Last Werther to end an era

Posted on May 25, 2026 by barczablog

The matinee of Werther Saturday May 23rd to end the current Canadian Opera Company Spring Season was not without a bit of ceremony.

At the end of the curtain call, Music Director Johannes Debus brought out a microphone and began making speeches. It was one of those times I was glad to be sitting in the second row.

Notice the two balloons floating in the midst of the orchestra pit…

He mentioned that two members of the orchestra were retiring after many years (and I apologize that I don’t recall exactly how many years that might be). I think the two departing artists were Douglas Stewart the Principal Flute, Mark Rogers the Principal Oboe: and both were given applause. My photos are not of posed smiling people, but of artists at the end of a day of work aka the whole performance of Werther.

Douglas Stewart and Mark Rogers, surrounded by well-wishing colleagues (aka the COC orchestra) and a few balloons

After the show I turned to YouTube, hearing at least ten versions of the Nature meditation from Act I, including several versions of the stunning flute solo Massenet wrote. Played live is best. Both times I heard this music played by the COC Orchestra I was powerfully moved, tearful during the first performance. Okay let me share my favourite version from an old recording I heard last night.

The flute is like nature, and the voice is Werther commenting upon nature. What a privilege to hear this, what a joy it must be to play this simple meditation. Johannes and the COC orchestra were gorgeous in their work in this the final performance of Werther, and I suppose that this would be the last time Douglas would play this music for us, a passage that he played so well.

Next in the speeches came the part I should have expected. At least this time, as Johannes’ speech went on, I knew who he meant to celebrate before he finished, namely the interim General Director who took over with the sudden departure of Perryn Leech, namely David Ferguson.

David Ferguson accepting applause from the cast of Werther & the audience at the end of his tenure with the COC

The speech Johannes made did not overstate what David had done, in his couple of years in charge. The COC continues to be doing well at the box office, as we come to the end of his tenure in a little more than five weeks time.

David Ferguson, outgoing General Director of the COC

It will be Ian Derrer as General Director beginning July 1st.

Ian Derrer, General Director designate of the COC

There’s also the closing performance and what it has me thinking. I noticed with the Metropolitan Opera’s high definition broadcasts that some singers do well in their close-up, some do not. Russell Thomas (Werther) & Victoria Karkacheva (Charlotte) were even better up close. The curtain call felt like a reward, watching them smiling broadly for once instead of playing sad sad sad. Russell sang the last performance with an emphatic energy on every high note, like someone who didn’t need to save anything, didn’t want to hold anything back.

The children were as much fun to behold as last time. While I may have been sitting in the same place as last week, the difference was startling, the performances wonderfully nuanced & subtle. I came away as enthusiastic about the show from up close as seen from further back.

I met last night’s Don Giovanni Alex Hajek before the show, glad to see that he’s survived the pursuit of women and his stone guest with an icy handshake. He is one of several artists who remind me of my ongoing bias. Yes I think David Ferguson has done a terrific job keeping the COC running. But I believe that employing Canadians should be a bigger priority than it is right now. No question, Victoria Karkacheva played Charlotte convincingly, whose presence makes the fatal pursuit by Werther (Russell Thomas believable. Yet I watched Alex Hetherington Friday night singing Urlicht, a beautiful young Canadian singing with Mandle Phil at the George Weston Hall. She is just the first of many Canadian singers I could suggest.

For the purposes of speaking to the promotional side of the opera business I need to contrast Russell Thomas and Victoria Karkacheva. Russell sang so amazingly well but perhaps just as important, he is a singer we’ve seen before, whose name will help sell tickets because people remember him and his great singing. I don’t see how the name “Victoria Karkacheva”, a singer making her first appearance in Toronto, could be seen the same way, especially given that her ability to sing the role did not make her irreplaceable. I have brought up examples of superb Americans before whose appearances make sense, who are in fact essential. Christine Goerke in her Brunnhilde appearances was absolutely irreplaceable. And the men singing opposite her as Siegfried were arguably the best singers in the world in difficult roles, meaning Andreas Schager and Stefan Vinke: both a tremendous opportunity for Toronto audiences. While Russell Thomas’ Werther is not quite as rare, yet even so his vocalism is among the best singing I’ve heard in Toronto in many years. But if the imported singer does not either offer recognition for their name, nor that kind of unique vocalism, I believe strongly that the COC must hire a Canadian. Otherwise, why bring in a Russian singer who nobody has heard before? Pardon me, I know there may be people who know her, but I consider myself well-informed in the realm of opera, and I didn’t know of her. The casting for Werther was remarkable, in the talent shown in the smaller parts, all Canadians, all wonderfully capable both vocally and dramatically.

I am going a little crazy watching talented Canadians singing with pianos or community orchestras, ignored by the COC. Yes we have an ensemble studio of young singers. But let’s be clear. This is not some huge favour the company does to our Canadian talent. They offer cheaper labour for the small roles that used to be filled by comprimario singers, the specialists in the kind of role we saw handled so ably in Werther, especially thinking of Robert Pomakov and Michael Colvin, a pair of singing actors who have each stunned audiences in Toronto. I remember Pomakov’s haunting Alberich in the last Twilight of the Gods production, and Colvin’s Thomas Scott in Louis Riel. To find anyone better for these roles you’d have to spend more money. And they’re Canadian.

I am going to repeat a paragraph I shared in 2024, quoting Paolo Santalucia speaking of Crow’s Theatre, that seems relevant to the COC:

“It’s been really invigorating to see how the public has absorbed and embraced Canadian talent across the last few years,” he said. “I think that’s indicative of the fact that audiences are excited by the talent pool we have here. One thing we can do as a Canadian theatre centre is make strong advocacy for encountering prestige, Canadian talent, and allowing that to meet the public in a vital, exciting way.”

Michael Patrick Albano said something similar in the interview published a few days ago, politely repeating what I said above in response to my question about hiring more Canadians

Michael Patrick Albano: This is a difficult tightrope to walk. When a company craves international status it makes sense to look at the wider spectrum of artists – singers, directors, conductors. However these artists should have something extraordinary to recommend them, not just foreign citizenship. I do feel the opportunities for Canadian artists have significantly improved but it helps tremendously when the artistic director of a company does all the casting themselves, a time consuming but vital responsibility. If you subcontract casting to American and European agents, one shouldn’t be surprised if Canadians get the short end of the stick.

The bold-faced sentence above is my emphasis, not his. But you see what we are saying? that unless the singer is as extraordinary as Russell Thomas or Christine Goerke, we should be hiring Canadians. Krisztina Szabó for example, sang the woman in Erwartung last time. Why not this time? I could be wrong but I think she could sing Judith as well, and –wait for it– would actually pronounce the Hungarian correctly for a change (not that anyone cares).

Let me again quote Michael’s first sentence, that says This is a difficult tightrope to walk. But right now I don’t see anyone trying to walk that tightrope, not in the sense Paolo meant in speaking of Crow’s Theatre. Or let me put it another way. If I saw the COC take a risk, to stick their necks out to hire a Canadian for a lead role, risk as in “we’re not sure s/he can do it” they’d maybe be walking on the tightrope. But using Canadians from the Ensemble Studio working in small roles? Not only is that not walking a tightrope, but a kind of exploitation. You’re in the Ensemble studio for 2 or 3 years, then shown the door. Why aren’t recent grads coming back more often? The Ensemble Studio resembles the teaching assistants at the universities of Ontario. I have friends with PhDs who do the heavy lifting for the professorship, marking and doing some teaching, while making a far smaller amount of $, and at least they have the dream of becoming a professor, sometimes getting hired. It is especially troubling when they do an opera telling a story of young people, such as Werther or La boheme. In boheme every single cast member should be Canadian, especially if the Americans / imports are not helping to sell tickets. I am especially offended when I go see a local production such as the Hello Goodbye I wrote about or the fundraising Don Giovanni, filled with excellent Canadian singers who are ignored by the COC. Alex Hajek, Holly Chaplin, Ernesto Ramirez, Alex Hetherington. Yes Alex sang Siebel, but she would have been an excellent Charlotte. Her low notes in Urlicht were gorgeous. When they next do Marriage of Figaro she’d be a terrific Cherubino, or an Octavian for Rosenkavalier, unless of course it’s easier to let the agents provide unknown Europeans.

The agents shouldn’t be running the company.

Please Ian Derrer. You must know that the talent exists on this side of the Atlantic, not just USA but actually here in Canada too. Over the last decade I have heard several people both American & Canadian saying “IYKYK”, which is short form for “if you know you know”, that the North American talent pool is now as good as or better than the imports. What I am doing with this blog post may read like a message from the lunatic fringe, an outlier, but so be it. I am offering a reminder.

Thank you David Ferguson, you kept us afloat in difficult times.

I hope Ian will at least consider the possibility that the cheaper Canadian talent might develop a following, the same way you see with the Stratford & Shaw Festivals and the National Ballet. Why don’t those places feel they must import foreigners? because Canadians are more than competent, they become a draw, they become familiar names to the audience. It should be the same with the COC.

We will see how it goes next season.

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Mandle Philharmonic plays Mahler 2nd

Posted on May 23, 2026 by barczablog

I have to make comparisons. Even the most sympathetic critic observes and then contextualizes, by framing those observations in comparison to others.

On Friday May 22nd Mandle Cheung conducted his orchestra, the Mandle Philharmonic, in a performance of Gustav Mahler’s 2nd Symphony, known as his Resurrection symphony; I heard Mandle conduct the Toronto Symphony in a performance of the same work, at Roy Thomson Hall last summer. I’ve been listening to the work since I was a teen, sometimes live with the TSO, or recordings.

Mandle is a successful tech entrepreneur who paid the TSO for the privilege of conducting them last year. But he has conducted his own orchestra, the Mandle Philharmonic for several years, at least seventeen concerts as far as I know. His choice to hire the TSO made that concert last year into an event, newsworthy in all sorts of ways, some that persist to this day.

Erika asked me the questions that subtly underlie any orchestral concert, but especially when someone like Mandle comes along. She asked: what does a conductor actually do, could the orchestra play without a conductor? One wonders at any concert: how important is the conductor? Because of course the violins, the tuba, the harp, and all the others are reading and playing their parts that they have rehearsed.

So please excuse me as I make my comparisons, not just a dry academic exercise but a way of noticing and enjoying the beauty of a view out the window, a sunset, a glass of wine: or even a concert. As children we delight in things and experiences in the moment, but as we have more & more memories, our experience is deepened with the ability to remember and compare. And we may anticipate because the film or the symphony is one we have seen before, we know the big climax is coming, etc.

