Category Archives: Dance, theatre & musicals

Bud Roach: Arias for Tenor and Baroque Guitar

Every now and then a recording or performance comes along to challenge your assumptions, possibly giving you a new way of seeing things.    I’ve been listening to two Bud Roach CDs: 1-Sospiro: Alessandro Grandi Complete Arias, 1626 (recorded in … Continue reading

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Music and musicology, Reviews | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Soundstreams and Canadian Stage collaborating on Philippe Boesmans’ Julie

Canadian Stage have already shown a willingness to venture into different disciplines, bringing great artists such as Crystal Pite and Robert Lepage to Toronto to broaden the experience of the CanStage audience under Matthew Jocelyn’s leadership. Soundstreams and Canadian Stage have … Continue reading

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Opera, Press Releases and Announcements | 2 Comments

Stewart Goodyear and Czerny’s four boxes

Do you read liner notes?  I always begin to do so.  If there’s something of substance, not only do I read them but I cherish them, making them part of the big conversation that is the work of art.  Nothing … Continue reading

Posted in Cinema, video & DVDs, Dance, theatre & musicals, Music and musicology, Personal ruminations & essays, Popular music & culture | Leave a comment

Gerald Finley on the shelf

It’s November. October was Gerald Finley month in Toronto, as his Falstaff jumped up on the table that was our collective experience (and for the final scene of the opera). Don’t let the headline (“Finley on the shelf”) scare you, … Continue reading

Posted in Cinema, video & DVDs, Dance, theatre & musicals, Music and musicology, Opera, Reviews | 1 Comment

Dreams of the Vienna Woods

How can a place signify so much if you’ve never been there?  But when we look forward to a promised land –whether it’s America for the immigrant, Mecca or Jerusalem for the pilgrim, or just a personal utopia—it’s a mental landscape … Continue reading

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Music and musicology, University life | 3 Comments

Extensions of Us 11.13.14 Questions and Answers

The program was created as a reaction to our experiences as recital performers and audience members. We come to this process with a great love for the art form, but also with a combined knowledge and experience as to its … Continue reading

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Interviews, Music and musicology, Opera | Leave a comment

Happy Halloween, Frankenstein’s Boy!

The song during the pre-show was a tip-off I suppose. While the title says the show is about a boy, this song says otherwise. And there it is, right on the poster. Eldritch Theatre’s newest is Frankenstein’s Boy, a classic … Continue reading

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Reviews | 1 Comment

Factory Theatre vs the critics

For the second consecutive year, Factory Theatre is in the news.  Last year it was the controversy around its leadership.   That’s ancient history now. This time it’s an announcement, that critics aren’t invited until the show has already been on … Continue reading

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Popular music & culture | 2 Comments

Ten questions for Eric Woolfe

While I sometimes aim to write the bio that goes into an interview, sometimes I can’t top the brilliance of what I’m given to work with. For instance, the origins of Eldritch Theatre are explained this way on their website: … Continue reading

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Interviews | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Kadozuke’s Richard III: right out of today’s headlines

Tatiana Jennings seems prescient. I understand that she and her collaborators in Kadozuke Kollektif and Bad New Days have been working on their adaptation of Shakespeare’s Richard III for awhile, a piece titled Richard III: the pleasures of violence. How … Continue reading

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