Author Archives: barczablog

Toronto Summer Music Metamorphosis

Posted on July 7, 2023 by barczablog

Tonight was the opening concert of Toronto Summer Music, a festival running until July 29th in several performance spaces around Toronto. For a festival such as this one with the dual objectives of showcasing performance and training artists in its … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology | Tagged Darius Milhaud, Illia Ovcharenko, Jon Kimura Parker, Jonathan Crow, Levko Revutsky, Ludwig van Beethoven, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Toronto Summer Music Academy, Toronto Summer Music Festival, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | 1 Comment

Asteroid City, America

Posted on July 4, 2023 by barczablog

Wes Anderson is at it again with Asteroid City. Once more, an elaborate structure plays games with the viewer. Asteroid City is the name of a play within the movie, a fictitious place in America. We go back and forth … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, video & DVDs, Reviews | Tagged Alexandre Desplat, Asteroid City, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Edward Norton, ET, Grand Budapest Hotel, Isle of Dogs, Jason Schwartzman, Moonrise Kingdom, Oppenheimer, Paris Dispatch, Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton, Wes Anderson | Leave a comment

Black Panther in concert with the Toronto Symphony

Posted on June 30, 2023 by barczablog

This was a Toronto Symphony performance like no other. The idea of presenting a film with live accompaniment isn’t new, indeed that’s how they used to do it in the old days. At one time –thinking of the silent era– … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, video & DVDs, Music and musicology, Reviews | Tagged Academy Award, Black Panther, Ludwig Göransson, Marvel, Massamba Diop, Opera Atelier, Stan Lee, Steven Reineke, talking drum | Leave a comment

Rossini’s Otello from Opera By Request

Posted on June 26, 2023 by barczablog

Last night I watched a concert presentation of Rossini’s Otello from Opera By Request, a company who demonstrate their importance with every outing. Bill Shookhoff leads from the piano working without a conductor, seated upstage of performers who face the … Continue reading →

Posted in Books & Literature, Music and musicology, Opera, Reviews | Tagged Arrigo Boito, Berio di Salsa, Bill Shookhoff, College Street United Church, Ernesto Ramirez, Gioachino Rossini, Giuseppe Verdi, Meagan Reimer, Opera by Request, Otello, Othello, Paul Williamson, William Shakespeare | Leave a comment

Yuja Wang’s Rachmaninoff

Posted on June 19, 2023 by barczablog

What’s in a name. “Yuja Wang’s Rachmaninoff” was the title of the final program to bring the Toronto Symphony 100th Anniversary Season to a powerful close. All three concerts were sold out. We knew why we wanted to be there, … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Reviews | Tagged Dmitri Shostakovich, Fjóla Evans, Gustavo Gimeno, Joseph Johnson, Luis Ramirez, Matthew-John Knights, NextGen, Roy Thomson Hall, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Yuja Wang | Leave a comment

VICE and the Doctrine of Presidential Infallibility

Posted on June 13, 2023 by barczablog

The headline is designed to catch your attention. When I googled “presidential infallibility” most hits refer to the Pope, whose infallibility is a doctrine we’ve heard about for a long time. The idea of infallibility associated with the POTUS is … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, video & DVDs, Politics, Reviews | Tagged Adam McKay, Alfred Molina, Amy Adams, Christian Bale, Dick Cheney, Doctrine of Presidential Infallibility, Donald Rumsfeld, George W Bush, Presidential Infallibility, Sam Rockwell, Steve Carell, Unitary executive theory, VICE | Leave a comment

PERCEPTUAL ARCHAEOLOGY (or How To Travel Blind)

Posted on June 11, 2023 by barczablog

Don’t let the big words in the title fool you. “Perceptual Archaeology”? I’m closer to knowing what that might mean after seeing Alex Bulmer’s new show at Crow’s Theatre, a co-production with Fire and Rescue Team that helps you to … Continue reading →

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Psychology and perception, Reviews | Tagged Alex Bulmer, blindness, Crow's Theatre, disability, Enzo Massara, Fire and Rescue Team, How To Travel Blind, James Holman, Leah Cherniak, Perceptual Archaeology | Leave a comment

Gimeno and TSO: old music made new

Posted on June 9, 2023 by barczablog

I will quietly keep calling Gustavo Gimeno the Toronto Symphony’s “new” music director in my head, but maybe not for the reason you think. Yes he started in 2021, delayed over a year by the pandemic’s impacts on performing arts. … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Reviews | Tagged Daníel Bjarnason, Echo, Eliot Britton, Gustavo Gimeno, Hector Berlioz, Narcissus, Roy Thomson Hall, Symphonie Fantastique, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Víkingur Ólafsson, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Leave a comment

Inge(new): in search of a musical criticism

Posted on June 1, 2023 by barczablog

Last night I saw Inge(new): In Search of a Musical from Theatre Myth Collective, a piece by Evan Tsitsias that challenges its audience from the beginning, reminding me at times of an intelligence test. I don’t mean like an IQ … Continue reading →

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Reviews | Tagged critic, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Evan Tsitsias, Inge(new), Inge(new): In Search of a Musical, Luigi Pirandello, Red Sandcastle Theatre, reviewer, Theatre Myth Collective | Leave a comment

Tosca on my mind

Posted on May 29, 2023 by barczablog

Tosca is on my mind after the final performance yesterday. Several of Puccini’s melodies are having their way with me, stuck in my head. I’m not complaining. But I can’t stop thinking about the opera and the Canadian Opera Company’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Opera, Personal ruminations & essays | Tagged Canadian Opera Company, Giacomo Puccini, Joseph Kerman, Opera as Drama, Paul Curran, Roland Wood, Tosca | 4 Comments