Category Archives: Cinema, video & DVDs

Interviewing Nicholas Rice before Another Side Of Rice

Posted on January 16, 2026 by barczablog

I wanted to interview Nicholas Rice, intrigued by the show he’s doing at Red Sandcastle Theatre, Another Side Of Rice. He’s a story-teller and an actor. A Side of Rice was on last March at the Red Sandcastle Theatre. And … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, video & DVDs, Dance, theatre & musicals, Interviews | Tagged A Side of Rice, Another Side of Rice, IMDB, John Travolta, karate, Kirstie Alley, life, Look Who's Talking, love, Movember, Nicholas Rice, Puma, Red Sandcastle Theatre, sonnet, storytelling, T.J. Dawe, writing | Leave a comment

Lawrence Wiliford shaping art song’s future

Posted on January 13, 2026 by barczablog

Tenor Lawrence Wiliford joined with pianist Steven Philcox and together founded the Canadian Art Song Project (CASP) in 2011. Someday I hope to interview pianist Steven Philcox, who has partnered Lawrence on his CASP journey. A few years ago Lawrence … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, video & DVDs, Interviews, Music and musicology, Opera, University life | Tagged Bobby Hull, Canadian Art Song Project, CASP, Cecilia Livingston, Chor Leoni, Erick Lichte, Hamilton, Helmuth Rilling, Jocelyn Morlock, John Williams, Jonelle Sills, Keith Lam, Lawrence Wiliford, Linda and Michael Hutcheon, Measha Bruegergosman-Lee, Peter Puck, Philippe Blanchard, Steven Philcox, Toronto Metropolitan University | Leave a comment

Accompanying Lepage to The Far Side of the Moon

Posted on December 24, 2025 by barczablog

Sometimes my need to explain myself leads to huge introductions that may confuse or perplex, pre-ambulations that happen both on foot and in the words of the blog. As 2025 closes I escaped into recreation at the Red Sandcastle Theatre, … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Architecture & Design, Cinema, video & DVDs, Dance, theatre & musicals, My mother | Tagged 887, Apollo-Soyuz, Birdman, brother, Buster Canfield, Cosmonaut, critic, criticism, Emile Nelligan, Eric Woolfe, Ex Machina, Far Side of the Moon, flea circus, Klimt, magic show, Michele Lalonde, mother, mothers, Pink Floyd, Red Sandcastle Theatre, Reviews, Robert Lepage, Speak White, The Far Side of the Moon, War Requiem | Leave a comment

Cathartic tears on November 11th

Posted on November 12, 2025 by barczablog

With every Remembrance Day, I wonder how best to respond to the implications of November 11th, a day when we are encouraged to honour those who gave their lives in wars, in service to the nation. I went to a … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, video & DVDs, Personal ruminations & essays | Tagged ankylosing spondylitis, Benjamin Britten, Derek Jarman, history, In Flanders Fields, iritis, John McRae, Laurence Olivier, poetry, Ray Charles, Remembrance Day, Reveille, Stuart Bull, The Last Post, Tilda Swinton, UTS, uveitis, War Requiem, Wilfred Owen | Leave a comment

Discovering Mandle Philharmonic via YouTube

Posted on July 3, 2025 by barczablog

I’ve been watching the passionate responses to the concert at Roy Thomson Hall last week when Mandle Cheung conducted the Toronto Symphony in Mahler’s 2nd Symphony. The Globe & Mail contacted me the day before, asking me if I’d be … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, video & DVDs, Music and musicology | Tagged classical-music, concert, Gilbert Kaplan, Gustav Mahler, Ludwig van Beethoven, Mandle Cheung, Mandle Philharmonic, Roy Thomson Hall, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Urlicht | Leave a comment

A Real Pain’s Chopin

Posted on June 24, 2025 by barczablog

I have just seen Jesse Eisenberg’s film A Real Pain (2024). I call it his, in the sense that Eisenberg wrote & directed and also stars as David opposite Kieran Culkin who is David’s cousin Benji. They are on a … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, video & DVDs, Music and musicology, Reviews | Tagged A Real Pain, Adrien Brody, Andrea Most, Erick Eiser, film music, Frederic Chopin, Hava Nagila, Holocaust, Irving Caesar, Jesse Eisenberg, Jewish culture, Kieran Culkin, Making Americans, marijuana, Poland, Tea for Two, The PIanist, Wladyslaw Szpilman | Leave a comment

Reflections from Stephen Bell, former COC chorister, Founder of Coffeeshop Film & Creative

Posted on June 16, 2025 by barczablog

Stephen Bell is an award winning filmmaker and visual designer based in Toronto. Videographer by day and opera singer by night, Stephen is the Founder of Coffeeshop Film & Creative. And on May 25th Stephen posted on Facebook that after … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, video & DVDs, Interviews, Opera | Tagged Angela Bell, Bardia Doust, Brahm Goldhamer, Canadian Opera Company, COC Chorus, Coffeeshop Film & Creative, digital content, Eric Moniz, Four Seasons Centre, La Maupin, Messiah/Complex, music, opera, OperaQ, passagio, Sandra Horst, Stephen Bell, Tenor, videographer, videography | Leave a comment

Faust Adaptations

Posted on November 4, 2024 by barczablog

Today I saw the closing performance of the Canadian Opera Company’s new production of Gounod’s Faust, in a week when it seemed everyone was selling their soul to the devil even without the manifest falsehoods of politicians at election time. … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, video & DVDs, Opera, Personal ruminations & essays | Tagged Ariane Cossette, Canadian Opera Company, Centre Stage, Cesare Siepi, Charles Gounod, F W Murnau, Faust, Franz Schubert, Gretchen am Spinnrade, Hector Berlioz, Jerome Hines, Jessica Harper, Johannes Debus, Kyle Ketelsen, La Damnation de Faust, Nabucco, Paul WIlliams, Phantom of the Paradise, Robert Lepage, Szymon Mechlinski, Walpurgisnacht Ballet | Leave a comment

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

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