Tag Archives: mitchell

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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The Gondoliers

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Toronto Operetta Theatre opened the concluding show of their 2024/25 season at the Jane Mallett Theatre on Friday evening.  It’s Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Gondoliers directed and choreographed by Guillermo Silva-Marin.  It’s pretty decent and, besides, TOT is about the only chance to see G&S in Toronto; whatever one thinks of their approach.  For those who have seen TOT’s G&S before it’s fair to say this is a very typical TOT G&S production.

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Gaudeamus igitur

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Sigmund Romberg’s The Student Prince was a huge success when it premiered in New York in 1924.  It’s not hard to see why.  It’s an undemanding “love versus duty” plot with plenty of tuneful numbers and lots of drinking and drinking songs which must have had a particular appeal during Prohibition!

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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!

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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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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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Theodora with a twist

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I don’t often get deeply emotionally affected by an opera video.  Generally it’s less immersive than a live performance in a way that  diminishes emotion.  That wasn’t my experience though with the 2022 recording of Handel’s Theodora from the Royal Opera.  Admittedly Theodora is an opera I can get very emotionally involved in but Katie Mitchell’s production really did get to me.

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