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Glenn Gould School’s Die Fledermaus

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Die Fledermaus offers a lot scope for reinterpretation.  Like so many works involving spoken dialogue there is a tradition of reworking that dialogue to work in contemporary humour and geographic relevance to the point where there is no canonical version though there’s probably a set of general expectations.  Joel Ivany’s production for the Glenn Gould School, which opened last night at Koerner Hall, goes further than most to create a “play within a play” dynamic riffing to some extent on the difficulty of staging an opera in a concert hall.  He also makes the decision to use English dialogue but have the sung text in the original German (except for the finale).

GGS Opera 2018 Die Fledermaus #1; Lisa Sakulensky Photography

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Hnsl nd Gtl

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The Glenn Gould School’s fall opera production this year is Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel given in Brent Krysa’s English language, highly condensed version, originally created for the COC Ensemble Studio School Tour.  It really is condensed.  There’s no chorus and it comes in at just over the hour mark.  The main plot elements are retained but I think quite a bit of the darkness, and most of the religiosity, are gone, though the latter isn’t eliminated entirely.  After all, the Evening Prayer and the final chorus are musical highlights and pretty much have to be there.  It doesn’t leave any room for the director to explore ideas like child abuse or addiction and pretty much forces, for better or worse, a straightforward emphasis on the basic story.

Kendra Dyck (Gretel) & Rachel Miller (Hansel); GGS opera; Lisa Sakulensky Photography;1357sm

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La Cecchina

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Niccolò Piccinni’s La Cecchina or La buona figliuola is an opera buffa in two acts written for the Teatro delle Dame in Rome where it premiered in 1760.  The libretto is by Carlo Goldini and, while said to have been inspired by Richardson’s Pamela, is actually a fairly straightforward masters and servants story of a similar nature to Pergolesi’s La serva padrona or even Mozart’s La finta giardinera; all, of course, firmly rooted in the conventions of the commedia dell’arte.  Being written for Rome it was, originally, played by an all male cast.  Last night at Koerner Hall the Glenn Gould School Opera presented it with female singers in the high roles.

Photo: Nicola Betts

Kendra Dyck as Sandrina and Asitha Tennekoon as the Marchese

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Glenn Gould School Vocal Showcase

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lillianbrooks

Lillian Brooks

The GGS Vocal Showcase is an opportunity to take a look at the vocal talent on offer at the Royal Conservatory.  It’s a tricky exercise as the students range from the equivalent of first year undergrad to second year masters so one is constantly recalibrating expectations.  We got to hear one bass, two baritones, three tenors, one mezzo soprano and fourteen sopranos in a variety of arias, art songs and ensemble numbers.

So, in no particular order my favourites and “ones to watch”.  Lets start with the obvious.  Gabriel Sanchez-Ortega is a genuine bass.  We only heard him in some Haydn trios last night but he seems to have heft and genuine low notes and quite a wide range.  He’s also still quite young.  Singing with him was soprano Joanna Burt who also gave us an aria from La Cecchina.  She has real potential as a dramatic soprano which is the one part of the tweeter market that isn’t flooded.  She has some nice dark colours as well as weight.  The trios were rounded out by tenor Zachary Rioux.  He held his own with two pretty big voices so we’ll see.

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