Tag Archives: albano

Diva, diva, diva

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Danika Loren

Danika Loren

Today’s lunchtime concert in the RBA featured the assembled students of UoT Opera in a staged programme called The Art of the Prima Donna.  It was a sequence of mostly ensemble numbers drawn from the core 19th century rep.  Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Puccini, Donizetti, Bellini, Bizet and Rossini all featured with works made famous by the great divas of the era’ Patti, Pasta, Malibran etc.  Linking narrative, which skipped over who slept with Rossini, was provided by Michael Albano who directed the staging with Anna Theodosakis.  Sandra Horst headed up the musical side and accompanied with help from Sue Black, Kate Carver and Ivan Jovanovic. Continue reading →

Führerbunker

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Andrew Ager’s Führerbunker is a short chamber opera depicting the events leading up to Hitler’s suicide in April 1945.  It’s a tautly constructed work in which many short scenes are woven into a seamless and compelling whole.  It flies by and its 45 minute length seems even shorter.  The score is spare, even brutal, as befits the subject matter.  The composer told me he had initially envisioned something Wagnerian but feared that that must descend into pastiche.  He made the right decision.  So, the piano line is minimalist with elements of serialism and very  little support for the singers.  It’s a style that has perhaps been largely discarded (in north America at least) but here it was startlingly effective.  Perhaps the crappy Tranzac Club piano contributed to the effect!

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More Shakespeare brushing

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Karine White

Karine White

Yesterday afternoon I went to see the UoT Opera program’s show Brush Up Your Shakespeare.  It was substantially the same as the program they gave six months ago in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre so I ‘m just going to comment on changes of one kind or another.

There were a few extra numbers.  Danika Lorèn sang the Poison Aria from Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette.  It’s an interesting voice.  There’s lots of power but maybe isn’t quite fully under control yet.  Still, easier to refine a powerful basic instrument than get anywhere with a small one.  One to watch.  William Ford sang Macduff’s O figli mie! from Verdi’s Macbeth.  That’s a pretty bold call for a student and he wasn’t bad at all.  This time we also got a sort of catalogue raisonnée of the program from director Michael Patrick Albano with contextual information on each number.

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Moving into February

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footstepsIt’s getting pretty busy in Toronto.  Here are a few upcoming things of interest that I haven’t already mentioned.

This year, the Faculty of Music’s annual student composer project is a co-production with Campbell House Museum, the 19th century home of Sir William Campbell, Chief Justice of Upper Canada. Footsteps in Campbell House is a series of pieces by student composers to words by Michael Albano.  The audience moves around the house exploring the lives of those who livedd there.  There are five performances on January 30th and 31st and February 1st.  Each performance is limited to 35 people.  Tickets are $20 and available here.  I’m really intrigued by this but there’s no way I can go.   Continue reading →

Our saucy ship’s a beauty

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hms_pinaforeAnd so is Michael Albano’s new production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore which opened last night at the MacMillan Theatre.  It’s been a long time since the UoT Opera Division did G&S but it was worth the wait.  Fred Perruzza’s straight forward unit set was really brought to life by a fast paced and lively production.  From the very beginning of the overture we had members of the crew cavorting and dancing (Choreographer Anna Theodosakis) in a  manner perhaps owing more to Broadway than D’Oyly Carte and the better for it!  The set, a quarter deck with a gallery, provided cabin doors and traps in the deck for characters to come and go (including conductor Sandra Horst appearing from “below” to take her bow).  And of coming and going and dancing there was plenty.  There were some more than decent dancers in the chorus too.

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We sail the ocean blue

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kwNext week the University of Toronto Opera Division will be staging HMS Pinafore; the first Gilbert and Sullivan at the MacMillan for 25 years.  There are four performances; at 7.30pm on the 27th, 28th and 29th and a 2.30pm matinée on the 30th.  Following UoT practice it is double cast.  The cast for the 27th and 29th includes Charles Sy, a finalist in the COC’s Centre Stage next week as well, and Karine White.  They are probably the two singers from UoT who have most impressed me this year and are definitely worth hearing.  Michael Albano directs and Sandra Horst conducts.  Tickets are $40 adult, $25 senior, $10 student.

Brush Up Your Shakespeare

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charles-sy-headshot-WEB-217x300

Charles Sy

Today’s free concert in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre was given by the University of Toronto’s Opera Program.  It was a semi staged assortment of songs and excerpts from operas, operettas and musicals based on the works of Shakespeare with a distinct leaning to the operetta/musical theatre side of things.  That’s understandable enough with young singers but it does make the game we all play (at least I do) of trying to guess who the next Jonas Kaufmann or Anna Netrebko is that much harder.  Not that I’m very good at it.  I’m far more able to predict what a newly bottled Bordeaux will taste like in ten years time than whether the young soprano I’m listening to might go on to sing Siegfried or Turandot at the Met!

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Embroidered by blind nuns in Tuscany

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Encounters was a one hour programme of short opera scenes by student composers to libretti by Michael Albano.  It’s the latest in a series of fully staged shows by student composers from the UoT Faculty of Music’s composition programme which has been running since 1997 and has included, for example Rob Ford, the opera.  It’s quite shocking that when that showed two years ago, as Dean Don McLean reminded us, the big Rob Ford story was about library closures.  Anyway, only one of yesterday’s five pieces featured Mr. Ford.

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Laura’s Cow

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I had mixed feelings about attending something billed as a “children’s opera” but Laura’s Cow turned out to be quite a lot of fun. The piece was created for the Canadian Children’s Opera Company by composer Errol Gay and librettist Michael Patrick Albano.  It’s a 70 minute long, somewhat wry take on Laura Secord and the War of 1812.  It manages not to be too sentimental and pokes fun at the Tea Party, coyotes and Americans; which is a bit harsh on coyotes.  Writing for a children’s opera company obviously places some constraints on the composer.  There have to be simple choruses for the younger children.  There have to be not too demanding short solos for promising older singers and so on.  Within those limits Mr. Gay managed to create a score with quite a lot of musical interest especially in the orchestral writing.  The sets and stage direction were effective too especially given the logistics of handling a large cast in a fairly restricted stage area. Continue reading →