Category Archives: Opera

Ensemble Showcase 2018

Posted on May 26, 2018 by barczablog

An Evening With the Ensemble Studio is a special opportunity. It’s interesting to get a closer look at the members of the Canadian Opera Company’s Ensemble Studio. For most of the year they’re confined to small roles in the mainstage … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Opera | Tagged Bruno Roy, Cosi fan tutte, Danika Lorèn, Dido and Aeneas, Ensemble Studio, Johannes Debus, Megan Quick, Samantha Pickett, Samuel Chan, Simone McIntosh | Leave a comment

Keri Alkema: A Journey of Transformation

Posted on May 22, 2018 by barczablog

Today’s noon-hour recital at the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre aka the foyer of the Four Seasons Centre was unlike any we’ve seen before. Readers of this blog may recall that I’ve expressed my admiration for Keri Alkema in my reviews of … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Opera, Reviews | Tagged Desdemona, Don Giovanni, Donizetti, Donna Elvira, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Keri Alkema, madama butterfly, mezzo-soprano, Otello, Rachel Andrist, Sondra Radvanovsky, Un ballo in maschera, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | 1 Comment

Questions for Bruno Roy

Posted on May 18, 2018 by barczablog

Time flies. It seems like it was only yesterday that baritone Bruno Roy was a finalist in Centre Stage, the 2015 Ensemble Studio competition. The new voice that we had never heard before? He is now about to make his … Continue reading →

Posted in Interviews, Opera | Tagged Adrianne Pieczonka, Bruno Roy, Danika Lorèn, Debussy, Jane Archibald, Jonathan Dawe, Pelleas et Melisande, Poulenc, Ravel, Rigoletto, Roland Wood, Russell Braun, Stephane Mayer, Winston Purdy | Leave a comment

Hockey Noir

Posted on May 11, 2018 by barczablog

I love ambition. Tonight I was plunged into a world completely unlike anything I’ve encountered in opera, and it will be replayed tomorrow. Okay, performed again I should say, even if it does feel like a hockey game at the … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Opera | Tagged Andre Ristic, Cecil Castelucci, ECM+ Continuum, Ensemble contemporain de Montreal (ECM+) and the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, Guy Lafleur, Richard Wagner, Toronto Comic Arts Festival, Veronique Lacroix | 1 Comment

Questions for David Fallis: Toronto Consort & Monteverdi’s Orfeo

Posted on May 9, 2018 by barczablog

When I interviewed David Fallis five and a half years ago concerning a period production of Der Freischütz my first sentence said that he “is surely one of the most important musical minds in Canada,” an assertion that has only gathered weight with … Continue reading →

Posted in Interviews, Music and musicology, Opera | Tagged Bud Roach, Charles Daniels, Choir 21, Claudio Monteverdi, Cory Knight, David Fallis, Katherine Hill, Kevin Skelton, Laura Pudwell, Michele DeBoer, Opera Atelier, Orfeo, Toronto Consort | 2 Comments

Anna Bolena: saving the best for last

Posted on April 29, 2018 by barczablog

Sondra Radvanovsky is the story. There is no better singing in an opera in Toronto than what you’ll hear if you go see Anna Bolena with the Canadian Opera Company, and she’s not the only great voice. I can talk … Continue reading →

Posted in Opera, Reviews | Tagged Allyson McHardy, Anna Bolena, Benoit Dugardyn, Bruce Sledge, Canadian Opera Company, Christian Van Horn, Corrado Rovaris, Gaetano Donizetti, Ingeborg Bernerth, Keri Alkema, Sandra Horst, Sondra Radvanovsky | 5 Comments

Against the Grain Orphée+

Posted on April 28, 2018 by barczablog

Orphée+? That plus sign might signify an opera updated, enlarged, perhaps even reformed(?). The “+” means some remarkable additions and changes from Gluck’s original, Orphée et Eurydice (or the Italian version aka Orfeo ed Euridice). Gluck created more than one … Continue reading →

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Music and musicology, Opera, Popular music & culture, Reviews | Tagged aerials, Against the Grain Theatre, Barbara Hannigan, burlesque, John Gzowski, Marcy Richardson, Mireille Asselin, Opera Columbus, Robert Carsen, S Katy Tucker, Siman Chung, Topher Mokrzewski | 2 Comments

Candide with the Toronto Symphony: using our imaginations

Posted on April 27, 2018 by barczablog

Tonight was the first of two concert performances of Candide presented by the Toronto Symphony at Roy Thomson Hall in the worldwide celebration of Leonard Bernstein’s centennial year. Earlier this week Joseph So was rapturous in his description of a … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Opera, Reviews | Tagged Bramwell Tovey, Candide, Cunegonde, Glitter and be gay, Judith Forst, Leonard Bernstein, Nicholas Phan, Richard Suart, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Tracy Dahl | 5 Comments

Ulysses comes home

Posted on April 22, 2018 by barczablog

Opera Atelier’s Revival of Monteverdi’s The Return of Ulysses (1640) starts slowly but builds to a strong finish. By intermission I had enjoyed a few moments (Kresimir Spicer in the title role and Mireille Lebel as Penelope, and Meghan Lindsay … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Opera, Reviews | Tagged Carla Huhtanen, Charles Daniels, Christopher Enns, David Fallis, Douglas Williams, Kresimir Spicer, Laura Pudwell, Marshall Pynkoski, Meghan Lindsay, Mireille Lebel, Monteverdi, Opera Atelier, Return of Ulysses, Tafelmusik Orchestra | 1 Comment

Eagerly anticipating Against the Grain’s Orphée⁺ next week

Posted on April 21, 2018 by barczablog

I’m writing about Against the Grain Theatre right now as I think about their imminent co-production of Gluck’s opera, that they are calling Orphée⁺ (the original press release said “an international co-production between AtG, the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and Opera Columbus“, … Continue reading →

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Music and musicology, Opera, Personal ruminations & essays | Tagged aerial, Against the Grain Theatre, burlesque, Canadian Opera Company, erwartung, Gluck, Joel Ivany, Opera Atelier, Opera Columbus, Orphee, Robert Lepage, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Topher Mokrzewski | Leave a comment