June 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).
My review of the COC’s revival of Puccini’s Tosca is now up at Bachtrack.com. @bachtrack
Photo: Michael Cooper
My review of the COC’s production of Verdi’s Macbeth is now live at Bachtrack.
Photo credit: Michael Cooper
Things 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.
Here’s what I know about so far for April.
On April 6th at 1.30pm in Walter Hall, Music in the Afternoon is presenting a concert featuring Marion Newman, Melody Courage, Evan Korbut and Gordon Gerrard in a mix of classical song and contemporary works on Indigenous themes including music by Ian Cusson, Bramwell Tovey and Tomson Highway.
Later that day, at 7.30pm at Koerner Hall, Opera Atelier have the first of three performances of Handel’s The Resurrection. This is the fully staged version of the production that streamed during lockdown. There are further performances on the 8th at 7.30pm and the 9th at 2.30pm.
Things are a bit sub fusc at the COC these days. The season reveal isn’t a glitzy gala with a big fight to grab the charcuterie. It isn’t even a 10am doughnuts and coffee presser in the RBA where the ghost of Robert Everett-Green could ask what happened to the promised new Canadian operas . It’s just an email arriving at the prescribed time. There isn’t even an embargoed press only version to let us get our ducks in a row before the broader public get the news. Such is life.
So the COC will announce the upcoming season on the 23rd. I’m really hesitant to try and predict what might be in it because with the change of management and the COVID hangover old patterns don’t seem to mean much anymore. But here goes anyway.
Last year they did one new production and five revivals. I can’t see them doing that again. But then, finances being what they are I’d be surprised if they did more than two new shows. There’s a hot rumour that one of those will be Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen. It makes sense if it’s true. It hasn’t been done by the COC since 1998, it’s a relatively easy sell and there are a bunch of recent productions out there for the COC to choose from thus avoiding creating one from scratch.
It kind of makes sense I guess. Atom Egoyan is making a film about a production of Richard Strauss’ Salome using the current COC production and cast as part of the process. It’s to be called Seven Veils and is backed by Rhombus Media and will star Amanda Seyfried as Jeanine, a young woman who has been given the task of remounting a production of Salome originally created by her mentor. One press release describes Jeanine as a “tortured opera director” which is an idea that might appeal to a certain section of the local opera audience. No word on a prospective release date. I guess this is about the only way many people will experience (at least part of) Ambur Braid’s amazing portrayal of the title role.
My review of the COC’s revival of Richard Strauss’ Salome is now up at Bachtrack.
Photo: Michael Cooper
My review of the COC’s revival of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro is now up at Bachtrack.
A scene from the Canadian Opera Company’s production of The Marriage of Figaro, 2023. Photo: Michael Cooper
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