Author Archives: barczablog

Unexpected light in 1939

Posted on September 21, 2024 by barczablog

Last night I watched 1939, a recent play by Jani Lauzon and Kaitlyn Riordan at Berkeley St Theatre, a brilliant snapshot of the madness of residential schools and resilience in response. It’s a Canadian Stage and Belfry theatre joint production … Continue reading →

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Reviews | Tagged 1939, Belfry Theatre, Brefny Caribou, Canadian Stage, Canadian Stage Company, Catherine Fitch, Cree, Grace Lamarche, Indigenous, Jani Lauzon, John Wamsley, Kaitlyn Riordan, Merewyn Comeau, Mohawk, Nathan Howe, Ojibwe, Richard Comeau, Stratford Festival, William Shakespeare | Leave a comment

Thorold and Vineland: cats, plants and Figaro

Posted on September 20, 2024 by barczablog

No opera today, although the headline may seem to promise as much. Before we got to Eryna’s house in Thorold we stopped in Vineland. This was our third or fourth visit to The Watering Can Flower Market, a place to … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, domestic & wild, Food, Health and Nutrition | Tagged AngieOHantiques, Cats, Figaro, Pho18, Shannon Passero, The Post Office, The Watering Can, Thorold, Vineland | Leave a comment

Ariadne on Naxos in 1969 at the Opera School

Posted on September 17, 2024 by barczablog

The title of the opera is Ariadne auf Naxos, done as Ariadne on Naxos because it was being sung in English. That’s how Richard Strauss’s opera was presented back in March 1969 at the Opera School of the University of … Continue reading →

Posted in Opera, University life | Tagged Ariadne auf Naxos, Edward Johnson Building, Edward Johnson Building Library, Ernesto Barbini, Hermann Geiger-Torel, Mary Lou Fallis, Opera School, Richard Strauss, Riki Turofsky, Steven Henrikson, University of Toronto | 4 Comments

CICM and OBR present Dvořák’s Jacobin

Posted on September 15, 2024 by barczablog

The Canadian Institute for Czech Music (CICM) and Opera by Request (OBR) collaborated to present Antonín Dvořák’s opera Jacobin in a concert performance with orchestra at Jeanne Lamon Hall Friday September 13th. Produced by Professor John Holland of CICM, conducted … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Opera | Tagged Antonin Dvorak, Bill Shookhoff, Canadian Institute for Czech Music, Fidelio, Jacobin, John Holland, Opera by Request, Year of Czech Music | 2 Comments

Nick Hamm nixes Will Tell ham

Posted on September 13, 2024 by barczablog

My headline is not just a nod to “Sticks Nix Hick Pix”. There truly was no ham to see in the gala World Premiere of William Tell, unless we include the man who wrote and directed, namely Nick Hamm speaking … Continue reading →

Posted in Books & Literature, Cinema, video & DVDs, Reviews | Tagged Ben Kingsley, Claes Bang, Friedrich Schiller, Gioachino Rossini, Jonathan Pryce, Nick Hamm, Rosmersholm, Steven Price, The Sound of Music, William Tell | Leave a comment

Fresh Rosmersholm at Crow’s Theatre

Posted on September 12, 2024 by barczablog

You sometimes hear people tell you that a play from another century seems to speak directly to our own time. Last night watching Duncan Macmillan’s new adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s Rosmersholm at Crow’s Theatre directed by Chris Abraham was the … Continue reading →

Posted in Books & Literature, Dance, theatre & musicals, Reviews | Tagged Beau Dixon, Ben Carlson, Chris Abraham, Crow's Theatre, Diego Matamoros, Diego Matamoros) and with the sensitivity of director Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu, Duncan Macmillan, Guloien Theatre, Henrik Ibsen, Jonathan Young, Kate Hennig, Rosmersholm, Thomas Ryder Payne, Virgilia Griffith | Leave a comment

Mercury & La Passione: Rachel Podger leads Tafelmusik in Haydn Symphonies

Posted on September 7, 2024 by barczablog

There’s a new recording of two Symphonies by Joseph Haydn scheduled to come out in October from Tafelmusik. The performances feature violinist Rachel Podger, who debuts in her new role as Principal Guest Director later this month when Tafelmusik begin … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology | Tagged Joseph Haydn, Koerner Hall, Rachel Podger, sturm und drang, Tafelmusik, violin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Leave a comment

Thinking about Richard Strauss’s death in 1949

Posted on August 29, 2024 by barczablog

On September 8, 1949 composer and conductor Richard Strauss died after a long productive life. I think of him as a romantic composer carrying on the stylistic traditions of Richard Wagner. In Salome and Elektra he was the modernist pushing … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, video & DVDs, Music and musicology, Opera, Personal ruminations & essays | Tagged Akhnaten, Ariadne auf Naxos, Bill Shookhoff, Claude Debussy, Franz Liszt, Hart House, Mathieu Marcil, Percy Grainger, Philip Glass, Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Salome, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Venus in Furs | Leave a comment

Poet and Peasant: a picture and an overture

Posted on August 25, 2024 by barczablog

In 1967 Joseph Budai was working on a renovation of a Chinese restaurant in Peterborough. An old lithograph picture was left inside the walls that he was renovating. At the time it was still inside an old ornate frame that … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Architecture & Design, Music and musicology | Tagged Alzheimers, Franz von Suppe, Joe Budai, OCA, OCADU, piano transcription, Poet and Peasant, University of Toronto Schools, UTS | 2 Comments

A Faustian legend in miniature: Orville Doodles and his Terrible Imagination

Posted on August 18, 2024 by barczablog

Today it’s the full moon, when people seem to go mad. I have just watched Scott McClelland’s Orville Doodles and his Terrible Imagination: a retelling of the Faust legend at the Red Sandcastle Theatre. No, there was no transformation into a … Continue reading →

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals | Tagged Faust, imagination, magic, Orville Doodles and his Terrible Imagination, puppets, Red Sandcastle Theatre, Scott McClelland | 2 Comments