Tag Archives: koerner hall

Opera Atelier 2024/25

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oa2425Opera Atelier have announced the line up for their 2024/25 season.  As with other recent seasons there’s one show at the Elgin Theatre and one at Koerner Hall.

The first show, Oc​​tober 24th – 27th, 2024, is Handel’s Acis and Galatea at the Elgin.  I’m not going to complain about more English language Handel!  Bring it on.  This show is indicative of the growing relationship between OA and Versailles with French tenor Antonin Rondepierre in the role of Acis and Blaise Rantoanina singing the role of Damon.  The cast is completed by Meghan Lindsey as Galatea (yea!) and Douglas Williams as Polyphemus.  Christopher Bagan conducts which is also nice to see. Continue reading →

Music to Accompany a Departure

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Heinrich Schütz’s 1636 work Musikalische Exequien is sometimes described as the “first German requiem”..  It was performed last night at Koerner Hall by the excellent LA Master Chorale and their conductor Grant Gershon in a staged version directed by Peter Sellars; following up on their 2020 performance of the Lagrime di San Pietro.

Los Angeles Master Chorale: Music To Accompany A Departure Rehearsal

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Fazil Say and friends

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This year’s 21C Festival opened last night at Koerner Hall with Turkish pianist and composer Fazil Say performing some of his works with the help of a few friends.  It was a pretty varied evening considering all the works were by one person.  The opening pieces Gezi Park 2 and Gezi Park 3 are reflections on the Gezi Park protests of 2013.  The first is for solo piano and is by turns dramatic and meditative.  It uses a fair amount of extended piano technique and is highly virtuosic with great rhythmic complexity.  In the second piece the composer was joined by a string quartet (Scott and Lara St. John – violins, Barry Scxhiffman – viola and Winona Zelenka – cello) and mezzo-soprano Beste Kalender.  This work was both expressive and dramatic building on the musical language of the first piece with the additional textures of the strings (more extended technique) and a lot of rather beautiful vocalise from Beste.  It’s an impressive piece.

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Filling big shoes

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Sondra Radvanovsky was due to give a recital in Koerner Hall on Thursday night but she cancelled due to illness.  Toronto Summer Music did extremely well to find a replacement of the calibre of American mezzo J’nai Bridges at such short notice.  While many people turned their tickets in for refunds and others, it seems, just didn’t show up, those who did were treated to a performance by Ms. Bridges, accompanied by the ever reliable Rachel Kerr, that most certainly did not disappoint.

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And so we metamorphose

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This year’s Toronto Summer Music; theme “Metamorphosis”, kicked off on Thursday evening in a packed Koerner Hall.  It was TSM at its best; the concept a bit odd, even a bit mad, the execution brilliant and the result exciting and very enjoyable.  Basically take two seriously virtuosic pianists and as the late, lamented Humphrey Lyttleton might have said “given then silly things to do”.  Well they weren’t really silly, just a bit unusual.

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Opera Atelier’s upcoming production of Handel’s The Resurrection

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Ahead of Opera Atelier’s upcoming production of Handel’s The Resurrection (La resurrezione) at Koerner Hall next week (6th to 9th April) there was a lunchtime preview in the RBA on Tuesday.  Later that day I sat down with director Marshall Pynkoski to find out more about the work, OA’s relationship to it and its rather tortuous journey to the Koerner Hall stage.

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Please ensure your seatbelt is securely fastened

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The GGS’ production of Jonathan Dove’s Flight opened at Koerner Hall last night.  This is going to be a somewhat unusual review and my thoughts about the piece itself should be taken in the context of what I’m about to write.  The basic plot of Flight is, for me, quite literally the stuff of nightmares and by the third act I was having vivid and very disturbing flashbacks.  This undoubtedly skewed my opinion!

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Emily D’Angelo with Sophia Muñoz

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DG_EDA_Pressebild_Fullbody_sRGB_©Mark Pillai. Styled by Esther Perbandt.There was never a chance that Emily D’Angelo’s solo recital at Koerner Hall was going to be a steady procession of German lieder and French chansons with the odd Broadway number thrown in and it wasn’t.  It was what D’Angelo fans would expect and (some of us at least) crave; lots of women composers and lots of contemporary music.  There were five sets.

The first linked Hildegard von Bingen, Arnold Schoenberg and Missy Mazzoli.  I’m going to focus on the Mazzoli.  There was “Hello Lord” from Vespers for a New Dark Age and “You Are the Dust” from Songs from the Uproar.  Both of these are stage works scored for chamber ensemble and electronics so they sound very different in piano score.  Emily sang the with great purity and clarity and Sophia accompanied beautifully though there’s just no way one can capture the synth pop inflections of Mazzoli on piano.  That said, it was a great advert for two works a I really admire. Continue reading →

Season announcements

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koernerhallIt’s the time of year when people start to make season announcements.  First out of the blocks is the Royal Conservatory of Music with the Koerner hall line up.  It’s more a teaser than a comprehensive announcement but there’s some interesting dope in it.  On the vocal front Peter Sellars is back with the LA Master Chorale; this time with music by Heinrich Schütz.  That’s on February 7th 2024.  There’s also a recital by Ema Nikolovska with Charles Richard-Hamelin on March 24th 2024.  If you haven’t erased all memories of the pandemic you will probably remember that Ema’s streamed recital with Steven Philcox was the highlight of the grim summer of 2020.  The Glenn Gould spring opera will be on 2oth and 22nd March 2024.  There are also some pretty classy orchestral visits with Daniel Barenboim conducting the Staatskapelle Berlin and Yannick Nézet-Seguin bringing the Philadelphia Orchestra.  Full details of the season will be released in June but tickets go on sale next Tuesday.  There’s more information on programming and ticket options here.

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February 2023

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february2023Here’s what I’m looking forward to in February plus a few gigs I can’t make:

  • February 1st and 2nd the Chicago Symphony and Riccardo Muti are performing at Koerner Hall.  It’s a rare opportunity to hear a top orchestra in the wonderful Koerner acoustic but it’s probably sold out already.
  • On February 3rd the COC opens a run of Richard Strauss’ Salome with Ambur Braid in the title role and a stellar supporting cast.  Hard core Braid fans (and that includes me) know that this is a role she was born to sing.  It’s an Atom Egoyan production and he’ll likely tweak it but here’s a link to my review of the 2013 run.
  • February 6th sees the return of the Quilico Awards; a competition for the singers of the Ensemble Studio.  That’s at 5.30pm in the RBA and it’s free.

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