Monthly Archives: July 2021

Beethoven encore with Crow and Chiu

Posted on July 31, 2021 by barczablog

Toronto Summer Music’s 2021 Festival season concludes this weekend. In a year when theatre, opera & classical music have mostly been clinging to a precarious life through online presentations, this year’s festival was certainly a bit different, mixing vimeo links … Continue reading →

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Crow and Chiu play Beethoven live and in person

Posted on July 28, 2021 by barczablog

The performance is almost incidental to the miracle of live music. Please let me never become blasé, never lose my sense of wonder and gratitude, inured to magic. This is a privilege. I was stunned that not only the Toronto … Continue reading →

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Kreutzer rather than Bridgetower

Posted on July 27, 2021 by barczablog

2020 was to have been the Beethoven year, the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth in 1770. But of course the plans for operas, plays or concerts collided with the restrictions imposed by the pandemic. Thank goodness Toronto Summer Music … Continue reading →

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Opera coming out of the pandemic

Posted on July 20, 2021 by barczablog

We weren’t permitted to go to live theatre. Performers have struggled with the loss of income, companies evaluating their business models as they contemplate the future. It remains to be seen just what impacts will be felt upon opera, the … Continue reading →

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Cakes and champagne

Posted on July 18, 2021 by barczablog

She’s not an energizer bunny, but she is still going. My mother has passed her 100th birthday. She received a letter from Queen Elizabeth, congratulating Katherine on the milestone. Let that be an incentive to you, that you might live … Continue reading →

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Savitri

Posted on July 5, 2021 by barczablog

Gustav Holst’s one act chamber opera Savitri is available from Against the Grain theatre (aka “AtG”) as an online film. They offer it free of charge from their website, while inviting you to make an optional contribution to the company. … Continue reading →

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Nixon in China, 2021

Posted on July 4, 2021 by barczablog

The Metropolitan Opera feed of free streaming performances celebrate American composers the week of July 4th Independence Day. I was especially excited to get another look at John Adams’s Nixon in China, that we saw both via a production by … Continue reading →

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Voicebox Adriana Lecouvreur

Posted on July 2, 2021 by barczablog

What is the point posting a review when the run is over? My motto is borrowed from the Hippocratic Oath, namely “above all do no harm,” if that tells you anything. Some of the voices sounded better than others, some … Continue reading →

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