Tag Archives: opera revue

Coming up in December

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december2024Here’s what’s coming down for the holiday season, as best I know:

  • December 3rd sees the Ensemble Studio performing a lunchtime concert in the RBA.
  • Soundstreams has a concert called Invocations on December 5th at the Jane Mallet Theatre.
  • Also on the 5th Oraculum opens at Buddies in Bad Times.  Previews are the 1st and 3rd and the run extends to the 15th.
  • On the 8th Opera Revue have BACH Humbug at the Redwood; the antidote to holiday music.
  • Confluence have their annual Young Associate curated gig at Heliconian on the 10th.
  • VOCES8 are appearing at Koerner Hall on the 13th.

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Raining, cats and dogs

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The Redwood Theatre was packed on a wet Sunday evening for the latest gala from Opera Revue.  This time the theme was circus with guests Kalen Davidson juggling and setting things on fire, Haley Shannon on aerial silks, Ambur Braid doing Ambur things and Walter Bowen Braid jumping through hoops.  The usual gang; Danie Friesen, Alex Hajek and Claire Elise-Harris were of course also clowning it.

Circus Alex and Danie Here comes the pie

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A rather different Opera Revue show

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82448A99-7CBC-4566-B525-35743D468953-1Opera Revue teamed up with Opera Atelier for a show called Trills, Chills and Thrills at the Redwood Theatre on Sunday evening.  The usual gang of Danie Friesen, Alex Hajek and Claire Harris were joined by tenor Ben Done and mezzo Kathryn Rose Johnston for a programme of opera arias and musical theatre numbers that (sort of) turned the plot of Handel’s Acis and Galatea (OA’s upcoming show) into a murder mystery.

There was music on spooky themes by Britten (Turn of the Screw), Schubert, Handel (of course), Corigliano (Ghosts of Versailles), Lloyd Webber (Phantom, natch), Verdi and more.  It was glued together by a narrative in which the mermaid/nymph Galatea is murdered and despite being turned into sushi her ghost returns to wreak its revenge.  And there was one of the dances from Acis and Galatea (Julia Sedwick and Eric da Silva). Continue reading →

October 2024

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oct24Opera’s back with the start of a new COC season and more.  Here’s a look at what I think looks interesting in October.

First up there are two theatre festivals with multiple shows.  Aluna Theatre’s RUTAS International Performing Arts Festival runs from September 26th to October 9th (various venues).  There’s a distinct Latinx twist to this one.  Then from the 16th to the 27th at Buddies in Bad Times there’s the Next Stage Theatre Festival run by the same folks as the Fringe.  Both are pretty varied with something for pretty much everyone.

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New from Opera Revue

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“My favourite opera lunatics”™ have a new parody up on line.

On the heels of Toronto Transit Parody, The Ontario Place For(d) All and the Toronto Housing Opus, We now get Les MisérLoblaws set to the tune of “At the End of the Day” from Les Mis (remember Jean Valjean, imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread for his sister’s starving child),. Lyrics by Alexander Hajek, performance by Alexander Hajek, Danie Friesen, Claire Elise Harris and Greg Finney of Opera Pub fame. Audio engineering by Michael McKenzie.

miserloblaws

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Opera Revue at Castro’s

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I went to Opera Revue at Castro’s on Sunday afternoon.  It’s the first time I’ve been to a regular Opera Revue show in a while because of geographic and scheduling constraints plus, of all their locations, I prefer Castro’s and they haven’t been there in a while.

orcastros

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Even more debauched

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Wednesday night at the Dakota Tavern there were two Debauchery at The Dakota shows from Opera Revue and various more or less scantily clad friends.  We caught the early show.  It was a BDSM show (Bizet, Donizetti, Saint-Saëns, Mozart… what were you thinking?).  Actually this iteration probably stayed more operatic than previous Debaucheries though there were also plenty of show tune, cabaret and even comedy rock numbers plus, of course, burlesque.

alex+

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Ruckus at the Revival

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The second Ruckus at the Revival from Opera Revue was subtitled “The Parody Edition” and with the odd exception that’s what it was.;  Music by Mozart, Sullivan, Delibes and more supported witty lyrics about Opera Revue’s perennial bêtes noires.  Doug Ford (and all his little Satanic demons), the TTC, the housing crisis, Toronto drivers and the rest got exactly what they deserved to the audience’s approval and delight.  Most of the words and a good deal of the singing here from Opera Revue stalwarts Danie Friesen and Alex Hajek.

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Into December

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dec23First some late calls for November:

  • The Early Music folks at UoT are doing Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at Trinity St. Paul’s on the 21st and 22nd.
  • November 22nd and 23rd there’s a 20th anniversary concert for Autorickshaw at Heliconian Hall presented by Confluence Concerts.
  • Amici Chamber Ensemble have an afternoon concert on the 26th at Trinity St. Paul’s called The Winds of Time featuring chamber music for wind instruments from the 18th to 21st centuries.

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Additional September and October gigs

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leavesHere are a few shows that didn’t make it into earlier listing posts:

  • Opera 101 at the Redwood Theatre at 4pm on September 23rd and October 7th is a free recital programme organised by Alexander Hajek.
  • There are a couple of highly experimental audience participation shows at the Theatre Centre.  In asses.masses the audience creates a video game based on the story of a herd of unemployed asses.  In work.txt which runs September 27th to 29th the audience “designs a welcoming space for collectively processing “working” in capitalist metropolitan cities”.  I’m going to the latter.  I don’t think I’ve been in/at a show of this kind since I was an undergrad.

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