In review: La traviata at the COC

Review

Last night the Canadian Opera Company opened its new production of La traviata, and I was officially excited. La traviata is done often, but it's another thing to hear it done really well. I got my fix at the Four Seasons Centre with the first of two casts singing the 11 shows between now and November 6th.

In review: The Seven Deadly Sins

Review

I'm always excited by Kurt Weill. Ever since my first exposure to Mahagonny and Down in the Valley (one of his American musicals) I've been fascinated by his work with Bertolt Brecht. On Friday, September 25th I got to re-hear one of my favourites presented by The Friends of Gravity.

#COC1516: the new Ensemble Studio

Review

The Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio have kicked off the 2015/16 Free Concert Series in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre with their annual introductory concert, Meet the Young Artists. Eight singers and two pianists performed in what's called the "death by aria" style, each singer showing off an aria that shows what they do best.

In review: shadow box

Review

Last night I went with conductor, pianist, and man of Against the Grain Theatre Topher Mokrzewski to hear The Bicycle Opera Project, at, well, a bike shop. Curbside Cycle on Bloor West was the first Toronto stop along Bike Opera's tour of Nova Scotia and Ontario.

In review: Dissociative Me

Review

I walked into RED Nightclub to catch LooseTea Music Theatre's latest offering, "Dissociative Me". A new transladaptation of Gounod's Faust, in which we find the devious relationship with the malevolent spirit Mephistopheles has evolved into a dissociative personality disorder, where he inhabits the other part of John Faustus's psyche.

In review: Obeah Opera

Review

Friday, August 7th, 2015. This is the day I finally understood why the human race began singing and dancing in the first place. I don't know how or why it started, but I was reminded of how blessed we are by its presence in our lives.

Music as Theatre: a chamber concert in Banff

Review

This week at The Banff Centre, the artists of Open Space: Opera in the 21st Century collaborated with the Master Class for Strings and Winds Program for an evening of chamber music at the Rolston Recital Hall. It sounds like your average chamber concert, but I promise you, it wasn't.

In review: 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Review

On Friday, June 5th I hit up Artscape Wychwood Barns to see a small production of William Finn's 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Based on an improvisation play called C-R-E-P-U-S-C-L-E conceived by Rebecca Feldman, this show took the Tony Awards and Broadway by storm in 2005. I love this show, so it was a no-brainer to check it out.

In review: Death & Desire

Review

Death & Desire is a blending of two art song cycles. One, Die schöne Müllerin by the art song emperor, Franz Schubert and the second by France's master of the bird call, Olivier Messiaen, called Harawi. It's not an opera in the traditional sense, as per usual with AtG. It is, however, one of the most coherent, artistic and thrilling examples of lyric theatre to date.

Kristin Hoff's Love Songs

Review

As part of Sing! - The Toronto Vocal Arts Festival, I heard mezzo Kristin Hoff perform the one-woman vocal feat by Ana Sokolovic, Love Songs. The work was commissioned by Queen of Puddings Music Theatre (premiered in 2009 by Lauren Phillips), and it's a compilation of love poetry in over 100 hundred languages, all sung a cappella.