Category Archives: Music and musicology

ARC Ensemble –Dmitri Klebanov Chamber Works

Posted on October 26, 2021 by barczablog

Exile doesn’t just occur when you’re distant from your homeland. What about artists ignored or silenced inside their country? I never thought of it that way before reading Simon Wynberg’s excellent essay in the liner notes to ARC Ensemble’s new … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, video & DVDs, Dance, theatre & musicals, Music and musicology, Politics, Reviews, University life | Tagged anti-Semitism, ARC Ensemble, Bernard Herrmann, Dmitri Klebanov, Dmitri Shostakovich, Erika Raum, exile, Gustav Mahler, Kevin Ahfat, Marie Bérard, North by Northwest, Royal Conservatory of Music, Simon Wynberg, Steven Dann, Thomas Wiebe | 1 Comment

Cliff Cardinal’s Shakespearean musings

Posted on October 16, 2021 by barczablog

I’ve just been to “a Radical Retelling” of As You Like it by Cree actor and playwright Cliff Cardinal at Crow’s Theatre. A story about someone banished into the forest after his property is stolen from him by his brother … Continue reading →

Posted in Books & Literature, Dance, theatre & musicals, Music and musicology, Opera, Reviews | Tagged adaptation, As You Like It, Cliff Cardinal, Crow's Theatre, Indigenous, John Meagher, Linda Hutcheon, Maurice Maeterlinck, palimpsest, Sky Gilbert, Symbolist, William Shakespeare | Leave a comment

Zorana Sadiq talks about MixTape

Posted on October 14, 2021 by barczablog

A Dora-award winning multidisciplinary artist of Pakistani descent, Zorana Sadiq creates work that is wide ranging and spans different types of performance, including theatre, television, chamber music, contemporary music, and opera. Zorana is currently a Creator in Residence at Crow’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Interviews, Music and musicology, Popular music & culture | Tagged cassette, Chris Abraham, Crow's Theatre, Matt McGeachy, MixTape, Nina Lee Aquino, Thomas Ryder Payne, Zorana Sadiq | 1 Comment

Nicole Lizée Undisrupted: A Guide to The Orchestra

Posted on September 30, 2021 by barczablog

Is “undisrupted” a word? We have disturbed and undisturbed, disputable and indisputable. As far as I can tell the best way to understand undisrupted is in its use as the title of a series on CBC Gem:“In this ground-breaking video … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Architecture & Design, Cinema, video & DVDs, Dance, theatre & musicals, Music and musicology, Press Releases and Announcements, Reviews | Tagged A Guide to the Orchestra, Alexander Shelley, Ana Sokolovic, Benjamin Britten, Donna Feore, Maurice Denis, Measha Brueggergosman, Mockumentary, Moonrise Kingdom, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Nicole Lizée, Shawnee Kish, The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, UNDISRUPTED, Wes Anderson | 1 Comment

Garden of Vanished Pleasures aka the poetry of Derek Jarman

Posted on September 24, 2021 by barczablog

I wondered whether one needs to know Derek Jarman, as I watched Garden of Vanished Pleasures for the first time. It’s the new Soundtreams Online Broadcast through Crow’s Theatre that is available from now until October 10th. I wondered whether … Continue reading →

Posted in Books & Literature, Cinema, video & DVDs, Dance, theatre & musicals, Music and musicology, Opera, Personal ruminations & essays, Reviews | Tagged AIDS, Cecilia Livingston, COVID19, Daniel Cabena, Derek Jarman, Donna McKevitt, Garden of Vanished Pleasures, Lindsay McIntyre, Mireille Asselin, Rachel Kerr, Rebecca Cuddy, Soundstreams, Tim Albery | 2 Comments