Mahler’s 2nd Symphony should feel like an event. It’s one of the longer works we hear in concerts, requiring a chorus, vocal soloists and a big orchestra.

I remember encountering this work at a time in my youth when I was agnostic, drawn in by Mahler’s message that would seem to say “we are all going to heaven”, that there is no hell, just forgiveness. We go through four movements that set up an enormous dramatic last movement. In that finale we hear something like judgment day, recalling that the Requiem includes a Dies Irae, day of wrath that for successive composers challenged them to paint a sonic landscape of that day of judgment, from Mozart to Berlioz to Verdi, plus lots more I didn’t mention. Mahler was an erudite composer who knew them all intimately as an orchestral conductor, likely coming to his version of the end times with all those other versions in his head. For me, at this point of my youth, it was the opening part of the finale that moved me. When the chorus would come in to proclaim resurrection? In those days I found it unconvincing, possibly because I was unready for it, possibly because there was something missing in me. All I know is that my experience of this symphony has changed over the years, from an agnostic to a church-going musician and a believer in an afterlife. Mahler’s spirituality now aligns nicely with mine.

A big change happened for me, when I had the chance to perform the 4th movement myself, as an offertory at Hillcrest Church in Toronto. I was aware that part of Mahler’s subtext was his own religion, as a Jewish Bohemian (meaning the place he came from in what is now the Czech Republic), facing discrimination professionally. The text for Urlicht, the song that is Mahler’s 4th movement includes the description of an angel blocking the way to heaven. The singer says that they will not be turned away, but will get to heaven.

A light came on for me, watching a partially disabled person perform this song, forced by physical challenges to sing from an awkward position in the choir loft, while trying not to block the collection during the offertory. It blew me away that we were singing about acceptance even as we were making her performance conditional, asking someone jump through hoops, who walked with a cane & rode Wheeltrans to church.

Watching Mireille Lebel sing this with the TSO, with Mandle Cheung trying to conduct an orchestra who were rumoured to be resistant to their conductor? it was if my brain exploded at the irony.

Mandle Cheung conducting the Toronto Symphony, Amadeus Choir and soloists Mireille Lebel & Kirsten LeBlanc (photo: Allan Cabral)

I started to cry watching someone sing about an angel blocking the way to heaven, as I saw it being re-enacted on the stage before me. I reported it, and perhaps my enthusiasm has been misread. I was powerfully moved when I picked up on the subtext of Mahler’s own life in the creation of this work, feeling that Mandle faced comparable challenges & possible rejection. And by now people may be tired of my story. But it’s a big part of my context when I come to speak of the May 22nd experience at Meridian Arts Centre, in the George Weston Recital Hall.

I have a few simple observations to make, and they include comparisons for context.

I think Mandle does indeed have an interpretation to offer, an approach to this symphony. That’s important because, watching the TSO performance last year, at times it seemed that he was riding a horse that was trying to throw him, an ensemble that may not have been happy with the gig. I’m not sure though. It may simply have been that Mandle was physically challenged by what he was doing, conducting with such a clear beat for the 80 minutes of the piece that he may have been exhausted. Part of that is age, but part of that is also about the politics, verging on a kind of gamesmanship, of conducting.

For example I recall reading Astrid Varnay’s frustration with Herbert von Karajan, whose beat was sometimes impossible to see, suggesting a bit of a passive-aggressive power trip. If I place that alongside what I saw Mandle doing, I wonder. Did Mandle really have to conduct so boisterously? I think I would fault the orchestra, that the conductor would be working so hard. Shouldn’t the sections pull together, and the section leader perhaps keep things together without requiring the conductor to do so much?

But I saw several places in the performance that were consistent with what we heard from Mandle both in his TSO concert and in leading Mandle Phil playing Mahler’s 4th and Beethoven’s 9th on Youtube. The tendency to suddenly speed up in order to emphasize a climactic section with a rush, such as the conclusion of the 1st movement, or in the fortissimo passages of the third movement, is something I would identify as a consistent part of Mandle’s style. I want to underline this as evidence of a conductor who is for all intents and purposes, leading his orchestra.

Mandle Cheung, sharing the applause with the artists onstage

That is the good news. Mandle favours a quicker tempo for Mahler than many of the first conductors who popularized him, thinking especially of Bruno Walter and Otto Klemperer, both of whom met the composer in their youth, and could claim that their slower readings had some claim to authenticity. That being said I far prefer a quicker approach, notwithstanding the challenges that imposes on the players.

And so you may have seen social media posts reminding us that the orchestra is comprised of professionals from the Opera company, ballet and even the TSO, that this is one of four professional orchestras in the Toronto area (COC, NBC, TSO). I think that perhaps they left out Tafelmusik (a fifth professional orchestra) but never mind. While they’re all professional players who play in other orchestras, I think it’s timely with our FIFA matches coming up, to observe that plucking professionals out of their sections into new groups does not necessarily turn them into a team. We’ve seen brilliant players who fail on the world stage because the new aggregation of talent lacks cohesion. I hope Mandle will recognize that this is a friendly analogy, comparing Mandle Philharmonic to a World Cup team.

Mandle has some very good ideas that I really liked. The score for this symphony asks for an intermission between the first and second movements, a stipulation that is never met. I believe Mahler wanted us to understand the first movement as the struggles of life, recalling that at first the composer composed the piece years before, as a single stand-alone movement, titled “Todtenfeier” or now usually written as Totenfeier: a funeral celebration, celebrating life & death.

By having the chorus who are required for the final movement plus the soloists who are in the last 2 movements, make their entrance after the first mvmt, Mandle accomplished a bit of a break, as Mahler wanted.

Mandle Cheung, accepting applause at the TSO concert (photo: Allan Cabral)

Another great idea, that Joseph So pointed to (Joe was sitting beside me), is the soft entry of the chorus singing their first words from a seated position.

It’s a great idea, because the moment when a hundred or more singers stand up, you have a bit of a thunderous effect, and conflicting with the softness of the moment. I think I’ve seen choruses stand to begin the last movement, which is one of Mahler’s loudest moments.

Speaking of which, I almost giggled, worried for angelic Alex Hetherington, who had just finished her beautiful fourth movement song, and behind her all hell was breaking out, aka the opening passages of the finale. I was impressed that she never lost her composure.

Soprano Lesley Bouza and mezzo-soprano Alex Hetherington accepting applause with Mandle Philharmonic afterwards

So let me finally place this whole thing into context. When the TSO played this symphony I was powerfully moved by that moment in Urlicht, as I said, and otherwise was watching Mandle negotiate the experience, hoping he’d make it through. This time in North York I was enthusiastic, ready to experience the music, enjoying the view from a really good seat near the front of the George Weston hall, which might have the best acoustics of any space in Toronto: which is a mixed blessing. I contrast my religious experience last year to one of mixed results this time, perhaps wanting too much.

I found myself astonished by the number of people not just looking at their smartphones, but actively trying to record parts of the concert. I don’t know whether this is just so normal nowadays that people don’t realize it’s a kind of theft. As Alex Hetherington started Urlicht, the person right in front of me started recording, lifting their (expletive deleted) phone up close to my sight-line. I was tempted to imagine smacking it like T-ball, wondering how far I could send it: which of course would possibly injure someone, get me kicked out, disrupt the performance.

But in case it’s not clear, my performance was already disrupted! Later in Urlicht, as an employee came down the aisle (something they did repeatedly) to stop someone recording on their phone, I pointed to the philistine in front of me, who was concealing their phone at that point (in their lap). So excuse me, I was watching a concert in 2026, recognizing that maybe the audience were simply doing what is normal for them especially given that the request to shut off phones was relatively soft- spoken.

Mandle may have a strong beat, but the orchestra was not always together, as my FIFA analogy should make clear. I found I loved the first movement without reservation. The second was perhaps the best of the five, the strings responding beautifully, the soft serenade interrupted by a darker episode before we go back to the main melody. I admire what Mandle was aiming for in the third movement, particularly his ambitious passages going faster for the loudest music, that the players didn’t fully follow. I’m not sure if more rehearsal with a kind conductor such as Mandle would help, when it’s really up to the players to pay better attention. Similarly in the finale, there were several times that members of sections were off by a bit, but Mandle managed to right the ship and keep them together. The ending was superb.

I see that Mandle Phil will play this symphony again on July 24th at an outdoor venue: which might be a better experience, given my travails with the phones around me. I know I need to chill, relax, go with the flow. If this had been the RBC Amphitheatre at Ontario Place where they’ll do it in July, perhaps I’d feel better. I remember seeing the TSO play Mahler’s 7th at the old Ontario Place concert venue back in the 1980s, and even debating the quality of the piece with Carl Morey & Neil Crory, both of whom said the problem with the concert was Mahler, not the TSO. I wonder if their crankiness was a bit like mine from May 22nd, distractions ruining my rapture..? I recall how the soft propeller planes & boats blended into the orchestral sound (including the noise-makers Mahler builds into that score). Maybe it will be better in July, accepting the background distractions & noise, children crying, cars and planes as a backdrop: especially knowing that Doug Ford wants to land jets at the Island Airport. Maybe they will rename the Billy Bishop Airport (named for a biplane hero) “Buzz Lightyear’s launchpad”. In case I’m not being clear, I am very upset about the provincial government’s plans, and am waiting for the federal government to rescue our beautiful waterfront, that should be noisy with life but OMG not deafening.

If you want to follow Mandle Philharmonic, information and tickets about their future concerts can be found here.

Mandle Cheung

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Multidimensional Michael Patrick Albano: an interview

Posted on May 20, 2026 by barczablog
Michael Patrick Albano’s photo on the University of Toronto Faculty of Music website

Michael Patrick Albano is Associate Professor Emeritus with the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto, where you can see his bio and this photo: but that only tells you part of the story.

Michael is resident Stage Director of the opera programme at the University of Toronto, where he has staged over forty operas including the Canadian premieres of Debussy’s L’Enfant Prodigue, Paisiello’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and Britten’s Paul Bunyan. And Michael has directed many other places such as NY City Opera and the Canadian Opera Company.

Michael is an accomplished librettist, including A Dickens of a Christmas, Laura’s Cow, The Legend of Laura Secord and Alice in Wonderland all commissioned and premiered by the Canadian Children’s Opera Company between 2005 & 2015; Gianni (based on the life of the baroque composer, Giovanni Pergolesi) for Opera Lyra, The Last Duel (with music by Gary Kulesha) for MusicCanada 2000, Loss of Eden, (based upon the lives of Charles and Anne Lindbergh); and more recently Rob Ford, the Opera, Antigone, Encounters and The Machine Stops for the University of Toronto’s Student Composer Collective. This November, University of Toronto’s opera department will premiere Fall River, the legend of Lizzie Borden, with Michael’s libretto and music by Cecilia Livingston, for the reopening of MacMillan Theatre.

