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Category Archives: Reviews
Five composers in two days? If it’s Sunday it must be bel canto romance
I feel like an operatic sausage. I’m stuffed a lot into this post, having jammed too much opera into my head in a brief period of time. Talk about contrast! Saturday was the closing performance of the Lepage Bluebeard-Erwartung double … Continue reading
Co-existing worlds of Epic Wagnerian Toronto Symphony
Thursday night the Toronto Symphony showed us they could blend Western & non-Western cultural traditions. When Gustavo Gimeno spoke in his program note of the imminent arrival of thousands from abroad into our city for the FIFA matches, he spoke … Continue reading
Witnessing the birth of romanticism with young Werther
Excuse me as I gush. I love the new Canadian Opera Company production of Werther, featuring some of the best singing we’ve heard in years. I want people to come see this opera, so that the COC decides to do … Continue reading
Posted in Books & Literature, Opera, Reviews
Tagged Alain Coulombe, Alain Gauthier, Ann Cooper Gay, Ben Wallace, Canadian Opera Company, Emma Pennell, Four Seasons Centre, Johannes Debus, Jules Massenet, Kenneth Baker, Michael Colvin, Robert Pomakov, Russell Thomas, stuart hamilton, Victoria Karkacheva
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Symbolist cicadas probing underneath
If you think the headline is cryptic, you should see the play. I saw the World Premiere of cicadas, a new work that I understand as an elaboration upon a radio play, a Tarragon Theatre and NAC English Theatre Co-Production … Continue reading
Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Reviews
Tagged Chris Thornborrow, David Yee, Ellora Patnaik, Family Compact, fu-Gen Theatre, John Strachan, Monica Dottor, NAC English Theatre, Nina Lee Aquino, Real Estate, Ryan Hollyman, Symbolist, Tarragon Theatre, Trinity Bellwoods, Trinity College
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Best Toronto Symphony concert of the season
So far so good. I knew I was going to like this concert because they were playing pieces I liked. I did not expect this to be the best concert of the season. As we go into the month of … Continue reading
The ambiguous virtuosity of La Maupin
La Maupin is the title of a new opera produced on film concerning a mythological person of ambiguous gender who may have existed. The historical figure is so interesting, you’d have to invent someone like this if she were not … Continue reading
History captured in Toronto Beach Chorale’s Carmina Burana
My daughter and I joined an overflowing crowd eager to hear Toronto Beach Chorale with Mississauga Chamber Singers and their guests in a jam-packed Kingston Road United Church. The short pieces in the first half of the concert with introductory … Continue reading
Tragedy of Hamlet: Prince of Denmark from Shakespeare, Lepage, Côté and Gzowski
The run is so brief as to make this review seem pointless. Friday night I saw the opening of the Tragedy of Hamlet: Prince of Denmark. My blog may be done by Saturday, but anyone seeing a weekend showing already … Continue reading
Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Reviews
Tagged 887, ballet, dance, Elgin Theatre, Guillaume Côté, Hamlet, hybrid, John Gzowski, movement vocabulary, music, Robert Lepage, Shakespeare, Show One Productions, The Far Side of the Moon, The Tragedy of Hamlet, theatre, William Shakespeare
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She Holds up the Stars from Red Sky & Toronto Symphony
In a week of adaptations, the trip to Roy Thomson Hall to see & hear the world premiere of She Holds Up the Stars from the Toronto Symphony & Red Sky Performance on Sunday April 19th was a fabulous case … Continue reading
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