Category Archives: Politics

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 →

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Wights: a fit of words against words

Posted on January 16, 2025 by barczablog

From its title on down, Liz Appel’s new play Wights that opened at Crow’s Theatre last night had me astonished, perplexed, wondering whether I’d seen comedy satire or just the real lives of smart people using big words in their … Continue reading →

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Our Hearts Were Strangely Lukewarm actually warmed my heart

Posted on December 7, 2024 by barczablog

Book titles can be funny. I didn’t really understand what John Elford’s book was doing when I saw the cover. But then again I suppose that’s why we read books, to answer the questions they pose. Sometimes art functions as … Continue reading →

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Grounded and how we got here

Posted on November 10, 2024 by barczablog

I was disappointed to miss the live High Definition broadcast of Grounded October 19th, seeing the Canadian Opera Company Nabucco. I thought that the main reason I wanted to attend was to see brilliant mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo in the lead … Continue reading →

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A post-truth Fidelio

Posted on September 30, 2023 by barczablog

Last night the Canadian Opera Company had their opening night of Fidelio in a recent San Francisco Opera production directed by Matthew Ozawa, with set and projections designed by Alexander Nichols and costumes by Jessica Jahn. Their design concept is … Continue reading →

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VICE and the Doctrine of Presidential Infallibility

Posted on June 13, 2023 by barczablog

The headline is designed to catch your attention. When I googled “presidential infallibility” most hits refer to the Pope, whose infallibility is a doctrine we’ve heard about for a long time. The idea of infallibility associated with the POTUS is … Continue reading →

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I love the smell of gasoline: questions for Claren Grosz

Posted on March 8, 2023 by barczablog

The description of Claren Grosz’s new show caught my eye. I love the smell of gasoline dives into Western alienation, the Canadian oil and gas machine and what it all means in the face of an environmental apocalypse. Her title … Continue reading →

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Simon Banks’ Opera: The Autobiography of the Western World

Posted on November 30, 2022 by barczablog

For me Christmas came early, when I got my hands on Simon Banks’ new book Opera: The Autobiography of the Western World. I mention that because this is the ideal gift for anyone you know who loves opera or who … Continue reading →

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Red Velvet history lesson

Posted on November 28, 2022 by barczablog

I feel the need to frame my testimony, reviewing Lolita Chakrabarti’s play Red Velvet at Crow’s Theatre, in the admission that Ira Aldridge, the first black man to portray Othello onstage in London, is almost completely unknown largely because of … Continue reading →

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Pre-Democracy with Lucio Silla

Posted on November 21, 2022 by barczablog

I had an epiphany watching today’s presentation of Lucio Silla from Opera in Concert in the St Lawrence Centre. In my review of the opening night of Hannah Moscovitch’s Post-Democracy (that opened at the Tarragon Theatre last Thursday) I included … Continue reading →

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