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Category Archives: Reviews
The Death of Stalin
It was promoted as a comedy. That reminds me of a joke I heard years ago. Stalin is addressing the Supreme Soviet, speaking and suddenly: a sneeze is heard. Stalin stops speaking, and asks sternly “who snyeeezed?” (my friend who … Continue reading
Escape from wartime reflections
Tonight’s installment of the Toronto Summer Music Festival might seem to have ignored their theme of “Reflections of Wartime”. The only real battle in Walter Hall was for our hearts, a friendly popularity contest between Angela Cheng and Alvin Chow. … Continue reading
Unforced Tears of Exile
Toronto Summer Music Festival’s theme for 2018 is “Reflections of Wartime”, in the centennial of the last year of World War I. Tonight was my first concert, a presentation titled “Tears of Exile”, a program by Studio de musique ancienne … Continue reading
Posted in Music and musicology, Reviews, Spirituality & Religion
Tagged Andrew McAnerney, Babylon, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Nebuchadnezzar II, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Reflections of Wartime, Rudolf Mauersberger, SMAM, Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal, Thomas Tallis, Toronto Summer Music, Walter Hall
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Parsifal Bayerische Staatsoper 2018
As a Canadian I regularly see pleasant but undistinguished productions that are enjoyable for some aspects, while leaving me unsatisfied overall. The performance of Parsifal that I watched tonight live-streamed from the Bavarian State Opera, sung and played with such … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Architecture & Design, Opera, Reviews
Tagged Amfortas, Brecht, Christian Gerhaher, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Georg Baselitz, Gustav Neidlinger, Jonas Kaufmann, Julian Crouch, Kirill Petrenko, Klingsor, Kundry, Nina Stemme, Parsifal, Phelim McDermott, Pierre Audi, Richard Wagner, Wolfgang Koch
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Oundjian Ode to Joy
Tomorrow will be the last concert in this month-long celebration of Peter Oundjian’s tenure with the Toronto Symphony. I would have gone tomorrow but unfortunately I have to be somewhere else, and will miss that last encounter between orchestra & … Continue reading
