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.
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.
Thursday night at the Four Seasons Centre saw the tenth iteration of the COC’s Centre Stage: Ensemble Studio Competition. It’s a competition for young singers for cash prizes and, more opaquely, potential places in the COC’s Ensemble Studio.
L-R: Duncan Stenhouse, Emily Rocha, Elisabeth St-Gelais
The story of Salome and John the Baptist may be the most twisted tale in the Western canon. Oscar Wilde’s take on the story, with music by Richard Strauss added, didn’t make it any less twisted. Nor did Atom Egoyan’s production of the opera for the COC and its several remounts. How, one might ask, could one ramp the twistedness up a notch? The answer, and a very successful one, is to have Egoyan make a film based around his production. And so, Seven Veils, which had its avant-premier, ahead of TIFF, at the Four Seasons Centre last night.
Ambur Braid as Salome (top left), Michael Kupfer-Radecky as Jochanaan (below), and Frédéric Antoun as Narraboth (top right) in the Canadian Opera Company’s production of Salome, 2023. Photo: Michael Cooper
The COC’s 2022/23 season opened last night with a revival of David Alden’s production of Wagner’s Der fliegender Holländer with Marilyn Gronsdal directing. It’s been eleven years since this production was last seen and, if memory serves, it created some controversy back then, chiefly on account of the Dutchman’s “zombie” crew. Seeing it again it’s hard to see what the fuss was about. It’s actually a very straightforward production where sailing ships are sailing ships and spinning sheds feature textile workers. The only deviation from the libretto that I noticed was Senta’s death. Here she’s shot by Erik while holding up a picture of the Dutchman.
In Winter is the latest digital offering from the COC and is available free until June. Described by the COC as a concert that “explores and celebrates winter” it’s more a Eurocentric potpourri of seasonal fare with a decidedly Christmas twist. It’s a cut above “Christmas’ Greatest Hits” though a John Rutter arrangement of Deck the Halls and I’ll be Home for Christmas are in that vein and even the exuberance and lovely voice of Midori Marsh can’t make more of The Twelve Days of Christmas than is there to be had.
The COC/AtG film of Mozart’s Requiem is now available for viewing. It’s free but requires either registration with AtG or a (free) COC digital membership. Directed by Joel Ivany, it’s essentially cast as a reflection on what we lost during the pandemic and as a statement of hope as, maybe, we reach the end.
Catalan collective Els Comediants’ production of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville is back at the COC in a revival of the 2015 production. Five years ago I described it as a “glorious romp” and, based on yesterday’s performance, I see non need to amend that judgement. It may be even better this time. It still has Joan Guillén’s wonderfully colourful and silly costumes and sets and it still has Joan Font’s inspired directing; perhaps even crisper this time. Once again it has a wonderful cast of international and Canadian singers including a reprise of Bartolo by the admirable Renato Girolami.
David McVicar’s production of Dvořák’s Rusalka opens with a prelude while the overture plays. We see the Foreign Princess and the Prince. She appears to be upbraiding him and he is drinking hard. Are we seeing a failed/forced marriage that in reality the Prince made rather than some preferred alternative? Is what we see over the next three and half hours some dream version of what might have been? In this most Freudian of operas, why not?
My review of the COC’s Turandot is now up on Bachtrack.
Tamara Wilson (foreground) as Turandot in the Canadian Opera Company’s production of Turandot, 2019, photo: Michael Cooper
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