Twenty eight years ago Liz Upchurch, Alain Coulombe and Michael Colvin joined the COC’s Ensemble Studio at a time when Richard Bradshaw led the COC.. Yesterday they gave a recital in the eponymous amphitheatre. It was pretty impressive.
So following on from Ruby Hughes’ Dowland heavy album Amidst the Shades we have soprano Clara Brunet and lutenist Bor Zuljan with Mr. Dowland’s Dream. It’s similar in some ways but very different in others. For a start Zuljan is playing an orpharion; which sounds a bit like a lute with a reverb pedal. Mostly he’s using a nine course instrument by Bruce Brook, after a 1617 instrument by Francis Palmer, and sometimes he’s playing an electric orpharion of ten courses by César Arias with magnetic pick ups. Net result, the sound world is rather different from the Hughes album. Continue reading
I was at a bit of a loose end yesterday so I made a very last minute decision to catch countertenor Daniel Cabena and pianist Stephen Runge in recital in the Great Hall at Hart House. It was a free concert and I hadn’t seen a program listing so I was pleasantly surprised to find a rather varied mix of early 20th century Canadian and English art song as well as piano pieces by York Bowen. I guess I was expecting baroque and earlier material since that’s what countertenors do!
operaramblings 