Tag Archives: coc

First we take Berlin

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JdSweb-209x300News just in that Jordan de Souza, currently with the COC, National Ballet of Canada and Tapestry, will be moving to Berlin later this year to take up the position of Studienleiter (Head of Music) at the Komische Oper. Jordan will spend six weeks working at the Bregenz Festival before taking up the Berlin position effective August 1st. Although Jordan will be leaving his current positions in Toronto he expects to be back in 2016/17 to conduct productions at both Tapestry and L’Opéra de Montréal.

It’s a pretty good move for all parties I think.

Week of 7th February

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salThis week kicks off with a concert performance of a rarity; Salieri’s Falstaff.  It’s a concert performance by Voicebox:Opera in Concert.  Larry Beckwith conducts the Aradia Ensemble and a cast of Voicebox stalwarts.  You can catch it at 2.30pm today at the Jane Mallett Theatre.

There are two free events on Tuesday.  Chris Purves, Alberich in the COC’s Siegfried, has a lunchtime recital in the RBA with Liz Upchurch at the piano.  The programme includes Mussorgsky, Handel and Duparc.  At 8pm in the Victoria College chapel you can catch Dean Burry’s graduate recital as he finishes up his PhD.  Soon perhaps Canada’s most performed composer will no longer be a lowly TA.  Oh the joys of credentialism!

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Guth’s Figaro at the COC

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Claus Guth’s production of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, first seen at Salzburg in 2006, opened last night at the COC.  I was curious to see how it would be received because, while by no means an extreme production by European standards, it’s well beyond the 1970s aesthetic beloved by sections of the Toronto audience.  The aesthetic is Northern European; a Strindberg play or a Bergmann film perhaps.  It’s monochromatic, quite slow and focusses on the darker side of the characters’ psyches.  It’s the antithesis of Figaro as Feydeau farce.  There’s also a non-canonical character, Cherubim.  He’s a winged doppelganger of Cherubino and seems to be a cross between Cupid and Puck.  Pretty much omnipresent he manipulates scenes and characters though with a power that falls well short of absolute.  Perhaps the whole production is best summed up in the final ensemble.  Cherubim visits each couple in turn and is brusquely rejected.  Only Cherubino is still subject to his power and that seems to have become destructive.  Perhaps the message is “Now we are married forget this love nonsense and let us get back to our drab lives of quiet despair”.

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First week of February

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There are a number of interesting concerts and performances this week.  Tuesday sees the graduate students of the UoT Opera Division in cabaret at the Tranzac Club.  It’s at 7.30pm and it’s free.  The beer at the Tranzac is better than it used to be so should be a decent night out and if you don’t like it the NAGS are performing in the other room, alas without Neil Sorbie.  Earlier in the day there’s a noon hour concert in the RBA featuring Bob Pomakov and the Gryphon Trio (also free).  The program features works by Mozart and Heather Schmidt.

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Heil dir, Sonne!

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François Girard’s Siegfried, a revival of his 2006 production, opened last night at the COC.  Despite using the same basic set concept as Atom Egoyan’s Die Walküre, Girard’s Siegfried, has a rather different look and feel.  The fragments of Valhalla and the remains of Yggdrassil are still there but they are supplemented in imaginative fashion by a corps of supers and acrobats who play a key role in shaping the scenes.  For example, in the opening scene we have Yggdrassil festooned with bodies, as if some enormous shrike were in residence.  Some of these are dummies and some aerialists who come into the drama at key points.  The flames in Siegfried’s forge are human arms.  Acrobats make a very effective Fafner in the Niedhöhle scene and the flames around Brünnhilde’s rock are human too.  Most of the characters are dressed in sort of white pyjamas which makes for a very monochromatic effect on the mostly dark stage.  The one visual incongruity is the “bear” who is present, tied to Yggdrassil, throughout Act 1.  Frankly it looks less like a bear than John Tomlinson after a night on the tiles.  Still, all in all, the production is effective without being especially revelatory.

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Heating up

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Faculty_of_Music,_University_of_Toronto_-_from_Philosopher's_Walk_-_DSC09874Next week things get rather busy.  There’s all the Hannigan shenanigans at UoT ; lecturing, masterclassing, concerting, walking on water, details here.  There are a couple of lunchtime concerts in the RBA.  Tuesday sees Gordon Bintner and Charles Sy perform Schumann’s Liederkreis and Britten’s Les Illuminations while on Thursday Jean-Philippe Fortier-Lazure appears with the members of the COC Orchestra Academy and their mentors.

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Additions to the COC Ensemble Studio

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es1617The COC will add six singers and a pianist to the Ensemble Studio for the 16/17 season.  Unsurprisingly the three prize winners from Centre Stage; mezzo-sopranos Emily D’Angelo and Lauren Eberwein and baritone Bruno Roy, are among the six. They are joined by soprano Samantha Pickett (continuing a tradition of promoting young dramatic sopranos) and mezzo Megan Quick and, best news of all to my mind, soprano Danika Lorèn.  Regular readers will know that I have been increasingly impressed by this young lady over the last twelve months or so and am looking forward to seeing even more of her.  The new pianist is Stéphane Mayer.

Back to work

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zelenkaThings are starting to pick up after the Christmas lull.  Here’s my pick of the week in Toronto for w/c 10th January.

Today at 3.30pm The Talisker Players have a concert at Trinity St. Paul’s called High Standards.  It’s classic Broadway (Sondheim, Gershwin, Kern etc) and features soloists Virginia Hatfield and James Levesque.  (Also Tuesday at 8pm).

Wednesday is the COC Season Launch at the Four Season’s Centre at 6.30pm.  I think it’s subscribers and invitees only.  Speculation on what we might hear is here (me) and here (Dylan Hayden).

Then on Saturday from 1pm to 6pm Tafelmusik have a singing competition to select soloists for a future performance of Zelenka’s Missa omnium sanctorum.  Two gals and seven guys compete.  It’s free and , of course, it’s at Trinity St. Paul’s.

Where’s a palantìr when you need one eh?

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palantir1The invitations to the big bash are out.  The COC will announce the 2016/17 season on the 13th of January.  So it’s time to crack the shoulder blades, eviscerate the chickens and check that spread sheet I’ve been running for the last few years.  After all what’s the holiday season without a little humiliation?

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