Tag Archives: opera atelier

Opera Atelier announces 2016/17 season

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didoOpera Atelier has announced its 2016/17 season.  The fall production will be Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas.  It isn’t clear whether this is a new production or a revival.  The company has done the piece before; at the MacMillan Theatre in 1989 and 1994, in 2005 at the Elgin and in sundry tour venues.  It’s not paired with anything so it’s either a very short show or there is a lot of interpolated dance.  Wallis Giunta and Chris Enns play the lovers with a supporting cast that includes Meghan Lindsay, Laura Pudwell, Ellen McAteer, Karine White and Cory Knight.  Nice to see Karine getting a chance on a professional stage.  There are six shows at the Elgin between October 20 and 29, 2016.

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Opera Atelier at 30

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Opera Atelier opened their 30th season last night with Lully’s Armide.  It’s hard to think of a work that better encapsulates what Opera Atelier is and has always aspired to be.  It’s French, it’s 17th century and it’s heavily dependent on ballet, and ballet of an aesthetic that pretty much defines Opera Atelier.  The whole Opera Atelier aesthetic package is there in spades.  Bare chested male dancers in tights that leave little to the imagination, heaving bosoms, ladies twirling prettily in full skirts, castanets and finger cymbals, chorus singing off stage, camp “baroque” acting, tight buttocked homoeroticism, singers cast as much for eye candy value as vocals, a tendency to play for laughs,Tafelmusik.  To be fair, there were a few innovations.  I think I heard a more “realistic” vocal style.  The singers were prepared to make ugly sounds when the emotional context demanded it, rather than an endless flow of prettiness.  The homoeroticism got a BDSM twist in Act 3.  Still, this was very much “by the book” Opera Atelier and if that’s your bag you’ll love it.

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Coming up

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pandtThere are a couple of opera openings next week.  Pyramus and Thisbe; the Barbara Monk Feldman, Monteverdi, Chris Alden creation, opens at the COC on Tuesday 20th for a run of seven shows and Opera Atelier are opening a run of six shows of Lully’s Armide at the Elgin starting on Thursday evening.  Both shows are very much a case of Canadian talent on display with no big international names.  La Traviata continues at the COC in tandem with Pyramus and Thisbe.

darknetThere’s one interesting new announcement for the following week.  Amanda Smith and Alaina Viau are collaborating on a show called Toronto Darknet Market.  It’s inspired by those parts of the internet that even I don’t know about and will run as a sequence of three performances on the 29th starting at 8pm.  It’s at 8-11 which is at 233 Spadina (south of Dundas).  It’s a PWYC fundraiser for a chamber production of Médée by Marc-Antoine Charpentier next year.  Toronto needs more staged baroque opera that’s not Opera Atelier so this initiative deserves support.  There will be good young singers on display with music by Purcell, Berg and Cage among others.

Opera Atelier reverts to style

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Opera Atelier’s spring production; Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydyce, opened last night under most unspringlike conditions.  Much had been made in the run up to the opening of the use of Berlioz’ 1859 performing edition, representing Tafelmusik’s deepest push into the 19th century and I think many of us were wondering how far this somewhat different sensibility would be reflected in the staging.  In the event it was a non event.  Connoisseurs of 19th century brass instruments might just have been able to hear a difference between the cornets à piston used in place of the natural instruments but nobody I talked to could.  The staging too was a remount of a previous production in classic Opera Atelier style though some of the dance numbers did feature point shoes and a more athletic style; notably the pas de deux in the closing ballet which was surely the terpsichorial highlight of the evening.

Mireille Lebel (Orpheus), Peggy Kriha Dye (Eurydice) and Meghan Lindsay (Amour). Photo by Bruce Zinger.

Mireille Lebel (Orpheus), Peggy Kriha Dye (Eurydice) and Meghan Lindsay (Amour). Photo by Bruce Zinger.

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And the mainstream stuff…

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Sometimes I forget the obvious… Here’s what the big kids are doing in April/May.

