German food conglomerate Dr. Oetker are promoting their new up-market frozen pizza offering, Suprema, in a unique way. They have commissioned a 15 minute opera called, unsurprisingly, Suprema from the good people at Opera Revue. It’s a jolly romp about a sculptor (Danie Friesen) whose creation (Alex Hajek) comes to life and gets hooked on pizza. Accompaniment is by Claire Harris on piano and pre-recorded strings (Drew Jurecka). It’s short, well executed and fun.
It’s free, you don’t need a ticket and there is rather good free pizza after each show. It’s playing in the TD Music Hall (i.e upstairs at Massey Hall). There are three shows this afternoon and a bunch next weekend. Times and so forth here.
Photo credit: Darryl Edwards
I’ve enjoyed the music of Drew Jurecka and Rebekah Wolkstein in a variety of genres and formats; Payadora Tango Ensemble, Schmaltz and Pepper etc, but I’ve never heard their string quartet; the Venturi SQ. But now I’ve had a chance to listen to their debut album which is due to be released next year on Leaf Records. It features a new quartet by Drew Jurecka plus the Ravel String Quartet in F. Besides Jurecka and Wolkstein the Venutis comprise Shannon Knights on viola and Lydia Munchinsky on cello. 
What do you get when you take nine multi-talented musicians from a variety of musical backgrounds and give them a Purcell toy box to play in? You get the latest concert in the Confluence series; ‘Tis Nature’s Voice: Henry Purcell Reimagined. It’s an amazingly fun evening that completely blows the cobwebs off the often stuffy Toronto baroque music scene. I can’t do a number by number account because I completely lost track. I was having way too much fun.
operaramblings 