Michael’s interest in the development of original opera librettos has led to a unique graduate course in operatic composition at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music as well as his involvement for the past twenty years as resident dramaturge for the Tapestry New Opera Works annual composer/librettist laboratory.

As a teacher, as a collaborator, and as a creator in his own right, Michael has had a huge impact on opera in Canada and abroad. I was grateful for the opportunity to ask Michael a few questions.

*******

Barczablog: Are you more like your father or mother?

Michael Patrick Albano: My dad had musical talent and could sing and play the piano. My mother had a flair for drama and I always thought she could have been a professional actress so I guess I am a hybrid and that opera was always on the cards.

Michael Patrick Albano

BB: What is the best or worst thing about what you do?

Michael Patrick Albano: Well, we all have our horror stories about things going off-the-rails in performance but in my role as the resident stage director of the Faculty of Music’s opera school and also in my free-lance work, there wasn’t a single day that I didn’t look forward to going to rehearsal which never felt like a regular job. An uncle of mine wisely said, “When you love what you do, you never work a day in your life”.

BB: What ability or skill do you wish you had, that you don’t have?

Michael Patrick Albano: I would like to be able to play one musical instrument really well.

I studied the violin and played well enough to be in the Niagara Chamber Orchestra but ultimately gave it up (in the public interest!). Now that I am retired from full time teaching at the university, I try to make time daily to practice the piano with a view to improving my playing. Am I getting better? The jury is still out.

BB: When you’re just relaxing and not working, what is your favourite thing to do? 

Michael Patrick Albano: Reading, reading and reading. Right now on my night table, I have Deterring Armageddon, a biography of NATO by Peter Apps, After Oscar, Merlin Holland’s excellent biography of his grandfather, Oscar Wilde, Madly, Deeply, the diaries of Alan Rickman and Dark Stories, the short stories of Daphne du Maurier. I love prowling bookstores, new and used. It’s impossible for me to go into one without buying something -my Achilles heel.

BB: What was your first experience of music ? 

Michael Patrick Albano: When I was in grade three, our school was visited by a concert violinist; my classmates yawned but I was mesmerized and pestered my parents for music lessons. My first exposure to opera was seeing Così fan tutte at the Stratford Festival when I was 15 (Stratford regularly produced operas at the time). I loved it. And of course, the Saturday afternoon Metropolitan Opera broadcasts made a huge impression on me. I got the librettos from our local library and imagined the staging as I listened. The die was cast as the expression goes.

Michael Patrick Albano

BB: Of all the productions of opera or theatre you did, what is your favourite? 

Michael Patrick Albano:  At U of T where I directed almost fifty operas, I am particularly proud of the rarities we were able to offer Toronto’s opera lovers. I directed the Canadian premieres of Debussy’s L’Enfant prodigue, Paisiello’s Barber of Seville, Chabrier’s L’Étoile and Britten’s Paul Bunyan.

Michael Patrick Albano directing Paul Bunyan at University of Toronto (Photo: Richard Lu)

With the happy collaboration of Sandra Horst, I staged the school’s first musical, Gershwin’s Of Thee I Sing.

Of thee I sing (Gershwin), University of Toronto Opera, Director: Michael Patrick Albano
Conductor: Sandra Horst, March, 2018, MacMillan Theatre, (pictured) Artists of U of T Opera

Of the four operas I directed for the Canadian Opera Company, I have particularly happy memories of Gianni Schicchi with the legendary Renato Capecchi. Other projects come to mind: La Cenerentola for the Boston Lyric Opera, The Daughter of the Regiment for the Opera Theatre of St. Louis (with fellow Canadian, Tracy Dahl) and An Evening with Noel Coward for Toronto’s Centre Stage which I also wrote. 

An Evening with Noel Coward, Centre Stage Music, Directed & written by Michael Patrick Albano
Musical Director: John Greer, Sept., 1986, Bluma Appel Theatre
(left to right) Katherine Terrell, Mark DuBois, Mark Pedrotti, Janet Stubbs.
La Traviata (Verdi), Opera Festival of New Jersey, Directed by Michael Patrick Albano
Conductor: Cal Stewart Kellogg, June, 1996, Princeton, New Jersey: Jennifer Casey Cabot as Violetta
Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Rossini), Artists of the New York City Opera, Director: Michael Patrick Albano, Conductor: Christopher Keene, January 2000, North American tour

I have great affection for the six children’s operas I wrote and directed; three for the Canadian Children’s Opera Company and three which were joint commissions between the Washington Opera and the Opera Theatre of St. Louis.

Ann Cooper Gay and Michael Patrick Albano pictured on the set of the Canadian Children’s Opera Company Alice in Wonderland in 2015.

BB: Of the many students passing through your shows, who stands out in your memory?

Michael Patrick Albano: There are too many to list, and I want to avoid the trap of mentioning some and not others. Suffice to say it is always gratifying to see former students find their way into the professional world and I enjoy staying in touch with many of them. Seeing graduates at the Metropolitan Opera was a particular thrill; John Fanning in Les Contes d’Hoffmann and Adrianne Pieczonka in Fidelio come to mind.

BB: Do you have any ideas about reforming / modernizing classical music culture to better align with modern audiences?

Michael Patrick Albano: The tastes and expectations of audiences are constantly evolving and we ignore those changes at our peril. For example, contemporary audiences are intolerant of the running times of many 18th and 19th century operas, one of the reasons for judicious cuts. A favourite recording of mine is the Callas/Serafin Lucia di Lammermoor collaboration. Madame Callas and Maestro Serafin were hardly raging radicals, indeed their musical tastes were quite conservative but they understood opera as theatre and the cuts in that recording (which are reflective of the live performances they gave) might shock some purists but a performance of a great opera like Lucia should feel like an exciting roller coaster ride, not like being pulled through a car wash.The purists will argue that edits violate the esprit of the composer but when an auditorium is a third empty before the third act, the creator’s intention has already been compromised.  I am also in favour of editing and rewriting bad dialogue.

BB: A composer once told me that one discovers one’s own authentic voice by imitating the things you like, trying out different procedures and sounds, until finally you discover something you like. BUT our culture has had a fetish for newness & originality. How do you reconcile imitation and originality?

Michael Patrick Albano:  For many years I was a dramaturg with Tapestry’s annual composer/librettist workshop. The brilliant Ann-Marie MacDonald came to speak to us and I was particularly impressed with advice she gave. She cautioned against becoming obsessed with originality. Just write, she encouraged. If you have a voice, it will be heard.

In the operatic composition course I teach, I tell our student composers that they should use the opportunity to discover their authentic voice and stop writing to please their teachers and colleagues and what they imagine to be the expectation of audiences. 

BB: Do you believe Toronto companies could work harder to hire Canadian artists instead of importing singers from USA or Europe?

Michael Patrick Albano: This is a difficult tightrope to walk. When a company craves international status it makes sense to look at the wider spectrum of artists – singers, directors, conductors. However these artists should have something extraordinary to recommend them, not just foreign citizenship. I do feel the opportunities for Canadian artists have significantly improved but it helps tremendously when the artistic director of a company does all the casting themselves, a time consuming but vital responsibility. If you subcontract casting to American and European agents, one shouldn’t be surprised if Canadians get the short end of the stick.

BB: Are opera programs doing enough to prepare students for the business?

Michael Patrick Albano: Although I have been involved with the opera training programs at the Manhattan School of Music and Yale University, I can only speak with authority about U of T Opera with which I have had a long association. I think they doing a tremendous job taking operatic training into the future under the leadership of Sandra Horst, the current head of U of T Opera.

Sandra Horst

Sandra maintains communication with other schools and professional companies so that the school is preparing the kind of performer that companies want to engage. For example, facility with contemporary music and spoken text are skills which were rare back in the day but vital in today’s environment. Because they were born into the digital age, young singers now have technical skills to network and to manufacture their own digital resumes and audition videos. They are taught to be far more proactive in the promotion of their own careers.

Monsieur Choufleuri (Offenbach), University of Toronto Opera, Director: Michael Patrick Albano, Conductor: Sandra Horst, November, 2022, MacMillan Theatre: (pictured centre) Lissy Meyerowitz as Petermann

The future of opera must include new opera and in this, U of T Opera is taking the lead. In 1997, the school inaugurated a workshop at the Faculty of Music to give student composers experience writing opera, following a process of composition, dramaturgy, orchestration and staged public performance. The concept proved so successful that the workshop was ultimately introduced as a formal course in composition at the Master of Music level.

The Machine Stops, University of Toronto Opera, Director & Librettist: Michael Patrick Albano
Conductor: Sandra Horst, January, 2016, MacMillan Theatre: Max van Wyck as Kuno, Victoria Marshall as Vashti

Over the years, we have annually presented a student-composed and student-performed operatic offering, varying in approach from the absurdist, Rob Ford, the Opera to the science fiction dystopia, The Machine Stops. In 2027, the opera composition program will celebrate its thirty year anniversary in the newly-opened, refurbished MacMillan Theatre.

BB: Speaking of the MacMillan Theatre, can you shed some light on the long closure of the theatre ostensibly for repairs?

Michael Patrick Albano:  I am delighted that the MacMillan Theatre will reopen in 2027 but having said that, I feel the University dropped the ball in prolonging what should have been a much more efficient process. Certainly some safety issues needed to be addressed but these concerns were mixed in with updates and aesthetic improvements. Before any real expertise could be sought, an opinion was expressed by an ill-informed individual that the theatre was “unsafe”. This amateur opinion metastasized into fact or as Mark Twain once said, “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth gets its pants on”. The theatre was shut when it could have been upgraded over the summer months, thus depriving tuition-paying students the opportunity of using the facility.

BB: Do you have any teachers or influences you would want to mention?

Michael Patrick Albano:  One cannot learn stage direction from a book. Ideally one should have the opportunity to work with a director from whom you can learn something and the chance to direct early on, even if it involves making mistakes which is how one learns. John Copley, Colin Graham and Leon Major have all made strong impressions on me but I feel I learned the most from Dr. Herman Geiger-Torel (one of the fathers of the COC) and Constance Fisher, the faculty’s first resident stage director.

Herman Geiger-Torel (photo: Norman James from TPL archives)

Generous mentorship is invaluable and to this day, when faced with a directing challenge, I find myself asking “How would Connie have solved this?”