Opera Atelier are staging Berlioz’s 1859 version of Gluck’s Orphée.  There are six performances from April 9th to April 18th.  Mireille Lebel sings Orpheus, Peggy Kriha Dye sings Eurydice and Meghan Lindsay is Amour.  This will be Tafelmusik’s furthest foray yet into 19th century repertoire.  It’s at the Elgin and Marshall Pynkoski directs.  Not sure who is conducting, presumably David Fallis.

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Reflections on the recent COC run

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dg9How many Toronto lawyers does it take to change a lightbulb?

Two; one to fly to New York and the other to stand by the fax machine waiting for the instructions.

Today the COC’s winter run of Don Giovanni and Die Walküre comes to an end.  It’s worth reflecting on what we’ve seen I think.  Neither production could be called “traditional” and the Don Giovanni in particular produced a broad range of reactions, some of them quite extreme.  I’m not really sure why as, by international standards, it wasn’t particularly extreme.  And that’s the starting point for this “thought for the day”.

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Shorter operas

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Yesterday’s review of the Glyndebourne Ravel double bill prompted a question from a regular reader as to why that particular combination wasn’t performed more often.  That meshed with some thoughts I’ve been having about why combinations of shorter operas aren’t programmed more often in major houses.  They are pretty much a staple of the indie companies in Toronto, especially where contemporary works are concerned but much less featured by the larger companies.  For example, in the eight completed or planned COC seasons I have data readily to hand for, four of fifty four slots were/will be filled by such combinations.  For the record, The Nightingale etc in 2009/10 (a show that sold out and had an extra performance added), Gianni Schicchi and A Florentine Tragedy in 2011/12, Duke Bluebeard’s Castle and Erwartung this season and Pyramus and Thisbe etc next season.  The last time Opera Atelier did anything comparable was, I think, a pairing of Dido and Aeneas and Blow’s An Ode on the Death of Mr. Henry Purcell but that was a very long time ago.

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Opera Atelier announces 2015/16 season

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Opera Atelier has announced its plans for the 2015/16 season.  As seems to have become the norm, the Toronto season will feature one new (to Toronto anyway) production and one remount.  The new piece will be Mozart’s little seen Lucio Silla which played at last year’s Salzburg Festival( with a considerably starrier cast) and which is headed for La Scala in a few weeks time.  The title role will be sung by Kresimir Spicer, alongside Inga Kalna (Cinna), Mireille Asselin (Celia), Peggy Kriha Dye (Cecillio) and Meghan Lindsay (Giunia).  David Fallis and Tafelmusik will be in the pit.  There will be six performances as follows; April 7th, 9th, 10th (3:00pm), 12th, 15th, and 16th (4:30pm), 2016 (start times 7:30 pm except where noted).  FWIW here’s a review of the Salzburg production.

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Opera Atelier does it again

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I had planned on giving Opera Atelier’s production of Lully’s Persée a miss but early reviews were positive and, more importantly for me, suggested there was something new and a bit different about the piece this time around.  This production has been around since 2000 and was recorded for DVD four years later so I knew pretty much what to expect and to be honest that’s what we got last night.  If there were changes, they were very minor.  If anything it’s got even camper and I do wonder whether OA is in danger of becoming a sort of parody of itself.  And it’s still three hours of OA doing Lully and if that’s your thing you will not be disappointed.  If you are expecting anything else you won’t get it.

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Opera Atelier announces 14/15 season

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alcina.jpgOpera Atelier announces its usual two production season.  The fall 2014 production will be Handel’s Alcina with Meghan Lindsay in the title role.  She will be joined by Allyson McHardy as Ruggiero, Marie Lenormand as Bradamante, Mireille Asselin as Morgana, Krešimir Špicer as Oronte and Olivier Laquerre as Melisso.  Despite the absence of Curtis Sullivan, the advance publicity suggests that the trend to ever increasing amounts of bare flesh will continue.

The spring 2015 production will be Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice in the Berlioz orchestration.  This will push Tafelmusik even further into 19th century romantic rep.  Is Tannhäuser on the cards?  Mireille Lebel will sing Orpheus, Peggy Kriha Dye appears as Eurydice with Meghan Lindsay as Amour.

In many ways this is the most interesting season OA have offered for some time and the venture into Handel is very welcome.  More details and tickets can be found here.