Tag Archives: opera 5

Modern (Family) Opera

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Opera 5’s new show at the Arts and letters Club pairs Wolf-Ferrari’s 1909 comedy Il segreto di Susanna with a new work , Storybook, by Darren Russo inspired by Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience.  I can’t do a full review as I’m writing it up for Opera Canada but I think I can fairly say that the Wolf-Ferrari is hilarious and the Russo weird, rather wonderful and quite disturbing.  It’s a show well worth seeing and you can catch it tonight or tomorrow at 7.30pm.  Here are some production photos by Emily Ding.   Continue reading →

New shows from Opera 5 and Voicebox

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logoTwo new shows have been announced for late January/early February.  First up is Opera 5 with a double bill at the Arts and Letters Club from January 23rd through 25th at 7.30pm.  This show will  feature the world premier of Montreal-based composer Darren Russo’s Storybook partnered with Emanuel Wolf-Ferrari’s Il segreto di Susanna.  Singers involved include Emma Parkinson, Leigh-Ann Allen, Christopher Mayell, Geoffrey Sirett, Geoffrey Penar, and Rachel Krehm. This performance will mark the second new opera commission by the company and their second performance collaboration with Toronto Pop Up Orchestra, who will accompany the show. Evan Mitchell will conduct.  Aria Umezawa will direct the Russo with the Wolf-Ferrari in the hands of Grace Smith.  In typical Opera 5 fashion custom cocktails will be available for purchase before the show and during the intermission.  Tickets are available online ($25.00 Early Bird – available until Jan 10th, $30.00 Students, $35.00 GA) or on the door ($30.00 Students/$35.00 GA).

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Opera 5 do Hahn and Offenbach

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Opera 5’s latest show presents two rarely seen French one act operas.  First up was Reynaldo Hahn’s  1897 work L’île du rêve.  It’s one of those French officer falls in love with beautiful sixteen year old girl on tropical island and then “duty” calls and he dumps her and she dies of a broken heart pieces.  The only twist is that here he offers to take her back to France but the ruling princess advises her that, away from the island, she will lose her charms and he’ll come to despise her so she doesn’t.  A touch of French worldliness colouring this rather overdone plot device perhaps?  The staging, by Aria Umezawa, is fairly simple though clearly a lot of thought went into how to make the intimate scenes between the principals work.  There are also some rather beautiful projections involved.

O5-Offenbach & Hahn-L'ile 1 Continue reading →

And so it begins

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teiyaSo, after the rather scattered events of the summer last night’s fundraiser for Opera 5 at Atelier Rosemarie Umetsu felt like the start of a new season.  It was well attended and organised in an intriguing and fun format.  Basically, Team Day and Team Night were competing to see who could raise the most money.  There were four rounds in which a singer from each team presented an aria, song or MT number.  The one with the most pledges got to sing his or her “show off” aria.  For an additional donation, the loser got to do the same.  Given that some of the city’s best young singers were performing it was to be expected that it was a good show.

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Toronto opera news – lose one, win one

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diggerOpera 5’s planned Offenbach and Hahn show this week has been postponed to the fall owing to construction delays at the Alliance Française (probably caused by striking air traffic controllers).  By way of consolation there’s a pop up party on Saturday at 8pm, also at the Alliance Française (24 Spadina Road).  Tickets are $15 on the door.  It should be fun as these guys know how to party.  Unfortunately I am otherwise engaged which may not be a bad thing.  Last time I was at the Alliance Française the Americans started bombing Baghdad.

In a curiously symmetrical move, Tapestry have announced dates for the long delayed Toronto run of Shelter by Julie Salverson and Juliet Palmer.  Described as “a darkly comic chamber opera which maps the journey of a family struggling to be ordinary in the atomic age.”  The cast includes Christine Duncan, Teiya Kasahara, Keith Klassen, Andrea Ludwig and Peter McGillivray.  Leslie Dala conducts and Keith Turnbull directs.  It will play from June 12th to 15th at the Berkeley Street Theatre.  Ticket prices range from $55-$75 + HST and can be purchased in person at the Canadian Stage Box Office at 26 Berkeley Street, by calling 416.368.3110 or online at CanadianStage.  For more information visit TapestryOpera.

In which I get a plague and miss one

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Last night I was at the Arts and Letters Club for the opening night of Opera 5’s Edgar Allan Poe themed show In Pace Requiescat. I had hoped that I had kicked the thing that has been afflicting me since Wednesday but I was over optimistic.  I spent the first half of the show either in a coughing fit or trying desperately to avoid one and then had to leave at the interval thus missing Cecilia Livingston’s new piece The Masque of the Red Death.

in Pace Promo Picture 1What I did see; Daniel Pinkham’s The Cask of Amontillado and Debussy’s La Chute de la Maison Usher, was, as best I recall, pretty good.  Staging and costumes are appropriately creepy and there was some very good singing from Adrian Kramer and a brief appearance from Lucia Cesaroni that made me want to see more.  If I can shake this thing before the end of the run I’ll go back and do a proper review.  There are further performances on Wednesday and Thursday.

Upcoming events

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amiciNext Sunday the Amici Ensemble have an interesting looking concert of works all transcribed for forces not originally intended by the composer.  It’s called, appropriately enough, Transfigured Transcribed.  The highlight for me is Verklärte Nacht transcribed for piano trio but there’s also some Berg, some Brahms and some Bartok.  The concert is at 3pm at Mazzoleni Hall.  More details and tickets.

This weekend also sees the opening of Opera Atelier’s Abduction from the Seraglio and Opera 5’s Poe themed show Requiescat in Pace.  If that wasn’t enough, this afternoon the MetHD broadcast is Shostakovich’s The Nose in William Kentridge’s well reviewed production.  It’s surely the highlight of this season’s line up and the only one I will be bothering with.

Summer is icumen to an end

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opera5It may still be 90%+ humidity and hot as hell in Toronto but the signs of things to come are piling up.  I have a stack of tickets for fall events at various venues and the smaller opera groups are starting to announce their seasons.

The latest news is from Opera 5 who are launching the year with a Hollywood Glam Gala at Atelier Rosemarie Umetsu.  It’s a fundraiser with an “Opera in Hollywood” theme.  Performers will include Teiya Kasahara (probably not with the butch lesbian routine), Elizabeth MacDonald, Graham Thompson, and the increasingly visible Geoffrey Sirett among others.  Toronto photographer, Emily Ding will be on hand for Hollywood glam photos with food and alcohol provided by Fionn MacCool’s, notorious hangout of the COC Chorus.

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