Category Archives: Opera

Tapestry Briefs: under where?

Posted on October 17, 2025 by barczablog

I had my first look at the Nancy & Ed Jackman Performance Centre on Yonge St Thursday night with the first of Tapestry Opera’s experimental programs, titled “Tapestry Briefs: under where?” Cute title, right? I was in the audience for … Continue reading →

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Opera | Tagged comedy, Michael Hidetoshi Mori, saturday night live, Tapestry Briefs, Tapestry Opera, theatre | Leave a comment

Opera Atelier’s beautiful Magic Flute returns to the Elgin Theatre

Posted on October 16, 2025 by barczablog

Opera Atelier are back with the Magic Flute for their fall season at the Elgin Theatre, doing what they do best, in the first of four performances at the Elgin Theatre Wednesday October 15th. Accompanied by Tafelmusik Orchestra who play … Continue reading →

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Opera, Reviews | Tagged Blaise Rantoanina, Carla Huhtanen, Colin Ainsworth, Danielle MacMillan, David Fallis, Dora Rust d'Eye, Douglas Williams, Elgin Theatre, Emanuel Schikaneder, Gerard Gauci, historically informed performance, Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg, Karine White, Laura Pudwell, Marshall Pynkoski, Meghan Lindsay, Michael Gianfrancesco, Nathaniel Dett Chorale, Opera Atelier, Pelleas et Melisande, Rainelle Krause, Stephen Hegedus, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, The Magic Flute, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Leave a comment

Superb Orfeo revival

Posted on October 13, 2025 by barczablog

I was delighted by the Canadian Opera Company revival of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice Saturday at the Four Seasons Centre. Although I thought I liked it well enough when I saw it in 2011 I never expected the gushing tears … Continue reading →

Posted in Opera, Reviews | Tagged Anna-Sophie Neher, Bernard Labadie, Canadian Opera Company, Catherine St-Arnaud, Christoph Willibald Gluck, Christophe Gayra, classical-music, Four Seasons Centre, Iestyn Davies, music, opera, Orfeo ed Euridice, Ranieri de' Calzabigi, reform opera, review, Robert Carsen, Sandra Horst | Leave a comment

William Shookhoff discusses political operas: Menotti’s The Consul from Opera By Request

Posted on October 10, 2025 by barczablog

Opera by Request will be presenting Giancarlo Menotti’s The Consul, an opera premiered in 1950 during the Red Scare, a time with significant parallels to our own. I asked William (Bill) Shookhoff, the Artistic Director of OBR, about the project. … Continue reading →

Posted in Interviews, Opera, Politics, Press Releases and Announcements | Tagged Brigitte Bogar, Brittany Stewart, College Street United Church, Giancarlo Menotti, Human Rights organizations, Joshua Read, Julia MacVicar, Karina Bray, Kenneth Baker, Lucas Kuipers, Monica Zerbe, music, opera, Opera by Request, Politics, Red Scare, Sebastien Belcourt, Taylor Gibbs, The Consul, William Shookhoff | Leave a comment

COC’s highly original Roméo et Juliette

Posted on October 6, 2025 by barczablog

It might be the best-known of all Shakespeare stories, the star-crossed lovers, dying young for love. Romeo and Juliet becomes Roméo et Juliette when a French composer such as Charles Gounod (1867) is telling the story in music. The rental … Continue reading →

Posted in Opera, Reviews | Tagged Alex Hetherington, Amy Lane, Canadian Opera Company, Charles Gounod, Gordon Bintner, Jules Barbier, Kseniia Proshina, Megan Latham, Michel Carré, music, opera, Owen McCausland, Robert Lepage, Robert Pomakov, Roméo et Juliette, Romeo and Juliet, Sandra Horst, Stephen Costello, surtitles, theatre, Yves Abel | 2 Comments

Over 800 meals from Boheme On Tap for Daily Bread Food Bank

Posted on September 20, 2025 by barczablog

I have a new perspective on Puccini’s opera since attending La Boheme On Tap last night at the Redwood Theatre, although watching Moonstruck last week while interviewing a couple of the participants highlighted the contrast. Yes Mimi lives in poverty, … Continue reading →

Posted in Opera, Reviews | Tagged Alexander Hajek, Andrew Tees, Ann Cooper Gay, Brahm Goldhamer, Daily Bread Food Bank, Dylan Wright, Giacomo Puccini, Guillermo Silva-Marin, Henry Ingram, Holly Chaplin, Joel Ricci, Kathryn Rose Johnston, La boheme, La Boheme On Tap, Moonstruck, Opera Revue, Peter Barcza, Redwood Theatre, Ryan Hofman | Leave a comment

Holly Chaplin and Ryan Hofman talk about their upcoming La Boheme On Tap

Posted on September 12, 2025 by barczablog

La Boheme is being presented at the Redwood Theatre on Friday September19th 8:00 p.m., a co-production with The Redwood Theatre including a silent auction in support of Daily Bread Food Bank. I talked to Holly Chaplin who sings the starring … Continue reading →

Posted in Interviews, Opera | Tagged Canadian Opera Company, classical-music, Elmwood Spa, genre, Giacomo Puccini, Holly Chaplin, La boheme, La Boheme On Tap, Massey Hall, Moonstruck, music, National Ballet of Canada, opera, Opera Revue, Puccini, Redwood Theatre, Ryan Hofman, SOLO, Southern Ontario Lyric Opera, theatre, Toronto Symphony Orchestra | Leave a comment

Alexander Hajek talks about the upcoming La Boheme On Tap

Posted on September 10, 2025 by barczablog

La Boheme is being presented at the Redwood Theatre on Friday September19th 8:00 p.m., a co-production with The Redwood Theatre in Support of Daily Bread Food Bank. I talked to Alexander Hajek who sings the role of Marcello the painter. … Continue reading →

Posted in Interviews, Opera, Personal ruminations & essays | Tagged Alexander Hajek, Carmina Burana, classical-music, Daily Bread Food Bank, genre, Giacomo Puccini, La boheme, La Boheme On Tap, music, opera, Opera Revue, Puccini, Redwood Theatre, theatre | Leave a comment

Robert Lepage’s Macbeth at Stratford

Posted on September 6, 2025 by barczablog

Bruce asked me whether the Scottish play is worth seeing. I had seen it from the front row, able to see every detail of the complex presentation in the Avon Theatre, less Shakespeare’s immortal play than Robert Lepage’s Macbeth. YMMV … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Architecture & Design, Dance, theatre & musicals, Opera, Reviews | Tagged 887, Avon Theatre, Bertold Brecht, Bluebeard's Castle, Canadian Opera Company, Eonnagata, erwartung, Ex Machina, Gesamtkunstwerk, John Gzowski, Lucy Peacock, Macbeth, Needles and Opium, Richard Wagner, Robert Lepage, Stratford Festival, The Tempest, Tom McCamus, Verfremdungseffekt, William Shakespeare, YMMV | 2 Comments

Talking to Karina Bray about the first complete recording of Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Songs of Travel by a female artist

Posted on August 28, 2025 by barczablog

Karina Bray is an award-winning mezzo-soprano. Karina’s new recording of Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Songs of Travel most definitely travels somewhere new, given that the song cycle is normally sung by a man. Her new recording is the world premiere of … Continue reading →

Posted in Interviews, Music and musicology, Opera | Tagged art song, Bryn Terfel, classical-music, gender, Jean MacPhail, Jo Greenaway, Karina Bray, Medici International Music Competition, mezzo-soprano, music, Narmina Efendiyeva, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Ryan Harper, Songs of Travel | Leave a comment