Soprano Karoline Podolak and pianist Rachael Kerr’s recital at the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto on Thursday afternoon featured seven languages and lots of coloratura. Full review at La Scena Musicale.
A very polished recital
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Not really a review at all
So Thursday lunchtime I went to see Karoline Podolak and Wesley Harrison supported by Mattia Senesi and Brian Cho in the RBA. It was a “schmaltzy” programme (Wesley’s description not mine!). The whole thing consisted of arias and duets from La Traviata, The Barber of Seville and Don Pasquale with a bit of Lehar and a final Prayer chucked in.
It was the sort of rep that if it came up on University Challenge any opera goer would be hitting the buzzer in under two seconds! And it’s all lovely of course. It was beautifully sung by two beautiful people with two excellent pianists. They sing beautifully separately and wonderfully together and Karoline’s coloratura is spectacular. It’s rep that fits them like a glove at this stage of their careers and I’m not going to bore you with a blow by blow account. It was unalloyed, undemanding enjoyment made all the better by being in the RBA on a sunny day!
Photo credfit: Karen E. Reeves.
The Christina and Louis Quilico Awards – 2025 edition
Tuesday evening in the RBA members of the COC Ensemble Studio competed for the biannual Christina and Louis Quilico Awards. These days every time I attend a singing competition, which I have been doing much less of, I ask myself why. There are really three reasons:
- The music to faffing about ratio is pretty low,
- If one knows the contestants one has a pretty good idea what they are going to sing and one has probably heard it before,
- The judges give no reasons for their decisions which are as often as not inscrutable.
Classical feuds
Tuesday’s RBA concert with members of the Ensemble Studio was themed around composer rivalries though not the really toxic ones. No Mozart/Salieri or Wagner/Meyerbeer here! The most convincing as a rivalry was the first; Berlioz vs Rossini. So Queen Hezumuryango sang “Le spectre de la rose” with some sensitive handling of the text and a pretty fiery “Cruda sorte” from L’Italiana in Algeri with plenty of emotion. I definitely like her voice more when she’s going for drama as she’s got plenty of power and expressiveness.
Next up was Duncan Stenhouse with four pieces that illustrated the complex relationship between Brahms, Wagner and Dvořák. “Der Tod, das ist die kühle Nacht” from the Vier Lieder Op. 96 and “Při řekách babylonských” from the Biblické písně were sung with excellent control and expressiveness but if there’s a connection it’s not obvious to me. The two operatic pieces though; “Běda!, Běda!” from Rusalka and “Abendlich strahlt der Sonne Auge” from Das Rheingold have, I think, more obvious affinities; both dramatically and musically. Both were very well sung. It’s so good to have a genuine bass in the Ensemble again! Continue reading
The Ensemble Studio kicks off a new season
Wednesday lunchtime saw the members of the COC’s Ensemble Studio kick of the free concert series season in the RBA. It was good. Pianists Brian Cho and Mattia Senesi started off in fine style with a four hands version of the overture to The Barber of Seville and then it was on to the singing.
La France au printemps
Thursday’s concert by members of the Ensemble Studio in the RBA was an all French affair (at least as far as language went) and it was rather good. Karoline Podolak iniated proceedings with Mattia Senesi at the piano with Kurt Weill’s “Youkali”. Now I’ve heard this sung by everybody from Barbara Hannigan to Benjamin Appl and I’d have to see that Ms. Podolak is right up there. There was no male stripper though.
Korin Thomas-Smith has something of a penchant for the bizarre and I think that’s a fair description of two sets drawn from Apollinaire’s Bestiaire. There were five of the Poulenc settings (about as far from Dialogues of the Carmelites as one could imagine) and six from Rachel Laurin’s more atonal and abrasive settings. I would probably sing these songs if I had four dromedaries and could sing. Fine work from Brian Cho at the piano. Continue reading
Winter Celebrations
My usual reaction to holiday season concerts is (polite version) “Bah humbug”. The less polite version involves reindeer placement. That said Thursday’s concert from the COC Ensemble Studio was really rather enjoyable.
It opened with Brian Cho and Mattia Senesi doing a four hands version of “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy”. Regrettably they didn’t dance. I guess Korin Thomas-Smith could have filled that role as later in the day he showed some very cool moves but that’s another story.
There was Handel of course; Queen Hezumuryango with “O Thou that Tellest Good Tidings to Zion” and Wesley Harrison with “Ev’ry Valley”. Both of those featured later in the day too. But that’s another story.
Four voices, four hands
Monday’s concert in the RBA was made up of two song cycles for four voices with one piano played by four hands. The first piece was the Brahms Liebeslieder Waltzes Op.52 which sets eighteen short folk songs and love poems from Georg Friedrich Daumer’s collection Polydora. The second was John Greer’s 2001 piece Liebeslied-Lieder Op.20 which sets various playful texts exploring the foibles of love and romance by Dorothy Parker and others.
Ensemble Studio in the RBA
As tradition dictates the opening concert of this year’s free concert series in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre was given bt the singers and pianists of the COC’s Ensemble Studio. It was reasonably well attended but the days when people queued around the block for this concert are long gone, which is symptomatic of the general state of the classical music world post COVID.
First up was Queen Hezumuryango with Sesto’s aria “Svegliatevi nel core” from Handel’s Guilio Cesare. All the fire required for a revenge aria was there and some interesting dark colours in the lower end of the voice. I’m not convinced though that it’s a voice I would cast in this role. The darkness of the voice, appealing as it is in many ways, is likely not what Handel; writing for a soprano, had in mind.
Korin Thomas-Smith; last seen by me in his Norcop prize winner recital, gave a very smootgh and polished version of Malatesta’s aria “Bella siccone un angelo” from Don Pasquale. I want to see more of him in opera because he’s a very fine Lieder singer.
The COC at Harbourfront
On Saturday evening the COC presented a teaser concert for their 2023/24 season on the outdoor stage at Harbourfront. The weather stayed fair and there was no more than the usual aural background to distract a little from the music. The full orchestra under Johannes Debus was on display along with half a dozen members of the Ensemble Studio.
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