Tag Archives: coc

Appropriate redress

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Ian Cusson

Two years ago when Harry Somers’ Louis Riel was revived in Toronto, Ottawa and Quebec there was considerable debate about the appropriation of a traditional Nsga’a morning song; the Kuyas.  Basically in the culture the song comes from transmission and use of songs are regulated by the traditional owners.  This particular music had been used to set the text of a lullabye that Riel’s wife sings to their child, originally without attribution.  In 2017 the decision was made to use it again though not without consultation, debate and acknowledgement.  See my comments about the issue on opening night here.

It’s fair to say that I don’t think anybody thought the status quo was really acceptable and a great deal of discussion has gone on leading to an announcement this morning that the music will be replaced in the opera by new music composed by Ian Cusson, who is of Métis and French-Canadian descent.  The whole story; whats, whys and wherefores, is contained in the linked COC press release.  It’s the right thing to do and it’s the right composer.

COC Media Release – Riel Update – FINAL

Is Iago a nihilist?

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I managed to catch the fourth performance of the COC’s current run of Verdi’s Otello last night.  It’s a David Alden production that first aired at ENO and it’s a very dark take on an already dark story.  It’s set maybe circa 1900 and the sets are stark but the lighting is dramatic with lots of contrasts and giant moving shadows.  The overall Zeitgeist seems to be of a society that has seen too much war; a sort of collective PTSD.  This comes over in a number of ways.  The scenes that usually lighten things up a bit; the victory celebrations in Act 1, the children and flowers in Act 2, don’t here.  In fact they are downright creepy.  There’s also a female dancer, used rather as Christopher Alden used Monterone’s daughter in Rigoletto, who clearly doesn’t expect good things from returning soldiers.

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Opera for Toronto

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Last night at the COC there was a special performance of Puccini’s La Bohème.  The cast was made up, for the most part, of current and past Ensemble Studio members and tickets had been made available free to a variety of community groups.  It was billed as “Opera for Toronto”.  There had also been a small number of tickets available on line on a first come basis and, by the looks of things , a fair number of comps for the cast.

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Afarin Mansouri giving an introductory talk in Farsi – Credit: Gaetz Photography

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May listings

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Mayday-1So May Day greetings and hello again.  And here are some things you might care to see this month during your eight hours for “what you will”. It’s a bit belated for reasons previously announced but it’s here and I’m back.

Tonight at Lula Lounge at 7pm Tongue in Cheek productions have Democracy in Action.  Several noted singers (Krisztina Szabo, Julie Nesrallah, Natalya Gennadi, Teiya Kasahara, Asitha Tennekoon, Romulo Delgado, Alexander Hajek and Stephen Hegedus) will perform pieces based on audience voting.

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COC to relocate to Frankfurt

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Following a decade of declining ticket sales and revenue the Canadian Opera Company has decided that the logical step is to go in search of a new audience.  As General Director Alexander Neef puts it “We’ve tried everything in the playbook to build a new audience in Toronto; discounts for seniors, discounts for under 30s, community outreach, the lot and nothing has really worked so the board decided that if the audience won’t come to us, we must go to the audience.  So we are moving lock, stock and barrel to Frankfurt.  There’s a great audience there, as well as most of our singers.  Besides it’s not like we will no longer be accessible to our existing audience.  Air Canada has three direct flights per day from Pearson to our new home.”

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April shows

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butterfly-square… plus a late March addition…

March 29th and 30th Tapestry are doing the Songbook thing again.  This is the show where an established singer; Jacqueline Woodley this time, works with emerging artists and a pianist (Andrea Grant) plus director Michael Mori to create a show based on Tapestry’s back catalogue.  There are three shows at the Ernest Balmer Studio in the Distillery; Friday at 8pm and Saturday at 4pm and again at 8pm.

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Egoyan’s Così – brunette edition

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The COC season continued last night with Atom Egoyan’s production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte, first seen in January 2014.  There are some changes from the previous outing but most of what I had to say about the production holds good still.  This time there have been cuts.  The show now runs as two ninety minute acts plus an interval and it feels tighter and doesn’t drag so much in the second act.  In the process some of the heavy handed symbolism has been discarded; fewer pinned butterflies.  I think the physical comedy may have ratcheted up just a touch but maybe that’s me misremembering.  And the girls are brunettes, rather than redheads, but still well matched enough to look like sisters.  Musically, I think it’s been lightened up somewhat.  Bernard Labadie, something of a period specialist, conducts and Michael Shannon accompanies the recits on a fortepiano.  But, still, fundamentally the same show.

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New members of the Ensemble Studio

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No big surprises in the announcement of new members of the COC Ensemble Studio.  It’s the three prize winners from last year’s Centre Stage; tenor Matthew Cairns, bass-baritone Vartan Gabrielian and mezzo-soprano Jamie Groote.  Also joining is pianist and intern coach Alex Soloway.  Cairns and Groote are UoT grads and are well known to many Toronto opera goers through their appearances in UoT productions and elsewhere.  Gabrielian is a Toronto native but studied at the Curtis so is not so well known.  It will be interesting to get to know him.

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New COC Ensemble Studio members (l – r): tenor Matthew Cairns, bass-baritone Vartan Gabrielian, mezzo-soprano Jamie Groote, pianist and intern coach Alex Soloway

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COC 19/20 revealed

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The COC 2019/20 season was revealed last night at the Four Seasons Centre.  I liked the set up this time.  A brief introduction from Alexander Neef, an overture and then a well scripted narrative, read by William Webster, describing the works in turn  within the theme of “Once Upon A Time”, with a performance of one number from each opera.  And so, what do we get:

Turandot 5513Puccini – Turandot – September 28th to October 27th 2019 – 9 performances.

This is the Robert Wilson production from Madrid.  Tamara Wilson and Marjorie Owens share the title role with Sergey Skorokhodov and Kamen Chanev as Calaf and Joyce El-Khoury/Vanessa Vasquez as Liu.  Carlo Rizzi conducts.  I’m not a huge fan of Wilson’s elegant but static productions but I could see it working for Turandot.  I’m told the usual Alfano completion will be used.

Lauren Margison gave us Liu’s aria. Continue reading →