July 2023

Posted on June 16, 2023 by operaramblings

july2023 So what’s coming up in July? Let’s look first at a few late June shows I haven’t mentioned before.

This Saturday (17th) there’s a MAKEWAY Showcase Concert at St. George by the Grange. It’s basically workshops of WIP including Rebecca Grey’s Bus Opera. Tickets by donation.
The following Saturday, Opera by Request are presenting a concert version of Rossini’s Rarely seen Otello at College Street United Church.
June 22nd, 24th and 25th Toronto City Opera have a run of Die Fledermaus at the Fleck Dance Theatre.

Deantha Edmunds in the Music Garden

Posted on June 15, 2023 by operaramblings

Looking for some thing suitable to do on National Indigenous Peoples Day (June 21st) that has a classical music twist? Soprano Deantha Edmunds is performing in the Music Garden at Harbourfront at 7pm. I spoke to Deantha at her home in Newfoundland yesterday to find out what we might expect.

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Handel’s oratorios on stage

Posted on June 13, 2023 by operaramblings

handel It’s a bit of a thing with me. I tend to prefer staged versions of the Handel English language oratorios to the Italian operas. I know it’s a view I share with quite a few singers, including Ryan McDonald and Anna Sharpe with whom I was chatting about it on the weekend. But, it would seem, this opinion is not shared by opera house managements (not to be confused with audiences!). Continue reading →

Baroque plus on Market Street

Posted on June 12, 2023 by operaramblings

It’s officially summer and Market Street is pedestrian only again. That means it’s possible to stage music performances there and yesterday Opera Atelier had the noon to two spot. I arrived a few minutes late so missed Maeve Palmer’s first aria but it did mean I walked in on the opening of my all time favourite Handel aria; “As with rosy steps the morn”, sung quite beautifully by Anna Sharpe. There were three sets and it was pretty varied; Handel, Gluck, Mozart, Haydn, Monteverdi, Rossini Purcell and Delibes, that I remember. Besides Maeve and Anna we got baritone Chris Dunham and countertenor Ryan McDonald accompanied by Chris Bagan on keyboards, Felix Deak on cello and Arlan Vriens on violin.

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Armadillos

Posted on June 9, 2023 by operaramblings

Armadillos by Colleen Wagner opened at Factory Theatre last night. It’s really quite complex and I’m grateful for having had the opportunity to meet with cast and crew to discuss it last week. It’s simultaneously a play about two different takes on the myth of Peleus and Thetis and a sort of meta-theatrical questioning of which stories we tell and how they affect us. In the process it examines ideas about the origins of patriarchy and oonsent/non-consent in sexual relations.

Mirabella Sundar Singh - photo by Jeremy Mimnagh

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Perceptual Archaeology

Posted on June 7, 2023 by operaramblings

Perceptual Archaeology (or How to Travel Blind), which stars Alex Bulmer assisted by Enzo Massara, is a show about blindness and coping with it. It opened in the Studio Theatre at Crow’s last night. Going to see it involved confronting my worst nightmare and so I sat near the door in case needed to escape (thanks Crow’s). So what’s it about and how does it work?

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Il Turco in Pesaro

Posted on June 5, 2023 by operaramblings

Rossini’s Il Turco in Italia isn’t performed (or recorded) all that often despite being well constructed and amusing in a thoroughly silly way. Perhaps it’s just too difficult/expensive to cast? It requires a bass or bass-baritone of great flexibility plus a top notch Rossini soprano and two tenors with genuine high notes plus several other soloists. Who knows? Anyway it was given at the Rossini Festival at Pesaro in 2016 and recorded for video.

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Opera Atelier 2023/24

Posted on June 4, 2023 by operaramblings

Opera Atelier have announced a two show Toronto season for 2023/24. The fall show is Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice which will play at the Elgin Theatre from October 26th to November 1st. This is the 1774 version with Orphée sung by an haut-contre. Colin Ainsworth should be just about ideal. He’s partnered by Mireille Asselin, also pretty much ideal as Eurydice. Anna Julia David sings Amour. The orchestra is Tafelmusik and the chorus will consist of Tafelmusik Chamber Choir and the Nathaniel Dett Chorale.

4. Tenor Colin Ainsworth as Orpheus and Artists of Atelier Ballet in the Elysian Fields in Gluck's Orpheus and Eurydice. Photo by Bruce Zinger.

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Pomegranate at the COC

Posted on June 3, 2023 by operaramblings

Almost exactly four years after Kye Marshall and Amanda Hale’s Pomegranate played at Buddies in Bad Times in a production by Michael Mori it reappeared at the COC in expanded form in a production by Jennifer Tarver. The basic plot hasn’t changed much so I’m not going to repeat what I wrote about that in 2019. The other changes are, though, quite extensive and I’m not convinced they are improvements.

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3D Turandot

Posted on June 2, 2023 by operaramblings

I’ve been following developments in use of technology in the theatre for a few years now and, to be honest, I’ve seen lots of theory and not a lot of practice though Tapestry’s RUR: A Torrent of Light did use motion capture. The Turandot recorded at the Liceu in Barcelona in 2019 takes it to a whole new level though.

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