Tag Archives: sullivan

Minimum

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My first show at the Fringe this year was Minimum, by Victoria Sullivan, presented at Factory Theatre by Be Victorious Productions. Simon has just been elected Premier of Ontario by a landslide based on cleaning up the youth demographic by campaigning mainly on TikTok. Unfortunately on his first day in office a video of him, stoned and in his underwear, carousing with a bunch of female McMaster med students goes viral. In the video he promises, if elected, to live on minimum wage. When Saint Taylor Swift dogpiles on the video challenging him to do so there is no way back. It’s tricky. He has expensive tastes and an even more expensive wife (she owns a Tasmanian Tiger fur coat) who promptly leaves him.

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Utopia, Limited

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I was curious about Scottish Opera’s new recording of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Utopia, Limited because it’s a G&S I’ve not heard before.  It’s a late work and was less successful than its better known predecessors.  The plot concerns an island in the “South Seas” where the king is so taken with all things English that he sends his daughter to Cambridge and has her return with a bevy of English worthies including Captain Joseph Corcoran KCB.  Eventually the king enacts all kinds of reforms including turning the entire population into limited liability companies.  They revolt but the day is saved by Princess Zara pointing out that with party government all the reforms will inevitably be repealed after the next election. Continue reading →

13 Plays About ADHD… All At The Same Time

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13 Plays About ADHD… All At The Same Time by Alec Toller (mostly) is a show that is currently running at the tiny Assembly Theatre in the heart of Little Tibet so if you get bored there are momos a’plenty to be had.  Unsurprisingly the show is about ADHD.  Hosts Sharjil Rasool and Danny Pagett (who predictably arrives late) attempt to take us through a seminar about ADHD, how to diagnose yourself how to recover from it (if you have it).

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Rose in Bloom

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roses in bloomRose in Bloom is a new recital CD from coloratura soprano Erin Morley accompanied by Gerald Martin Moor.  It’s a bit of a mixed bag.  There’s some really nice singing and playing but some of the music choices leave me a bit cold.

Saint-Saëns “La libellule” is a good start.  It’s quite dramatic with opportunties for Morley to show off her considerable coloratura chops.  It’s followed by Rimsky-Korsakoff’s “The Rose Enslaves the Nightingale” which is quite exotic with oriental touches and allows Morley to display a more lyrical side.  Berg’s “Die Nachtigall” shows she can sing classic German Lieder with style and feeling and then there’s a bit of a chance to show off with Saint Saëns four minute long vocalise “Le Rossignol et la Rose”.

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January 2023

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januarty wordcloudJanuary is looking quite promising on both the music and theatre front but there’s not a lot of opera…  Here’s what’s in my agenda.

January 11th to 14th the TSO have four performances of a concert that includes Mozart’s Requiem with a good looking line up of soloists.

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The nightingale flies from its gilded cage

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nightingale1Florence: The Lady with the Lamp, music by Timothy Sullivan, libretto by Anne Mcpherson, premiered at the Elora Festival in 1992 and n 1995 was the first Canadian work performed by VOICEBOX: Opera in Concert.  Yesterday afternoon they presented it again at the St. Lawrence Centre; staged and with orchestra.

It’s an interesting piece.  Some of it I liked a lot and some not so much.  The orchestral writing is excellent; colourful and atmospheric with some jazz influences.  I quite often found myself drifting off into listening to the orchestra when perhaps I should have paid more attention to the words, especially as there were no surtitles.  The vocal writing is less interesting but it had its moments especially in some of the ensembles.  It’s the old dilemma of whether or not to prioritise the comprehensibility of the words over strictly musical values. Continue reading →

Howard and Haji

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Yesterday afternoon’s Mazzoleni Songmasters concert featured local tenor Andrew Haji and Welsh baritone Jason Howard in a program somewhat loosely linked to England.  Neither singer was, I think, 100% well (Haji’s cold was announced, Howrad’s merely obvious!) but both battled through manfully and gave us some fine singing.  There were some interesting contrasts especially in the first half of the program.  Andrew kicked off with Francesco Santoliquido’s I canti della sera.  I’m no expert on Italian art song but these did sound like songs rather than opera arias, at least in the hands of Andrew and Rachel Andrist.  In contrast, Jason’s set (Tosti’s L’ultima canzone, Respighi’s Nebbie, Tosti’s L’ideale and Verdi’s In solitaria stanza), with Robert Kortgaard sounded distinctly operatic and suited Jason’s darkish voice rather well.

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Traditional Pirates

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Toronto Operetta Theatre opened a run of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance at the Jane Mallett Theatre last night.  Bill Siva-Marin’s production is competent and very traditional with some strong performers in the key roles.  It won’t leave you with any new insights into the piece but it’s a well executed production which is lots of fun and very funny in places.  When I say traditional I mean pirates in pantomime pirate dress, maidens in some stereotypically Victorian maiden garb and a Major General in a cod colonial uniform.  Tnere are the traditional mild updatings to the libretto including a couple of rather well crafted verses in the MG’s patter song that reference the Glorious Leader of our neighbour to the south.  There are also a few nice touches.  In the second act the MG spends much of the time clutching a bust of one of his purchased ancestors and the “catlike tread” scene is noisily anything but.  That said, the choreography and blocking are pretty formulaic though there are some deft touches in the Personenregie.  Mabel’s body language in Oh! Is there not one maiden breast? is worth a look.

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Season announcements

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adrianluciaBy an odd coincidence two season announcement pressers hit my in box today; Toronto Operetta Theatre and Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo.  Toronto Operetta Theatre have four shows:

  • The Waltz Rivals (November 6th at 3pm) is a Léhar and Kálmán greatest hits show featuring Lucia Cesaroni, Adrian Kramer, Holly Chaplin, Stefan Fehr and Greg Finney with Michael Rose at the piano.
  • Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance runs from December 27th to January 8th, 2017.  Colin Ainsworth sings Frederic, Vania Chan is Mabel and Curtis Sullivan is the Major General.  Derek Bate conducts and Guillermo Silva-Marin directs.
  • Oscar Straus’ The Chocolate Soldier, based on George Bernard Shaw’s Arms and the Man, runs on April 26th, 28th, 29th and 30th, 2017. Peter Tiefenbach leads the orchestra and the cast includes Jennifer Taverner, Anna Macdonald, Michael Nyby and Stefan Fehr.
  • Finally there’s an Offenbach tribute concert on June 4th 2017.

All performances are at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts.

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Drink! Drink! Drink!

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jennifertOddly enough, what Toronto Operetta Theatre does best is operetta and the production of Romberg’s The Student Prince that opened yesterday afternoon is a pretty good example of why.  I suppose, technically, that it’s a Broadway musical but everything about it, down to the humour and sentimentality seems Teutonic enough.  Anyway, there’s a solid trio in the lead roles, the key back ups are thoroughly professional and the minor roles and chorus are filled out by talented and enthusiastic young singers.  The band is big enough to cover all the colours of the score and the staging is appropriate and not overly ambitious.  The piece gets to do its tuneful, rather bittersweet thing.

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