Author Archives: barczablog

The view from The Inn at Lock Seven in Thorold

Posted on August 13, 2023 by barczablog

Watching boats from the Inn at Lock Seven? Our friends Jim and Louise gave us the idea. You must have heard that ships are able to travel inland as far as Chicago or Minnesota. But how do they get past … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Architecture & Design, Personal ruminations & essays | Tagged Karma Kameleon Gastropub, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Shaw Festival, The Inn at Lock Seven, Thorold, Welland Canal | 4 Comments

Edith Wharton’s The Shadow of a Doubt at Shaw Festival

Posted on August 12, 2023 by barczablog

There’s a mystery underlying Edith Wharton’s play The Shadow of a Doubt. The text was just rediscovered by scholars in 2016, after sitting unproduced. There was almost a production in 1903 but it was cancelled. And now the Shaw Festival … Continue reading →

Posted in Books & Literature, Cinema, video & DVDs, Dance, theatre & musicals, Reviews | Tagged Damien Atkins, Daniel Day-Lewis, Edith Wharton, Georges Feydeau, Gillian Gallow, Haui, Katherine Gauthier, Martin Scorsese, Melodrama, Michelle Pfeiffer, Oscar Wilde, Patrick Galligan, Peter Hinton, Tara Rosling, The Age of Innocence, Winona Ryder | 4 Comments

TSM Metamorphosis

Posted on July 29, 2023 by barczablog

Toronto Summer Music’s theme is the same as the title for last night’s concert, namely “metamorphosis”. I’m writing about it Saturday on the closing weekend of the festival. I’ve been pondering that word over and over in response to the … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Reviews | Tagged Aaron Schwebel, Carl Lyons, Francis Poulenc, Johannes Brahms, Jonathan Crow, Keith Hamm, Koerner Hall, Michelle Cann, Rémi Pelletier, Richard Strauss, Royal Conservatory of Music, Rudolph Leopold, Sheila Jaffé, Toronto Summer Music, University of Toronto | Leave a comment

TSM J’Nai Bridges

Posted on July 28, 2023 by barczablog

The drama of tonight’s Toronto Summer Music Recital at Koerner Hall was as much about the one who didn’t sing (Sondra Radvanovsky) as the one who did (J’Nai Bridges). I’m sympathetic to Sondra however much I may have wished to … Continue reading →

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Music and musicology, Reviews | Tagged J'nai Bridges, Johannes Brahms, John Carter, Koerner Hall, Maurice Ravel, Rachael Kerr, Sondra Radvanovsky), Toronto Summer Music | Leave a comment

TSM: Tradition

Posted on July 22, 2023 by barczablog

Some words have such broad definitions that we miss some of the possibilities. That’s what I experienced last night at the Toronto Summer Music Concert titled “Tradition”. We don’t always get the opportunity to reflect upon this process nor to … Continue reading →

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Music and musicology, Reviews | Tagged Anton Dvorak, Barry Schiffman, Bartlett Sher, Fiddler on the Roof, Gabriela Lena Frank, Iman Habibi, Jennifer Frautschi, Jerry Bock, Kelly Hall-Tompkins, Matthew Zalkind, Philip Chiu, Toronto Summer Music Festival | 1 Comment

The Butterfly Project

Posted on July 13, 2023 by barczablog

Teiya Kasahara gave the first iteration of a self-exploratory monologue from Amplified Opera tonight at the Toronto Summer Music Festival in Walter Hall. It’s called The Butterfly Project because it’s to be an ongoing investigation, inviting us to explore the … Continue reading →

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Music and musicology, Opera, Reviews | Tagged Andrea Wong, David Belasco, Giacomo Puccini, John Luther Long, madama butterfly, Nikkei, Teiya Kasahara, Toronto Summer Music | Leave a comment

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