Tag Archives: koerner hall

Looking forward to December

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‘Tis the season of family holiday shows and Messiahs.  Not that I’m planning to do much of either but here are some shows that you might be interested in…

  • On December 7th, the earliest of the Messiahs.  Toronto Choral Society have a matinée performance at Koerner Hall.  Soloists include Quinn Kelsey and Teresa Tucci .
  • The Ensemble Studio have a noon hour concert on December 9th in the RBA
  • Rogers vs Rogers opens at Crow’s Theatre on December 10th.  This is another adaptation by Michael Heaney of a book about Toronto shenanigans.  He was also responsible for The Masterplan.  Previews are the 2nd to the 9th with the run extending to January 3rd.

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Matthias Goerne and Daniil Trifonov do Winterreise

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It’s always interesting when a top notch baritone (especially a native German speaker) and a first rate concert pianist get together to do Schubert’s Winterreise, which is, I suppose, the pinnacle of the Lieder repertory.  That’s what we got at Koerner Hall on Thursday with a performance by Matthias Goerne and Daniil Trifonov.

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Neujahrs in Vienna… in Toronto… in July

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The last Koerner Hall concert of this year’s Toronto Summer Music riffed off the Vienna Phil’s traditional New Year extravaganza with lots of Johann Strauss waltzes and the cheesiest fake Magyar (mezzo) soprano arias from operetta.  I was skeptical when I first saw the programme but it turned out to be extremely enjoyable; partly on account of excellent musicianship and partly because everyone involved was having so much fun.

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The Last Castrato

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The last great castrato, we are told, was Vellutti who was a favourite with many early 19th century composers.  Tuesday night’s concert at Koerner Hall as part of Toronto Summer Music was a tribute to him with counter-tenor Franco Fagioli accompanied by L’Orchestre de l’Opéra de Versailles and their flamboyant violinist/conductor Stefan Plewniak performing music associated with Vellutti interspersed with orchestral music from (mostly) the same operas.

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Samuel Mariño at the opera

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Male soprano Samuel Mariño was back in town for another concert with Tafelmusik; this time at Koerner Hall.  There were three concerts and I caught the last one on Sunday afternoon.  The repertoire consisted of opera recitatives and arias from the 18th century interspersed with related instrumental numbers.

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Minimalist Magic Flute with a Japanese twist

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The Glenn Gould School gave the first of two performances of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte at Koerner Hall on Wednesday evening.  The production is directed by Allison Grant and is pretty straightforward, though quite heavily cut.  The “look” is maybe Miyazaki animation (costumes by Alex Amini) with a minimalist backdrop (Kim Sue Bartnik) which is enlivened by interesting projections by Nathan Bruce and quite striking lighting by Jason Hand.  There’s a sort of dumb show during the overture that the Director’s Notes imply is something to do with the opera being about a dysfunctional family (what opera family isn’t?) but the idea isn’t developed at all.

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Opera Atelier 2025/26

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Opera Atelier has announced its 2025/26 season and while it’s not especially surprising it is intriguing.  As usual it’s two shows.  The first show is pretty conventional.  It’s a revival of OA’s production of The Magic Flute at the Elgin Theatre on October 15th, 16th, 18th and 19th 2025.  Nice cast though with Colin Ainsworth as Tamino, Meghan Lindsey as Pamina, Douglas Williams as Papageno, Karine White as Papagena and Stephen Hegedus as Sarastro.

Soprano Meghan Lindsay as Mélisande and bass baritone Douglas Williams as Golaud in Act One of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande in Opera Atelier’s fully-staged production of ALL IS LOVE. Photo by Bruce Zinger.

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Barbara Hannigan with Bertrand Chamayou at Koerner Hall

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Thursday evening saw one of Barbara Hannigan’s comparatively rare Toronto appearances.  This time it was part of a ten city tour with pianist Bertrand Chamayou.  It was a three part programme with no intermission.  First up was Olivier Messiaen Chants de terre et ciel.  Like the better known Poèmes pour Mi these are reflections on family and religion.

1. Barbara Hannigan - Bertrand Chamayou (c) Co Merz SMALLER

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