Tag Archives: coc

OK, it’s official

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I’ve known for ages that Ian Cusson was working on an opera for the COC main stage and that it was a bout a Métis werewolf legend.  It’s the sort of thing that gets me howling at a full moon.  Anyway it’s all now official and talkaboutable.  It’s called Empire of the Wild and the libretto is by Cherie Dimaline based ion her 2019 novel of the same name.  It’s a co-commission of the COC and the NAC in Ottawa and there’s no date given for the premiere yet.  (And yes I do have a bit of “I’ll believe it when I see it” given that COC commissions seem to disappear mysteriously often enough to provide the plot for a werewolf novel).  I think it’s a great subject for an opera and Ian’s record of writing for vopice and the opera stage is good so, yeah, I really want to see this.  So keep your fingers crossed it actually happens!  All the details are in the press release which is here.

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The COC at Harbourfront

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harbourfrontOn Saturday evening the COC presented a teaser concert for their 2023/24 season on the outdoor stage at Harbourfront.  The weather stayed fair and there was no more than the usual aural background to distract a little from the music.  The full orchestra under Johannes Debus was on display along with half a dozen members of the Ensemble Studio.

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Late September and into October

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october2023There are a few adds for September. This Saturday (16th) you can catch Rachel Krehm in recital with Janelle Fung. That’s at 3pm. Details here.  Saturday 30th is a busy day.  At 7.30pm at Church of the Redeemer The Happenstancers have a concert.of mostly 20th century music for soprano and chamber ensemble.  Details and tickets here.  At the same time and repeated at 4pm on the Sunday Confluence Concerts have a concert of Irish music, both traditional and modern art song.  That’s at Heliconian Hall.  Details etc.  Also from the 22nd to 24th Tafelmusik are performing Beethoven’s 4th and 5th symphonies at Koerner Hall.  Their take on Beethoven symphonies is unusual and very interesting.  And while Tafelmusik are absent from Jeanne Lamon Hall on the 22nd and 23rd, ther Toronto Mendelssohn Singers are presenting a programme including dance.  A choreographed version of Handel’s Dixit Dominus is a rare event!

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Seven Veils

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The story of Salome and John the Baptist may be the most twisted tale in the Western canon.  Oscar Wilde’s take on the story, with music by Richard Strauss added, didn’t make it any less twisted.  Nor did Atom Egoyan’s production of the opera for the COC and its several remounts.  How, one might ask, could one ramp the twistedness up a notch?  The answer, and a very successful one, is to have Egoyan make a film based around his production.  And so, Seven Veils, which had its avant-premier, ahead of TIFF, at the Four Seasons Centre last night.

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Ambur Braid as Salome (top left), Michael Kupfer-Radecky as Jochanaan (below), and Frédéric Antoun as Narraboth (top right) in the Canadian Opera Company’s production of Salome, 2023. Photo: Michael Cooper

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And so to September

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sept23The new season starts to ramp up in September.  My month will start at Factory Theatre on the 7th with Mary Beath Badian’s The Waltz; a coming of age drama set in Saskatchewan.  That runs until the 17th.  The following night there’s a screening at the Four Seasons Centre of Atom Egoyan’s new film Seven Veils that was created in conjunction with last season’s production of Salome.  A young woman is tasked with remounting her former mentor’s production of Salome.  It stars Amanda Seyfried, Ambur Braid, Michael Schade and Michael Kupfer-Radecky.  It’s a chance to see the film ahead of the official premier at TIFF.  More details and tickets here.

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Pomegranate at the COC

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Almost exactly four years after Kye Marshall and Amanda Hale’s Pomegranate played at Buddies in Bad Times in a production by Michael Mori it reappeared at the COC in expanded form in a production by Jennifer Tarver.  The basic plot hasn’t changed much so I’m not going to repeat what I wrote about that in 2019.  The other changes are, though, quite extensive and I’m not convinced they are improvements.

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June is almost upon us

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june2023June is fast approaching and, as ever, it’s one of the odder months in the performance calendar.  Here’s what has caught my eye (so far).

  • June 1st to 25th at Crow’s is Alex Bulmer’s Perceptual Archaeology (Or How to Travel Blind).  This is a show for blind and sighted people about, well, travelling blind (literally).  Since blindness is my worst fear I don’t know whether I can do this one.  We’ll see.
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May 2023

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wordcloudmay23Things happening next month…

But first this month… on April 27th to 29th male soprano Samuel Mariño is appearing with
Tafelmusik in a programme titled Higher Love: Virtuoso Arias.  Details here.

Crow’s Theatre has a couple of shows.  True Crime opens on the 2nd.  It’s a short run.  Preview on the 1st then closes on the 7th.  It’s basically a one man, semi-improvised show about an imprisoned con man.  The Chinese Lady, which runs 5th to 21st (previews 2nd to 4th) in the smaller Studio Theatre tells the story of the first Chinese woman in the USA.  Written by Lloyd Suh and directed by Marjorie Chan it should be interesting.  There’s also Boom X.  Rick Miller plays over a hundred characters to narrate events from 1969 t0 1995.  It runs from the 10th to the 28th.  More details at crowstheatre.com.

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