Tag Archives: diamond

The Leader

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NV6469_The-LeaderThe Leader and other works is a new record of music by Karim Al-Zand.  The most substantial piece is the one act chamber opera The Leader based on Ionesco’s 1955 play Le Maître.  A reporter and two devoted fans follow the Leader wherever he goes mesmerised by his often absurd antics.  A young couple is gradually drawn into the fascination.

The Leader does ridiculous things.  he dances with a hedgehog.  He has his trousers pressed in public.  Finally it’s revealed that he no head.  Instead he has “genius”.  None of this shakes the loyalty of his followers.  One imagines that Ionesco had the European dictators of the 1930s in mind but, of course, one can substitute whichever half absurd, half sinister populist neo-Fascist one chooses.

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Neumeier’s Orphée et Eurydice

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John Neumeier’s production of Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice, recorded at Lyric Opera in Chicago (also seen in Neumeier’s home house of Staatsoper Hamburg and scheduled for this year’s Salzburg Whitsun Festival with the same principals) is quite unusual. Neumeier designed sets, costumes and lighting and served as both director and choreography. It’s very much his work. It’s also the Paris version rather than the Vienna (Italian) version more usually seen. Orphée is sung by a tenor and there’s a lot of ballet which extends the opera to three acts spread over two hours; maybe half an hour longer than an average production. Neumeier also chooses to give the story a modern frame. Orphée is a choreographer, Amour his assistant and Eurydice his prima ballerina as well as wife. The piece opens with a ballet rehearsal during the Overture. Orphée and Eurydice have a flaming row, She storms out and is hit by a car. At the end Eurydice, or her ghost, shows up during another rehearsal. The ending is in fact very unclear. As is the purpose of the frame. Is all the action supposed to be a dream or a trip? I couldn’t tell and it really didn’t seem to add anything.

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Up and tubing

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This will be a bit of an “odds and sods” round up.  First off, check out Natalya Gennadi and Catherine Carew’s latest offering on Natalya’s Youtube channel.  The music is very good but the animated effects are amazing.  Over at Against the Grain you can see Joel Ivany interviewing HE Adrienne Clarkson who is always interesting to talk to.

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Oksana G.

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Aaron Gervais’ and Colleen Murphy’s Oksana G. finally made it to the stage last night after a most convoluted journey.  It’s being produced by Tapestry at the Imperial Oil Theatre with Tom Diamond directing.  The wait, I think has been worth it.  The story, set in 1997, of a naive country girl from the Ukraine who gets caught up in sex trafficking is dramatic and the it convincingly depicts the sleazy underworld of southern and eastern Europe created by the collapse of the USSR, the civil wars in the Balkans and the pervasive official corruption in countries like Ukraine, Greece and Italy.  It’s gritty and, at times, not at all easy to watch.

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Natalya Gennadi and Oksana G

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ng2A couple of days ago I sat down to chat with Natalya Gennadi who will sing the title role in Tapestry’s upcoming premiere of Oksana G by Aaron Gervais and Colleen Murphy.  It’s a story about a Ukrainian girl who gets caught up with a sex-trafficking ring; an all too real phenomenon in Eastern and Central Europe as the Soviet system disintegrated.  For Natalya it’s a very personal piece.  She is Ukrainian and much the same age as Oksana would be.  It’s her era and Oksana is, she feels, a similar sort of person from a similar background and there but for…

Thankfully, Natalya’ “career path” has been rather different.  She didn’t set out to be a singer.  In fact she trained in linguistics before applying to, and being accepted by the Moscow Conservatory though she never studied there.  Instead she moved to Ottawa with her husband where she began to study music formsally.  With a degree from the University of Ottawa she came to Toronto to study for her masters.  Along the way she appeared in a number of student productions and since graduating has been keeping busy with roles mainly with opera companies and orchestras in the Toronto suburbs(*); most recently in the title role of Suor Angelica with Cathedral Bluffs and the countess in Le nozze di Figaro with the Brott Festival.  The latter representing something of a vocal shift from Puccini and the like to lighter rep.  This is something that she sees as an important (if slightly unusual) career direction.  There have also been competitions and the Karina Gauvin scholarship and a “career blueprint” award from the IRCPA.

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Ambur Braid is Oksana G.

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So finally we have dates and casting for the long awaited Oksana G (music Aaron Gervais, libretto Colleen Murphy) from Tapestry Opera.  This one has been years in the making.  Back when I saw the second act workshop in 2012 there were all kinds of rumours about who would eventually (co)produce it.  Now it looks like Tapestry have come up the resources to do it as a standalone.  That’s no mean feat as this is a full blown two acter with orchestra and chorus.  It will play May 24th – 30th, 2017, at the Imperial Oil Opera Theatre of the Canadian Opera Company, 227 Front St. E. (just around the corner from the Kitten Kondo) and the title role will be played by Operaramblings’ favourite crazy lady Ambur Braid.  As she showed recently as Dalinda in the COC’s Ariodante she’s now much more than a series of impressive high notes.  She’s become a singing actress of real substance and Oksana is certainly a role a girl could get her teeth into.  The rest of the casting is also impressive with the always impressive Krisztina Szabó as Oksana’s mother, Adam Fisher as Father Alexander, and Keith Klassen as the baddy Konstantin.  Jordan de Souza conducts and Tom Diamond directs.  This is one not to miss!

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Photo Credit: Jennifer Toole

Tapestry 2016/17

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naomiTapestry Opera has now announced its upcoming season.  There are three shows.  The season begins in November with Naomi’s Road; libretto by Ann Hodges based on the novel by Joy Kogawa with music by Ramona Luengen. Set in Vancouver during the Second World War, the opera follows 9-year-old Japanese-Canadian girl Naomi and her brother, whose lives are upturned when they are sent to internment camps in the BC interior and Alberta. It runs November 16th to 20th at St. David’s Anglican Church, the home of the last Japanese-Canadian Anglican parish in Toronto. Continue reading →

Una opera in maschera

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I despair.  I really do.  Yesterday’s MetHD broadcast of Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera had so much going for it.  The singing was brilliant and David Alden’s production seemed to have plenty of interesting ideas.  I say “seemed” because we only got the briefest of brief glimpses of it in between the succession of close ups served up by video director Matthew Diamond.  On the odd occasions we got to see more than a head or a body it was usually from a weird angle.  It’s particularly irritating because the two elements of the production that seemed to be most important were the ones most ruthlessly undermined.  Alden’s movement of chorus, supers and dancers and the contrast between what they do and what the principals do seems to be important but who knows?  Similarly his use of contrasting spaces, especially in Act 3, is obviously important but when the viewer gets only a couple of seconds to establish the context before the camera moves in and loses it the effect is fatally weakened.

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