Tapestry x GGS

The Glenn Gould School’s Fall Chamber Opera offering this year was four short pieces from Tapestry Opera’s back catalogue.  First up was Ice Time by Ka Nin Chan and Mark Brownell.  It’s the story of a has been ice skater and her futile attempts to get her daughter, who wants to be a civil engineer, to follow in her footsteps (or icy equivalent).  The music is in much the same vein as other works by this composer such as Dragon’s Tale.  It’s a pretty light hearted piece and it got a lively and credible account from Emma Pennell as the daughter and Alexa Frankian as the mother.  As with the other pieces direction was by Dana Fradkin with accompaniment by chamber ensemble conducted by Peter Tiefenbach.

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Please ensure your seatbelt is securely fastened

The GGS’ production of Jonathan Dove’s Flight opened at Koerner Hall last night.  This is going to be a somewhat unusual review and my thoughts about the piece itself should be taken in the context of what I’m about to write.  The basic plot of Flight is, for me, quite literally the stuff of nightmares and by the third act I was having vivid and very disturbing flashbacks.  This undoubtedly skewed my opinion!

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