Tag Archives: coc

Shout out to Washington

Posted on by
Reply
Rihab Chaieb and Mireille Asselin

Rihab Chaieb and Mireille Asselin

In February I attended a brilliant lunchtime concert of vocal music by Kaija Saariaho sung by three singers from the COC Ensemble Studio.  I wasn’t the only one who was impressed.  The composer was so taken with the standard of performance that she has arranged for them to perform a slightly different selection of her works in Washington DC in February.

If you aren’t from Toronto or Montreal (or perhaps Paris, Lyon, Dublin or Belgrade) you probably haven’t heard much about Mireille Asselin, Rihab Chaieb or Jacqueline Woodley (except maybe on this blog) but you will!  Strongly recommended both for the music and the singers.

Get your tickets now

Posted on by
1
Photo Credit - Kira Perov 2005

Photo Credit – Kira Perov 2005

Word on the street is that there are only “a few hundred” tickets left for the COC’s February run of the Peter Sellars/Bill Viola Tristan und Isolde.  It’s a fair bet that most of the available tickets will be for nights when Burkhard Fritz is singing rather than Ben Heppner.  If you want to see Heppner I’d plan on buying now rather than expecting something last minute to turn up.  I’d expect there to be horrific line-ups for the same-day nosebleeds and standing room tickets (and I don’t have the stamina to stand through Tristan!).

tito05Christopher Alden’s production of Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito apparently isn’t selling so well, despite a stellar cast and a production that got very good reviews in Chicago.  This makes me a sad panda.  Unfashionably, perhaps, I regard Clemenza as one of Mozart’s best operas, perhaps his very best, so the chance to see it with a wonderful cast is one I would not miss.  My current plans call for me to see it twice; with the principal cast and with the Ensemble Studio, but I shall be sorely tempted to get in for an extra look earlier in the run than my current tickets!

Chuck’s back

Posted on by
2

crEarlier this week I fired up iTunes in search of the latest Melvin Bragg “In Our Time” episode and noticed that two podcasts were downloading.  The other one turned out to be a new episode of Charles Reid’s “This Opera Life”.  Now, Charles’ podcast had been on hiatus for months and I really missed it so I was delighted at this turn of events.  I didn’t get a chance to listen to it until I was heading to the market at stupid o’clock this morning.  Anyway, to cut to the chase, after an explanation of the hiatus, Charles goes on to say nice things about this blog and the Big COC Podcast.  Which is awfully kind of him.  Charles’ podcasts are mostly interviews with the ordinary working stiffs of the opera world.  Occasionally he hooks a “big name” but mostly not and it’s all the more interesting because of it.  I think his archive now has 59 episodes, curiously numbered two to sixty!  The latest features director Jonathon Loy.  I recommend it highly.

You can find Charles Reid’s podcasts at http://thisoperalife.charles-reid.com/ or on iTunes.

Second annual COC Ensemble Studio competition

Posted on by
3

winnersLast night I was in a very full Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre for the second annual COC Studio Ensemble competition.  Ten singers, selected down from 146 in auditions across Canada and in New York were competing for cash prizes and an opportunity to join the COC Ensemble Studio.  COC General Director Alexander Neef chaired the panel of judges which included soprano and teacher Wendy Nielsen as well as assorted COC brass.  Chorus Master Sandra Horst MC’d in her own inimitable fashion.  The format was typical of such events.  Each singer offered five arias.  They got to sing one of their choice and then the judges requested a second from the remaining four.  Piano accompaniment alternated between the equally excellent Rachel Andrist and Steven Philcox.

Continue reading →

Yet another Big COC podcast

Posted on by
1

The latest episode of the Big COC Podcast is up on iTunes. This one features Gianmarco Segato of the COC plus three bloggers; myself, Lydia Perovic of Definitely the Opera and Leslie Barcza of barczablog.  We talked about Henze and European modernism segging into the differences between modern opera in Europe and America.  And that led to a discussion of Adès’ The Tempest, American conservatism, the Met and it’s audience, parties at Christopher Alden’s place and much more.  Then it was on to Lydia’s new novel, Incidental Music(go buy it).  There was also an interview with Nina Draganić about the free concerts in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre.  When we came back it was for a discussion about the difference about men and women, action and feeling in opera and, ultimately, why the soprano always gets a raw deal!  I really enjoyed recording this one.  It really felt like a conversation between good friends (which it was) and it’s not been edited down too much.  I think there may have been a segment on the Opera Atelier Der Freischütz that got chopped.

COC Ensemble Studio competition

Posted on by
1

The Canadian Opera Company has announced the ten finalists for the annual Ensemble Studio competition which this year takes place in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre at 6.30pm on November 29th. The event is both a singing competition and the final audition for candidates to join the Ensemble Studio next season. Since the Ensemble Studio is probably the best gig in Canada for a young opera singer it’s very competitive and the competition is a great opportunity to take a look at Canada’s best young singers. It’s a ticketed event and it’s almost sold out so if you plan on going get a ticket now.

