Monthly Archives: May 2018

Inglorious Women: Toronto

Posted on May 30, 2018 by barczablog

Toronto based performers come together as Inglorious Women: Toronto to raise funds for underrepresented women in need of legal assistance and counselling. May 16, 2018. Toronto, Ontario: Inglorious B Productions will be donating all proceeds from its inaugural event: Inglorious … Continue reading →

Posted in Press Releases and Announcements | Leave a comment

Orfeo and the power of music

Posted on May 28, 2018 by barczablog

David Fallis’s tenure as the Artistic Director of the Toronto Consort ended with today’s final concert performance of Monteverdi’s Orfeo, one of the most elaborate presentations I’ve ever seen from this group. Don’t get me wrong. We were still in … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Opera, Reviews | Tagged Bud Roach, Charles Daniels, Claudio Monteverdi, Cory Knight, David Fallis, David Roth, Jeanne Lamon, Katherine Hill, Kevin Skelton, Laura Pudwell, Michele DeBoer, Orfeo, Toronto Consort | 1 Comment

Laird’s new Leonard Bernstein biography

Posted on May 27, 2018 by barczablog

2018 is the centennial of Leonard Bernstein’s birth, as I’ve mentioned in reviewing recent commemorative performances of Candide by TIFT, TOT and the TSO. Anniversaries usually trigger a flood of books as well. I’ve just read one of them cover … Continue reading →

Posted in Books & Literature, Music and musicology, Popular music & culture, Reviews | Tagged Leonard Bernstein, Paul R Laird | 1 Comment

Ensemble Showcase 2018

Posted on May 26, 2018 by barczablog

An Evening With the Ensemble Studio is a special opportunity. It’s interesting to get a closer look at the members of the Canadian Opera Company’s Ensemble Studio. For most of the year they’re confined to small roles in the mainstage … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Opera | Tagged Bruno Roy, Cosi fan tutte, Danika Lorèn, Dido and Aeneas, Ensemble Studio, Johannes Debus, Megan Quick, Samantha Pickett, Samuel Chan, Simone McIntosh | Leave a comment

Keri Alkema: A Journey of Transformation

Posted on May 22, 2018 by barczablog

Today’s noon-hour recital at the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre aka the foyer of the Four Seasons Centre was unlike any we’ve seen before. Readers of this blog may recall that I’ve expressed my admiration for Keri Alkema in my reviews of … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Opera, Reviews | Tagged Desdemona, Don Giovanni, Donizetti, Donna Elvira, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Keri Alkema, madama butterfly, mezzo-soprano, Otello, Rachel Andrist, Sondra Radvanovsky, Un ballo in maschera, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | 1 Comment

Questions for Bruno Roy

Posted on May 18, 2018 by barczablog

Time flies. It seems like it was only yesterday that baritone Bruno Roy was a finalist in Centre Stage, the 2015 Ensemble Studio competition. The new voice that we had never heard before? He is now about to make his … Continue reading →

Posted in Interviews, Opera | Tagged Adrianne Pieczonka, Bruno Roy, Danika Lorèn, Debussy, Jane Archibald, Jonathan Dawe, Pelleas et Melisande, Poulenc, Ravel, Rigoletto, Roland Wood, Russell Braun, Stephane Mayer, Winston Purdy | Leave a comment

Hockey Noir

Posted on May 11, 2018 by barczablog

I love ambition. Tonight I was plunged into a world completely unlike anything I’ve encountered in opera, and it will be replayed tomorrow. Okay, performed again I should say, even if it does feel like a hockey game at the … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Opera | Tagged Andre Ristic, Cecil Castelucci, ECM+ Continuum, Ensemble contemporain de Montreal (ECM+) and the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, Guy Lafleur, Richard Wagner, Toronto Comic Arts Festival, Veronique Lacroix | 1 Comment

Questions for David Fallis: Toronto Consort & Monteverdi’s Orfeo

Posted on May 9, 2018 by barczablog

When I interviewed David Fallis five and a half years ago concerning a period production of Der Freischütz my first sentence said that he “is surely one of the most important musical minds in Canada,” an assertion that has only gathered weight with … Continue reading →

Posted in Interviews, Music and musicology, Opera | Tagged Bud Roach, Charles Daniels, Choir 21, Claudio Monteverdi, Cory Knight, David Fallis, Katherine Hill, Kevin Skelton, Laura Pudwell, Michele DeBoer, Opera Atelier, Orfeo, Toronto Consort | 2 Comments

All –Beethoven Tafelmusik Finale

Posted on May 4, 2018 by barczablog

Tonight’s programme from Tafelmusik was the first of their season-ending concerts at Koerner Hall. We heard Beethoven’s violin concerto & the Pastorale symphony. Thinking about moustaches & tears earlier this week, it felt serendipitous to be studying the same sort … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Psychology and perception, Reviews | Tagged Beethoven, Bruno Weil, Elisa Citterio, Koerner Hall, Pastoral Symphony, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Violin concerto | 2 Comments

Cry for me

Posted on May 2, 2018 by barczablog

Some actions are startlingly ambiguous. Right now for example I’m not shaving my upper lip. Am I growing a moustache –which would be an action—or am I simply not shaving my upper lip? I had that thought, thinking about a … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, video & DVDs, Music and musicology, Personal ruminations & essays, Psychology and perception | Tagged Beethoven, Debussy, Dumbo, Field of Dreams, JFK, Mozart effect, Parsifal, Poulenc, The Post, This is your Brain on Music, Wagner | 6 Comments