Tag Archives: arnold

The Lion Heart

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lionheartThe Lion Heart is a new opera by Corey Arnold and Kyle McDonald.  Their aim, as described in an interview on barczablog, was to create an opera that was more accessible to modern audiences than “most modern opera”.  I’m not sure how much “modern opera” they have actually seen/heard but what they seem to mean by accessible is a heavily scored neo-Romanticism supporting a through sung vocal line with nothing much in the way of an aria or any way for their singers to display their chops but we’ll come back to that. Continue reading →

TCO’s Nabucco

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Toronto City Opera performed a concert version of Verdi’s Nabucco at St. Andrew’s church on King Street yesterday afternoon.  It was strictly a concert version with the principals singing off music stands with no attempt at interaction.  The principals were costumed, which helped keep straight who was who and recitative was eliminated in favour of a spoken summary before each scene.  That made sense as there were no surtitles.  Accompaniment was piano.

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Act 1 Finale. L to R. Lauren Estey (Anna), Cristina Pisani (Abigalille), Lillian Brooks (Fenena), Corey Arnold (Ismaele), Michael Robert-Broder (Nabucco), Dylan Wright (Zaccaria), with the TCO Chorus

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From dark to light

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dover-beach-1upphl0Today’s recital in the RBA was given by Russell Braun. Carolyn Maule and members of the COC orchestra.  The programme, Journeys of the Soul, divided into two quite distinct halves.  In the first, Russell was joined by Marie Bedard and Dominique Laplants (violins), Keith Hamm (viola) and Paul Widner (cello) in a performance of Samuel Barber’s Dover Beach; a setting of a text by Matthew Arnold.  It’s a very dark text and rather an extraordinary choice for a twenty year old.  The music is equally dark and brooding.  It’s a great work for Russell though and plays well to the colours of his voice and his keen attention to text.  It was a pleasure to hear in the very intimate atmosphere of the RBA.

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