Tag Archives: donizetti

Silly can be fun!

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Back in 2013 I reviewed a 2009 DVD from La Scala of Donizetti’s Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali and I was not impressed.  However, having read several rave reviews for last year’s production at the Wexford Opera Festival currently being streamed on the Opera Vision channel on Youtube I decided toi check it out.  I was pleasantly surprised.  It’s still very silly but Orpha Phelan’s production with an excellent cast is actually amusing enough to carry two hours of video and was probably even more fun in the theatre.

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McKenzie at Met

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Today’s noon hour concert at Metropolitan United Church featured soprano McKenzie Warriner and pianist Christine Bae.  Ellita Gagner was also scheduled to sing but, unfortunately, she was not able to do so due to illness.  So we got a hastily reorganised programme.

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The Ensemble Studio kicks off a new season

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Wednesday lunchtime saw the members of the COC’s Ensemble Studio kick of the free concert series season in the RBA.  It was good.  Pianists Brian Cho and Mattia Senesi started off in fine style with a four hands version of the overture to The Barber of Seville and then it was on to the singing.

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Lucie de Lammermoor

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Lucie de Lammermoor is Donizetti’s reworking of his Scottish opera for a smaller, non-subsidised Paris theatre.  It’s not just a translation.  Some scenes are rearranged and minor characters are pruned leaving only six in the cast plus chorus.  Donizetti also incorporated what had become performance practice in Italy, substituting an aria from Rosmonda d’Inghilterra; “Que n’avons nous des ailes”, for “Regnava del silencio”.  Otherwise the plot is much the same.

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Wot, no cakes?

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I understand that the mission of outfits like the Teatro Donizetti is to “rescue” forgotten operas but, frankly, some of them ought to remain forgotten.  I would put Donizetti’s Alfredo il Grande in that category.  It premiered in Naples on 2nd July 1823 and closed after one disastrous performance not to be seen again until a run in Bergamo in November 2023 which was recorded for video.

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Excellent Don Pasquale from the Ensemble Studio

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Tuesday night at the Four Seasons Centre it was the turn of the Ensemble Studio cast to give us Donizetti’s Don Pasquale.  It’s the same Barbe et Doucet production of course but director Marilyn Gronsdal, conductor Simone Luti and an excellent cast definitely gave it their own twist.  Everybody seemed to have their own bit of business that we didn’t see on opening night and they all worked.

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L’aio nell’imbarazzo

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L’aio nell’imbarazzo (A tutor in a jam) is a Donizetti comedy that was popular in its day; both in its original version and revised as Don Gregorio.  It’s now received a new scholarly edition that attempts to get back as far as possible to the original.  That edition was used for a production directed by Francesco Micheli at the Teatro Donizetti in Bergamo in 2022 and filmed for video release.

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A purrfect storm

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I don’t think it’s a big secret that I’m a fan of furry felines so I’m probably predisposed to like Barbe & Doucet’s cat themed production of Donizetti’s Don Pasquale for the COC which opened at the Four Seasons Centre on Friday night.  It starts with a projected comic book type prologue during the overture.  Malatesta discovers that cat lover Pasquale is allergic to them so the old man has to ditch his actual furry friends for a series of statues that then crop up all over the Pensione Pasquale.  Yes B&D have set another opera in a hotel!  It’s clever because it makes us a little more sympathetic to the old man who isn’t the nicest guy as written.

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La France au printemps

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france 2Thursday’s concert by members of the Ensemble Studio in the RBA was an all French affair (at least as far as language went) and it was rather good.  Karoline Podolak iniated proceedings with Mattia Senesi at the piano with Kurt Weill’s “Youkali”.  Now I’ve heard this sung by everybody from Barbara Hannigan to Benjamin Appl and I’d have to see that Ms. Podolak is right up there.  There was no male stripper though.

Korin Thomas-Smith has something of a penchant for the bizarre and I think that’s a fair description of two sets drawn from Apollinaire’s Bestiaire.  There were five of the Poulenc settings (about as far from Dialogues of the Carmelites as one could imagine) and six from Rachel Laurin’s more atonal and abrasive settings.  I would probably sing these songs if I had four dromedaries and could sing.  Fine work from Brian Cho at the piano. Continue reading →