Author Archives: barczablog

Jan 1st Troyens

Posted on January 4, 2013 by barczablog

Francesca Zambello’s production of Berlioz’s Les Troyens has returned to the Metropolitan Opera.  When it premiered a decade ago it was Deborah Voigt as Cassandra, Ben Heppner as Aeneas and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson as Dido, conducted by James Levine. A … Continue reading →

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Adaptation: plus and minus

Posted on January 3, 2013 by barczablog

That plus or minus in the title is a less controversial way of phrasing something that came up among friends recently.  Someone was asking why people make adaptations: meaning, the kind they dislike of course. There is always going to … Continue reading →

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Trojans: three or is it four?

Posted on January 3, 2013 by barczablog

To my knowledge there are three versions of Hector Berlioz’s epic Les Troyens on DVD. I obtained the first when it came out as a VHS tape.  It’s now available re-mastered, capturing several remarkable performances from 1983, the Metropolitan Opera … Continue reading →

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A remembered tune: Les Troyens

Posted on January 2, 2013 by barczablog

Melodies are time-machines.  I can hear a song and instantly I go back in time. Composers know this.  It’s why films often employ compositions we’ve heard before to invoke a whole set of meanings.  In Forrest Gump Robert Zemeckis accomplishes … Continue reading →

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Mornings after and music

Posted on January 1, 2013 by barczablog

Caution: some of this essay may stick in your head. As I write this on the first morning of the year, it’s a time when many of us are still feeling the after-effects of our celebrations, and may feel literally … Continue reading →

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Gourmet Schnitzel House

Posted on December 28, 2012 by barczablog

My usual procedure is to write as soon as possible.  I try for a report that’s authentic in its immediacy, even as I sometimes admit ignorance on some matters.  Sometimes I may struggle a bit, but I never put myself … Continue reading →

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Tristan und Isolde –Glyndebourne 2007

Posted on December 27, 2012 by barczablog

As Toronto audiences gear up for a new production of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde they could do worse than to watch a free video feed of the 2007 Glyndebourne production conducted by Jiří Bĕlohlávek (the man originally slated to conduct … Continue reading →

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Messianic

Posted on December 24, 2012 by barczablog

In one of the early essays “On German Music”, Richard Wagner said, comparing the French to the Germans, that Germans “are generally more prone to fall beneath a foreign influence than is good for the preservation of a certain self-dependence.”  … Continue reading →

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Pollyanna’s picks for 2012

Posted on December 23, 2012 by barczablog

This is a look back at 2012 through the rose-coloured glasses of someone who prefers to avoid negativity. Most impressive singer: Jane Archibald.  I’d already been persuaded by her Zerbinetta in the recent COC Ariadne, then I heard her Haydn CD … Continue reading →

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Body Language

Posted on December 22, 2012 by barczablog

I was having a crabby episode this Friday morning. I was running late.  It’s ridiculous to admit. I didn’t have any appointments, but I just had hoped to be downtown already, and everything about the morning seemed to add to … Continue reading →

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