Tag Archives: opera atelier

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.

Opera Atelier announces 2013/14 season

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abductionToronto based Opera Atelier have announced their 2013/14 season.  The Fall production is a revival of the company’s 2008 Abduction from the Seraglio sung in German with English dialogue (groan).  Casting is Lawrence Wiliford as Belmonte, Ambur Braid as Konstanze, Carla Huhtanen as Blondie, and Adam Fischer as Pedrillo and Gustav Andreassen as Osmin.  A no doubt bare chested Curtis Sullivan will play the non-singing role of Pasha Selim.  It’s an interesting cast especially considering the impact Ambur has been making recently and I’ll more than likely take a look.  Continue reading →

Time is a funny thing

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A series of blog posts discussing time, perceptions of time and historically informed performance (HIP) plus seeing Opera Atelier’s Der Freischütz got me thinking along some curiously convergent lines and arriving at the conclusion that HIP isn’t and can’t be what it is often purported to be; a fairly faithful attempt to reproduce a work as it would have been seen by its first viewers or “as the composer intended” or something like that.  Not, of course, that even if it was, we would see and hear it as the original audience did but that perhaps is a topic for another day.

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Forge a magic bullet and your lifestyle will improve

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There’s a lot to like in Opera Atelier’s current production of Weber’s Der Freischütz but also some things that are just plain puzzling.  I enjoyed it but certain aesthetic choices made no sense at all to me.

Let’s start with the good stuff.  The OA template was relaxed quite a bit, particularly in the dance department.  Allowing the women to dance in point shoes allowed for a degree of choreographic flexibility that was most welcome to me.  This, from a dance point of view, was the best OA production I have seen.  The singing, though stylistically inconsistent, was also uniformly excellent.  Meghan Lindsay’s Agathe was superb.  She had much the most dramatic voice on display and, to me, was the truest to the real sensibility of the piece.  Carla Huhtanen, as Aanchen, was also excellent though in such a different way that wondered whether they were in the same production.  Solid singing from the men too especially Krešimir Špicer as Max who was very stylish, if not especially heroic.  The design and lighting elements were also not too constrained by baroque considerations and worked pretty well.

Meghan Lindsay and Krešimir Špicer in Opera Atelier’s production of Der Freischütz (Bruce Zinger photo).

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Heading into winter

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The leaves have turned and the Canadian Opera Company Season is underway so winter can’t be far away.  I’ve now seen both the COC fall productions so I need to find alternative fare between now and February when things kick off again.  So far I’ve found two live shows of interest in town.  At the end of October Opera Atelier is putting on Weber’s Der Freischütz.  This is a departure for OA who have previously (bar once) not put on anything later than Mozart and that in a rather idiosyncratic style.  I think it’s an interesting move and I hope it stimulates the creative juices at OA and sparks some of the innovation that made OA such an exciting company ten or twenty years ago.  If it turns into an exercise in persuading us that 19th century Romanticism is really just an extension of the Baroque I shall probably be feeling like the guy in the picture.  The other live show is Essential Opera’s The Threepenny Opera being presented in concert at Heliconian Hall on November 7th.  Essential Opera I suppose is a semi-pro outfit operating on very small budgets and The Threepenny Opera seems like a good fit.  I felt that last year’s attempt at something grander was rather a case of biting off more than they could chew.  Continue reading →

Spring in Toronto

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It’s Spring in Toronto. The Canadian Opera Company has three productions in rehearsal and load ins and set building have started once more at the Four Seasons Centre. Here’s my take on what’s coming up.

Offenbach – Tales of Hoffmann April 10th to May 14th

Photo Credit: Kurt Van der Elst © 2000

This is a house debut for British director Lee Blakeley who brings his production previously seen at Vlaamse Opera.  The production looks on the face of it fairly conventional but word from the rehearsal studio is that it’s fairly “out there”.  The casting is a typical mix of “A list” talent, local favourites and Ensemble Studio members.  Probably the biggest draw is local boy John Relyea who is playing the four villains.  American tenor Russell Thomas sings the title role.  The four main female roles will be sung by Andriana Chuchman, Erin Wall, Keri Alkema and Lauren Segal; all familiar faces to Toronto audiences.  Johannes Debus conducts. More information.

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Opera Atelier announces 2012/13 season

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Opera Atelier announced their 2012/13 season today.

Carla Huhtanen slumming it with the rest of us, queuing to get into a concert at the Four Seasons Centre

The exciting bit is a move into early romantic territory with Weber’s Der Freischutz.  The cast includes local favourites Krešimir Špicer, Carla Huhtanen, Curtis Sullivan, Olivier Laquerre and Michael Uloth. The creative team is the usual OA gang and Tafelmusik will be in the pit, which is an interesting choice to out it mildly.

The less exciting bit is another revival of The Magic Flute in English. I’ll be tempted to see it to see the Pamina of Laura Albino, Mireille Asselin sing Papagena and see how Ambur Braid does with the Queen of the Night in a smaller house. Still, I first saw OA’s Flute over 20 years ago. I’ve seen it quite a few times in both its “full” and cut down for kids versions and I’m not that excited. Has that “bums on seats” feel.

Here’s the full announcement.

Authentic? Opera Atelier’s Persée on DVD

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I’ve been attending performances of Opera Atelier for over twenty years off and on but until viewing this recording of Lully’s Persée I’d never seen them on DVD. I was curious to see how the unique Opera Atelier style would come over on DVD and to what extent watching a recording, which I could compare fairly with other DVD performances, would affect my views of Opera Atelier’s strengths and weaknesses.

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