Constance Fisher Craig (photo: Andrew Oxenham)

BB: Do you have any upcoming projects / shows / workshops you might want to mention / promote? and how do you understand your role now in quote unquote “retirement” from U of T?

Michael Patrick Albano:  Oh dear, where to start?? This November, U of T opera will premiere Fall River, the legend of Lizzie Borden, with music by Cecilia Livingston and a libretto by yours truly. I will also direct the production which is the school’s first commissioned work in twenty-five years. Right now I’m researching Canadian history in service of writing four short librettos for our 2026-27 student composer project. Also on my desk is Hamlet, the would be King of Denmark, my own much shorter and reimagined version of the Thomas opera with some of Shakespeare’s dialogue reintroduced in place of musical numbers. Figaro in Eighty-Seven Minutes is a zany project of mine designed to give young conservatory singers a chance to perform a compressed version of Mozart’s masterpiece. Also I have just begun a new libretto for a children’s opera so, when all is said and done, the candid answer to your question about retirement is “What retirement?”

Michael Patrick Albano

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Five composers in two days? If it’s Sunday it must be bel canto romance

Posted on May 19, 2026 by barczablog


I feel like an operatic sausage. I’m stuffed a lot into this post, having jammed too much opera into my head in a brief period of time.

Talk about contrast! Saturday was the closing performance of the Lepage Bluebeard-Erwartung double bill from the Canadian Opera Company. Sunday afternoon was Hello Goodbye, a romantic whirlwind tour of traviata (Verdi) boheme (Puccini) & elisir d’amore (Donizetti), featuring the love duets & arias. One was darkly murderous, the other lightly amorous, one drowning me in overpowering sonorities, the other friendly & delicate. One employed the machinery of theatre to create druggy illusions, the other was accomplished with voices, piano and human beings acting.

I am a longtime admirer of Robert Lepage. I met him briefly at a Wagner Society meeting before his Ring cycle when he called opera the mother of art forms, a quote that I’ve seen revised or adjusted now to speak of theatre rather than opera that way. It doesn’t matter, really, Lepage does them all. His recent Hamlet was a dance adaptation of the play without any of Shakespeare’s lines, cleverly telling the story via bodies in motion. He’s done so much and continues to produce new work, that’s not to be confused with this relic from the last century, revived because even on its fourth or fifth incarnation in Toronto it is still as good or better than anything the COC can offer.

Robert Lepage

As someone who routinely sits as close as possible to the action, sometimes it can feel like a mistake, as it did Saturday at the closing performance of the Canadian Opera Company’s double bill of Béla Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle and Arnold Schönberg’s Erwartung. My COC subscription seat is in the 2nd row.

I also sat really close for the Stratford Macbeth, watching a set reconfigured endlessly, a human-powered version of the machine we see in his Metropolitan Opera Ring cycle. Whether in the endless movements of the set, or watching the bikers riding quiet bikes? it reminded me of the artifice of it all, when we recall that motorcycles are above all noisy, while these stage devices were soft-spoken toys. But I’m not complaining, not when there was so much magic before me, ghostly & mesmerizing. Similarly, from this close vantage, our first glimpse of Bluebeard’s castle is an obvious model that made me giggle remembering This is Spinal Tap and the 36 inch model of Stonehenge, before we moved on to the remarkable images.

The entire stage is surrounded by a gold frame, which was great when you sat far away in O’keefe Centre back in the 1990s, not so good at the Four Seasons Centre in 2026 (or 2015).

Christian van Horn as Bluebeard and Karen Cargill as Judith in the COC’s Bluebeard’s Castle (photo: Michael Cooper)

Notice how the photo does not include the bottom part. Seen from up close the bottom of that gold frame (not shown) actually obstructs parts of the stage, especially for those of us in the first rows, such that for example when the wives emerge from the river of tears we can’t see them until they’re standing up and even then they’re partially obscured. Seeing this show before in the old theatre you could see the river of tears flowing. To be honest I no longer remember what it looks like when you’re further back, as I also saw it from up close in 2015. It’s a very 21st century kind of experience, as when your iPhone upgrades and you’re spending hours or days trying to figure out how to make it work the way it used to.

Lepage and his team take us deep into the heart of madness with Erwartung. It’s chilling, powerful.

(l-r) Mark Johnson as the Psychiatrist, Krisztina Szabó as the Woman and Noam Markus as the Lover in the Canadian Opera Company production of Erwartung, 2015. (Photo: Michael Cooper)

There’s also the other caution I have been given many times, that up close the acoustic of the Four Seasons Centre is quite different than further back. On my way into the hall, a friend muttered a warning about how Johannes Debus held nothing back, turning the orchestra loose, drowning the singers in the big sound.

True.

Normally I love the full frontal orchestra you get sitting close, immersed in a wall of sound, especially for modernist operas (anything from Wagner on). But it meant that at times I was watching lips moving without hearing the voice. Door #5 was not the usual thrill, not when Judith seemed to phone in her high note, coming off it after touching it briefly, perhaps aware that it was the closing performance and she didn’t need to impress anyone. There were places her singing felt more artistic & thoughtful than the last Judith I heard, when I could hear the singing. We’ve seen the production several times in Toronto, a combination that has served to promote the COC brand around the world with their edgy mise en scene. While I genuinely love the way this production looks and feels, seen and heard from up close it felt a bit like a date with an old GF I hadn’t seen in a decade or more, now noticing both my wrinkles and hers, aware that whatever the former excitement between us, now we are “good friends” without any chemistry.

And while I was in my grumpy-pants mood, I was aware again of my ongoing quibble with the COC. For an allegedly Canadian opera company, selling a production sung by two people in Hungarian, and a third person singing in German, I see little reason for them to import singers who are going to be inaudible because they’re drowned out. Yes it’s probably different when you sit further back, where the acoustical balance is better, although I love the COC orchestra from up close. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying they’re bad. I’m saying that there is no reason for the COC to spend extra dollars importing singers on the faulty assumption that Canadians are not as good, if the foreigners will just get drowned out. The imported talent should be known, with a famous name selling tickets, otherwise why bother? the singers should be Canadians.

Sunday was much more romantic. Comparing the two programs, you don’t take someone on a first date where the double bill consists of a Duke who has his previous wives locked up, and a woman who appears to be raving about a lover. Sunday we watched fatal love between Verdi’s Violetta & Alfredo and Puccini’s Mimi & Rodolfo before finding our way to happily ever after with Donizetti’s Adina and Nemorino in Elixir of Love.

And even though one of the singers was indisposed, Sunday was a much happier experience. In the live acoustic of Beach United church, I could hear everything, as no one was drowned out by the soft & sensitive pianism of Narmina Afendiyeva. “Hello Goodbye” was an original play narrated by Ryan Hofman, contrived to contain the romantic arias & duets between characters in la traviata, la boheme and elisir d’amore. I was reminded of Mamma Mia, a play that’s just a loose pretense to set up our favourite tunes, although this time it was Puccini, Verdi & Donizetti, not ABBA.

I could hear that something wasn’t right in the opening dialogue between soprano Holly Chaplin and tenor Ernesto Ramirez, although once they started singing I almost forgot. Later, Joel Ricci stepped in to sing some of the tenor part while Ernesto mimed the Act 1 love scene with Mimi. This time the operatic sound (from Joel & Holly) was shared with a gentler sound from Ernesto, who was obviously holding back. That tenor sound, held back, was still exquisite, his intonation & phrasing stunningly beautiful. While Ernesto’s experience of the afternoon was likely one of being stressed out, worried about his health, the resulting performance was a success. He was able to safely sing “una furtiva lagrima”, admittedly an aria that doesn’t go as high as “che gelida manina”.

And Holly Chaplin was amazing, a bit of the high maintenance diva for Violetta before showing a softer more vulnerable side as Mimi.

Soprano Holly Chaplin

And now this week, she’s rehearsing two more projects. The two images below are both starring Holly, one on Friday May 22nd, the other Saturday May 23rd. Remember how I began this post, speaking of an operatic sausage, too much jammed in? Maybe she’s doing even more, a week with three big projects May 17th, 22nd and 23rd.

Holly is stepping in Friday (on behalf of another singer) to do Donna Anna in the benefit Don Giovanni at the Redwood Theatre, before singing in I Capuletti e Montecchi for Opera by Request on Saturday. Ernesto will be back for the OBR show too..!

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Co-existing worlds of Epic Wagnerian Toronto Symphony

Posted on May 15, 2026 by barczablog

Thursday night the Toronto Symphony showed us they could blend Western & non-Western cultural traditions. When Gustavo Gimeno spoke in his program note of the imminent arrival of thousands from abroad into our city for the FIFA matches, he spoke of a “spirit of international togetherness and exchange”, the dream of peaceful co-existence at a time of stress & conflict.

The concert’s title “Epic Wagner — Legends & Lore” only hints at the broad range of styles. In addition to Wagner we were treated to South African cellist Abel Selaocoe in his TSO debut as featured soloist in Jessie Montgomery’s These Righteous Paths for cello soloist & orchestra, a TSO co-commission in its North American premiere. Hers is a unique and compelling voice that I need to hear again. I hear lots of contemporary compositions played by the TSO and elsewhere, rarely anything as imaginative and beautiful as this. We need to hear more music by Jessie Montgomery.

Composer Jessie Montgomery accepts applause standing before cellist Abel Selaocoe, conductor Gustavo Gimeno & members of the TSO

I wish Gustavo would program this wonderful piece some night when a recording is being made, as I must hear this again, a piece that deserves to be captured even if a big part of this was Abel and his unique gifts as cellist and as a vocalist. The sounds he gets from his cello are unlike anything I have heard before, a virtuoso who makes the instrument sing, and who joins in as a vocalist. I’m trying to find ways to describe my experience that properly honour what I saw & heard, an amazing cellist in his encounter with an amazing composition. Frequently during this piece, I was staring at the orchestra trying to figure out who was playing in order to figure out just where the colours were coming from, meaning what combination of instruments. While it’s modern the music is beautiful yet edgy and dramatic, some of the best new music I have ever encountered. That Jessie drew her inspiration from her deceased mother’s poetry was a layer of complexity I need to decode, by listening to the piece again.

Jessie Montgomery’s acceptance speech for Best Contemporary Classical Composition at the 2024 GRAMMYs

Exciting as the concerto was, Abel surprised us in his encore, an interactive improvisation calling for audience participation and a little help from the orchestra behind him as well. I didn’t want it to end but of course that’s unfair to Abel, whose energy seems unlimited, and whose charisma calls forth the best kind of response from the listener.