The finalists are bass-baritone Gordon Bintner (Regina, Sask.); mezzo-soprano Charlotte Burrage (Woodstock, Ont.); soprano Aviva Fortunata (Calgary, Alta.); baritone Clarence Frazer (Toronto, Ont.); tenor Andrew Haji (London, Ont.); mezzo-soprano Danielle MacMillan (Toronto, Ont.); bass Nathan Keoughan (Charlottetown, P.E.I.); tenor Michael Marino (London, Ont.); soprano Lara Secord-Haid (Winnipeg, Man.) and soprano Kelsey Vicary (Niagara Falls, Ont.).

I’ve seen MacMillan a couple of times singing in student productions at the Royal Conservatory and I think I’ve seen Haji perform but the others are unknown to me. It should be an interesting night.

Upcoming Toronto gigs

Posted on by
Reply

 

(l – r) Laura Albino and Adam Luther in the Canadian Opera Company’s Xstrata Ensemble Studio School Tour production of The Brothers Grimm, 2009.
Photo Credit: Photo: Anand Maharaj © 2009

Since my last post on upcoming Toronto opera and opera related events a few extra things have come up.  November 16th is turning into a pretty crowded evening.  I’m going to Toronto Masque Theatre’s Purcell fest, Fairest Isle, which is also on on the 17th.  Also on that night is the Glenn Gould School’s fall performance; a double bill of Ned Rorem’s Three Sisters Who Are Not Sisters and François-Joseph Vézina’s Le Lauréat.  Finally, you can also catch Opera by Request performing Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin (also on the 25th) or catch them on the 17th when they are doing Bizet’s Les Pecheurs de Perles.

Later in the month there is the final audition for the COC’s Ensemble Studio.  This is always a great opportunity to see the best of the next generation of Canadian singers as they compete for a place in Canada’s premier young artists program.  There are still a few $15 standing room tickets available from the COC box office or website.

Into December when the COC Studio Ensemble are presenting three performances of Dean Burry’s The Brothers Grimm on December 7th and 8th.  The performance on the 7th will be the 500th for this work making it much the most performed classical work by a Canadian composer.  Finally, on December 15th there’s a holiday party/fundraiser for the awesome Against the Grain Theatre Company.  Folks who can stage an opera at the Tranzac ought to know how to party.

The COC Annual Report 2011/12

Posted on by
2

The Canadian Opera Company’s Annual report is out. You can find it here.  It not unreasonably lauds the COC’s considerable artistic achievements over the last year as well as its extensive and commendable outreach activities.  It also contains, albeit in no great detail, the financials.  Now, as a former management consultant, I know that’s the one bit of an Annual Report that’s hard to spin though most CFOs will try.  Being the analyst that I am I ran a few numbers and the results were a bit disturbing.  It was obvious that the financial position had deteriorated though the extent only revealed itself when I looked back to 2009/10 as a comparator.  Here are a few statistics comparing 2011/12 with 2009/10.

  • Capacity (i.e. seats to be sold): up 7% (this is approximate and calculated from ticket sales and reported capacity figures)
  • Seats sold: down 8%
  • Average price per seat sold: down 10%  (From $97.97 to $87.86; which seems quite low really)
  • Leading to a drop in ticket revenue of 18%

Continue reading →

Another Big COC Podcast

Posted on by
2

A couple of weeks ago we recorded another Big COC Podcast.  It’s now available on the COC website and from iTunes.  This time the panel was myself, Wayne Gooding from Opera Canada magazine and Gianmarco Segato and Gianna Wichelow from the COC.

Topics covered included Robert Everett-Green’s Globe and Mail article on Il Trovatore and the persecution of the Roma, upcoming opera productions across Canada (mostly Verdi!), an interview with Marilyn Gronsdal on her Montreal remounting of Christopher Alden’s production of Der Fliegende Holländer; seen at the COC in 2010, and that hardy perennial, HD cinema transmissions of opera with especial emphasis on the Met.

Heading into winter

Posted on by
4

The leaves have turned and the Canadian Opera Company Season is underway so winter can’t be far away.  I’ve now seen both the COC fall productions so I need to find alternative fare between now and February when things kick off again.  So far I’ve found two live shows of interest in town.  At the end of October Opera Atelier is putting on Weber’s Der Freischütz.  This is a departure for OA who have previously (bar once) not put on anything later than Mozart and that in a rather idiosyncratic style.  I think it’s an interesting move and I hope it stimulates the creative juices at OA and sparks some of the innovation that made OA such an exciting company ten or twenty years ago.  If it turns into an exercise in persuading us that 19th century Romanticism is really just an extension of the Baroque I shall probably be feeling like the guy in the picture.  The other live show is Essential Opera’s The Threepenny Opera being presented in concert at Heliconian Hall on November 7th.  Essential Opera I suppose is a semi-pro outfit operating on very small budgets and The Threepenny Opera seems like a good fit.  I felt that last year’s attempt at something grander was rather a case of biting off more than they could chew.  Continue reading →