so director Mabel Wannacott’s linking idea is that the principal character in both is the same person as a child and twenty years later.
Sigmund Romberg’s The Student Prince was a huge success when it premiered in New York in 1924. It’s not hard to see why. It’s an undemanding “love versus duty” plot with plenty of tuneful numbers and lots of drinking and drinking songs which must have had a particular appeal during Prohibition!
operaramblings 