Tick tock, singers! 3 spots to ditch the rubato (for now)

How-to

What would opera singers be without their stretchy, malleable tempos? More specifically, where would they be without the unwritten rules - "performance practice", they're often called - about when you simply must take some extra time? Opera is no place for heartless clockwork; but when it comes to mastering operatic skills, sometimes being a cold metronome is a clarifying experiment.

The Invictus Games come to the RBA

Review

When packed together into a single recital, it's always interesting to hear how different composers write the sounds of war. Kurt Weill writes the literal sounds of drums in his "Beat! Beat! Drums!", and Charles Ives capitalizes on the sounds of grossly happy Americana (propaganda, really) in "He is there!" Dominic Argento's "War (June, 1940)" gives a disorienting, broken image of combat that sounds in stark contrast to the more familiar sounds of war-themed songs, the nostalgia and longing of Gerald Finzi and George Butterworth.

Review: a Triple Concerto & a German Requiem with the TSO

Review

The three violin parts seem to babble, talk over each other, like a gaggle of enthusiastic talkers whose conversation borders on an argument. They echo each other in a three-fold cascade of gesture, single pitches splicing themselves into harmonies; there are moments of Strauss-like vocal writing, and what feels like an exciting nod towards the Toccata movement from John Adam's Violin Concerto.

Talking with singers: Jennifer Rowley

Interview

"There is always something to learn every time you do a role – from the very first time and all the times after. I find something new in the character and music every time I sing Tosca, and it astonishes me that I can add a layer to her character each and every time."

Meeting for lunch: the COC Ensemble Studio in recital

Review

With the help of pianists Stéphane Mayer and Rachael Kerr, the seven singers of the 2017/18 Ensemble Studio broke the ice with a single aria each, showing off their start-of-season stuff. It was a collection of picks from the standard operatic canon for this concert entitled, Meet the Ensemble Studio; safe as their choices may have been, the young singers each made strong statements about what they were offering the rapt audience.

What's the deal with Canadian music?

Review

Wiliford joked that it "took an American" to found the Canadian Art Song Project, which focuses on getting new Canadian song repertoire written, performed, and recorded. Coming from the more fostering environment in the United States, Wiliford was surprised that Canadian performers weren't as quick to step into the role of champion for their own new music. Similarly, Alex Pauk admits that founding the Esprit Orchestra came out of his and other composers' frustration with the dearth of groups willing to program Canadian material.

Sung Jin Hong: Seoul searching

Op-ed

If The Rite of Spring "kissed the earth" through a savagely primitive lens, that temple-food-inspired table celebrated our planet's primordial bounty from a more intimate perspective. The meal was prepared using centuries-old methods and crafted with ingredients that shared their origins with the mountains themselves. Traditional Korean cooking has nurtured a patient alchemy, where delicacies, seasoned with time to develop deep undercurrents of flavor, emerge transformed.

Organic elegance: Orphée et Eurydice in Chicago

Review

Tacking happy endings onto tellings of traditionally tragic myths in this way was very much en vogue in the eighteenth-century. But for Neumeier's concept-driven production, while the musical substance remains the same, the story's denouement is rendered far more devastating than even the myth's usual tragic end.

Memorable nights: the TSO's tribute Glenn Gould

Review

Lisiecki had me stunned not over the deftness of his hands, but over his sense of breath, space, and chamber music. He left room for humanity in even the trickiest of passages, and he was constantly conscious of who his current duet partner was. He challenged the orchestra to play unbearably soft, and ferociously attacked the piano to achieve enormous volume, without ever leaving an ugly edge.

"Little-known gems": Ariane et Bachus

Interview

"I have to admit that I am partial to demons, having portrayed a dancing fury a few times myself. After carefully embodying good taste in the noble characters, the evil characters get to break all the rules. Plus, in hell you get to play with snakes, wands, and torches."