Category Archives: Reviews

Tahara, Royer and SPO play Schubert and Saint-Saëns

Posted on November 6, 2022 by barczablog

Tonight’s Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra was my first live experience of the ensemble, a return to live in person appearances featuring pianist Lisa Tahara conducted by music director Ronald Royer. It’s a pleasant change of pace to have a concert relatively … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Reviews | Tagged Camille Saint-Saens, Franz Schubert, Lisa Tahara, Ronald Royer, Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra | 1 Comment

Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas—In Concert with the TSO

Posted on October 29, 2022 by barczablog

Tonight Erika and I watched The Nightmare Before Christmas shown with the Toronto Symphony playing the score live, conducted by Sarah Hicks at Roy Thomson Hall. As with the 100 Years of Film Music concert we attended earlier this week, … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Architecture & Design, Cinema, video & DVDs, Music and musicology, Reviews | Tagged Back to the Future, Catherine O'Hara, Chris Sarandon, Danny Elfman, Gustav Mahler, Kim Novak, Kurt Weill, Paul Reubens, Ratatouille, TIFF, Tim Burton, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Vertigo | 2 Comments

100 Years of Epic Film Scores from the TSO

Posted on October 26, 2022 by barczablog

The Toronto Symphony program “100 Years of Epic Film Scores” is a kind of history lesson, while celebrating the role music has played in film for over a century. The significance of the century comes from it being TSO’s 100th … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, video & DVDs, Reviews | Tagged Alan Silvestri, Bernard Herrmann, Elmer Bernstein, Ennio Morricone, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, film music, Hans Zimmer, Jerry Goldsmith, Klaus Badelt, Maurice Jarre, Max Steiner, Michael Giacchino, Miklos Rozsa, Nino Rota, Rachel Portman, Steven Reineke, Toronto Symphony Orchestra | Leave a comment

Orpheus in the Underworld

Posted on October 22, 2022 by barczablog

Toronto Operetta Theatre opened their production of Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld tonight, directed & designed by Guillermo Silva-Marin, and the familiar music conducted by Larry Beckwith. In a month when the opera stages are showing two divas murdered by … Continue reading →

Posted in Opera, Reviews | Tagged Christoph Willibald Gluck, Gregory Finney, Guillermo Silva-Marin, Jacques Offenbach, Orpheus in the Underworld, River Guard, Toronto Operetta Theatre, Vania Chan | Leave a comment

Yuja Wang, Magnus Lindberg, Anton Bruckner and the TSO

Posted on October 21, 2022 by barczablog

As we tentatively poke our heads out, looking for signs that normal life has resumed after the pandemic, concerts like tonight’s from the Toronto Symphony affirm relationships & collaboration, the latest in a series of celebratory moments in the orchestra’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Reviews | Tagged Anton Bruckner, Gustavo Gimeno, Magnus Lindberg, Roy Thomson Hall, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Yuja Wang | 2 Comments

Darkly Comic Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo

Posted on October 17, 2022 by barczablog

I’ve just come from the matinee of Rajiv Joseph’s play Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, presented by Crow’s Theatre in co-production with Modern Times Stage Company. The title tells you the basic premise, a tiger is caged in a … Continue reading →

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Reviews, Spirituality & Religion | Tagged Ahmed Moneka, Ali Kazmi, Andrew Chown, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Christopher Allen, Crow’s Theatre, John Gzowski, Kristen Thomson, Lorenzo Savoini, Mahsa Ershadifar, Modern Times Stage Company, Rajiv Joseph, Rouvan Silogix, Sara Jaffri | 1 Comment

COC Carmen Opens

Posted on October 15, 2022 by barczablog

I saw and heard opening night of the Canadian Opera Company’s Carmen tonight at the Four Seasons Centre, a revival of Joel Ivany’s 2016 production. It’s a wonderful take on a well-known work with a very original approach to the … Continue reading →

Posted in Opera, Reviews | Tagged Alain Coulombe, Canadian Opera Company, Carmen, Flying Dutchman, Four Seasons Centre, Georges Bizet, Jacques Lacombe, J’Nai Bridges, Joel Ivany, Joyce El-Khoury, Lucas Meachem, Marcelo Puente | Leave a comment

COC Flying Dutchman Opens

Posted on October 8, 2022 by barczablog

I saw and heard opening night of the Canadian Opera Company’s Flying Dutchman tonight at the Four Seasons Centre, a revival of a Christopher Alden production directed for this revival by Marilyn Gronsdal. I liked it a lot. The COC … Continue reading →

Posted in Opera, Reviews | Tagged Canadian Opera Company, Christopher Ventris, Franz-Josef Selig, Johan Reuter, Johannes Debus, Marilyn Gronsdal, Marjorie Owens, Richard Wagner, The Flying Dutchman | 3 Comments

Sarah Polley – Run Towards the Danger

Posted on October 4, 2022 by barczablog

I have just finished reading Sarah Polley’s Run Towards the Danger, a book like none I’ve ever read before. It might be the most authentic autobiography I’ve ever encountered. Except that it’s not an autobiography. I notice too that while … Continue reading →

Posted in Books & Literature, Cinema, video & DVDs, Dance, theatre & musicals, Food, Health and Nutrition, Popular music & culture, Reviews | Tagged concussion, Jian Ghomeshi, Lewis Carroll, Molly Shannon, Run Towards the Danger, Sarah Polley, William Wordsworth | Leave a comment

Gemma New, Kerson Leong and the TSO: “allez grand ou rentrez chez vous”

Posted on September 30, 2022 by barczablog

Last night I heard the first of the Toronto Symphony’s weekend of romantic works, responding passionately to their guest conductor, the New Zealand-born Gemma New. I noticed her intense display of commitment, yet so respectful of every collaborator in this … Continue reading →

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Music and musicology, Reviews | Tagged Camille Saint-Saens, Felix Mendelssohn, Gemma New, Hebrides Overture, Jean-Willy Kunz, Jonathan Crow, Kerson Leong, Otto Klemperer, Poeme, Richard Strauss, Samy Moussa, Symbolist, Toronto Symphony Orchestra | Leave a comment