Category Archives: Opera

Sankofa: The Soldier’s Tale Retold, and Andrew Burashko’s farewell to Art of Time

Posted on October 9, 2024 by barczablog

For the last 25 years, Art of Time Ensemble has been on the cutting edge of the performing arts in Canada, fusing music with theatre, dance, film and literature in unique and unprecedented ways. The list of illustrious artists who … Continue reading →

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Interviews, Music and musicology, Opera | Tagged Andrew Burashko, Art of Time, Art of Time Ensemble, Diego Matamoros, Joel Ivany, John Gzowski, Kevin Lamotte, Leon Fleisher, librettist, Marek Jablonski, opera, Peggy Baker, Sankofa, Sankofa: The Soldier's Tale Retold, Tawiah M'Carthy, Titilope Sonuga | Leave a comment

COC’s timely Nabucco

Posted on October 6, 2024 by barczablog

I’ve just seen the Canadian Opera Company’s new Nabucco, a production of Giuseppe Verdi’s 1842 work from Lyric Opera of Chicago greeted by a rapturous audience at Four Seasons Centre this afternoon. I never thought that Nabucco could feel so … Continue reading →

Posted in Opera | Tagged Abigaille, Canadian Opera Company, COC, Giuseppe Verdi, Mary Elizabeth Williams, Matthew Cairns, Nabucco, Paolo Carignani, Rihab Chaieb, Roland Wood | Leave a comment

Ariadne on Naxos in 1969 at the Opera School

Posted on September 17, 2024 by barczablog

The title of the opera is Ariadne auf Naxos, done as Ariadne on Naxos because it was being sung in English. That’s how Richard Strauss’s opera was presented back in March 1969 at the Opera School of the University of … Continue reading →

Posted in Opera, University life | Tagged Ariadne auf Naxos, Edward Johnson Building, Edward Johnson Building Library, Ernesto Barbini, Hermann Geiger-Torel, Mary Lou Fallis, Opera School, Richard Strauss, Riki Turofsky, Steven Henrikson, University of Toronto | 4 Comments

CICM and OBR present Dvořák’s Jacobin

Posted on September 15, 2024 by barczablog

The Canadian Institute for Czech Music (CICM) and Opera by Request (OBR) collaborated to present Antonín Dvořák’s opera Jacobin in a concert performance with orchestra at Jeanne Lamon Hall Friday September 13th. Produced by Professor John Holland of CICM, conducted … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Opera | Tagged Antonin Dvorak, Bill Shookhoff, Canadian Institute for Czech Music, Fidelio, Jacobin, John Holland, Opera by Request, Year of Czech Music | 2 Comments

Thinking about Richard Strauss’s death in 1949

Posted on August 29, 2024 by barczablog

On September 8, 1949 composer and conductor Richard Strauss died after a long productive life. I think of him as a romantic composer carrying on the stylistic traditions of Richard Wagner. In Salome and Elektra he was the modernist pushing … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, video & DVDs, Music and musicology, Opera, Personal ruminations & essays | Tagged Akhnaten, Ariadne auf Naxos, Bill Shookhoff, Claude Debussy, Franz Liszt, Hart House, Mathieu Marcil, Percy Grainger, Philip Glass, Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Salome, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Venus in Furs | Leave a comment

SOLT pedagogy

Posted on July 27, 2024 by barczablog

I attended the La Boheme to open Summer Opera Lyric Theatre’s summer season tonight at the Alumnae Theatre. Guillermo Silva-Marin called it a festival in his pre-show introductory talk. As you can see in the graphic, between now and next … Continue reading →

Posted in Opera, University life | Tagged George Frideric Handel, Giacomo Puccini, Guillermo Silva-Marin, Idomeneo, La boheme, Mike Fan | 范祖铭 (they) aka Tanya Smania (she), Ombra mai fu, SOLT, Summer Opera Lyric Theatre, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Xerxes | 2 Comments

The lessons of James Morris’s Wotan for this Canadian

Posted on July 1, 2024 by barczablog

It’s Canada Day. I live in Toronto and am a subscriber to the Canadian Opera Company. I was remembering examples I’ve seen south of the border at the Metropolitan Opera. Yes they import talent, bringing in Italians to sing Verdi … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, video & DVDs, Opera | Tagged Canada Day, Canadian Opera Company, David Ferguson, James Morris, John Tomlinson, Perryn Leech, Wotan | 8 Comments

Opera By Request premiere The Seagull

Posted on June 8, 2024 by barczablog

Friday night June 7th I witnessed the Canadian premiere of Thomas Pasatieri’s 1974 opera setting Kenward Elmslie’s libretto adapting Anton Chekhov’s 1896 play The Seagull, presented in concert by Opera by Request at the College St United Church. It can … Continue reading →

Posted in Books & Literature, Opera, Reviews | Tagged Andrew Tees, Anton Chekhov, Avery Krisman, Bill Shookhoff, Jenny Ribeiro, Katie Mills, Meagan Reimer, Michael Robert-Broder, Monica Zerbe, Opera by Request, Steven Henrikson, The Seagull, Tom Pasatieri | 1 Comment

Tafelmusik and Ivars Taurins celebrate Handel

Posted on June 1, 2024 by barczablog

Tafelmusik turned their choral specialist loose for their season-concluding Handel celebration concert. If you have any way of getting to this concert do so, a love-fest centred on Handel and his alter-ego Ivars Taurins. You may know Ivars Taurins for … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Opera, Reviews | Tagged Amanda Forsythe, George Frideric Handel, Grégoire Jeay, Ivars Taurins, Koerner Hall, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Tafelmusik Chamber Choir, Thomas Hobbs | Leave a comment

Canadian Premiere of Tom Pasatieri’s The Seagull, Friday June 7th: An Interview with Bill Shookhoff

Posted on May 23, 2024 by barczablog

Tom Pasatieri’s opera The Seagull will get it’s Canadian Premiere on June 7th with Opera By Request. I interviewed Bill Shookhoff to find out about it. ~~~~~~~ Barczablog: Describe the works of Pasatieri: what is his style like? Bill Shookhoff: … Continue reading →

Posted in Interviews, Opera | Tagged American Beauty, Andrew Tees, Anton Chekhov, Bill Shookhoff, Frank Corsaro, Jenny Ribeiro, Katie Mills, Kenward Elmslie, Lady Macbeth, Meagan Reimer, Michael Robert-Broder, Monica Zerbe, Opera by Request, Shawshank Redemption, The Seagull, Tom Pasatieri | Leave a comment