Author Archives: barczablog

The lessons of James Morris’s Wotan for this Canadian

Posted on July 1, 2024 by barczablog

It’s Canada Day. I live in Toronto and am a subscriber to the Canadian Opera Company. I was remembering examples I’ve seen south of the border at the Metropolitan Opera. Yes they import talent, bringing in Italians to sing Verdi … Continue reading →

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Mourning Donald Sutherland

Posted on June 22, 2024 by barczablog

I am another Canadian mourning the passing of Donald Sutherland. When celebrities pass we may sometimes feel the loss more keenly than would seem reasonable for a stranger. I never met him even though I saw many of his films. … Continue reading →

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Gimeno’s Mahler: reconciling Nietzsche, angels and pantheism

Posted on June 13, 2024 by barczablog

If that headline sounds like a mouthful you should hear Mahler’s 3rd Symphony. I just did tonight at Roy Thomson Hall. The Toronto Symphony led by music director Gustavo Gimeno aided by members of the Mendelssohn Choir, the Toronto Children’s … Continue reading →

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Opera By Request premiere The Seagull

Posted on June 8, 2024 by barczablog

Friday night June 7th I witnessed the Canadian premiere of Thomas Pasatieri’s 1974 opera setting Kenward Elmslie’s libretto adapting Anton Chekhov’s 1896 play The Seagull, presented in concert by Opera by Request at the College St United Church. It can … Continue reading →

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Tafelmusik and Ivars Taurins celebrate Handel

Posted on June 1, 2024 by barczablog

Tafelmusik turned their choral specialist loose for their season-concluding Handel celebration concert. If you have any way of getting to this concert do so, a love-fest centred on Handel and his alter-ego Ivars Taurins. You may know Ivars Taurins for … Continue reading →

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

Posted on May 23, 2024 by barczablog

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 →

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

Posted on May 19, 2024 by barczablog

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 →

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

Posted on May 16, 2024 by barczablog

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 →

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Philip Chiu’s Fables

Posted on May 12, 2024 by barczablog

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 →

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COC Medea explores truth

Posted on May 6, 2024 by barczablog

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 →

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