Abel Selaocoe with TSO (photo: Allan Cabral/Courtesy of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra)

At times he was playing super soft notes on the cello, seguing into something employing his voice as much as his cello, showing us two different sounds to his voice. His bass notes seem to go down to the low C that basses aspire to (meaning the C below the F in O Isis und Osiris by Mozart or the D sung in Koyaanisqatsi from Philip Glass), low and deep and powerful. So in addition to that epic low note, Abel also has a croony melodic sound at the top of his range, that might go up to a bass’s E or F above middle C. The two voices are so distinct that they almost sound like two different people, and in a concert like this one, are amazing to hear while he also plays the cello. And then, the audience was responding, singing back to him, and he also had the double bass section of the orchestra giving a kind of backup pattern (something like A- E, G-D, first sung by Abel) then as he pointed at them, played by the double basses.

Abel Selaocoe with TSO (photo: Allan Cabral/Courtesy of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra)

I feel lucky to have seen Abel who is a very exciting artist, whether as soloist playing the compositions of others or improvising alone, and bringing out the best in the TSO audience. For the first half of the concert alone, I strongly recommend that you go see the TSO when they repeat the concert on Saturday May 16th at 7:30 pm.

The second half was entirely different, when we heard orchestral pieces from the operas of Richard Wagner. Full disclosure, although I was intrigued by Abel, the Wagner was the reason I came to hear the TSO on this occasion. My favourite composers are the romantics, even if I can never get enough.

Gustavo Gimeno and the TSO (Photo by Allan Cabral/Courtesy of the TSO)

After intermission we first heard the Flying Dutchman overture, a piece that gives us the first good look at the composer Wagner would become, a relatively tight composition for its time in its samples of the themes of the opera, such as the Dutchman’s theme, the redemption motif, the sailors song, taking us to a powerful ending.

What followed was a selection from Lorin Maazel’s Ring Without Words, a longer work that is an orchestral paraphrase created from the four music dramas The Ring of the Nibelungen. Our nearly half-hour segment took us on a trip through the last of the four operas, namely Twilight of the Gods, in three big chunks. I’ve previously encountered two-thirds of this, in a combination of Siegfried’s Rhine-journey and Siegfried’s funeral music sometimes with a direct segue from one into the next as though it were one composition. Maazel does this too, adding an additional segue into the final ten minutes of Brunnhilde’s Immolation scene, where the cycle comes to its cataclysmic conclusion. When sung Brunnhilde is supposed to ride her horse into the funeral pyre (even if that is rarely staged that way), but this way without voices it’s simpler, no staging, singers, horses, or fire: just the orchestral music. And this way we also avoid any debate about the director’s choices.

It’s quite a spectacular piece of music that had me teary-eyed in a few places, calling for the most enormous orchestra you’re likely to encounter, especially given that Wagner’s orchestra is usually in an orchestra pit rather than assembled on a stage before you. Even without the voices it’s a stunning experience that’s a bit like film music in presenting us with the soundtrack minus the visuals. That seems reasonable especially when we remember that Wagner would be the prototype for the first film music composers in the 1930s. It’s ironic if we recall that some such as Erich Wolfgang Korngold were refugees from the Third Reich, a place where Wagner was treated like a hero.

The TSO repeat the concert on Saturday May 16th at 7:30 pm. The week of June 4th the TSO take some inspiration from cinema, including Bernard Herrmann’s suite from Psycho and Korngold’s violin concerto, a work containing themes from his films.

Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897 – 1957)
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Interviewing Don Giovanni’s women

Posted on May 13, 2026 by barczablog

On May 22nd the new Benevolence Opera Project, who present opera both as entertainment and as a platform for social engagement collaborate with Redwood Theatre to present Don Giovanni in a benefit supporting Redwood Women’s Shelter.

I asked Holly Chaplin /Donna Anna, Mary Ferrari /Donna Elvira, and Kathryn Rose Johnston /Zerlina to reflect on the changing ways we see Mozart’s famous 18th century opera about the famous seducer and its women.

Barczablog: Are we as a society making progress since Mozart’s time?    

Holly Chaplin /Donna Anna: Yes, but in a ‘two steps forward, three steps back’ kinda way. I hate to say it but I regularly come across people who just don’t understand the Me Too movement at all. I have listened to men from all walks of life talk about how the Me Too movement is a threat to them. They often say that they ‘can’t talk to women without being accused of something’.  As much as they don’t deserve my patience, I try my best to listen to these people and hopefully find away to help them understand. My years working in a hospital gave me this skill. I have gotten through to some, but just like ‘two steps forward/three steps back’ fashion, they tell me ‘you’re one of the good ones. (Major face palm)

Barczablog: How is the story different in 2026 than 1783  (or whatever date it premiered) There are differences for the three women: Elvira vs Anna vs Zerlina, class & marriage 

Mary Ferrari /Donna Elvira: Performing these works in 2026, especially for Redwood Women’s Shelter, changes the way we experience them. In Mozart’s time, women often had very little social or legal power, and seduction could easily become manipulation or coercion. Today, we speak far more openly about abuse, consent, and power imbalance, so audiences naturally hear these stories differently. Society has certainly made progress, yet many women are still escaping controlling or abusive relationships, which is why this performance remains painfully relevant today.

Soprano Mary Ferrari (Donna Elvira)

The three women in Don Giovanni experience oppression in very different ways depending on class and social position. Donna Anna has status and protection, Donna Elvira carries emotional vulnerability and obsession, while Zerlina is especially exposed because she is young and lower class. Those differences still exist in modern society, even if they appear in different forms.

Holly Chaplin /Donna Anna: This opera will continue to be produced because it will always remain relevant. Let me tell you a short story of Don Giovanni, but maybe instead of calling it Don Giovanni, let’s call it Harvey Weinstein, or Sean ‘P Diddy’ Combs..or R Kelly. You don’t really need to know much more about Don G as a character with those comparisons. We have Donna Anna, but let’s call her Amber Heard instead. We have Don Elvira, but she’ll be played by Kim Kardashian, and Zerlina will be played by Rihanna. That’s Don Giovanni in a nut shell. Amber, Kim and Rihanna all had very public Don Giovanni’s in their lives. 

Kathryn Rose Johnston /Zerlina: Thankfully in 2026 the conversation is a lot more open about assault than it was in the 1700’s. It is unfortunate though that these issues persist (would be nice if Don Giovanni was no longer a relevant story). Thankfully we have shelters to help women in these situations but the eventual goal is of course to lessen/eliminate this kind of behaviour in how we bring up the next generation.

Soprano Kathryn Rose Johnston (Zerlina)

I think the main difference is how it is viewed by audience. Things that were jokes back then, we now know are serious issues and treat them as such. The conversation is alive instead of taboo. Progress has been made, and with luck this production will get us a tiny step closer to getting our message across.

Holly Chaplin /Donna Anna: I am grateful that we have laws to protect victims of sexual assault, but everyone has heard a story about victims being screwed over by the justice system. Sexual assault cases remain to be some of the most difficult in the court of law. Media outlets will mention ‘holes in the story’ making any person who has to recount a traumatic event scared to do so. 

At the end of the day, I still know people who continue to have Me Too stories. I have a Me Too story. What I have to say generally about this; the patriarchy helps very few. Sexual assault can happen to anyone, regardless of who you are. We need to encourage everyone to speak out when they have been wronged because silence only helps the oppressor. 

Barczablog: Can this be funny? how did the comedy work in 18th century.
Must Don Giovanni die, both in the original (18th century social mores) and today? 

Holly Chaplin /Donna Anna: I think it is necessary for Don Giovanni to die…or to get thrown in jail. Otherwise we just watched this guy terrorize three women for two hours with no consequences! If I wanted to do that I could just listen to my friends tell me about their unfortunate tinder dates. 

Kathryn Rose Johnston /Zerlina: This brings up the questions of the death penalty upon which I will not comment. All I’ll say is that the world is a better place without people like the Don.

Mary Ferrari /Donna Elvira: The comedy also functions differently today than it did in the 18th century. Audiences at the time were often more accepting of certain behaviors from powerful men, whereas modern audiences examine those behaviors much more critically. Today, the humor only truly works when we also recognize the darkness and cruelty beneath it.

Holly Chaplin /Donna Anna:  I believe Donna Anna’s assault was a result of Don Giovanni’s thrill seeking behaviour of wanting to knock a woman of high standing down. My heart breaks for Anna. She experiences two traumas in one day, and then people have the audacity to describe her character as crazy! Her music is definitely my favorite but it’s also the most violating to witness. In the recit before Or sai chi l’onore, Anna recounts what happened the night she was assaulted, followed by her father’s murder. This particular recit makes me question if this opera can actually be presented as a comedy anymore because it is the farthest thing from funny. 

Kathryn Rose Johnston /Zerlina: I have to assume Elvira’s interjections were meant to be comedic (the Woman waiting for the man to call her back trope). I see now the struggle of her love vs. Her want to protect others in her position. Context can sometimes negate humour as there are moments we now feel a little guilty laughing at (the Catalogue Aria springs to mind). The main thing we gain from their class differences are the similarities in the experiences of people in different social classes; we are all human.

Barczablog: Compare the music in the three roles. Who has the prettiest tunes, who did Mozart want us to love?  How do you feel about the music Mozart gave each of you?

Mary Ferrari /Donna Elvira: Musically, Mozart gave each woman extraordinary depth and individuality. Elvira’s music is passionate and conflicted, Anna’s is noble and dramatic, and Zerlina’s is warm, charming, and deeply human. Mozart clearly loved all three women musically and gave each of them emotional truth and dignity.

Kathryn Rose Johnston /Zerlina: I feel Zerlina has more to her than meets the eye (or ear). While much of her music is simple, she darts around to different harmonies in ensemble pieces, and even takes the lead in spots of the Act one finale after being assaulted. She is strong and despite being a peasant, knows that she deserves to be treated with dignity. Her music is the brightness of the opera.

Mary Ferrari /Donna Elvira: At the same time, Mozart and Da Ponte’s three operas such as The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Così fan tutte also reflect the limitations of their society. In these works, women are often manipulated, tested, abandoned, or trapped within systems controlled by men. Even when the women are strong, social power usually still belongs to the men. However, I do not believe Mozart mocked women or treated them lightly. Musically, he gave women some of the most beautiful, emotionally truthful music ever written. That is why modern audiences continue to connect so deeply with these operas today. We are not simply watching an 18th century story; we are also confronting issues of power, gender, desire, and abuse that still exist in modern society.

