Tag Archives: agostino

Canuck Cantatas

Posted on by
Reply

Canuck Cantatas is the first live show from Against the Grain Theatre since, I think, 2023.  It’s good to see what was once a staple of the Toronto indy scene in action again.  This show is three short monodramas.  Each features a soprano singer who is also either composer or librettist and all are based around the story of one, Canadian, character.  The accompanying ensemble consisted of piano (Spencer Kryzanowski), string trio (Julia Mirzoev, Russell Iceberg, Peter Eom) and bass clarinet (Brad Cherwin).  Since the show was at the Redwood everybody was miked and amplified with speakers all around the performance space which was an interesting effect.

Continue reading →

A Northern Lights Dream

Posted on by
3

A Northern Lights Dream is a new operetta by Michael Rose which premiered this last week at Toronto Operetta Theatre in a production directed by Guillermo Silva-Marin.  A new operetta is a very rare thing.  It;’s just not a form that contemporary composers seem to take to.  There’s far too much spoken dialogue for an opera but the musical language; mostly tonal, often quite beautiful but not afraid to get more abrasive when appropriate, is much closer to that of contemporary opera than musical theatre.  So an operetta it is.

aurora

Continue reading →

Get your TOT fix

Posted on by
Reply

Like pretty much everybody else Toronto Operetta Theatre has chosen to go virtual for their latest offering.  It’s a production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Gondoliers filmed at the Edward Jackman Centre.  It’s very much a “bare bones” production.  The cast is reduced to nine roles and the chorus is gone.  Accompaniment is piano and accordion.  The Jackman Centre is a rehearsal space and looks like one.  The film appears to havebeen filmed with a single camera, in one take with minimal post processing though, despite which the audio and video quality is excellent.

totg1

Continue reading →