A conversation with Doug MacNaughton

Posted on August 16, 2021 by barczablog

Doug MacNaughton is known as much for his acting as for his singing, at home in opera, operetta, music theatre and concert work. As powerful as he sounds in ONE DAY MORE Doug also has the ability to use his … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, domestic & wild, Dance, theatre & musicals, Interviews, Music and musicology, Opera, Personal ruminations & essays | Tagged Allan Monk, Another Kind of Hero, ARP 2600, Banff, Barber of Seville, Benji, Bernard Uzan, Bob McPhee, Bobby McFerrin, Brandon University, Canadian Opera Company, Carl Stalling, Chris Dawes, Chroi, COC Ensemble Studio, COVID-19, Derek Bate, Doug MacNaughton, Dr Bartolo, Edmonton Opera, Franz Schubert, Gianni Schicchi, Gord Simmons, Gordon Bintner, Graeme Campbell, Guitarias, HMS Pinafore, Irving Guttman, Jenna Gallagher, John Beckwith, John Rea, John Turner, Les Miserables, Lula Lounge, Maestro Spinelloccio, Man of la Mancha, Mischa Aster, Mump and Smoot, Opera de Quebec, Papageno, Peter Strummer, Raoul Wallenberg, Richard Bradshaw, Richard Margison, Sam, Sancho Panza, Spike Jones, Stirling Festival, Stratford Festival, Thomas Quasthoff, Timothy Vernon, Wanderers Nachtlied, William Hutt, Winterreise, Woyzeck, Wozzeck | 3 Comments

Beethoven encore with Crow and Chiu

Posted on July 31, 2021 by barczablog

Toronto Summer Music’s 2021 Festival season concludes this weekend. In a year when theatre, opera & classical music have mostly been clinging to a precarious life through online presentations, this year’s festival was certainly a bit different, mixing vimeo links … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Reviews | Tagged Gavin Fraser, Grace Church on-the-Hill, Jonathan Crow, Kreutzer Sonata, Ludwig van Beethoven, Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Philip Chiu, Scheherazade, semiotics, Toronto Summer Music, Toronto Symphony Orchestra | Leave a comment

Crow and Chiu play Beethoven live and in person

Posted on July 28, 2021 by barczablog

The performance is almost incidental to the miracle of live music. Please let me never become blasé, never lose my sense of wonder and gratitude, inured to magic. This is a privilege. I was stunned that not only the Toronto … Continue reading →

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Music and musicology | Tagged Grace Church on-the-Hill, Haydn, Jessie Montgomery, Jonathan Crow, Kreutzer Sonata, Ludwig van Beethoven, Mozart, Philip Chiu, Toronto Summer Music | Leave a comment

Nixon in China, 2021

Posted on July 4, 2021 by barczablog

The Metropolitan Opera feed of free streaming performances celebrate American composers the week of July 4th Independence Day. I was especially excited to get another look at John Adams’s Nixon in China, that we saw both via a production by … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, video & DVDs, Dance, theatre & musicals, Music and musicology, Opera, Politics, Reviews | Tagged Alice Goodman, Canadian Opera Company, Carolyn Maule, Chou En-lai, James Maddalena, Janis Kelly, John Adams, Karl Marx, Kathleen Kim, Mao Tse-tung, Metropolitan Opera High Definition Broadcast, Nixon in China, Peter Sellars, Richard Paul Fink, Robert Brubaker, Russell Braun | Leave a comment

The Mission in 2021

Posted on June 21, 2021 by barczablog

It’s been a month of reflection for Canadians following the discovery of the remains of 215 children buried on the grounds of the Kamloops residential school, another discovery near Brandon residential school, and the possibility of more to come. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Architecture & Design, Cinema, video & DVDs, Dance, theatre & musicals, Music and musicology, Personal ruminations & essays, Politics, Spirituality & Religion, University life | Tagged Christianity, Ennio Morricone, Going Home Star, Gone With the Wind, Indigenous Genocide, Jesuit, Kent Monkman, Max Steiner, National Indigenous Peoples Day, Roland Joffe, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, The Mission, The Scream, Truth and Reconciliation Commission | 2 Comments