Category Archives: Opera

Figaro’s Wedding 2019

Posted on December 4, 2019 by barczablog

In 2013 Against the Grain offered the first of their “transladaptations” of one of the trilogy of da Ponte-Mozart operas, Figaro’s Wedding. Tonight AtG premiered something we might call a revival of the work, with a number of intriguing differences, … Continue reading →

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Met HD Akhnaten

Posted on November 24, 2019 by barczablog

Yesterday I watched Philip Glass’s opera Akhnaten as presented in the Metropolitan Opera’s High Definition broadcast on a big screen in Scarborough, at the same time people were watching it in many places around the world. I wish the Canadian … Continue reading →

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Oxymoronic Augmented Opera

Posted on November 23, 2019 by barczablog

I don’t use that word lightly, and it’s not an insult. Some operas are oxymoronic, rife with contradiction, asymptotic in their fascination with impossibilities. Maeterlinck’s play Pelléas et Mélisande is the creation of a playwright who cringed in the presence … Continue reading →

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Eight Singers Drinking: and Singing

Posted on November 9, 2019 by barczablog

While eight singers may have been drinking eight drinks at 8:00 pm on November 8th no one ate much of anything. (see what I did there?) At first I just thought it was a fun exercise, an excuse for a … Continue reading →

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New & Improved Don Giovanni

Posted on November 3, 2019 by barczablog

I saw Opera Atelier’s revival of Don Giovanni that’s running at the Ed Mirvish Theatre.  I loved it last time & it continues to thrill me as though it weren’t an opera I’ve known since childhood. But it feels new.  … Continue reading →

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Opera Atelier Don Giovanni: Toronto context

Posted on October 28, 2019 by barczablog

Two down, one to go as far as the big operas are concerned. Robert Wilson’s Turandot and David McVicar’s Rusalka, a pair of fairy-tale operas in visually brilliant productions have finished at the Canadian Opera Company, while Opera Atelier are … Continue reading →

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Resonant Minorities

Posted on October 18, 2019 by barczablog

Tonight I was present at the Canadian premiere of Yang Zhen’s third installment of his “Revolution Game Trilogy”, Minorities, a Red Virgo production presented by Canadian Stage. You will recognize many things in this show. We watch five female dancers later … Continue reading →

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Rusalka: and now for something completely different

Posted on October 13, 2019 by barczablog

Tonight the Canadian Opera Company premiered their take on the recent Lyric Opera of Chicago production of Dvořák’s Rusalka directed by Sir David McVicar. It stands in rather stark contrast to the other current COC production, Puccini’s Turandot¸ whose mise-en-scene … Continue reading →

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Amplified Opera —The Queen in Me

Posted on October 12, 2019 by barczablog

The title tells the story. Night #2 in the Amplified Opera opening concert series at the Ernest Balmer Studio was The Queen in Me, a performance piece straddling the line between surreal confessional and stand-up comedy, a brilliant piece of … Continue reading →

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Somewhere over the… moon?

Posted on October 11, 2019 by barczablog

Both works currently playing at the Canadian Opera Company feature a famous aria known by people who might otherwise not know the whole work. In Turandot it’s “nessun dorma”, a piece associated with Luciano Pavarotti, and maybe a little bit … Continue reading →

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