Tag Archives: fallis

The week in prospect

Posted on by
Reply

paulinThis afternoon at 3pm, at Trinity St. Paul’s, Off Centre kick off their season,  Geoff Sirett, Nathalie Paulin and others offer an all Russian programme.

Super Tuesday is a ridiculously busy day.  At noon in the RBA Array Music is presenting Love Shards, a program of music by contemporary women composers.  The full programme is here.  In the evening Adrianne Pieczonka and Kristina Szabó are singing works by Crumb and Berio at Koerner Hall.  There’s also a fundraiser for Opera 5 at The Extension Room.  I’m sorry to be missing that one as the last couple have been a blast.  Definitely worth going to if you are not going to Koerner.

Thursday there is a PWYC show by UoT Opera at The Black Box Theatre at 7.30pm.  Tim Albery and David Fallis, creators of last season’s evocative Last Days, have created The Fatal Gaze, an exploration of the dangers of looking too long or too closely, inspired by the Baroque repertoire.  Last days was really good so I have high expectations for this one.  It’s also on on Friday.

A haunt of demons now

Posted on by
5

I suppose it’s appropriate that R Murray Shafer’s Apocalypsis should be in part based on the Revelations of St. John.  Is Revelations divinely inspired genius or the drug addled ravings of a half starved monk?  I find myself asking similar questions about Shafer’s massive stage piece.

Apocalypsis at Luminato Festival. Photo by Bruce Zinger. 31545 Continue reading →

The Play of Daniel

Posted on by
4

The Play of Daniel (Danielis ludus) is a 12th or 13th century Latin liturgical play from Beauvais in nothern France.  It appears in the liturgy for January 1st, The Feast of the Circumcision, and appears to have been an attempt to channel the traditional post Christmas disorder into more acceptable channels.  It was probably performed by the sub deacons of the Cathedral; young men in minor orders.  Alex and David Fallis have run with this setting and tried to create a piece that would evoke the same sort of reactions from a 21st century audience as the original did for those who saw it in Beauvais.  That’s a huge ask but, to my mind, they succeeded admirably.

Belshazzar - Olivier Laquerre (l) Noble – Bud Roach (r)

Belshazzar – Olivier Laquerre (l) Noble – Bud Roach (r)

Continue reading →

Song for Athene

Posted on by
2

johntavenerLast night’s Soundstreams concert at Trinity St. Paul’s was devoted to works by John Tavener and people who were close to him.  The principal performers were soprano Patricia Rozario, Choir 21 and the Toronto Children’s Chorus joined, as needed by Christopher Dawes on piano and organ and Erica Goodman on harp.  Conducting duties were split between Elise Bradley and David Fallis.  There was plenty of explanatory material from artistic director Lawrence Cherney plus some from Ms. Rozario as well as taped comments from Tavener to set up the pieces.

Continue reading →

Opera Atelier reverts to style

Posted on by
1

Opera Atelier’s spring production; Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydyce, opened last night under most unspringlike conditions.  Much had been made in the run up to the opening of the use of Berlioz’ 1859 performing edition, representing Tafelmusik’s deepest push into the 19th century and I think many of us were wondering how far this somewhat different sensibility would be reflected in the staging.  In the event it was a non event.  Connoisseurs of 19th century brass instruments might just have been able to hear a difference between the cornets à piston used in place of the natural instruments but nobody I talked to could.  The staging too was a remount of a previous production in classic Opera Atelier style though some of the dance numbers did feature point shoes and a more athletic style; notably the pas de deux in the closing ballet which was surely the terpsichorial highlight of the evening.

Mireille Lebel (Orpheus), Peggy Kriha Dye (Eurydice) and Meghan Lindsay (Amour). Photo by Bruce Zinger.

Mireille Lebel (Orpheus), Peggy Kriha Dye (Eurydice) and Meghan Lindsay (Amour). Photo by Bruce Zinger.

Continue reading →

A couple of late entries

Posted on by
Reply

I thought I’d managed a pretty comprehensive update on the Toronto opera/choral/vocal music scene for March but there are a couple of gigs I got rather later info on.

On March 23rd at 7pm in Walter Hall, CASP have a concert of works from the more humorous end of the Canadian Art Song rep.  Mary-Lou Fallis, Geoff Sirett, peter Tiefenbach and Steven Philcox are performing.  Tickets are $40, $25 (senior) and $10 (student).

Then on Friday 27th Maureen Batt and Cheryl Duvall are performing a program of contemporary American and Canadian works, many of them written for Maureen, at Heliconian Hall.  It’s at 8pm and tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the door and there are $15 early bird tickets available at https://www.bemusednetwork.com/events/detail/69

And in other news Voicebox:Opera in Concert have announced a cast change for their performance of Charpentier’s Louise on the 29th.  Keith Klassen replaces Adrian Kramer as the poet Julien.

Opera Atelier announces 2015/16 season

Posted on by
Reply

Opera Atelier has announced its plans for the 2015/16 season.  As seems to have become the norm, the Toronto season will feature one new (to Toronto anyway) production and one remount.  The new piece will be Mozart’s little seen Lucio Silla which played at last year’s Salzburg Festival( with a considerably starrier cast) and which is headed for La Scala in a few weeks time.  The title role will be sung by Kresimir Spicer, alongside Inga Kalna (Cinna), Mireille Asselin (Celia), Peggy Kriha Dye (Cecillio) and Meghan Lindsay (Giunia).  David Fallis and Tafelmusik will be in the pit.  There will be six performances as follows; April 7th, 9th, 10th (3:00pm), 12th, 15th, and 16th (4:30pm), 2016 (start times 7:30 pm except where noted).  FWIW here’s a review of the Salzburg production.

lucio_silla.jpg.size.xxlarge.promo

Continue reading →

Opera Atelier projects a new approach

Posted on by
2
141021-49266

Artists of Atelier Ballet with image of Meghan Lindsay as Alcina. Photo by Bruce Zinger.

Opera Atelier’s first real venture into Handel is accompanied by some significant shifts in aesthetic coupled with some slightly puzzling throwbacks.  The work chosen is Alcina.  It’s not Handel’s best known (or, indeed, best) but it’s a perfectly serviceable example of Handel’s Italian works for the London stage.  The plot, ultimately from Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso, concerns the sorceress Alcina who has an illusory kingdom made up of the souls of men she has ensnared.  Her most recent conquest is the knight Ruggiero.  His betrother, Bradamante, disguised as her brother, Ricciardo, shows up with Ruggiero’s former tutor, Melisso.  Melisso has a ring which shows things as they are, shorn of illusion.  Eventually they use this to return Ruggiero to his duty and Alcina’s kingdom goes up in smoke.  Along the way there’s also a sub-plot involving Alcina’s sister, Morgana, who falls in love with Ricciardo to the dismay of her lover Oronte.  In the original there’s also a boy looking for his father and a lion but they got cut in Marshalll Pynkoski’s version.  In fact there’s probably close to an hour in total cut from Handel’s score.

Continue reading →

Opera Atelier does it again

Posted on by
2

I had planned on giving Opera Atelier’s production of Lully’s Persée a miss but early reviews were positive and, more importantly for me, suggested there was something new and a bit different about the piece this time around.  This production has been around since 2000 and was recorded for DVD four years later so I knew pretty much what to expect and to be honest that’s what we got last night.  If there were changes, they were very minor.  If anything it’s got even camper and I do wonder whether OA is in danger of becoming a sort of parody of itself.  And it’s still three hours of OA doing Lully and if that’s your thing you will not be disappointed.  If you are expecting anything else you won’t get it.

gorgons Continue reading →