Kathryn Rose Johnston /Zerlina: The thing I find most fascinating (as a recit loving gal) is the division of secco and accompanied recit in each character and how it represents each women’s class. Donna Anna has mostly accompanied recit being higher class and Zerlina only secco (speech like) as she is the lowest class. Elvira gets a bit of both. Their music is indicative of the different archetypes represented in each of the three women and highlights how women of all classes and personalities can be victimized by assault.

Barczablog: Who gets the worst treatment by the Don? 

Holly Chaplin /Donna Anna: Definitely Donna Elvira in the second act. You pity her for still loving him, then you have to suffer the second hand embarrassment when he mocks and taunts her while he eats his dinner. It’s the hardest to watch in my opinion. 

Mary Ferrari /Donna Elvira: Don Giovanni portrays a remorseless, power driven abuser whose charm and authority are used to manipulate, control, and exploit those around him.

Kathryn Rose Johnston /Zerlina: I can’t place a value on how he affects each of them as they all have valid complaints, but I think killing Donna Anna’s father adds insult to injury.

Baritone Alexander Hajek plays Don Giovanni

Barczablog: What Mozart roles have you sung or are preparing to sing after this.
And how do you feel about the way women were treated by Mozart (or by librettist Da Ponte in his 3 operas).

Mary Ferrari /Donna Elvira: I have learned the role of Queen of the Night from The Magic Flute, and I hope to perform it in the future. For me, the role is far more than just dramatic high notes. She is a woman expressing power, rage, pain, and desperation at the highest emotional level.

Holly Chaplin /Donna Anna: I have sung a few Mozart roles; Zerlina, Fiordiligi, Cecilio, Queen of the Night, and I am currently looking at Konstanze and Countess. As for how Mozart portrays women, that’s a complicated question. I actually like how Mozart portrays women, however, I think centuries of patriarchal institutions/directors/teachers have made light of the struggles of women. That’s probably how Don Giovanni morphed into a comedy. I can spar all day about Cosi’ ending but that requires a beer. 

Kathryn Rose Johnston /Zerlina: Besides Zerlina, I have sung Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Servilia (La clemenza di Tito), Ilia (Idomeneo) and Bastienne (Bastien und Bastienne).

    Holly Chaplin /Donna Anna: What I love about Mozart’s operas are that he never does anything for no reason. Now what the ‘reason’ is, will be up for debate til the end of time. I can only drone on with my take..! 

    Soprano Holly Chaplin (Donna Anna)

      Donna Elvira and Donna Anna are both part of higher society, per the use of “Donna” YET it seems to me like Elvira is somehow lower than Anna. I think Elvira is meant to be older, and from an Andrew Tate perspective, has lost some of her value. With Don G being a thrill seeker, it makes sense that he would be bored of his actual wife. Maybe she is chasing him around to ensure that she gets his pension from the army when he inevitably succumbs to his risky behaviour? Elvira also has the most explosive anger toward the Don, but then she gets very weepy in the act 2 sextet…maybe pregnancy hormones? 

      Kathryn Rose Johnston /Zerlina: I think (and hope) that Mozart was a feminist. Many of his works were ahead of their time in the way they dealt with class struggles and gender-roles. The very fact that he chose to set stories that pushed the boundaries of what people in his time deemed acceptable feels like good ally-ship. I have always felt valued whenever I have been lucky enough to be a woman in a Mozart piece.

      Holly Chaplin /Donna Anna: I think Zerlina being low class and young was meant to show how regular, everyday women were accustomed to the little egos of men. She sings Batti Batti to her husband Masetto. Let me paraphrase this translation; Hit me, my Masetto. Pull my hair, carve out my eyes and I’ll kiss you afterwards…it is possible that she’s calling his bluff because she finishes the aria with the text ‘non hai core’(have no heart/you don’t have the heart to) It’s possible that Zerlina and Masetto are in a very toxic relationship that includes gaslighting and infidelity, or that she’s stuck in an abusive relationship and saw Don Giovanni as a way out. I guess the director ultimately gets to decide! 

      Mary Ferrari /Donna Elvira: Mozart did not write women as decorative characters; he gave them psychological complexity and extraordinary emotional intensity. In many of his operas, the women carry some of the most honest and deeply human moments in the music.

      Holly Chaplin /Donna Anna: This opera is basically an essay on how to make a character unlikable. The opera starts with the very fresh aftermath of him assaulting Donna Anna, and then kills her father. You can ask ‘well maybe he went through something to act the way he does’…then we meet Donna Elvira, showing his pattern of garbage behaviour. Then we get to see him in action when he starts after Zerlina. This man is trash. The end. 

      *******

      Benevolence Opera Project & Redwood Theatre Present Don Giovanni A One-Night-Only Opera Event Supporting the Redwood Women’s Shelter, Toronto, on Friday, May 22 at 8:00 PM at the Redwood Theatre, 1300 Gerrard St East.

      This special one-night-only performance features Canadian Baritone Alexander Hajek in the titular role of Mozart’s electrifying masterpiece of seduction, power, and consequence, on Friday, May 22 at 8:00 PM at the Redwood Theatre. Featuring some of Canada’s finest operatic talent, this intimate production invites audiences into a thrilling “chess match” of wit, desire, and morality—brought vividly to life in the vibrant Redwood Theatre space.

      A pre-performance talk will be given at 7:15 PM by Opera Canada’s Michael Jones, offering insight into the opera’s enduring legacy and themes.

      Cast & Creative Team:
      Don Giovanni — Alexander Hajek
      Leporello — Luke Noftall
      Masetto — James Coole-Stevenson
      Commendatore — Andrew Tees
      Donna Anna — Holly Chaplin
      Don Ottavio — Cameron Mazzei
      Donna Elvira — Mary Ferrari
      Zerlina — Kathryn Rose Johnston
      Musical Director & Pianist — Brahm Goldhamer
      Narrator & Producer — Ryan Hofman

      Event Details:
      Date: Friday, May 22
      Time: 8:00 PM (Pre-talk at 7:15 PM)
      Location: Redwood Theatre, 1300 Gerrard St E., Toronto

      Tickets start at $50 and are available at:
      https://www.theredwoodtheatre.com/event-details/don-giovanni

      Posted in Interviews, Opera, Press Releases and Announcements | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

      Witnessing the birth of romanticism with young Werther

      Posted on May 10, 2026 by barczablog

      Excuse me as I gush. I love the new Canadian Opera Company production of Werther, featuring some of the best singing we’ve heard in years. I want people to come see this opera, so that the COC decides to do more Massenet. Manon sometime soon? Oh well, one can dream.

      I came Saturday night with Ann Cooper Gay, a former artistic director of the Canadian Children’s Opera Company and a soprano with the COC before that.

      Ann Cooper Gay & moi (photo by George aka Ann’s husband, the reason I’m giggling)

      It felt absolutely perfect to be sitting beside her, given how this opera frames its action with children’s voices, sung by members of the company she once led. It is in my opinion the best such chorus in any opera I could identify. Yes I love the parody of militarism at the beginning of Carmen. This one is better because it’s functional to soften the story, framing the opera at the beginning and end. Even knowing it’s coming I get all teary-eyed hearing the angelic voices sing of Christmas as Werther & Charlotte discuss the meaning of life. The bravissimos erupting from the Saturday audience at the end suggest that maybe I am not the only one who turns to crème brûlée at Massenet’s soft landing on the hero’s death.

      There was a lot of drama even before the show, on a night when the Don Valley Parkway was closed on a busy weekend. And to add to the suspense, the COC have added extra security coming into the Four Seasons Centre. It seems apt to submit to the usual procedures for boarding an airplane, considering that we hope to be transported somewhere by the magic of opera.

      The stoic Toronto crowd wouldn’t let that stop us. From a chat in the lobby with Kenneth Baker, it would seem that this time we got through the screening process quicker than his previous experience last week. Chances are staff will get better at this as they get accustomed to the procedures (and maybe ditto for the audience). All I know is, I was primed for a magical experience, and the COC delivered.

      Oh yes, the opera. I think Jules Massenet is under-rated, perhaps still to be properly discovered. I recall he was a favourite of Stuart Hamilton, whose Opera in Concert presented sixteen Massenet productions (some operas repeated), as you can see on their database. I believe the culture of opera in French has a tradition of responding to the text going back to Lully, Charpentier and Rameau, but especially in the century of Berlioz, Gounod, Bizet, Saint-Saens, Debussy, Ravel, Poulenc: and of course Massenet. Italian might be a more fluid language to sing, but the composers in French kept their musical forms in check to allow space for literary ambition to have their moments in a way no other culture would do. If we think of the possibilities of opera as a medium where text is illuminated by music, the romantic composers are for me the apex in the 80 years between 1850 and 1930. The ideal is often something we contemplate, dreaming of the possibilities we encounter in our imagination via audio recordings. For me this one exceeded my expectations and showed me how powerful the medium can be.

      My headline is meant to suggest what I experienced in the theatre, taken up in the passions of young Werther: a seminal figure if there ever was one. We could go off on a tangent with the novels influenced by Goethe, whose Werther & Faust are like the skeletons in the closet of romanticism. I don’t think you get Byron or Wagner let alone all varieties of Bildungsroman, the heroes of Dickens or JD Salinger without Goethe. Yes yes i am making sweeping generalizations, as I write after midnight, still entranced by the COC’s production.

      But think for a moment, about the real magic of an adaptation going from a private literary medium like poetry or prose, into a public performed medium such as theatre or opera. When we read of Werther’s sorrows we have a different experience than sitting with hundreds of others listening to a tenor embodying pure sensibility, whether telling us of the beauty of nature, his admiration for a woman, or his despair. It’s one thing to read about an emotion described, something tremendous & magical to give us the visceral experience of that emotion as sometimes happens in music.

      Many have tried to bridge that gap, between the page and the stage. I have watched & listened to Berlioz and Gounod try to show us a sensitive man tell us of the beauty of nature, but they pale beside what Massenet accomplishes in the first act of Werther. I think of Massenet occupying the middle ground between complex artistic ambitions (thinking of Berlioz or Debussy), but not so blatant as a crowd-pleaser (an accusation one might level at Gounod). The music is simplicity itself, first in the orchestral introduction, and then completed by the soaring tenor line when Werther tells us what he’s feeling, and you feel it too. I’ve heard so many different approaches to this, some gentle like Cesare Valetti, some powerful like Jonas Kaufmann. When the composer has done it right, there’s space for different interpretations and this is especially true of this opera. I was on the verge of tears (and am a sucker for this nature-sensibility music before anyone comes onstage, which is among my favourite compositions by anyone anywhere), anticipating Russell Thomas. We’ve heard the voice before, it’s heroic, wonderfully precise as far as intonation. He soared fearlessly over the orchestra from the beginning. While he would sing more softly later, especially in his final scene, he was close to perfect in this huge role, his top notes calling to us eloquently. His technique seems phenomenally good, in the confidence he gave me every time he ascended, the certainty I always had in his ability to hit the high notes. I understand that there is a trade-off, when his approach to a French vowel might be to pronounce it a bit differently in order to enable him to sing high notes so reliably; if the alternative is clearer French but sung less securely, I am happy to accept that trade.

