Category Archives: Music and musicology

10 Questions for Adrianne Pieczonka: beyond the aria

Posted on September 15, 2015 by barczablog

Adrianne Pieczonka is one of Toronto’s treasures, a fabulous ambassador for Canada when she sings abroad. I first encountered her in Atom Egoyan’s Die Walkure with the Canadian Opera Company, a vocal and dramatic interpretation so compelling that it was as though … Continue reading →

Posted in Interviews, Music and musicology, Opera | 1 Comment

Scary music in Theatres of Terror

Posted on August 25, 2015 by barczablog

Halloween is still several weeks away but already terror is more than a gleam in the eye of some. Opera By Request are presenting Carl Maria von Weber’s gothic masterpiece Der Freischutz on Friday Sept 18th.  There will be no … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Opera | 3 Comments

Karita Mattila at Koerner Hall: personalities on parade

Posted on August 8, 2015 by barczablog

There was more drama in this recital than any recital I can ever recall.  Karita Mattila assumed several roles, in several distinct voices in her concert tonight at Koerner Hall in Toronto as part of the Toronto Summer Music Festival. … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Opera, Personal ruminations & essays, Reviews | 2 Comments

SOLT’s Der Vampyr

Posted on August 1, 2015 by barczablog

It might seem dangerous to see Marschner’s opera Der Vampyr (The Vampire) on a full moon, but we lived to tell the tale. Der Vampyr was staged by Summer Opera Lyric Theatre and Research Centre (aka “SOLT”).  While SOLT offers … Continue reading →

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DIVE preview mesmerizing

Posted on July 31, 2015 by barczablog

I attended the preview performance of DIVE tonight, a new work from The Mermaid Collective: Nik Beeson, Alex Fallis, Fides Krucker and Richard Sanger. It’s quite erotic & funny, a little bit political and a powerful evocation of remembered passion. … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Opera, Reviews | Leave a comment

Der Vampyr and the birth of horror

Posted on July 29, 2015 by barczablog

I’ve been immersed in blood for the past few weeks. No I am not training to be a butcher or a surgeon.  None of this gore is real. I’ll be teaching a new course at the Royal Conservatory of Music … Continue reading →

Posted in Books & Literature, Cinema, video & DVDs, Music and musicology, Opera, Personal ruminations & essays | Leave a comment

Mussolini vs The Mermaid: what little girls –and boys—dream

Posted on July 27, 2015 by barczablog

Thursday night is the preview performance of DIVE: Odes for Lighea, Nik Beeson’s new opera at The Array Space. DIVE is based on Giuseppe di Lampedusa’s short story The Professor and the Siren. That’s “siren” as in mermaid. I am … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Opera, Personal ruminations & essays, Politics | 1 Comment

Ten Questions for Nik Beeson

Posted on July 23, 2015 by barczablog

Nik Beeson is a digital communicator & electro-acoustic composer, and completely new to me. I’ve been listening to the CD for DIVE: Odes for Lighea at the encouragement of Alex Fallis, who will be directing the project in its premiere July … Continue reading →

Posted in Interviews, Music and musicology, Opera | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Filmscore 101 with Michael Kamen

Posted on June 30, 2015 by barczablog

I was already thinking about the art of the film score composer, having recently given James Horner’s work a look in the wake of his untimely death. A question I sometimes ponder: what is the hardest sort of music to … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, video & DVDs, Music and musicology, Personal ruminations & essays | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Remembering the films and the music of James Horner

Posted on June 24, 2015 by barczablog

Some say that if done right you shouldn’t notice the music in a movie. Of course that’s one ideal and it’s a much more self-effacing idea of how a composer should approach the task of composing a score for the … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments