Tag Archives: mozart

So do they all

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Once a year the COC Ensemble Studio get to show their talents on the big stage with a fully staged performance of a current production.  This year’s choice of Atom Egoyan’s production of Così fan tutte was a good one.  It showcased the talents of the singers really well and by using a different quartet of lovers in each act they were able to provide substantive roles for all the singers of the ensemble. I won’t dwell on the production as I have already reviewed it.  The only changes I noted were a few change ups on the visual gags and that the “Albanians” kept their disguises on for quite a lot longer than with the main cast.  So, how about the performances?

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Another look at Così

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I was back at the Four Seasons Centre last night for another look at the COC’s new production of Così fan tutte.  Broadly speaking, I stand by what I wrote about Saturday’s opening performance.  There were a few things I noticed or paid more attention to this time though.

  • The girls in on the plot? – There’s a lot of silent business between Don Alfonso and the girls right at the beginning.  Is he giving them rings?  Is it a token that it will be all right on the night?  The girls may know about the bet but do they know the details?  Does it get a bit out of control and the emotions unleashed become genuine?  All, I think, valid questions and none clearly resolved.
  • The chemistry between the girls is extraordinary.  They really do feed off each other and are totally credible as teenage sisters.  This has to be seen to be fully grasped.
  • Robert Gleadow is a very interesting combination of sexy and dangerous.  He showed his abilities as Publio last year; making of the role more than I would have thought possible.  Here, Guglielmo comes off as a just about in control sociopath.  I really want to see this guy sing Don Giovanni.
  • The house was full on a truly filthy Toronto winter evening.  People were enjoying themselves.  There was laughter.  Sure, I heard the occasional snooty remark about Egoyan’s OTTness but overall I think it showed that there is a market for smart, sexy opera that doesn’t assume that the audience is firmly stuck in the 1950s.  Canada’s regional companies might take note.
  • That said, two of the three performances that aren’t padded by season subscribers have lots of tickets available.  The “new” COC season model relies heavily on single ticket sales so it will be interesting to see whether that inventory moves.

1551 - Cosi - Fiordiligi - credit Michael CooperPhoto credit: Michael Cooper

A School for Lovers

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Atom Egoyan’s new production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte opened at the Four Seasons Centre last night.  It’s a visually appealing production with an interesting concept and some glorious singing and acting.  One may question aspects of the concept but nowhere does it do serious violence to da Ponte’s libretto and the end result, coupled with some outstanding performances makes for a most enjoyable evening.

0884 - Guglielmo_Ferrando_Dorabella_Fiordiligi - credit Michael Cooper

Photo credit Michael Cooper

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Best of 2013

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So what was I most impressed with on the opera and related scene in in 2013?

Big house opera

frau1The COC had a pretty good twelve months.  I enjoyed everything I saw except, maybe, Lucia di Lammermoor.  Making a choice between Christopher Alden’s probing La Clemenza di Tito, the searing opening night of Peter Sellars’ Tristan und Isolde; the night when I really “got” why people fly across oceans to see this piece, Robert Carsen’s spare and intensely moving Dialogues des Carmélites or Tony Dean Griffey’s intense and lyrical portrayal of the title character in Peter Grimes is beyond me.  So, I shall be intensely disloyal to my home company and name as my pick in this category the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Die Frau ohne Schatten.  Wernicke’s production is pure magic and Anna Schwanewilms was a revelation.

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Quirky Idomeneo

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Dieter Dorn’s production of Idomeneo, filmed at the Bayerisches Staatsoper in 2008 has some interesting ideas and some arresting images but ultimately it’s hard to figure out where he is trying to go.  There’s a lot to like.  He clearly places Elettra as a member of the House of Atreus which makes her more believable.  He also creates credible personalities for Ilea, Idamante, idomeneo and Arbace.  No mean feat.  Some of the images are quite arresting too.  There is lots of blood and plenty of stage action.  The sets are chaotic piles of stuff.  Idamante gets a killer sea monster hunting rig.  Then there is the ending.  Instead of finishing on the “final chorus” the chorus drape the set with white sheets and for ten minutes the orchestra play what is listed in the booklet as a ballet but there is noone on stage and nothing is happening.  Going out on ten minutes of the most boring music in the opera is just bizarre.

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Flute of death and life

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It’s hard to fault any aspect of the new recording of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte recorded earlier this year at the Baden-Baden festival.  The soloists are consistently good, and in some cases very good indeed, Simon Rattle is in the pit with the Berlin Philharmonic and Robert Carsen’s production is beautiful to look at and thought provoking without being pointlessly provocative.  Add to that first rate video direction and superb Blu-ray sound and picture quality and one has a disk that looks competitive even in the very crowded market for Zauberflöte recordings.

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You think this is funny, Beauty?

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The DVD version of Michael Sturminger’s Giacomo Variations was recorded at the Ronacker Theater in Vienna in 2011.  With the exception of Florian Boesch in the baritone role it’s the same line up as the performance in Toronto that I reviewed earlier this year.  Watching the DVD didn’t change my views about the piece or the performances materially.  It still feels a bit undercooked and schematic.  I did like the quote on the DVD box about Malkovich’s singing from the Kürier “closer to Tom Waits than to Fritz Wunderlich”.  I wish I’d said that.

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Summer second thoughts

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The heat and humidity of a Toronto summer aren’t especially conducive to dealing with most of what’s in my DVD review pile right now (Wagner chiefly!) and the live music pickings are slim as, Toronto Summer Music Festival aside, music has departed for the land of moose and loon.  I thought, therefore, that I might take another look at some old favourites and see how they shape up to a second look.  I thought I’d focus on works where I have seen many subsequent productions or, perhaps, on works once seen only on DVD but which I had more recently been able to see live.

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On to Toronto

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tcherniakovThe Tcherniakov Don Giovanni that I just finished watching on Blu-ray is a Canadian Opera Company co-production so, sooner or later, it should end up in Toronto.  That will be interesting.  There’s a very conservative streak in the Toronto audience and, especially, among the critics for the major newspapers.  These are people who are disturbed by Robert Carsen and go apopleptic over Chris Alden.  It will be most interesting to see what the reaction is to something like Tcherniakov’s interpretation, even though it’s not that radical by European standards.

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