Category Archives: Personal ruminations & essays

Adès contra Parsifal

Posted on April 13, 2013 by barczablog

Ever notice that conversations can reinforce and honour contrary positions? When you sit down with someone over latkes, beers or (name your pleasure), the celebration and enactment of community & indeed, communion, makes the points where you diverge immaterial. You … Continue reading →

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Fatal infidelity

Posted on April 7, 2013 by barczablog

When people meet and become interested in one another, they decide they want to be near one another.  Their growing rapport leads to growing closeness. And they make promises, some in words, others of a more legal sort. Later people … Continue reading →

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Late Mozart 2: caveats

Posted on April 4, 2013 by barczablog

Mozart censored? Operas did sometimes have to clear hurdles in the century of their creation, but actually I was thinking about the censure of a modern audience. And so I continue to ramble about late Mozart, inspired by a happy … Continue reading →

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Late Mozart 1: The Good

Posted on April 2, 2013 by barczablog

Toronto is a great town for musical connections.  If you go to enough concerts you’ll have a chance to explore inter-connected compositions & composers, to discover relationships and references. Not so long ago I had the pleasure of hearing Tafelmusik’s … Continue reading →

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Stuart Hamilton: Opening Windows

Posted on March 10, 2013 by barczablog

I don’t believe there’s anyone who was involved in more aspects of Canadian operatic performance than Stuart Hamilton.  I say “was” because many of those are in the past now, but even so, let’s make a list. Hamilton founded Opera … Continue reading →

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Fabulous February (?)

Posted on March 1, 2013 by barczablog

Hm, the headline may strike some of you as an oxymoron. CAN a February be fabulous? Yet mine was, without a doubt. This was my best February ever.  I want to share the wealth as we slip into March, knowing … Continue reading →

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Metropolitan Opera 2013-2014

Posted on February 27, 2013 by barczablog

Depending on your taste, there are good and bad things in Peter Gelb’s announcement of the 2013-2014 season at the Metropolitan Opera. I am most excited by an item that seems to currently be under the radar.  Dmitri Tcherniakov will … Continue reading →

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Appropriate (the verb)

Posted on February 16, 2013 by barczablog

During the production of Feydeau’s  The Girl From Maxim’s at Ryerson Theatre School—just concluded last night—I had lots of opportunities to sit and read, between cues.  I read most of a book recently arrived in the EJB library namely Shay … Continue reading →

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Adieu Feydeau

Posted on February 14, 2013 by barczablog

It’s been a fun couple of weeks chez les étudiants de Ryerson, playing La Dame de Chez Maxim.  Due to snow Friday night we’ve played six consecutive nights. I feel I am cheating to say “we” because I am mostly … Continue reading →

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Personal ruminations & essays, University life | 2 Comments

Berlioz, Wagner, love

Posted on February 11, 2013 by barczablog

January 16th I promised to explore connections between Berlioz’s Les Troyens (an opera I’d been obsessing over) to Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, currently sharing the Canadian Opera Company stage with Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito.  When music stays inside your … Continue reading →

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