Category Archives: Personal ruminations & essays

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

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

Trudeau against the puritans

Posted on July 26, 2015 by barczablog

I hate attack ads. I previously wrote about this detestable tool before.  In vaudeville, when a performer didn’t get applause they would pull them offstage with a hook. Attack ads are like rhetorical hooks, grabbing at people to trip them, but without … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal ruminations & essays, Politics | Leave a comment

Remembering Jon Vickers, Canadian Heldentenor

Posted on July 12, 2015 by barczablog

There have been two singers above all the others who mattered to me as I grew up. Both were tenors.  I’ve talked about Jussi Björling, my touchstone of vocal perfection and the subject of a recent pilgrimage in Sweden. The other … Continue reading →

Posted in Opera, Personal ruminations & essays | Tagged , , , , | 10 Comments

Independence Day Doodle Dandy

Posted on July 5, 2015 by barczablog

I am a Canadian.  I have a conspicuous “cz” in my surname, but then again, what is a Canadian, if not an immigrant or child of immigrants…? If you turn on the television any day of the year you’re deluged … Continue reading →

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Personal ruminations & essays | Leave a comment

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 Sten Eirik

Posted on June 20, 2015 by barczablog

The sentence in the obituary that rings truest for me says “everyone believed there was so much more to come from Sten’s life.” I discovered the bad news when I went to the Guild Festival Theatre website to see what … Continue reading →

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The Hutcheons launch Four Last Songs with, what else: singing

Posted on June 17, 2015 by barczablog

When multi-disciplinary authors launch a book, you see people from many places & walks of life.  Whatever else you might say about Linda & Michael Hutcheon, they know some very cool people.  I saw singers, librarians, academics from several departments, … Continue reading →

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

Operatic Doras

Posted on June 2, 2015 by barczablog

Awards are a wonderful way to celebrate excellence.  They serve to promote individuals and their performances, while also raising the profile of an entire industry.  I hope that nothing I say here in any way diminishes the work done by … Continue reading →

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Music and musicology, Opera, Personal ruminations & essays | 1 Comment