Monthly Archives: May 2024

Canadian Premiere of Tom Pasatieri’s The Seagull, Friday June 7th: An Interview with Bill Shookhoff

Tom Pasatieri’s opera The Seagull will get it’s Canadian Premiere on June 7th with Opera By Request. I interviewed Bill Shookhoff to find out about it. ~~~~~~~ Barczablog: Describe the works of Pasatieri: what is his style like?  Bill Shookhoff: … Continue reading

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

After last performance of Don Pasquale, looking back and ahead plus two anonymous voices

This afternoon we watched the Canadian Opera Company’s closing performance of the Renaud Doucet–André Barbe Don Pasquale at the Four Seasons Centre, bringing their spring season to a boisterous close. The unexpected adjective I’d apply to the colourful production is … Continue reading

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

2024 Met Gala – JG Ballard’s Garden of Time tone deaf to the rabble

The 2024 Met Gala fund-raiser used a JG Ballard story for its theme, The Garden of Time. Ballard is one of my favourite writers, especially his short stories and science fiction. Several have made wonderful films. Art and commerce lurk … Continue reading

Posted in Art, Architecture & Design, Books & Literature, Popular music & culture | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Philip Chiu’s Fables

I have been listening to FABLES, the excellent ATMA CD of piano music by Philip Chiu pairing two piano transcriptions of music by Ravel with Mnidoonskaa (A Multitude of Insects), a 2021 work by Anishinaabekwe composer Barbara Assiginaak. “Fables” makes … Continue reading

Posted in Art, Architecture & Design, Music and musicology, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

COC Medea explores truth

Yesterday I attended the Canadian Opera Company’s Sunday matinee of Luigi Cherubini’s Medea. The main character may tell a lot of lies but that didn’t stop the audience from cheering her on in one of the darkest operas imaginable, a … Continue reading

Posted in Opera | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Nightwood Theatre presents the15th Annual Lawyer’s Show June 13-15: The Sound of Music

Nightwood Theatre presents the 15th annual Lawyer Show The Sound of MusicMusic by Richard RodgersLyrics by Oscar Hammerstein IIBook by Howard Lindsay & Russel CrouseSuggested by The Trapp Family Singers by Maria Augusta Trappat the Jane Mallett Theatre, St. Lawrence … Continue reading

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Press Releases and Announcements | Leave a comment