My review of the COC’s revival of Puccini’s Tosca is now up at Bachtrack.com. @bachtrack
Photo: Michael Cooper
“Shabby little shocker” fails to shock
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La Verbena de la Paloma
Yesterday I caught the last of three performances of Tomás Bretón’s La Verbena de la Paloma given by Toronto Operetta Theatre at the St.Lawrence Centre. It’s a zarzuela. What’s that you may ask. In short it’s the native Spanish form of operetta. Based on what I saw yesterday it has the following elements; a love story with a complication that resolves happily, spoken dialogue, musical numbers including traditional Spanish folk/dance pieces and elements of the commedia dell’arte. These latter included an older man lusting after a much younger girl )actually a pair of them), a jealous lover who is tested by his sweetheart and a bumbling policeman.
The Chinese Lady
The Chinese Lady by Lloyd Suh and directed by Marjorie Chan opened at Crow’s Theatre on Friday. It’s a presentation of Studio 180 Theatre and features Rosie Simon and John Ng. It’s playing in the very intimate Studio Theatre at Crow’s.
Met in HD 2023/24
To be perfectly honest I haven’t been to a Met in HD broadcast in ages. Regular readers will perhaps have noticed that I’m usually insanely busy on weekends as it is! That said, I know that people appreciate a few thoughts on what;’s upcoming so I took a look at the 2023/24 season offering. It’s an intriguing season. The first three productions are more or less contemporary which must be some kind of record. They are:
- October 21st – Jake Heggie – Dead Man Walking. This is just not my favourite opera but I understand why it’s popular. The cast is stellar with Joyce DiDonato, Susan Graham and Ryan McKinney, among others, and Yannick conducts. For many people this will be a “must see”.
- November 18th – Anthony Davis – X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X. I’ll be honest. I have no idea about this one.
- December 9th – Daniel Catán – Florencia en el Amazonas. I don’t know much about this either but it’s based on Marquez and it has Ailyn Perez in the cast so I’d be inclined to take a punt on it.
In all seriousness
Wednesday’s lunchtime’s concert in the RBA was a recital by baritone Önay Köse, currently singing Banquo at the COC, accompanied by pianist Stephen Hargreaves..There were three sets of four songs; the Ibert Quatre chansons de Don Quichotte. four pieces from Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch and the Brahms Vier Ernste Gesänge.
There is nothing like a dame
Browsing the back catalogue for fun stuff a few days ago I came across a record of English song featuring Dame Felicity Lott and pianist Graham Johnson. It’s called Favourite English Songs and was released in 2006 so. at the height of the singer’s interpretative powers and with the voice still in excellent shape. It’s an interesting mix of the very familiar; Vaughan Williams’ :High Noon” and some of the Britten folk song arrangements for example, and the less familiar with songs by Maude White, Cecil Gibbs and Gerald Tyrwhitt-Wilson among the composers I’ve never heard of.
A murder at Crow’s
True Crime, a Castleton Massive production, by Torquil Campbell and Chris Abraham opened at Crow’s Theatre last night. It’s essentially a one man show featuring Campbell (not quite… composer Julian Brown provides musical backing throughout). It’s certainly a tour de force by Campbell who is on stage continually for 90 minutes and it’s hard to tell when he’s on script and when he’s improvising. He plays a raft of characters from himself, to his father and wife, an imprisoned con man, several dogs and a bunch of others. And he does it very well. He also sings (and barks).
Grim and creepy Macbeth
My review of the COC’s production of Verdi’s Macbeth is now live at Bachtrack.
Photo credit: Michael Cooper
New
New, written by Pamela Mala Sinha and directed by Alan Dilworth, is a production by Necessary Angel Theatre Company in association with Canadian Stage and the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre. It’s currently playing until May 14th at the Berkeley Street Theatre. Now deals with the lives of Bengali immigrants in Winnipeg in 1970/1. The lives of three very different couples are turned upside down by the arrival of the young bride arranged for one of the men by his mother in India.
Samuel Mariño with Tafelmusik
Yesterday I saw the second of two performances by Venezuelan male soprano Samuel Mariño with Tafelmusik at Trinity St. Paul’s. The programme was a mixture of virtuoso baroque arias by various composers interspersed with relatively short instrumental pieces.
Samuel Mariño with Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra. Photo by Dahlia Katz.
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