Tag Archives: krehm

Opera 5’s 2026 Toronto Opera Festival

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Following on from this year’s successful festival at Theatre Passe Muraille Opera 5 are once again running a sort of mini festival at that venue in June next year.  There will be two programmes.  There’s a Puccini double bill of Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi which, I’m guessing will be given with chamber ensemble accompaniment.  Rachel Krehm headlines as the theologically unsound nun while Gianni Schicchi has Greg Dahl in the title role.  Krisztina Szabó will appear in both operas as Princess Zia and Zita.  Jessica Derventzis directs and Evan Mitchell is in charge of matters musical.  This one runs June 3rd to 7th. Continue reading →

Come Closer

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Come Closer; libretto by Rachel Krehm, music by Ryan Trew, is a two act chamber opera about Rachel’s relationship with her younger sister Elizabeth who died as a consequence of heroin addiction.  Some of it is based on Rachel’s memories and much on the writing and drawings that Elizabeth left.  It premiered on Friday night and is currently playing in an Opera 5 production at Factory Theatre.

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Come Closer – Preview

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Come Closer is a new opera with music by Ryan Trew and text by Rachel Krehm.  It’s scheduled to premiere at Factory Theatre on June 13th but last Wednesday in the RBA we got a preview of some extracts.  Come Closer deals with Rachel Krehm’s relationship with her younger sister Elizabeth who died in 2012.  It started out as a song cycle setting seven of Elizabeth’s poems and now has narrative added to create a stage work.  Yesterday we heard four extracts with Rachel playing herself and Jacqueline Woodley (who I hadn’t seen for far too long) as Elizabeth.  Accompaniment was piano trio with Evan Mitchell conducting.

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Canadians win big in Digital Excellence in Opera Awards

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Two Canadian projects scooped first prizes at Opera America’s Digital Excellence in Opera awards earlier this week.  Sweat from Jenn Nichols, Larissa Koniuk and the Bicycle Opera gang won the big one; “Artistic Creation”.  What can I say?  I loved the stage show and I loved the film.  Well deserved.

Sweat - the film

The other winner was the very cute kids’ series Threepenny Submarine from Rachel Krehm and Opera5. This was joint winner in the “Noteworthy Projects” category.

threepennysubmarine

So two out of four of the top prizes went to Canadian projects.  Not bad eh?

A cunning Turn of the Screw

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It’s always been a bit of a mystery to me why Britten’s chamber operas are not done more often by smaller opera companies.  They use a modest orchestra (13 players for The Turn of the Screw), have equally modest sized casts, no chorus and they are in English.  They offer the chance to perform a work as written at much lower cost than grand opera and without the compromises inherent in downscaling works written on a larger scale.

Opera 5, The Turn of the Screw, Emily Ding Photography (Asitha Tennekoon_ Peter Quint_Prologue)

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Opera 5 are turning the screw

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Those who know me are probably fed up of hearing me lament how slow the indie opera scene in Toronto has been to recover post plague.  Well here’s some good news on that front.  Opera 5 will be mounting a fully staged version of Britten’s The Turn of the Screw with the proper thirteen piece chamber orchestra at Theatre Passe Muraille in June next year.  Yea!

turnofthescrew

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Threepenny Submarine

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Threepenny Submarine is a nine episode puppet animation series of videos on Youtube inspired by the idea that most of us got at least some of our exposure to classical music as kids from Looney Tunes and other cartoons.  It’s produced by Opera 5 and Gazelle Automations and concerns an underwater journey by the submarine Threepenny Submarine investigating a mysterious sound coming from the equally mysterious Salieri Sector.  The sub is commanded by a cockatiel called Iona (voiced by Lindsay Lee and sung by Caitlin Wood) assisted by a fox called Lydian (voiced and sung by Rachel Krehm).  They befriend a “sea monster” called Flute, represented, appropriately enough, by Amelia Lyon on flute.  Various adventures take place punctuated by well known arias using new text by Rachel Krehm.  For example, the first episode features “Una voce poca fa” and “Dich, teure Halle” in arrangements for string quartet.  There are also classical instrumentals used as incidental music.  It’s all arranged by Trevor Wager and directed by Evan Mitchell.

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The Enticing Sky

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rkrehmSaturday afternoon at 27 North Sherbourne Rachel Krehm and Janelle Fung presented an art song recital entitled The Enticing Sky.  The material chosen was interesting with a heavy bias to women composers, living composers and Canadian composers; sometimes all three at once.

We got extracts from Come Closer; settings of the poetry of Elizabeth Krehm by Ryan Trew, Ethel Smyth’s Three Songs of the Sea, Dorothy Chang’s Songs of Wood and Water, Anna Pidgorna’s Amphráin Eibhlín (the only non English language text) and Cecilia Livingston’s luna premit. Continue reading →

Late September and into October

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october2023There are a few adds for September. This Saturday (16th) you can catch Rachel Krehm in recital with Janelle Fung. That’s at 3pm. Details here.  Saturday 30th is a busy day.  At 7.30pm at Church of the Redeemer The Happenstancers have a concert.of mostly 20th century music for soprano and chamber ensemble.  Details and tickets here.  At the same time and repeated at 4pm on the Sunday Confluence Concerts have a concert of Irish music, both traditional and modern art song.  That’s at Heliconian Hall.  Details etc.  Also from the 22nd to 24th Tafelmusik are performing Beethoven’s 4th and 5th symphonies at Koerner Hall.  Their take on Beethoven symphonies is unusual and very interesting.  And while Tafelmusik are absent from Jeanne Lamon Hall on the 22nd and 23rd, ther Toronto Mendelssohn Singers are presenting a programme including dance.  A choreographed version of Handel’s Dixit Dominus is a rare event!

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Parting Wild Horse’s Mane

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Toronto Summer Music isn’t afraid to offer the unusual or unexpected, which is admirable.  Last night’s short performance at Walter Hall; Parting Wild Horse’s Mane, paired contemporary music for string quartet with moves from Tai Chi Chuan.  It was OK but I’m not convinced that was much synergy between music and movement.

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