Offenbach’s 1867 opéra bouffe, La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein, seems quite conventional after his forays into satirising the classics. It’s basically a love triangle set in a fictional Central European statelet wrapped in a send-up of militarism. Rather typical operetta fare really. That said it’s a perfectly acceptable example of the genre, if scarcely innovative.
Music – concerts and opera
Toronto Operetta Theatre’s last show of the season is Johan Strauss II’s A Night in Venice with the libretto lightly updated by Guillermo Silva-Marin; who also directs. It opened on Friday evening at the Jane Mallett Theatre. Loyal fans will not be disappointed. It’s a typical frothy, colourful TOT offering with chamber ensemble and singing that ranges from very decent to really rather good.
Toronto Operetta Theatre’s New Year’s offering is Imre Kalman’s Czardas Princess. It’s lively and tuneful and not overly serious being basically a succession of Austro-Hungarian Empire stereotypes. To whit Prince Somebody von und zu Wherever-Etcetera is in love with a Hungarian cabaret singer with an unpronounceable name from a pig rearing village with an equally dubious moniker when he’s supposed to be marrying his countess cousin. All the usual s/he loves, s/he loves me not plus parental disapproval play out until a shocking revelation. So the Prince gets his girl and his cousin gets a Hungarian count (probably a somewhat richer pig farmer) as a consolation prize. They all live happily ever after, or at least until 1914.
Here’s some of what January has to offer…
Toronto Operetta Theatre is doing Imre Kalman’s The Czardas Princess over the New Year holiday. It’s st the Jane Mallett Theatre and there are shows on December 30th and January 2nd, 3rd and 4th.
‘Tis the season of family holiday shows and Messiahs. Not that I’m planning to do much of either but here are some shows that you might be interested in…
Toronto Operetta Company’s season opened with a run of a “modified” version of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado. It had the by now traditional updates predictably featuring numerous references to Mango Mussolini and the odd dig at Metrolinx but the bigger change, and a sensible one I think, was to peel away the the fake japonerie that must have seemed a bit lame in 1885 and is as intolerable as a “traditional” Madama Butterfly today.
Toronto Operetta Theatre opened the concluding show of their 2024/25 season at the Jane Mallett Theatre on Friday evening. It’s Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Gondoliers directed and choreographed by Guillermo Silva-Marin. It’s pretty decent and, besides, TOT is about the only chance to see G&S in Toronto; whatever one thinks of their approach. For those who have seen TOT’s G&S before it’s fair to say this is a very typical TOT G&S production.
Before looking forward to next month I want to mention a couple of things this weekend that I haven’t previously noticed. Saturday (Jan 25th) at 12.30pm there is a Met HD broadcast of new production of Aida with a pretty interesting looking cast. Later, at 6pm there’s a rather special concert at the Arts and letters Club to celebrate the 100th birthday of Morry Kernerman (former assistant concertmaster of both the TSO and OSM). The concert is presented by Canzona Chamber Players and wiull feature Trio Uchida-Crozman-Chiu. Continue reading
This year’s New Year offering from Toronto Operetta Theatre is Imre Kálmán’s 1924 work Countess Maritza presented in Nigel Douglas’ English language version. It’s a pretty typical TOT offering. The work itself is a rather silly love story full of just about every cliché about central Europe bar vampires but it’s tuneful and the ten piece orchestra conducted by Derek Bate provides colour and volume enough for the Jane Mallett Theatre.
