Elza van den Heever and the MET Orchestra: A stunning all-Strauss program
Weird & wonderful: Toronto Darknet Market
ReviewLast night I went to Mây on Dundas West for one of the most compact, strange evenings of music theatre I've ever seen. Canadian tenor Jonathan MacArthur, Loose TEA Music Theatre Artistic Director Alaina Viau, and Fawn Chamber Creative Artistic Director Amanda Smith have collaborated on Toronto Darknet Market, a fundraising event for Medée Toronto's 2016 production of Medée by Charpentier.
Managing the unexpected
Op-edRisk-proof your life. That’s what the personal finance experts will tell you. Well, experts... The prospect of ‘risk-proofing’ an artist's life seems pretty dang daunting. Do you guys ever feel like there’s nothing in this business that you can actually control?
Reconstructing a lost opera: Amleto
InterviewThere's Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Thomas Adès' The Tempest, and of course, Verdi's Otello and Falstaff. There's also Hamlet, the opera by Ambroise Thomas, but did you know there's an Italian Amleto (#essereononessere), composed by one of Verdi's contemporaries with text by Shakespeare-friendly librettist Arrigo Boito?
Go see this: Tap:Ex Metallurgy
NewsTapestry opera continues its kick-ass 2015/16 season with the latest instalment of Tap:Ex Metallurgy. Tap:Ex is a performance series started by Artistic Director Michael Mori, that is "committed to radically redefining the future of opera." Metallurgy blends opera with punk rock, as Canadian punk band Fucked Up shares the stage with tenor David Pomeroy and mezzo-soprano (and chameleon) Krisztina Szabó.
In review: Quinn Kelsey's Songs from the Heart
ReviewHawaiian baritone Quinn Kelsey strode into the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre, wearing black cowboy boots with his three-piece suit, and said to the audience, "I apologize in advance for cheat sheets."
Fannibals in New York: One World Symphony premieres Hannibal
ReviewThematically, the darkness of Hannibal is not an unfamiliar subject to opera. Psychopathic heroes and murderers have long taken the stage through works like Wozzeck and Salome, characters like Bluebeard and Scarpia. A lot of operas are bloody. Yet, I’m not sure the question is whether Hong is doing something new. Rather, the point is what he’s doing to make opera contextually relevant to those who otherwise might not go to the opera at all.
Hear the premiere of Abraham, support the Syrian Refugee Program
NewsTomorrow night, head to the Metropolitan United Church to hear the première of Abraham, a new oratorio by Dora award-winning composer David Warrack (Torontosaurus, Oh Susanna, Interpretations of a Life). Tickets start at $36, and funds raised will go towards the Church's Syrian Refugee Program.
Meet the folks: Pocket Concerts
InterviewThe concept of going to someone's house for some live chamber music might seem strange to anyone who isn't a big concert goer. But musicians know that house concerts are a common occurrence, that they're often under-advertised and often private, and that they're a fantastic way to experience music. The folks from Pocket Concerts are taking the in-home concert model, and making it an experience that anyone can have.
On the air: Sunday Night with the TSO
NewsThis weekend, turn your radio-like devices to Classical 96.3 FM for the latest episode of Sunday Night with the TSO. Recently I joined hosts Kathleen Kajioka and Jeff Melanson (President and CEO of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra) and fellow guest Michael Vincent (editor, Musical Toronto) for a somewhat meta-conversation about the value of music criticism.
Talking with singers: Elizabeth Caballero
InterviewCuban-American soprano Elizabeth Cabellero has built herself a busy life on the road, singing some of opera's most coveted roles in houses across the United States. She just finished singing Donna Elvira in Lyric Opera of Kansas City's Don Giovanni, and when we spoke over Skype, she was in Miami, FL, preparing for a recital in honour of legendary Romanian soprano, Virginia Zeani.