Tag Archives: khalil

CanCon at the Grammys

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I don’t usually take much notice of awards like the Grammys but this year there is an odd coincidence.  As usual, CanCon is in very short supply across the 95 categories of awards but the three that I could find were all familiar to me.

In Category 89 “Best Opera Recording” there are two nominees with Canadians in the leading role.  Mary Kouyoumdjian’s Adoration has Mirian Khalil as its leading lady and Royce Vavrek as librettist and it’s based on an Atom Egoyan film.  It’s pretty good. Continue reading →

To the Distant Beloved

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I’m late to the party on this one.  I had set aside time on Sunday to watch Russell Braun, Carolyn Maule and Miriam Khalil’s recital from Koerner Hall (one of the Mazzoleni Songmasters series) when first broadcast.  For whatever reason I couldn’t get it to mirror onto the big screen in a watchable way so I ended up watching it on my laptop yesterday.  So it goes.

andiefernegeliebte

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Coming up at the Royal Conservatory

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Coming up at the Royal Conservatory….

  • March 12th at 8pm.  ARC Ensemble plays Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 and English Songs.  An all Beethoven programme featuring Monica Whicher in the songs.  That’s a free livestream on the Koerner Hall performance page.
  • March 21st at 1pm.  To the Distant Beloved.  Miriam Khalil, Russell Braun and Carolyn Maule perform Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte and a world premiere piece by award-winning Iranian Canadian composer, Afarin Mansouri, commissioned by Canadian Art Song Project.  This one is $10 with tickets/codes available from the RCM box office.

Voices off

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I’ve seen Francis Poulenc’s monodrama La voix humaine many times and always find it troubling despite that the fact that it is often a vehicle for rather good performances.  I was intrigued then by VOICEBOX’ decision to present alongside the Jean Cocteau play on which the opera is based.  It really helped me get to grips with what I find uncomfortable about the work.

lvh1

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Golijov at Koerner

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The opening concert of the 21C festival featured an all Osvaldo Golijov programme presented by Against the Grain Theatre.  It was preceded by a very informative conversation between Joel Ivany and the composer.  My main takeaway from that is that Golijov writes for people not instruments.  If the people he has in mind for a piece play a certain combination of instruments that’s what he will write for and if circumstances demand it he will readily make changes.  We saw that last night when cantor Alex Stein was unable to perform in K’vakaret (for cantor and string quartet) and Juan Gabriel Olivares stepped in on clarinet instead.

gk-marimba

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Figaro’s Wedding at the Enoch Turner Schoolhouse

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Last night saw the first performance of a run of eleven in Against the Grain Theatre’s revival of their 2013 hit Figaro’s Wedding.  It’s essentially the same show.  Director/librettist Joel Ivany has made a number of tweaks and updates but the main differences lie in what the singers bring to their characters.

1_L-R_Alexandra Smither and Bruno Roy, Photo by Taylor Long

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1001 Nights with Miriam Khalil

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Yesterday’s lunchtime concert in the RBA was a song recital with an Oriental(ist) theme by polyglot soprano Miriam Khalil and pianist Topher Mokrzewski.  It kicked off with the two Suleika songs by Schubert to texts by Marianne von Willimer.  For my taste Miriam’s voice and treatment of the songs was decidedly on the dramatic side.  It was interesting and there’s no doubting the commitment but it’s not my favourite way to hear Schubert.  It was all uphill from there though.  Ravel’s Shéherazade; Debussy inspired music to texts by Tristan Klingsor, was given an equally dramatic treatment, and Miriam is very dramatic in both voice and body language,  but here it worked for me, especially the passionate invocation of the invented East in Asie.

SONY DSC

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May listings

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Mayday-1So May Day greetings and hello again.  And here are some things you might care to see this month during your eight hours for “what you will”. It’s a bit belated for reasons previously announced but it’s here and I’m back.

Tonight at Lula Lounge at 7pm Tongue in Cheek productions have Democracy in Action.  Several noted singers (Krisztina Szabo, Julie Nesrallah, Natalya Gennadi, Teiya Kasahara, Asitha Tennekoon, Romulo Delgado, Alexander Hajek and Stephen Hegedus) will perform pieces based on audience voting.

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