      Charlotte (Victoria Karkacheva) & Werther (Russell Thomas; photo: Michael Cooper)

      There’s even a Mother’s Day tie-in, as Charlotte tells us of her deceased mother. I can relate. Charlotte lost her mom three years ago, I think she said. Mine passed about a year and a half ago. For me this was the highlight in the performance by Victoria Karkacheva, a moment of sensitivity that was relatable. That’s what Massenet does, distilling emotion & experience into simple & direct musical expression.

      This was among the best sung shows I have ever encountered from the COC. Gordon Bintner and Simone Osborne were truly note-perfect as Albert and Sophie.

      Werther (Russell Thomas) and Albert (Gordon Bintner; photo: Michael Cooper)

      Gordon’s Albert is a wonderfully sympathetic creation, making Charlotte’s marriage much more than just the outcome of a promise made to her mother to marry this man, but a believable action under the circumstances. Simone’s Sophie offers an important contrast to the obsessive principals, giving us a glimpse of normalcy as a backdrop to the action. Her expressions of joy help to balance the darkness coming from Werther & Charlotte.

      Ditto for the three men we meet in the first and second act. Robert Pomakov (Le Bailli) is a gruff but lovable choir-master with the children, a father-figure without elaboration.

      Alain Coulombe (Johann) and Michael Colvin (Schmidt; photo: Michael Cooper)

      Michael Colvin (Schmidt) and Alain Coulombe (Johann), express their admiration for Bacchus & beverages, again supplying important bouyancy to the opera.

      Le Bailli (Robert Pomakov), Käthchen (Emma Pennell) & Brühlmann (Ben Wallace; photo: Michael Cooper).

      And there’s also the pair of Emma Pennell & Ben Wallace giving us reason to smile, as Käthchen & Brühlmann.

      This is a co-production with Opéra de Montréal and Vancouver Opera directed by Alain Gauthier. I am grateful that the period is consistent with the novel (18th century) rather than modernized, given the conservative mores, as with Charlotte’s obedience to her mother’s wishes or the frequent references to Christianity in the opera.

      The COC Orchestra led by Johannes Debus sounded superb, although (as I have hinted) I was dying to hear Massenet and was more than ready to be thrilled by what I heard and saw. Werther continues with five performances remaining, May 13, 15, 17, 19 & 23.

      Posted in Books & Literature, Opera, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

      Symbolist cicadas probing underneath

      Posted on May 8, 2026 by barczablog

      If you think the headline is cryptic, you should see the play.

      I saw the World Premiere of cicadas, a new work that I understand as an elaboration upon a radio play, a Tarragon Theatre and NAC English Theatre Co-Production in association with fu-GEN Asian Theatre Company, directed by Nina Lee Aquino. Radio drama never lets us see any of the players or the events of the plot. Listeners must use their imagination, as we do when someone tells us a story. Such was our experience with cicadas even though we had a set and actors before us.

      David Yee and Chris Thornborrow are both listed as “creator”. I recall David as a playwright from his carried away on the crest of a wave from over ten years ago. I encountered Chris as a Toy Piano composer (concert and CD in 2017), from Bicycle Opera Project’s A Little Rain Must Fall (aha an opera with a libretto by David from 2014), and Hook Up a musical from 2019. Suffice it to say that David and Chris have worked together before, and seem to have an excellent rapport when it comes to collaboration.

      This is from the blurb on Tarragon Theatre’s website:
      In 2032, while on the hunt for a new home in Toronto’s Trinity Bellwoods, Trim and Janie are drawn to a very peculiar house. Ryan Hollyman plays Trim, Monica Dottor plays Janie. Ellora Patnaik plays Adeline and others.

      Trinity Bellwoods is near the original location of Trinity College, founded by John Strachan and the elite establishment of Upper Canada who controlled life in the city 200 years ago. The location is some of the most important real estate in the country.

      Real estate agent (Ellora Patnaik) meets Trim (Ryan Hollyman) and Janie (Monica Dottor; photo: Jae Yang)

      I want to invoke theatre history for a moment. Maeterlinck’s early plays such as The Blind or The Intruder are symbolist, a style briefly in vogue although when seen from our time are so melodramatic & obvious as to hit you over the head with the images. Maeterlinck is somewhat subtler in Pelléas et Mélisande, a play Debussy turned into his only opera recently staged by Opera Atelier. Bluebeard’s Castle, playing currently as part of a double bill at the Canadian Opera Company is also symbolist.

      Symbols don’t make a play symbolist. A key quality of a symbolist dramaturgy is deliberate ambiguity, evading easy interpretation, to invoke the inexpressible, even suggesting a world that cannot be understood. That is exactly what I felt at the end of cicadas, contemplating the mysteries of our world.

      That the audience for the opening of cicadas was so ready to laugh at the most extreme moments, as though we were watching a horror movie unfolding, is consistent with a style that flirts with melodrama. A more typical group without the festive air of an opening night might be more susceptible to the scariest moments of the story. We straddled the boundary between scary & silly, especially after intermission when we descended into something verging on social satire, before plunging deeper into the realms of mystery and the inexplicable. I like that effect, the humour functioning to remove our defences. I dislike it when a critic gives away a story by telling you too much, so I won’t betray the ending, except to say it became even more symbolist.

      The philosophical probing in cicadas serves to lead one away from the external focus as we find in real estate listings and realist theatre, towards feelings, essences & hidden meanings. Sometimes that’s accomplished through a de facto report of the inexplicable condition of the house but at other times indirectly, musically.

      Home inspector (Ellora Patnaik) meeting Trim (Ryan Hollyman; photo: Jae Yang)

      We were on an interface between science and sensibility, conversations in the present and past, the time-frame sometimes ambiguous, the actions far beyond what you see except in sci-fi or fantasy. Music was a key part of the dramaturgy, taking us away from logic & linearity into a place that was more lyrical and poetic, somewhat subjective, imagined, internal. While I could show you photos of some of the stranger images, I worry that they can’t capture what you feel in the context of music and unfolding drama; so I have chosen not to attempt to deconstruct what was for me a magical experience.

      This was the most literal sort of orchestra pit I have yet encountered, four musicians behind a door to the scary basement of the house in Trinity Bellwoods. The answers that lurk in the dark under the house are written in Chris’s music or in strange writing upon the wall.

      Percussionist Nathan Petitpas (photo: Jae Yang)

      In the washroom at intermission a fellow traveller said he wished he’d had some mushrooms. He mentioned the atmospheric music. We are in a very stylized world, the images and music taking us far from simple realism into something much richer.

      At times the action is as scary as something you’d find in Hitchcock. I think Hitchcock was influenced by symbolists, especially in a film such as Vertigo or North by Northwest, the latter a film full of humorous touches. While the Tarragon audience was often howling with nervous laughter except in the last part, the principals were completely deadpan throughout.

      I like the fact that I didn’t see where we were going, that the outcome of the play surprised me. And I liked it a lot. I was moved, and the day after can’t stop thinking about what I’ve seen and heard.

      The world premiere production of cicadas will run at Tarragon Theatre until at least May 24th. I recommend that you see it.

      Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

      Ernesto Ramirez’s reflections on singing, preparing for his upcoming concert: an interview with a great singer

      Posted on May 2, 2026 by barczablog

      I am a big fan of Ernesto Ramirez and his beautiful tenor voice. I’ve seen him sing several times. The voice has a memorable sound, indeed the ideal colour for the Italian bel canto repertoire.

      He is a singer of intelligence & sensitivity. I love the colour of his voice!

      On May 17th Ernesto will join Holly Chaplin (another singer I admire) for Hello Goodbye, a concert of romantic duets.

      To find out more about him and the concert I asked him some questions.

      *******

      Barczablog: Are you more like your father or mother?
      I carry both of them in different ways. From my father, I inherited discipline and a strong sense of responsibility—he has been the source of my strength in difficult moments, but also an example of maintaining joy even when life is not easy. From my mother, I got emotional intensity and intuition, which are essential for what I do on stage. My life has been about learning how to balance those two forces: control and expression.

      BB: What is the best or worst thing about what you do?
      The best thing is the ability to connect deeply with others through music. It is a universal language—when it truly communicates, words are not necessary. There are moments on stage where everything aligns—the voice, the orchestra, the audience—and it feels timeless, almost like stepping into another era of human experience.

      The worst part is the instability. Financial pressure, constant self-promotion, and the emotional toll of the industry can distract from the art itself. Many careers burn out because survival becomes the priority, and the artist gets lost in the process.

      BB: Who do you like to listen to or watch?
      My listening is very broad. I study great operatic voices, but I also listen to jazz, folk, and traditional music. Freedom of expression is what inspires me most.

      Outside of music, I enjoy documentaries and interviews. I’m interested in how people think and how they build their lives.

      BB: What ability or skill do you wish you had, that you don’t have?
      I wish I had a stronger instinct for delegation. As artists building our own projects, we tend to carry everything ourselves. I’m learning to trust my colleagues more—allowing them to contribute creatively and share responsibility. That process has been very rewarding.

      BB: When you’re just relaxing and not working, what is your favourite thing to do?
      Spending time with my daughters is central to everything. Something changed in me the moment I held them for the first time—that taught me more about connection than anything else.

      Ernesto the playful dad

      Beyond that, I value silence. Walking, reflecting, reading—stepping away from noise and resetting mentally. In today’s world, that feels essential. but also talk with my friends when possible!

      BB: What was your first experience of music?
      Music was always present growing up. It wasn’t something formal—it was something lived. Singing came before I understood what training was. That natural connection is something I still try to protect.

      After traveling and experiencing different cultures, I’ve realized that we are not so different. Music reveals that. It connects, heals, and reminds us that we share the same human need to express.

      BB: Who is your favourite singer?
      It’s difficult to choose one, but Luciano Pavarotti had a profound impact on me. Also Plácido Domingo, especially because of his connection with Mexico—I remember seeing him on television as a child, singing in a puppet show, and that stayed with me.

