Mohammd Yaghoubi’s Earworm, currently playing in the Studio Theatre at Crow’s, is a hard hitting story of what the Islamic Revolution has meant for Iranian women. Unfortunately it hangs onto to more ideas than the narrative can comfortably support which diffuses the impact.
Herbert Fritsch’s production of Rossini’s Il barbiere di Sivigla filmed at the Wiener Staatsoper in 2021 is strangely ambiguous. At first blush it looks like the sort of hyper traditional production the WSO might have had in repertory for fifty years. There are big wigs, knee breeches and so on but it soon becomes apparent that something more (or less) is going on. Tje costumes are exaggerated. The fabrics are elaborate and shiny and very not early 19th century at all. The wigs are odd colours. Rosina’s dress shows rather a lot of leg. There’s virtually no scenery and the only props I recall in the whole piece are a ladder and Lindoro’s sword at the end of Act 1.
I really wasn’t sure what to expect from DION; A Rock Opera, currently premiering at Coal Mine Theatre. It’s billed as a “rock opera” which worried me as very loud music in. a very small space is so not my thing. On the other hand it’s based on Euripides The Bacchae and I’m a sucker for a really good reworking of classical Greek drama. So I went. It was absolutely the right decision. This show rocks in an entirely good way.
Aluna Theatre’s production of Jorgelina Cerritos’ On the Other Side of the Sea (translated from Spanish by Dr. Margaret Stanton and Anna Donko) opened at The Theatre Centre last night. Cerritos is from El Salvador and the play is set on a beach somewhere in that part of the world. There are two characters (three if you count the sea). Dorothea is a no longer young civil servant sent from the capital to a remote fishing village to issue birth certificates, ID cards and the like. Every day she sets up her desk on the beach but she has no clients until the Fisherman arrives. He has come from the Other Side of the Sea in his rowing boat. He needs a birth certificate; “something that shows who he is”, but has none of the information needed for Dorothea to issue one. She gets angry at his bugging her day after day; especially as he is her only client and she can’t do anything for him. They quibble about the possibility of names (he wants his ID to read “Fisherman OftheSea”) and argue the finer points of grammar concerning what may, or may not be, possible. This is often very funny but it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.
Wednesday’s lunchtime recital in the RBA was given by Jane Archibald and Liz Upchurch. It was a programme of songs by the Schumanns (Robert and Clara) and their protegé Johannes Brahms, in celebration of their relationship which extended well beyond Robert’s premature death.
De Profundis: Oscar Wilde in Jail is an adaptation by Gregory Prest of the famous letter that Wilde wrote, page by page, to Lord Alfred Douglas while he was in prison. It opened; a world premiere, last night in a Soulpepper production directed by Prest at the Young Centre.
Heinrich Schütz’s 1636 work Musikalische Exequien is sometimes described as the “first German requiem”.. It was performed last night at Koerner Hall by the excellent LA Master Chorale and their conductor Grant Gershon in a staged version directed by Peter Sellars; following up on their 2020 performance of the Lagrime di San Pietro.
Domenico Cimarosa’s 1788 piece L’Italiana in Londra is not performed very often. If you wanted to see it this year your only option would be a revival of the 2021 Frankfurt production which was recorded and is the subject of this review.
Invocazioni Mariane is a new CD from counter-tenor Andreas Scholl and his long time collaborators the Accademia Bizantina and their conductor Alessandro Tampieri. It consists of 18th century music from Naples; all of which is in some way connected with the Virgin Mary and is mostly drawn from oratorios or similar pieces designed to be performed during Holy Week. Back in the day, with women not permitted on the stage in Naples (or the Papal States) the high parts would have been sung by castrati. That, of course, is where Scholl comes in.
My review of the COC’s new Don Giovanni is now up at Bachtrack.
Photo credit: Michael Cooper
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