In review: Offenbach/Hahn

Review

Last night was opening night at the New Theatre Alliance Française de Toronto for Opera 5's (check out their Opera Cheats) season opener: a romp through the French obsession with the Far East during the 19th century. We were treated to a double bill of Île du rêve by Reynaldo Hahn and Ba-Ta-Clan By Jacques Offenbach, two very different pieces that not only show the varied differences of the East's influence on Western music, but also the versatility of a stellar cast of darn fine singers.

The Klinghoffer Example

Op-ed

I came across an article today that prompted me to weigh in on all the talk about The Death of Klinghoffer. Andrea Peyser at the New York Post just published this piece, stating, "The Met is to present an obscene opera titled 'The Death of Klinghoffer' — a musical celebration of the senseless murder by Palestinian monsters of a defenseless, elderly Jewish New Yorker." Sigh.

Opera 5's Aria Umezawa on Offenbach/Hahn

Interview

This weekend, Opera 5 puts up their fall show, a double bill featuring Reynaldo Hahn's L'île du rêve and Jacques Offenbach's Ba-ta-clan. Opera 5 is all about combining art forms (including the beloved culinary arts!), and I was curious about this pairing of Hahn's "idylle polynésienne" and Offenbach's "chinoiserie musicale".

In Review: Baby Kintyre

Review

Canadian composer Dean Burry's opera Baby Kintyre is the coolest thing I've heard in a long time. The opera, with the libretto also by Dean, had its first performance in 2009 on six consecutive broadcasts of the CBC's Saturday Afternoon at the Opera. Baby Kintyre is written in the style of a radio serial in five episodes, based on the true story of a mummified baby found in the wall of 29 Kintyre (near Queen and Broadview) in Toronto.

Prom Night for Rufus

Tomorrow night at Royal Albert Hall in London, Rufus Wainwright will have his debut performance as part of the BBC Late Night Proms. Rufus is Canada's most chatter-worthy addition to the operatic scene (with his upcoming COC commission, Hadrian), and he'll be joined by soprano Deborah Voigt to sing a couple of arias from his 2009 opera, Prima Donna.

Nicole Brooks on Obeah Opera

Interview

This weekend Nightwood Theatre presents the New Groundswell Festival, presenting new works of theatre through workshop productions and a series of play readings. One of the pieces being workshopped is Obeah Opera, created by Nicole Brooks and directed by Weyni Mengesha ('Da Kink in my Hair, Raisin in the Sun). Nicole is something of an artistic Renaissance woman, with credits as a filmmaker, playwright and director, and she'll appear in Obeah Opera as Tituba.

Study: classical music fans use more words, fewer swears

Editorial

A cool find today: some stats about what kind of vocabulary is used by different music lovers. Reddit Timemachine put out a survey of music fans from various subreddits about Classical music, jazz, punk, reggae, etc. The results were based on searching for specific words in each subreddit, showing the different frequencies that word is used in different fan circles.

Substance abuse in the opera industry, yup. But why?

Op-ed

A few articles popped up recently about the problem of anxiety and depression amongst classical musicians. A survey done by Help Musicians UK sampled after 500 working musicians (about 20% of them singers), and found that 60% claimed to have suffered from a psychological concern such as depression and/or debilitating anxiety.

The Opera Workout

Humour

Since we're amongst operaphiles, it's safe to admit that we listen to opera on and off the job. Daily commutes, housecleaning, cooking; they're all better with opera as a soundtrack. So, who here has listened to opera while working out? Hi, nice to meet you.

Forgiving Racism Onstage

Op-ed

Are we a forgiving bunch, us opera-lovers? There's a curious phenomenon of forgiving outdated social mores (racism, for example) in works of theatre and opera that we really like. It seems like fans of opera and musical theatre will look at plenty of bad onstage behaviour in their favourite show, and chalk it up to metaphor or "the way it was back then". It's oddly forgiving in a world which feeds largely upon criticism.