      What I admire most about Pavarotti is his ability to combine technical mastery with emotional truth—without exaggeration. Everything was in the voice and the language . That is something I strive for every day.

      Tenor Ernesto Ramirez

      BB: Were you always a tenor?
      No. Like many singers, my voice evolved. It took time and the right guidance to settle into the tenor repertoire. That process teaches patience. Forcing the voice into the wrong category can cause long-term damage.

      It also requires self-awareness—understanding your strengths, your limitations, and being open to growth beyond what the system expects.

      BB: What instruments do you play?
      My father introduced me to piano, and like many kids I learned some guitar. But the instrument that truly captured me was the clarinet. Hearing my grandfather and uncle play at at the highest level, and later discovering the Brahms sonata, had a deep impact on me.

      I trained as a clarinetist and completed university studies in it. Today, piano remains an essential tool for learning repertoire and understanding music, though I mostly play it for personal enjoyment.

      BB: On May 17th you and Holly Chaplin sing a concert together—what are you singing?
      The program is centered around bel canto repertoire. Holly introduced the idea, and her concept—Hello and Goodbye—sparked the narrative direction first.

      Soprano Holly Chaplin

      The selections explore themes of love, meeting, and parting, combining lyrical intimacy with more dramatic moments. It’s a story within stories, designed to be accessible while still offering depth for experienced listeners.

      BB: What was the thinking behind the program?
      Balance and communication. A concert should take the audience on a journey, not just loud singing with top notes. We wanted something simple but meaningful—bringing together humour, love, tragedy, and ultimately hope.

      BB: Between you and Holly, whose input designed the program?
      It started collaboratively, and then we divided roles to move efficiently. There’s always dialogue—what works vocally, what creates contrast, what tells the story clearly. It’s built on mutual respect.

      BB: What is your favourite piece to sing as an encore?
      It depends on the audience, but something direct and emotionally immediate works best. For me, returning to my native language allows a deeper level of expression and connection.

      BB: Have you ever felt a challenge reconciling the business side with the art of music?
      Constantly. The business side—agents, contracts, funding, marketing—is necessary, but it can easily overshadow the art. The challenge is to build systems that support the work without compromising integrity.

      BB: What can classical music learn from popular musicians?
      Clarity and direct engagement. Popular artists communicate without barriers. Classical music sometimes hides behind tradition instead of inviting people in.

      We also need to remember that classical music was once the music of the people. It should still challenge us, elevate us, and refine how we think—not become inaccessible.

      BB: Who are your favourite artists you’ve worked with?
      I’ve worked with many remarkable musicians across genres—from collaborations connected to the pianist that worked with Prince, to experiences with members of Tower of Power. and other bands.

      In opera, working with artists like Sondra Radvanovsky, Tracy Dahl and Erika Grimaldi has been deeply inspiring. What stands out most is integrity—artists who are prepared, collaborative, and committed to the work.

      BB: Tenors are often the romantic lead… how do you feel about that stereotype?
      It’s part of tradition, but it’s limiting. The tenor voice can express far more—conflict, vulnerability, darkness.

      That said, composers often use the tenor voice for romance because of its emotional colour—it can move people in a very direct way.

      BB: What aria best showcases your voice?
      It depends on where the voice is at a given moment. For me, repertoire that combines lyricism with dramatic weight works best. 

      More importantly, it’s not just about the aria—it’s about the context. Understanding what happens before the aria is essential to singing it truthfully. Perhaps some arias are better suited  for the color of the voice than others. But to express would be the main goal!

      BB: If you could tell institutions how to train future artists, what would you change?
      Less emphasis on conformity, more on individuality. Artists need technical training, but also the ability to think independently and develop at their own pace.

      The voice takes time. Growth doesn’t follow deadlines or age limits. Still they are doing a fantastic job to train the new generations to what the new era needs.

      BB: What would you say to Toronto audiences about North American artists?
      The level of artistry here is extremely high. Supporting local artists is not about lowering standards—it’s about recognizing excellence that already exists.

      BB: What is your favourite role? Any role you wish you could sing?
      I am a believer that a singer’s relationship with repertoire evolves over time. What matters is approaching each role at the right moment, I love music and each time I am involved in a project it becomes the favorite of the moment.

      Many roles I once dreamed of—like Pinkerton or Don José—became realities through discipline and patience. That taught me to turn dreams into structured goals.

      BB: What are your favourite melodies to sing?
      Mexican melodies, especially those that feel natural and inevitable—where the emotion lives inside the line. But that quality exists in all great music.

      BB: What influences / teachers were most influential on your development?
      Many mentors shaped me, but what they shared was a commitment to truth.

      One I will name is Bruno Pola—he planted the seed that led me into opera. Good teaching goes beyond technique; it helps you understand who you are and how to communicate that honestly. Any teacher that taught me something is and will be a treasure in my life forever.

      *******

      That voice! I want to hear more of Ernesto’s beautiful tenor.

      I’m looking forward to Hello Goodbye, a concert featuring romantic duets from bel canto opera is coming up on Sunday May 17th at 3:00 pm at Beach United Church, 140 Wineva Ave. Ernesto & Holly will be joined by Narmina Efendiyeva on the piano and Ryan Hofman as narrator.

      Posted in Interviews, Opera | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

      Best Toronto Symphony concert of the season

      Posted on May 1, 2026 by barczablog

      So far so good.

      I knew I was going to like this concert because they were playing pieces I liked. I did not expect this to be the best concert of the season. As we go into the month of May the orchestra is hitting its stride.

      Serendipity leads me to share a sentence from a colleague, namely Erin Guinup who wrote a piece for the Seattle Times titled “What an Overwhelmed Society Needs from the Arts.” Amazing that the Toronto Symphony, working with CAMH (Centre for Addiction & Mental Health), should have premiered a work tonight that seems to speak to this subject. Erin spoke of “organizations willing to ask not just “how do we fill seats” but “what does an overwhelmed person actually need tonight, and how do we deliver it.“

      I feel so proud that here in Toronto we heard a bit of an answer to Erin’s question, and maybe that’s more than serendipity. My heart was full watching and listening to the performance, the World Première/Art of Healing Program Commission in Partnership with CAMH from Cris Derksen, a piece titled “STILL HERE” created in consultation with members of the TSO and patients at CAMH, offering their input to Cris.

      Mark Williams, CEO of the TSO, and Lori Sidorchuk from CAMH came out to introduce Cris’s piece, explaining its genesis.

      Lori Spadorcia, Senior Vice President, Public Affairs, Partnerships & Chief Strategy Officer at CAMH with TSO’s CEO Mark Williams

      Here’s Cris’s program note, which isn’t terribly long.

      STILL HERE is a piece created in partnership with the TSO x CAMH Art of Healing project. It is a piece about humanity, living in cities, being surrounded and feeling alone, finding the magic in the mundane, getting excited about getting somewhere, feeling the empathy of humanity, the rhythm of the streets, pausing the chaos to listen to the sounds of our urban birds cousins, remembering where we came from, and that stunning phenomenon of a sunset called the Torontohenge: where the setting sun aligns with the east-west streets of downtown Toronto to create a unifying beam of hope and light across the grid of the city streets.

      I think of the fifteen-minute long piece as a tone poem. If we recall that Richard Strauss’s Don Quixote includes sounds of wind & imitations of animals, we’re in similar creative territory, except the landscape Cris is painting is downtown Toronto, with birds, sirens, indigenous voices and the beat of urban life. This beautiful piece offers a peaceful answer to the questions we have, sometimes pulsing with rhythm, sometimes gently melodic & tonal, truly a piece about humanity.

      The premiere was conducted with the firm leadership of Elim Chan.

      Conductor Elim Chan acknowledges composer Cris Derksen after the premiere of STILL HERE

      I knew I liked Elim from her handling of the national anthem. I always sing it in French because to be honest I don’t know the English words anymore, because they’ve been changed so many times. Elim made the piece quite beautiful, building to a climax in the last part of the song.

      In addition to the anthem & STILL HERE there were also a couple of huge works on the program, namely Rachmaninoff’s 3rd piano concerto and Shostakovich’s 9th symphony.

      Pianist Lukáš Vondráček (photo: Irene Kim)

      The concerto, often identified as the most difficult piano concerto in the repertoire was played by pianist Lukáš Vondráček before intermission, in a performance that I have to recommend to anyone who admires piano music, who loves Rachmaninoff, or who might simply want to be shown something.

      Elim Chan conducts pianist Lukáš Vondráček & members of the Toronto Symphony (photo Jae Yang/Courtesy of the TSO)

      Do yourself a favour and go to Roy Thomson Hall Friday night for the repeat of this program.

      Other performers may clutter the sound with the pedal, but this was the cleanest version I ever heard, every note distinct and clear. Indeed at times I could him putting the pedal down, articulating the music with his rapid use of the pedal.

      And at times we were going as fast or faster than any version I ever heard. Elim kept the orchestra out of the way, the piano soaring easily for the first two movements, the first movement especially subtle. It was only at the beginning of the finale that we heard a more powerful sound from the orchestra, and Lukáš matched them, in a volcanic eruption of sound & passion. I’ve heard this concerto a few times, and this was a unique reading.

      For his encore I believe we heard a Chopin nocturne in C-sharp minor, thoughtfully played.

      After intermission came first Cris Derksen’s tone poem, then Shostakovich’s 9th symphony. In a concert that seemed to go from highlight to highlight, from a brilliant piano concerto to a beautiful premiere, it was startling to discover that the orchestra had something in reserve, this stunning reading of a piece of music I think of as weird & wacky, full of irony & unexpected twists & turns. There are passages that are laugh out loud funny, and no this isn’t me being a nerdy academic. When I met some old friends in the lobby afterwards, we talked about how much fun we had at this concert, especially with the amazing symphony to finish. I’d be hard pressed to identify the most remarkable solo, between piccolo, bassoon, flute, the trombone section aided by the tuba, Jonathan Crow playing something decidedly funky as comical concertmaster, and the playful percussion.

      Elim Chan conducts the Toronto Symphony (photo Jae Yang/Courtesy of the TSO)

      Elim has a wonderfully clear beat. While she’s diminutive especially when she stands beside Jonathan, her command of the baton is second to none: and the TSO responded. The chemistry I felt between the players and the leader was a joy to behold. I hope that Mark & the TSO team will bring her back again, she’s a remarkable conductor.

      The program is repeated Friday night at Roy Thomson Hall. See it if you can!

      Conductor Elim Chan

      Posted in Music and musicology, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment