Author Archives: barczablog

Tafelmusik: Season Launch 16/17

Tis the season. At a time of year when it can be so cold that one prefers to dream of next year (even if it’s been unseasonably warm to begin 2016), the major classical music organizations make their big announcements. … Continue reading

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Opera Atelier’s 2016-2017 Season

Opera Atelier’s 2016-2017 Season, celebrating Canada’s Sesquicentennial, will include Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas in October and Charpentier’s Medea in April. Dido and Aeneas will star Wallis Giunta and Christopher Enns in the title roles, with Laura Pudwell (Sorceress) and Meghan … Continue reading

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TSO Stage Mozart Requiem

We were all invested with a sense of community. As I sat making notes afterwards, Joseph Johnson’s solo cello kept playing away, as though he didn’t want to go home. I think it’s fair to say that so far Jeff … Continue reading

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Ephemerality seeks eternity

It’s early morning: after having seen a workshop of The Harvester last night before seeing Joel Ivany’s take on the Mozart Requiem with the Toronto Symphony tonight I just re-read what I wrote about the workshop last April to which … Continue reading

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The Harvester: an operatic workshop

The Harvester is a play by Paul van Dyck, identified as an intriguing story for adaptation into an opera by soprano Stacie Dunlop, who was looking for a new piece to share the bill with Erwartung (a work she was … Continue reading

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La bonne chanson @ RBA

Today’s noon-hour concert at the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre was the first collaboration between the Canadian Opera Company’s Ensemble Studio and the COC Orchestra Academy.  As I so often do I’ll begin with a preamble, one that corresponds to the gap … Continue reading

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Questions for Johannes Debus: busy baton

The Canadian Opera Company’s winter season begins soon, featuring two long operas led by the same maestro, namely Johannes Debus. Siegfried, the penultimate of the Wagner operas in the Ring Cycle premieres January 23rd, while Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro follows … Continue reading

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Goldhamer’s Schubert: where the music is

Where do you look during a concert? One can look out the window, as i often do when given the opportunity.  I love the glass at the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre, or the glorious view at the Conservatory Theatre (seen below) … Continue reading

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Labadie returns with TSO – Mozart @260

Conductor Bernard Labadie returned to the podium tonight for the first time since sickness stopped him for a year and a half of convalescence, to lead the Toronto Symphony Orchestra at Roy Thomson Hall as part of the Mozart @ … Continue reading

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Amy’s Requiem, in the season of mourning

Ahead? the return of Bernard Labadie, who was sick and is getting better. Saturday he’ll conduct the first of the Mozart @ 260 concerts with the TSO, next week conducting their adventurous staging of the Mozart Requiem. Behind? A week … Continue reading

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