Monthly Archives: February 2012

COC Parsifal

Posted on February 25, 2012 by

Richard Wagner figures prominently in the Canadian Opera Company’s plans.  Two Wagner operas, not one were announced for the future. You may have missed any mention of the second opera.  The announcement of the 2012-2013 season (a year of world-wide … Continue reading →

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10 Questions for Aleksandar Lukac

Posted on February 23, 2012 by

Former Artistic Director of the National Theater, Belgrade, Aleksandar Lukac has directed close to a hundred professional productions internationally including Yugoslavia, Holland, Canada and Serbia.  Lukac has also been an Artistic Director of Theatre Zoran Radmilovich and the independent political … Continue reading →

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Beckett: Feck It!

Posted on February 23, 2012 by

I just saw Queen of Puddings Music Theatre’s production, in association with Canadian Stage, of Beckett: Feck It!  You hear a title like that and you may well wonder what they were thinking, what they were trying to say. I … Continue reading →

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Topic of cancer

Posted on February 20, 2012 by

Spoiler alert: unavoidably I have to talk about the way some films end because that’s central to this discussion.  If you don’t want me to reveal how 50/50 ends please stop reading…Anyone still there? Having seen Dani Girl, a provocative … Continue reading →

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Tryst with Liszt

Posted on February 20, 2012 by

Neapolitan Connection presented “A Romantic Music Tryst with Liszt,” as a much a playful exploration as a concert, presented in the intimate Studio Theatre at the Toronto Centre for the Arts. The piano was not set up for a recital, … Continue reading →

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Dani Girl

Posted on February 19, 2012 by

Dani Girl is an original musical from the young team of Michael Kooman (music) and Christopher Dimond (book & lyrics), now at the beginning of a Toronto run co-produced by Talk is Free Theatre and Show One Productions. Watching this … Continue reading →

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Enigmatic Liszt

Posted on February 18, 2012 by

There’s more to Franz Liszt than most people realize.  If you ask a musicologist they’ll usually rattle off a series of truisms: one of the first great virtuosi for the piano, possibly the greatest pianist in history Wagner’s father-in-law Long-lived … Continue reading →

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Unexpected Tosca

Posted on February 17, 2012 by

Just when you think you know how a story will turn out –because it’s such a well-known opera—they throw you a curve.  There’s no drama quite like experiencing a work you think you know, where they’ve changed the usual ending. … Continue reading →

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Dowland in Dublin

Posted on February 16, 2012 by

A professor I once had claimed that art could be understood as a kind of research.  Something newly created is a proposition to be tested against the taste of every new audience, seeking a fair hearing and possibly a genuine … Continue reading →

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Multiple voices

Posted on February 14, 2012 by

It’s a curious coincidence.  The two debuts in popular music that I felt at the most visceral level, even though they were separated by many years and with an ocean between them, have something else in common.  No I didn’t … Continue reading →

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